Phone hacking: model adviser's claim 'fantasy', says News International Mary-Ellen Field: former assistant to Elle McPherson. News International has told the high court that a claim for damages over phone hacking taken by a former adviser to model Elle Macpherson is "fantasy" and must be struck out. The publisher's barrister told Mr Justice Vos in a hearing on Monday that Mary-Ellen Field, who acted as the model's business adviser, had produced no evidence that her voicemails had been intercepted by the now-defunct News of the World. Field was sacked by Macpherson in November 2005 because, it has been claimed, the model blamed her for leaking stories to the tabloids about her private life. She was one of the first to take civil action against the News of the World, lodging her case in 2011. However Michael Silverleaf QC, for News International, told the court: "This claim is not fanciful, it is fantasy." In seeking to have her case struck out, Silverleaf went through a series of News of the World articles in 2005 and told the court there was no evidence in any of them that the basis of the stories or any part of them relied on information from voicemail. One article that Field claims could have come through illegal eavesdropping of telephone messages concerned Macpherson and pink hair extensions. Field said her diary shows that the article about the extensions appeared before Macpherson had the hair treatment and the information could therefore have come from phone hacking. The article, which appeared on 13 November 2005, showed Macpherson with pink hair extensions, Silverleaf said. This was two weeks before Field and MacPherson parted company. She says the hair extensions went in afterwards, so the article must have been written on the basis [of phone hacking] ... If we just think about that my lord, it is mad," said Silverleaf. To much laughter, Vos then entered into a discussion concerning hair extensions and whether they could be glued and unglued into natural hair easily and whether they could be taken out in a day, removed the next and put in again - in which case both Silverleaf and Field could be right. Gus Ullstein, QC for Field, who was in court, said: "One of the prime witnesses [Macpherson] has thus far declined to assist the claimant ... some of the most vital evidence is what [was] the basis for her dismissal by Ms Macpherson." He argued that Macpherson blamed Field but it was impossible to know why because the model was not cooperating with them. He described the model as a "recalcitrant and reluctant" witness and said they would seek an order to provide a witness statement. Vos asked why this request for evidence from Macpherson had not been made before Field considered launching the case. He said Field's case was "speculation" and there was not even a recollection of voicemail messages that might tally with information in any of the stories. "It does appear to me that this is all a bit ham-fisted," said Vos. He said Field was not "gilding the lily" but "the party has got to stop at some point." He told Field: "No one is accusing you of doing something wicked." Vos said he was not minded to strike out News International's application to have Field's case struck out but was yet to be persuaded why he should not. The case continues.