Sky News understands that a number of high profile phone-hacking cases against the News of The World are close to being settled - in advance of a trial scheduled for next month.
They are thought to include Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell , the movie star Jude Law and the ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne .
Settling too are Gascoigne's best friend Jimmy "five bellies" Gardener and George Best's agent Phil Hughes.
The disgraced former minister Elliot Morley, who went to jail for fiddling his expenses, is also close to agreeing a deal.
It will bring the total number of cases settled to around 40, though lawyers warn there are many times more still to be concluded.
Later today, there will be pre-trial hearing on the phone-hacking cases where details of the settlements are likely to be confirmed.
It is not known how much the latest swathe of pay-outs will cost the paper's parent company News Corp.
But phone hacking has already cost News Corp the multi-billion pound buy-out of BSkyB, the News of The World tabloid itself, which it closed, and millions in damages, including £3m for the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone.
Meanwhile at the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics, celebrity magazine editors gave a cautious welcome to a proposal for an official register of famous people who want to remain private.
:: Read more about the Leveson Inquiry here
Heat magazine's Lucie Cave told the inquiry it would be a "very useful tool" if celebrities kept a body like the Press Complaints Commission updated on their circumstances.
But OK! editor Lisa Byrne warned that such a register could place limits on the reporting of stories about well-known people.
"Every celebrity might say, 'no, I don't want any pictures of my family ever again'. Then it could cause a problem," she said.
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