| Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt suing British newspaper over split report |
|
09/02/2010 13:40 (733 Day 09:08 minutes ago) | |||||
|
The FINANCIAL -- Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are suing News of the World, the British newspaper, for its story last month that alleged the unmarried couple was seeing a divorce lawyer to get a separation.
In a story published on 24 January, the paper said the couple would separate and had agreed the division of assets and custody of their children, BBC reports. The couple's lawyer, Keith Schilling, called the "widely republished" allegations "false and intrusive".
He added the paper had failed to meet "reasonable demands" for an apology, according to the same source. He said the pair had also asked for a retraction of the allegations, which had subsequently been "widely republished by mainstream news outlets".
Reuters informs that Pitt, 46, and Jolie, 34, have six children and joint assets estimated by the News of the World at 205 million pounds ($319.4 million).
Pitt and Jolie began their legal action in the high court in London against News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary which publishes the News of the World, Guardian reports. News Group is owned by Rupert Murdoch – as is 20th Century Fox, which made and Smith, the film that gave the setting for Pitt and Jolie's blossoming love affair six years ago.
According to Envelope, in a letter cited in that statement, Sorrell Trope, the divorce attorney whose name was mentioned in the NOTW article, denied that he was in touch with the couple.
"I have had no contact from... Angelina Jolie and / or Brad Pitt," said Trope in a letter quoted in the statement, BBC reports. "I have never met... your clients or had any involvement with either of them. The foregoing is true with respect to all other members of this firm."
The Jan. 24 article, which was picked up by the Drudge Report late Jan. 23, the night of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, immediately caused a rip in the celebrity space-time continuum, according to Envelope. Then on Jan. 25, the Monday after the Globes, the Ministry of Gossip treated the claims as a total joke, much to the dismay of readers clicking through for hard news.
The News of the World alleged that the couple visited a lawyer to begin thrashing out a separation deal and that, last month, they signed a deal to divide their wealth, Guardian reports. The article also claimed their children would live with Jolie but Pitt would have visitation rights; the separation would occur imminently.
According to the same source, Pitt and Jolie have three adopted children – Maddox, eight, Pax, six, and Zahara, five – as well as Shiloh, three, and 17-month-old twins Knox and Vivienne.
The British newspaper hasn’t commented on the couple suing them.
|
|
|
