Hannah wins libel suit

LONDON, England -- Actress Daryl Hannah has won a libel suit against a UK newspaper that claimed she missed rehearsals because of her dog.

The Daily Mirror claimed in October that Hannah, 40, had abandoned rehearsals for "The Seven-Year Itch" and flown to Los Angeles for her dog's birthday just days before the play was to open in London's West End.

The newspaper story appeared under the headline "Jittery Daryl goes Walkies" and was widely repeated elsewhere.

"It was reported that she then returned to the theatre in London four days later and, when further questioned about the 'urgent business' she had attended to in Los Angeles, claimed that she had been obliged to return home because it was her dog's birthday," said her lawyer Simon Smith.

She was actually attending the Toronto Film Festival, he said.

The allegations were "false and very embarrassing" to Hannah, he added.

Hannah found fame as a mermaid in the 1984 comedy, "Splash."

The Mirror "entirely accepts that the allegations are false," Anna Coppola, lawyer for the newspaper's publisher, said in London's High Court on Tuesday.

"Through me the defendant offers its sincere apologies to the claimant for the distress and embarrassment caused by this article," she said.

Hannah was awarded an undisclosed sum in damages.