Judy Davis wins payout

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian two-time Oscar nominee Judy Davis on Friday won A$140,000 ($135,230) plus costs in a defamation suit against local media company News Ltd, controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Davis, 53, best known for roles in Woody Allen's "Husbands And Wives" and David Lean's "A Passage To India", sued the mass-selling Daily Telegraph newspaper over 2006 articles claiming she acted selfishly at a Sydney council meeting.

The newspaper, the judge said, "seriously misrepresented" Davis by describing her objection to new floodlights at a sporting park near her waterfront home as unreasonable.

The jury found the newspaper's publisher Nationwide News was motivated by malice towards Davis.

"The accusations that she was unreasonable and selfish and heartless with respect to young children inevitably caused her great anguish," state Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan said.

Davis, who came to prominence with British BAFTA awards for Best Actress and Best Newcomer in the 1979 film "My Brilliant Career", is a three-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner.

($1=A$1.05)

(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by Jeremy Laurence )