Hugh Grant accuses tabloid press of hacking

LONDON -- Actor Hugh Grant told a London courtroom yesterday about the dark side of celebrity life, describing mysterious break-ins, leaked medical details and hacked voice mails -- and laying blame on the entire tabloid press, not just the now-shuttered News of the World.

Grant's testimony to a judge-led inquiry into media ethics capped a tough day for Britain's beleaguered press. Earlier, the parents of a murdered schoolgirl whose phone was targeted by the tabloid described how the hacking had given them false hope that their daughter was still alive.

Grant said he believes his phone was hacked by the tabloid Mail on Sunday, the first time he has implicated a newspaper not owned by Rupert Murdoch in the wrongdoing.

The actor said a 2007 story about his romantic life in the paper, owned by Murdoch rival Associated Newspapers Ltd., could only have been obtained through eavesdropping on his voice mails.

He said he could not think of any other way the newspaper could have obtained the story alleging that his romance with Jemima Khan was on the rocks because of his conversations with a "plummy voiced" woman the paper said was a film studio executive.

Grant sued the newspaper for libel and won.

The Mail on Sunday said in a statement it "utterly refutes" Grant's suggestion it had hacked his phone and described his comments as "smears."

Over two and a half hours of testimony, Grant described years of tabloid pursuit that began after his breakthrough hit, "Four Weddings and a Funeral," in 1994. He said paparazzi had hounded Tinglan Hong, the mother of Grant's baby daughter, despite the actor's efforts to keep his paternity secret.

The first witnesses yesterday were the parents of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, whose mobile phone voice mails were hacked after she disappeared in 2002.

Her mother told the inquiry that she believed her missing 13-year-old was still alive once she reached the girl's previously full voice mailbox.

Sally Dowler said when she could finally leave a message on Milly's voice mail weeks after the girl disappeared, she shouted: "She's picked up the voice mails! . . . She's alive!"

In fact, messages had been deleted by someone working for the News of the World while the Dowlers and police were still searching for Milly, who was later found dead.