British billionaire Barclay loses French play defamation case

Secretive British billionaire David Barclay was ordered to pay damages of 21,000 euros ($24,000) to a French playwright Tuesday after a court in northern France rejected his attempt to sue for defamation.

Barclay, who with his twin brother Frederick owns The Daily Telegraph and the Ritz Hotel, had filed suit against Hedi Tillette de Clermont-Tonnerre over a play that won critical reviews in Paris earlier this year.

Entitled "Les Deux Freres et les Lions" ("The Two Brothers and the Lions"), it does not mention the brothers directly, but has clear parallels with the pair who were born into a modest Scottish family and went on to build a vast property and media empire.

Barclay had sought 100,000 euros in damages for libel and violation of privacy and had sought to have the work -- which played at a small Paris theatre until March 31 -- banned.

"In the text, there are no facts revealed that were unknown, egregious, intimate or even imaginary and pejorative which are likely to constitute a