Tuesday, August 29, 2000
Posh in court
LONDON (AP) -- Lawyers for English soccer star David Beckham and his Spice Girl wife, Victoria Adams, went to court Tuesday hoping to keep information from an ex-bodyguard out of a forthcoming biography on the couple.
The two sides in the confidentiality lawsuit were locked in behind-the-scenes negotiations at London's High Court over excerpts of the unpublished Posh and Becks by Andrew Morton, author of a best-selling biography of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Morton, publisher Michael O'Mara Books and former bodyguard Mark Niblett are co-defendants in the Beckham's suit, which claims that Niblett broke a confidentiality agreement by providing details of the famous couple's private life.
At issue are 2,500 words of the final 60,000-word manuscript. Details have been kept secret because of the nature of the confidentiality suit.
Morton argues material from Niblett was either not confidential or already in the public domain. The Beckhams disagree and want further deletions in addition to changes already negotiated last month.
"We say this is a very bad case of disloyalty and breach of confidentiality on the part of a former employee, very bad indeed, and not very much better on the part of the author and publisher," said the Beckham's lawyer Michael Tugendhat.
The case is being heard as Beckham's own book, My World, is set to be published by Hodder Headline next month in time for the Christmas shopping season.
The judge adjourned the case until Wednesday when he was expected to begin hearing argument on matters in dispute.
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