Hollywood star Sienna Miller told Daniel Craig she loved him, but ...
February 2, 2014 -- Updated 1755 GMT (0155 HKT)
Did Sienna Miller and '007' have a fling?
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Miller says she had never had a "relationship," with Craig; "It was a brief encounter"
- NEW: Her hacked voice mail saying she loved him causes a light moment in court
- Former News of the World journalist Dan Evans says his editor knew of the hacking
- Former editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks deny the charges against them
The trial has been
focusing this week on the claim that she had an affair with Craig, which
was exposed by a tabloid journalist hacking the James Bond actor's
voice mail.
The journalist, confessed
phone hacker Dan Evans, testified that Miller left Craig a voice mail
telling him she loved him while she was out at a swanky London club with
her then-boyfriend Jude Law.
"Hi, it's me, I can't
speak, I'm at the Groucho (club) with Jude. I love you," the voice mail
said, according to Evans, who is testifying for the prosecution.
Details of royal messages revealed
Prosecutors: Defendants having an affair
Miller testified that it
was the kind of message she might have left for Craig, but that it has
been misconstrued by the media and the public.
"For a long period of
time, he was one of my closest friends," she said of Craig. "That's how I
ended all my calls to my friends."
She said she had never had a "relationship," with Craig, adding: "It was a brief encounter."
Lawyer to actress: I love you
The private lives of the
Hollywood stars are being exposed as part of a long-running trial into
phone hacking by British tabloid journalists.
A key defendant, former
News of the World editor Andy Coulson, became a top spokesman for
British Prime Minister David Cameron after leaving the paper over a
hacking scandal.
Coulson's defense
lawyer, Timothy Langdale, accidentally set up the funniest moment in the
week's testimony when cross-examining Miller about the "I love you"
voice mail.
He was reading it to
Miller, who testified by video link from New Orleans, when the two began
talking over each other because of a delay on the line.
Langdale stopped and asked Miller to go ahead.
"No, you just told me you loved me and I interrupted you," Miller replied, drawing laughter from everyone in court.
Langdale has spent most
of the week trying to punch holes in Evans' testimony, and drew out that
Miller had not been in London the night she is supposed to have left
the voice mail from the Groucho club.
Under his cross-examination, Miller said she recognized that a journalist might find the voice mail "titillating."
"I think if journalists
got their hands on that piece of information, they would find it
titillating and it might be the basis for a story," she said. "People
would have thought that was a pretty exciting message to hear -- people
who didn't know my nature and know that's how I communicated with
people."
From paper to politics
Coulson resigned as
editor of News of the World in 2007 after a journalist working for him
pleaded guilty to conspiring to hack phones.
He said he did not know
the journalist had been doing it, but he accepted responsibility as
editor of the paper and quit, and then went to work for Cameron.
Cameron became Prime
Minister in 2010. Coulson resigned as his spokesman in 2011 when the
phone hacking scandal exploded for the second time.
Coulson and the other
six defendants deny the charges against them, which include conspiracy
to intercept messages and related crimes.
Evans, a last-minute
prosecution witness, insisted Tuesday that he played the hacked Sienna
Miller voice mail for Coulson in 2005. Coulson, Evans said, shouted,
"Brilliant."
The editor went on to
instruct Evans to cover up the fact that Evans had obtained the voice
mail illegally, Evans testified. He told Evans to make a copy of the
message, put the copy in a Jiffy bag and send it to the front gate of
the newspaper offices to make it appear as if it had been dropped off as
an anonymous tip.
News of the World ran a front-page story about the alleged affair on October 9, 2005.
'Even the office cat' knew
On Thursday, Coulson's
lawyer Langdale said that Coulson was not even in London on the date
Evans claimed to have played him the voice mail, according to British
media reports.
Evans has steadfastly
insisted that Coulson knew that journalists at the paper were illegally
intercepting voice mail, and that Evans was hired partly for his ability
to do so.
The former News of the World reporter has said that everyone at the newspaper, "even the office cat," knew he was hacking phones, and that Coulson certainly did.
On Tuesday, he rattled off a list of 10 names of colleagues who he said knew it, including Coulson.
Langdale has pushed
Evans to admit that he negotiated hard to get immunity from prosecution
after he was arrested for hacking phones.
Evans conceded that
prosecutors had said he would not only have to admit his own guilt, but
incriminate others in order to get immunity. In the end, prosecutors did
not offer him the full immunity he sought, he said.
Evans has also admitted to alcohol and drug abuse, but said he is clean now.
The trial has touched the highest levels of British politics, media and society.
In addition to the link
between Coulson and the British Prime Minister, the case has put
pressure on global media baron Rupert Murdoch, who owned the News of the
World until he shut it down over the hacking revelations.
Rebekah Brooks, a friend
of Cameron and a protege of Murdoch, was editor of News of the World
before Coulson, and went on to become head of Murdoch's British
newspaper publishing company before resigning over the hacking scandal.
She is a defendant alongside Coulson, and also denies all the charges
against her.
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