British actress Elizabeth Hurley divorces

British acttress Elizabeth Hurley, reacts, after an Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match between Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors in Jaipur, India, Sunday, May 1, 2011. -- PHOTO: AP

LONDON - BRITISH actress and model Elizabeth Hurley's four-year marriage to Indian businessman Arun Nayar ended in divorce on Wednesday.

The couple was granted the divorce by a district judge at the High Court's Family Division in London, according to the Press Association.

Hurley, 46, married the textile heir at Sudeley Castle in western England in 2007 and had a traditional Hindu wedding in Jodhpur, India.

Hurley dated British actor Hugh Grant for more than a decade and has a child from a relationship with film producer Steve Bing. -- REUTERS

ACTRESS Sienna Miller accepts 100k pounds phone-hack damages

Sienna Miller was set on Friday to accept 100,000 pounds (S$201,293) in damages from Britain's News of the World after the newspaper admitted hacking into her mobile phone messages. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON - ACTRESS Sienna Miller was set on Friday to accept 100,000 pounds (S$201,293) in damages from Britain's News of the World after the newspaper admitted hacking into her mobile phone messages.

Lawyers for Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, which publishes the popular tabloid, admitted this week at London's High Court unconditional liability for the wrongs alleged by the star and agreed to compensate her.

On Friday, her lawyer Hugh Tomlinson said that the actress would apply for 100,000 pounds of damages and that a proposed settlement would include a disclosure of the extent of the paper's wrongdoing.

The court is expected to formalise the agreement in the coming week. A spokesman for News International, News Group's parent company, said: 'We are pleased that we have managed to bring this case to a satisfactory conclusion.

'Several weeks ago we admitted liability in certain cases and offered a genuine and unreserved apology. We hope to resolve other cases swiftly.'

The paper printed an apology over the phone-hacking scandal last month and has set up a fund to pay compensation, reportedly worth around 20 million pounds, to pay victims. Miller is just one of a long list of British celebrities to accuse the country's biggest-selling Sunday paper of hacking into mobile phone voice-mail messages in the hunt for information to write stories. -- AFP

Cheryl Cole gets US X Factor job

Cole, 27, a member of the British pop group Girls Aloud, and a judge on the UK version of the show, is a household name in Britain, but virtually unknown in the United States. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

LOS ANGELES - BRITISH singer Cheryl Cole will join Simon Cowell as a judge on the US version of his upcoming The X Factor talent show, broadcaster Fox television said on Thursday, leaving one more space to be filled on the panel.

Cole, 27, a member of the British pop group Girls Aloud, and a judge on the UK version of the show, is a household name in Britain, but virtually unknown in the United States.

But Cowell has long championed Cole for his US project, which is due to start airing in September. Cole will join record executive Antonio 'LA' Reid as an X Factor judge.

'I'm thrilled for Cheryl. She is massively excited about this show, and has been fantastic to work with ... Most importantly, this girl can spot talent,' Cowell said on Thursday.

Fox said a fourth judge is still to be announced. The acid-tongued Cowell has said he would like his former American Idol sparring partner Paula Abdul to join him, in the search for the new singer or group that will win a US$5 million (S$6.2 million) prize and a recording contract.

Abdul also knows a thing or two about the pop world, having notched up 6 number singles in the late '80s. -- REUTERS

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