Hollywood golden pair float illegally into Italy

Published on Friday 8 August 2008 22:03

HOLLYWOOD golden couple Catherine Zeta Jones and her husband Michael Douglas were in hot water yesterday after breaching Italy's immigration laws, it emerged last night.

The Welsh-born actress and her husband were aboard a luxury yacht that berthed without permission on the Italian Riviera after sailing in from the south of France.

But the captain of their 1 million motor yacht did not report who was on board and was fined 2,064 euros (1,400) by coastguards.

The incident took place at Santa Margherita Ligure – where footballer Wayne Rooney was married earlier this summer – as the couple went ashore to go jogging and shopping in the glitzy nearby town of Portofino.

The couple were only made aware of the trouble they were in after they returned from a leisurely lunch at the La Cantina restaurant in nearby San Fruttuoso.

They were ferried from the yacht by tender and, according to Italian immigration laws, the captain should have informed coastguards of the names of those on board but failed to do so.

Pietro Micheli, coastguard at Santa Margherita Ligure, said: "The laws have been toughened up and all captains should be aware that they are supposed to inform us of the names of those on tenders taken ashore from yachts. In this case the captain of the yacht, which was flying a US flag, did not inform us, and as a result he was fined."