Dance stars in wedding photo row

Nerida and Shane Cortese. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Shane and Nerida Cortese are locked in a dispute with New Idea over an exclusive deal for coverage of their wedding.

The couple married in January at Wellington's Avalon studios, where they met while paired on Dancing With The Stars.

They sold exclusive photo and interview rights to the magazine, which ran a six-page spread, but unofficial pictures by a freelance photographer appeared in a rival magazine.

Shane, starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats at Auckland's Civic Theatre, said New Idea had withheld the couple's wedding photos, and an unspecified sum of money, which the couple had pledged for Starship. The magazine "took care of the reception" but "that was only a small part of the deal".

"There certainly is a disagreement. It is certainly not our fault as far as we are concerned and New Idea does not think it is their fault. We could not stop people taking photographs with long lenses. All the shots were with long lenses and blurry.

"We just want it all behind us. We want the photographs. We have no wedding album. ..."

In a statement, New Idea editor Hayley McLarin said: "We are in dispute with Shane and Nerida Cortese and their agent Karen Kay over what we consider serious failures to meet their side of an exclusive contract." She would not comment further.