Supermodel accused of 'playing the race card'
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The courtroom battle between the supermodel Naomi Campbell and The Mirror descended to new levels of acrimony yesterday when the newspaper's editor accused the fashion icon of "playing the race card" in her attempt to establish a new privacy law.
Piers Morgan issued a vigorous denial of a claim from Ms Campbell that his paper was racist after it used the phrase "chocolate soldier" to describe her in an article accusing her of hypocrisy for having turned against an anti-fur campaign.
The editor told the High Court the term was an innocuous military reference which had been wilfully misunderstood by Ms Campbell to gain sympathy in her damages claim following The Mirror's exposure of her drug addiction.
The showdown between lawyers for the London-born model and Mr Morgan, a former showbusiness correspondent, raised the stakes in her attempt to set a legal precedent to prevent media intrusion into the lives of celebrities.
"I don't believe she didn't know the meaning of this phrase," said Mr Morgan. "I think it is outrageous of Naomi Campbell to play the race card. I think she used the phrase to conjure an image of The Mirror as a racist newspaper."
The exchange came on a third day of legal mudslinging in Court 13 which has seen both sides trading allegations, including Ms Campbell "lying on a grandiose scale" under oath, to the newspaper threatening to make her life a "living hell" unless she dropped her claim.
Ms Campbell, 31, is claiming breach of confidence, invasion of privacy and breach of the Data Protection Act after The Mirror pictured her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous session in London in January last year.
The newspaper claims that victory for the model would make it impossible for the press to pursue legitimate investigations into wrongdoing.
Following publication of a sympathetic article on 1 February last year, headlined 'Naomi: I am a drug addict', the newspaper carried a number of reports heavily criticising the model after she complained that her privacy had been grossly invaded, the court heard.
One piece, written by the columnist Sue Carroll and headlined 'Fame on you Naomi', attacked the model for wearing a fox coat on the catwalk after she backed an anti-fur campaign. Ms Carroll wrote: "As a campaigner, Naomi is about as effective as a chocolate soldier. She was sacked as a figurehead for animal charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after she wore a fur in a Fendi show."
Ms Campbell, who was in New York for a fashion shoot yesterday, has claimed she found the phrase "offensive" and broke down in tears when she read the article on 7 February last year.
Under cross-examination by Andrew Caldecott QC, for the model, Mr Morgan was asked whether he thought the term suitable for a "sensitive" newspaper in the modern era.
Mr Caldecott said: "If you are talking to a black woman in 2002, who you happen to think is not a very good champion for some cause, would you, the sensitive Mr Morgan of The Mirror, call her a 'chocolate soldier' to her face?"
The editor replied: "Why shouldn't I? I would have no problem using a perfectly common normal phrase which has no racist connotations at all. Are you saying the word 'chocolate' is racist? When I have a cup of hot chocolate at night, am I being racist? It is ridiculous."
The court was told that the term was coined by the writer George Bernard Shaw and was used by Australian forces during the First World War to describe fellow soldiers who were unable to cope in combat.
Mr Justice Morland, the judge presiding over the case, told the court that he had not heard of the phrase despite serving in the Army before adding: "Perhaps, I just never came across it."
Ms Carroll, who was also called to give evidence, denied she had either deliberately set out to be offensive to the model or been "reckless" in her language, saying she had use the phrase in front of her own family which is of mixed race.
The case continues.