Penthouse pays up after Kournikova pictures error

The ailing magazine Penthouse reached a last-minute out-of-court settlement late on Monday with a woman who sued for $10m after it published topless photographs of her claiming that they were of the Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova.

Judith Soltesz-Benetton, the daughter-in-law of the Italian fashion designer Luciano Benetton, did not reveal how close the settlement was to the amount she had initially demanded after the magazine printed the photographs in its June 2002 edition.

A Manhattan judge had been due to rule hours later on her claim that the pictures violated her privacy and constituted the use of her image as advertising without her consent.

Bob Guccione, the publisher of the magazine, which was already saddled with unpayable debts, had already made a grovelling apology, blaming the incident on human error. In another statement yesterday, addressed to Ms Soltesz-Benetton, he said: "We made a terrible, but wholly unintentional, error in publishing pictures of you as Anna Kournikova."

Kournikova is also suing the magazine in a Californian court, and is also demanding $10m in damages.