Cameron Diaz testified Thursday that she was excited to pose topless in a 1992 photo shoot, wearing fishnet stockings and leather boots in hopes of appearing in edgy European magazines early in her acting career.
"I wasn't ashamed to be out there like that," said Diaz, testifying in the criminal trial of the man who took the photos and 11 years later tried to sell them back to her for millions of dollars. Diaz said a signature on a model release form giving ownership of the photos to photographer John Rutter was fake.
"I have never signed my name like that," said Diaz, whose screen credits include 1994's "The Mask," "There's Something About Mary," "Being John Malkovich" and the "Charlie's Angels" films.
Rutter, 42, is charged with attempted grand theft, forgery and perjury.
If convicted, he could face up to six years in prison; an extortion charge has been dropped.
Diaz, wearing a brown top, gray pants and black high heels, was on the stand for about an hour, giggling about her early modeling career and describing the May 1992 photo shoot in an abandoned warehouse.
She said she was worried her boyfriend wouldn't like her posing topless, but "I felt that it was a safe environment. It was a professional shoot. It wasn't like in a back alley, 'take your shirt off."'
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Deputy District Attorney David Walgren showed the jury the model release form and Diaz repeatedly denied signing it.
"It's kind of like 101 of modeling: You just don't sign anything that's on a sheet," the 32-year-old actress said. "If somebody gives you something, that means they're not doing business in the right way."
Before Diaz took the stand, her manager, Rick Yorn, testified about meeting with Rutter in June 2003 after Rutter contacted him by phone.
Yorn said Rutter threatened to sell the photos "to publications all over the world. He strongly indicated that we would not want that to happen."
A judge has issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Rutter from distributing the photos. Diaz has sued Rutter in civil court. That case is pending.
Rutter's lawyer, Mark Werksman, has portrayed Diaz as an actress ashamed of her past who was able to persuade the district attorney to do her bidding because of her celebrity status.
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