Actor Wins Libel Case In London

By: (AP) David Soul won a libel case Tuesday against a journalist who called a play Soul was in the worst he had ever seen -- without having seen it.

The 58-year-old actor and singer, best known for portraying Detective Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson in 1970s television show "Starsky and Hutch," sued Matthew Wright of The Mirror newspaper over a review of the 1998 play "The Dead Monkey." An article under Wright's byline called the play -- in which Soul starred with his wife, Alexa Hamilton -- the worst West End show the author had ever seen. It said that only 45 people attended a Monday evening performance, and that the audience laughed derisively at Soul.

Soul's lawyer, Graham Atkins, told High Court judge Sir Charles Gray that Wright had not attended the play, but had sent a free-lance journalist on his behalf. The play did not run on Mondays, and the Thursday performance the journalist saw had been more than half full.

Wright's lawyer, Mark Bateman, said his client apologized for the article's inaccuracies. But he said it was common practice for a columnist to write in the first person even when relying on information from a third party.

Soul was awarded $29,000 in libel damages plus his legal costs, which the newspaper estimated at $215,000.