Britain's News of the World tabloid paid out STG250,000 ($A466,000) for an exclusive interview with Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown after she was caught performing oral sex on actor Hugh Grant, the phone-hacking trial has heard.
Rebekah Brooks, a former editor and executive at the Rupert Murdoch-owned title, said Brown was paid around STG100,000 but large sums were also spent moving her and her family to a desert hideout to stop other papers stealing the 1995 scoop.
"It was probably one of the biggest expenses that I had ever dealt with," said Brooks, who was features editor of the News of the World at the time.
Brooks, 45, was giving testimony at her trial at London's Old Bailey court on charges of phone hacking, paying a public official for information and trying to conceal evidence from the police.
Grant, 53, was arrested with Brown on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles on June 27, 1995, sparking headlines around the world.
The News of the World secured an exclusive interview with Brown, whose real name is Estella Marie Thompson, and went to great lengths to stop rival papers from spoiling it.
Brooks said the News of the World hired a plane to fly Brown and her family to a resort in "the desert" - an enterprise that completely blew her weekly spending limit of STG50,000 to STG60,000.
A few weeks after the arrests, Brown was sentenced to 180 days in jail for lewd conduct and violating her probation on several prostitution convictions.
Meanwhile Grant managed to salvage his reputation by giving a series of contrite television interviews.
Since the hacking scandal, the British actor has become one of the most high-profile campaigners for tighter press regulation.
