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Actress Cameron Diaz at the premiere of Shrek 2 in Osaka , Japan

Photographer John Rutter, 42, is on trial on felony criminal charges stemming from accusations that he presented Diaz with a forged model release form and offered to sell her back the compromising pictures taken when she was just 19, the trial jury heard.

Rutter "presented a forged document and, in essence, attempted to blackmail her out of her money," prosecutor David Walgren told the six-man, six-woman panel in Los Angeles Superior Court during opening arguments Wednesday.

Rutter waited 11 years before confronting the now 32-year-old Diaz just before the 2003 much hyped 2003 release of "Charlie's Angels 2," in which she had a starring role, Walgren said.

"All of this is timed to put the maximum amount of pressure on Miss Diaz," he told the panel.

Rutter indicated he had buyers who were willing to pay five million dollars for the sensational photos of the blonde screen siren in a move that would have seen Diaz cast as "the bad angel" in the press, Walgren said. He asked for 3.3 million to 3.5 million dollars from Diaz in return for surrendering the photos to her, Walgren said.

Walgren promised that Diaz would testify that she never signed a model release form for the 1992 photo session. Rutter is charged with attempted grand theft, forgery of the model release form and perjury connected to an official statement he allegedly made about the disputed form.

His lawyer Mark Werksman countered that Rutter was "an innocent man" and that the case was "about a rich and powerful movie star ... seeking to crush and destroy John Rutter."

The photographer was simply "guilty of being a nice guy" for giving the world-famous actress the first opportunity to buy the pictures back, the lawyer maintained.