Paris Hilton settles US$10M defamation lawsuit

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Paris Hilton has settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by a rival socialite who accused the heiress of planting defamatory stories about her in a gossip column, officials said yesterday.

Hilton, who was at the center of a worldwide media frenzy in June after she was sent to prison for violating probation, had been sued for 10 million dollars by actress Zeta Graff, according to court documents.

Jury selection for a civil trial was due to get underway next Monday but officials at Santa Monica County Court told AFP the case had been resolved.

"It's been settled," a court clerk said.

No further information about the details of the settlement were revealed. It was not clear how much, if anything, Hilton had paid to settle the case.

The settlement headed off a potentially embarrassing court trial for Hilton, who emerged from prison earlier this year declaring that she was determined to change her party-loving lifestyle.

Graff had filed her suit in 2005, alleging Hilton was the source for a story which appeared in the gossip pages of the New York Post claiming that she had attacked her in a London nightclub.

The story alleged Graff attacked Hilton in a jealous rage while the socialite was dancing with her then fiancee, Paris Latsis. Latsis reportedly dated Graff for two years before her relationship with Hilton.

The New York Post report said Graff had attempted to snatch a diamond necklace from Hilton's neck before being bundled out of the nightclub.

Graff, who had a small role in Luc Besson's 1997 film "The Fifth Element," denied the Post report in her lawsuit.