Hello! magazine gets to have its cake and eat it, too

A BRITISH COURT has overturned a ruling ordering celebrity magazine Hello! to pay more than $3.6 million for printing unauthorized photos of the wedding of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Hello! had been ordered to pay more than $1.8 million in damages and another $1.8 million in legal costs to rival magazine OK!, which had an exclusive contract with Douglas and Zeta-Jones.

But on Wednesday, three Court of Appeal judges reversed those damages – although they upheld the High Court’s 2003 ruling that Hello! had breached the couple’s confidentiality by publishing secretly snapped photos of their November 2000 nuptials at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

Hello! still must pay token damages of $28,000 to the couple.

Zeta-Jones has said she had felt “violated” when Hello! published its “sleazy and unflattering” pictures.

She singled out an image that showed Douglas feeding her wedding cake, saying: “I don’t usually like my husband shoving a spoon down my throat to be photographed.”

It’s the Lucas girls, by George

If you thought you spotted “Star Wars” creator George Lucas onscreen during the new “Episode III – Revenge of the Sith,” you’re right.

He’s dressed in galactic gear for the cameo, though his bushy beard is fully visible.

“There is a scene, a large crowd scene, which my daughters are in,” Lucas says. “And they sort of insisted that I be in it, and so I did it.”

They’re just Sith in the head

Scottish screen hunk Ewan McGregor, who plays the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, says he’s scared by “Star Wars” fans and their devoted fervor for the sci-fi saga.

“They have big meets and conventions, and I find it all a bit frightening,” he says.

“Once this guy met me at a stage door when I was doing a play in London. The guy yelled, ‘Obi-Wan! Do you have any advice for a trainee Jedi?’ I just said, ‘No, don’t be so ridiculous.’ “

Then there’s that morning Sith-ness …

Natalie Portman, whose “Star Wars” character, Padme Amidala, is pregnant with twins in the new film, says the role carried over into her offscreen life.

“It was funny, because having the pregnancy hat on, it does make you go home, you get a little back pain in the evening, you get hungry for three,” Portman says.

Ooh, will you sign my fan club card?

Anthony Daniels, who plays the android C-3PO, also has found his life imitating his art.

“On occasions, if we’ve been filming a lot and I’ve been doing C-3PO’s voice, it can come out somewhat inappropriately in the middle of a Safeway store,” he says. “I say, ‘Might I have this, please?’ And they go, ‘Wait a minute, you’re C-3PO.’ “

Quoteworthy

George Lucas, on the “Star Wars” character he’ll miss the most: “R2-D2. He’s the hero of the whole thing. He’s the one that always comes through and saves everybody. I’d like to have a pal like that who would come and save me once in a while.”

The birthday bunch

Singer Ron Isley (the Isley Brothers) is 64. Actor Richard Hatch (“Battlestar Galactica”) is 60. Comedian Al Franken is 54. Actor Mr. T is 53. Actor Judge Reinhold is 48. Actress Lisa Edelstein (“House”) is 37. Actress Fairuza Balk (“The Waterboy”) is 31. Rapper Havoc (Mobb Deep) is 31. Actress Ashlie Brillault (“Lizzie McGuire”) is 18. Actress Sarah Ramos (“American Dreams”) is 14.