Stars are too scared of Press to testify, claims Coogan

During his testimony to the inquiry into press standards, Coogan said that he had spoken to many celebrities who agreed with his stance but refused to appear as “they fear what will happen”. In reference to Hugh Grant’s previous testimony, he said: “It’s not just the Hugh and Steve show.”

The actor and comedian, best known for his character Alan Partridge, described how tabloid journalists had harassed his friends and family, rooted through his bins and accused him of causing his friend, American actor Owen Wilson, to attempt suicide.

Coogan said the Press was “like the mafia” and added: “Many other celebrities, for want of a better word, have told me that they agree with me and they would like to come [to the inquiry] but they don’t have the stomach for it and they fear what will happen.”

He also said that Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World and Prime Minister David Cameron’s ex-director of communications, had secretly listened in on a phone call designed to entice him into revealing personal information.

Mr Coulson was also accused of using a surreptitious recording of another call to Coogan to betray a promise to omit “lurid” details about the break-up of one of the star’s relationships.

Coogan described two alleged “stings” by the News of the World aimed at disclosing details about his private life. He said he received a warning from showbusiness reporter Rav Singh about the first, conducted in August 2002 when Mr Coulson was the paper’s deputy editor.

Coogan said: “I would receive a phone call which would come from Andy Coulson’s office. There was a girl in Andy Coulson’s office who was going to speak to me on the phone and the call would be recorded.

“She would try to entice me into talking about intimate details of her and my life. I was told by Rav Singh that Andy Coulson would be listening to the call.”

Coogan said he took the call but did not divulge any information and no story was published.

On the second occasion, in April 2004 when Mr Coulson had become editor, Mr Singh recorded a personal conversation with the comedian.

Coogan told the inquiry: “I was in a relationship that was breaking up because of an affair I had. He [Mr Singh] called me and said, ‘Look, I want to help you’.

“I begged him not to put in some of the more lurid details of the story. He said that if I confirm certain aspects, the more lurid details would be left out. The more embarrassing, which I know would upset my then wife’s family, would be omitted.

“After that, my manager received a phone call from Andy Coulson saying they had recorded the whole phone call and they were going to print it in the newspaper.”

Mr Coulson resigned as News of the World editor in January 2007 after the paper’s royal editor, Clive Goodman, was jailed for phone hacking. Mr Coulson was appointed the Conservative Party’s director of communications and planning four months later, and followed Mr Cameron into Number 10 in May 2010.

He stood down as Downing Street communications chief in January this year amid the growing scandal over the illegal interception of voicemails by the News of the World. He was arrested in July on suspicion of phone hacking and corruption, and is currently on police bail.

Giving evidence to the inquiry about how he has been dogged by the Press over the years, Coogan admitted that he was no “paragon of virtue” but said unlike some other celebrities he did not seek fame.

“One could argue that there are those who make their career out of being famous and those people do enter into a Faustian Pact, where they use the press to raise their profile,” he said. “They exploit the press for their own ends. They are in the fame game.”

Coogan said that in 2005, a paper enticed a woman to sell her story based on messages left on voicemails, adding: “That information had not been gained legally so they had to get her to admit it.”

He said that a year ago he got a court order so the police would disclose the notebook of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. He was shown a redacted copy which included details of how much he had withdrawn from a cashpoint, the amount he paid for a hotel bill, and the phone number of a woman he was seeing at the time. He said the account number and password for his phone account was also included.

Coogan also referred to an interview he gave to Piers Morgan for GQ magazine originally published in January 2006 in which he was questioned about his personal life.

He said: “I certainly wasn’t doing an exposé and spilling my guts. I was talking about things that had already been aired in the public domain.”

He added: “I would rather not talk about it but if you are doing an interview you don’t want to come across as being curmudgeonly or precious, and you want to support the film and be open.”

The comedian told the inquiry he often ignored misreporting about himself.

He said: “I don’t want to channel all my energies into this.

“I would rather spend my time writing and doing what I do for a living, because [taking action] is quite time-consuming and it drains you of energy. And that is why often I have just walked away and got on with my job.”

Explaining why he felt able to appear before the inquiry, Coogan said: “Ironically, because of the stories that have been run about me, my closet is empty of skeletons due to the Press so in a way, unwittingly maybe, I may be immune.”