Cameron Diaz, Star Witness

Yes, those were Cameron Diaz's breasts. No, that was not her "slant."

Such was the testimony Thursday from the top-paid actress in the Los Angeles trial of the photographer accused of trying to sell topless photos of her with the help of a forged release form. On the stand, Diaz acknowledged that she bared her breasts for shutterbug John Rutter during a 1992 shoot in a warehouse near L.A., but denied signing off on the pictures.

"It's not my slant," Diaz said, per City News Service, as she looked over the "completely foreign" signature on the allegedly bogus release.

Rutter is charged with forgery, perjury and attempted grand theft. Not only has he pleaded innocent, he has accused Diaz of being the bad guy in the matter, saying she broke a contract. A civil trial on Rutter's lawsuit is set for October.

For now, it is Rutter who is on the defensive; Diaz who is front-and-center for the criminal prosecution. Per the courtroom fashion report from the Los Angeles Times, the actress wore a "dark brown V-neck sweater and light brown tweed pants," which sounds much nicer than the McDonald's-uniform-sounding "brown top and pants" the Associated Press placed her in.

All agreed Diaz seemed comfortable and at times giggly as she told the court about her modeling career, which she embarked on as 16-year-old high-school student. Diaz said she was 19 when she doffed her top for Rutter's camera.

"I felt that it was a safe environment to do so [pose topless]," Diaz said, per CNS. "I didn't think of [the poses] as perversion...[or] pornographic...I wasn't ashamed to be out there like that."

But Rutter's defense argues that shame is precisely why Diaz's camp pressed law enforcement to pursue the photographer.

Within two years of the photo shoot, Diaz the struggling model was Diaz the movie star, courtesy The Mask. Even bigger hits--There's Something About Mary, the Charlie's Angels franchise--followed.

During her testimony, Diaz maintained that she didn't sign a release form for Rutter at the warehouse--that's not the way modeling business is conducted, she explained, per CNS.

Diaz said she didn't have a problem with the photos per se ("I thought, 'My boobs looked good.' At least I had that going for me."), but she said she felt "violated" and "completely sick to my stomach" when Rutter resurfaced 11 years later with the photos, and an asking price. He threatened to sell the images to "someone who could hurt me" if she didn't pay up, Diaz testified.

Also on the stand: Rick Yorn, Diaz's manager. He said he got a call from Rutter in 2003, just days before the release of Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle.

"He said he had pictures of Cameron and some video of Cameron, and if Cameron didn't come up with a lot of money, he was going to sell them to various publications," Yorn said, according to the Times.

Though Rutter once was formally accused of extortion, that charge was dropped. And though the video Yorn spoke of was initially for sale on the Web, that site is now gone. As for the pictures--they're under seal, per a court order.

In opening arguments Wednesday, the prosecution contended Rutter tried to apply "the maximum amount of pressure" on Diaz by asking for as much as $3.5 million for the topless photos and telling her he could net $5 million for them on the open market. The defense, meanwhile, argued that Diaz was a powerful star bent on "crush[ing] and destroy[ing]" a working photographer.

Diaz has had her run-ins with the media. Last year, she and boyfriend Justin Timberlake were accused of hitting and taunting two photographers who tried to take their pictures outside a Hollywood hotel. A lawsuit filed by the paparazzi was recently settled, the Times reported.

And last month, Diaz filed a $30 million slander lawsuit against the National Enquirer, alleging it fabricated a story about her "cheating" on Timberlake with a TV producer.