Model Backs Polanski's Version of Events

LONDON – The model at the center of Roman Polanski (search)'s successful libel suit against Vanity Fair (search) says the filmmaker never tried to seduce her.

Polanski on Friday won his suit over an article that accused him of propositioning the model in a New York restaurant on the way to the funeral of his wife, Sharon Tate (search), who was killed by followers of Charles Manson in 1969.

Norwegian model Beatte Telle (search), the woman Polanski was alleged to have propositioned, didn't testify in the libel case.

The 2002 Vanity Fair article alleged that Polanski put his hand on the woman's thigh and promised her: "I will make another Sharon Tate out of you." But Telle refuted that in an interview with The Mail on Sunday from her home in an Oslo suburb.

"He never said that he would 'make me another Sharon Tate' or that he would make me a star. He never spoke to me at all," Telle told the newspaper.

"Polanski just stood there. He just stared at me for ages. ... Perhaps I reminded him of Sharon Tate."

Conde Nast accepted that the alleged incident did not happen before Tate's funeral, but alleged that it happened about two weeks later.

Polanski's lawyers denied that the incident ever occurred. The Academy Award-winning director was awarded 50,000 pounds, equal to about $87,000, in damages.