Diaz Not Ashamed Of Topless Pics

Actress Testifies In Trial Of Man Who Took Steamy Photos Of Her

(AP) 
She said she worried her boyfriend at the time wouldn't like her posing topless but added, “It was a professional shoot. It wasn't like in a back alley, 'Take your shirt off.'

“I was probably exploring the possibility of my body,” she continued. “I wasn't ashamed to be out there like that.”

The 32-year-old actress testified she didn't see Rutter again until he arranged a meeting in June 2003 on the week that “Charlie's Angels: Fully Loaded” was released. She said he told her prospective buyers were now willing to pay $5 million to use the photos and an accompanying video of the shoot in what would be a worldwide campaign that would include a 40-page magazine spread and ads on “buses, billboards, kiosks.”

She said Rutter also told her the unidentified buyers were “going to use this against you.”

“'They're going to put good angel, bad angel, and it's just not a really good thing for you, Cameron,”' she said he told her.

Diaz said she proposed a partnership in which she could control the release of a few photos and profits would go to Rutter and a charity. She testified that Rutter refused, saying he needed to be paid $3.5 million within two days or he would release the photos.

“I said, 'You're blackmailing me, John. This is extortion,”' she testified. “I had never felt so violated. ... It leaves a hole in my chest. I was sick to my stomach.”

In a fast-moving cross examination before Diaz left the stand, Rutter's lawyer portrayed the Venice photographer's proposition as simply a “business opportunity” in which Rutter gave Diaz “right of first refusal.”

Defense attorney Mark Werksman suggested Diaz was trying to unreasonably suppress photos she considered damaging even though she has often posed provocatively when it benefited her career.

Werksman pinned to a display board four Maxim magazine pictures showing the actress in a bikini with her “Charlie's Angels” co-stars.

“It was a sexy movie, right?” the attorney asked.

“Thank you, I guess,” Diaz responded.

The actress is also suing Rutter, an action that is pending in civil court. Meanwhile, a judge has issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Rutter from distributing the photos.