By: Jill Lawless, Associated Press Writer (AP) Naomi Campbell went to the tradition-steeped House of Lords Wednesday, hoping to win legal privacy rights for Britain's beleaguered celebrities.
The supermodel, dressed in a pale turquoise pants suit, watched as her lawyers appealed a court ruling that a newspaper had the right to print a picture of her leaving a drug rehabilitation meeting.
Campbell wants to overturn the October 2002 ruling that the Daily Mirror was justified in publishing a picture of her leaving the Narcotics Anonymous meeting because she'd lied previously to the media about her drug use.
Her lawyers began arguments Wednesday before a panel of five Law Lords -- judges who sit in the upper chamber of Parliament and constitute Britain's highest appeals court.
Barrister Andrew Caldecott said the judges had to consider how the laws governing freedom of expression could be balanced with rights to privacy. He argued that previous cases had established "a notion of privacy in a general sense."
The hearing is expected to last two days.
Campbell had sued the Daily Mirror, claiming the tabloid had breached her right to confidentiality and invaded her privacy by running the February 2001 story. The 33-year-old told the court she felt "shocked, angry, betrayed and violated" by the piece.
In April 2002, the High Court ruled in Campbell's favor and ordered the paper to pay her legal costs and $6,700 in damages. The decision was overturned on appeal six months later, and Campbell was ordered to pay the newspaper's legal costs, estimated at $670,000.
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