Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to file charges against U.K. paper
Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are suing the News of the World newspaper after it published allegations about their relationship.
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.
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.
It seems that nearly every tabloid in the supermarket checkout line is proclaiming the end of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s relationship.
He said the pair had also asked for a retraction of the allegations, which had subsequently been “widely republished by mainstream news outlets”.
But for a newspaper in London, printing alleged misstatements about Jolie and Pitt has landed them in hot water.
The actors and parents of six have started proceedings against News Group Newspaper Limited after the News of the World printed some alleged rumors about the Hollywood couple.
According to a statement provided by the couple’s attorney in the U.K., the News of the World reported on January 24 that “Angelina Jolie and/or Brad Pitt visited a divorce lawyer in December 2009 to begin thrashing out a deal.” The newspaper, according to attorney Keith Schilling, stated that “an agreement has been concluded between them dividing joint assets of £205m and providing for custody and visitation rights in relation to their children.”
Sorrell Trope of Trope and Trope has been identified in some reports as the couple’s Los Angeles divorce attorney, but Trope said in the statement that he has had no contact with the couple.
Schilling added that “The News of the World has failed to meet our clients’ reasonable demands for a retraction of and apology for these false and intrusive allegations which have now been widely republished by mainstream news outlets.”
A claim form was issued today in the High Court of Justice in London. The matter is being treated as a serious misuse of private information.
A statement from Schillings Lawyers also noted that Sorrell Trope, identified by some publications as a divorce lawyer advising Pitt and Jolie, had never met them.
“I have had no contact from… Angelina Jolie and / or Brad Pitt,” said Trope in a letter quoted in the statement.
“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 action comes following the publication by the News of the World of allegations that Jolie and/or Pitt had visited a divorce lawyer in December, and that an agreement had been reached between them regarding custody of their children and the dividing of their joint assets of £205m.
