Brad Pitt, right, and Angelina Jolie arrive on the red
carpet for the film "Inglourious Basterds", during the 62nd
International film festival in Cannes, southern France. (AP
Photo/Francois Mori, file)
Celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have begun
legal action against a British tabloid that reported they were
going to split, a lawyer acting on their behalf has confirmed.
Keith Schillings, of London-based Schillings lawyers, said in
a statement that the couple had begun legal proceedings
against the News of The World, a Sunday tabloid and
Britain's highest selling newspaper.
He said the newspaper had made "false and intrusive
allegations" when it reported on January 24 that Pitt and
Jolie had agreed to separate, to divide assets worth £205
million ($US320 million) and had made arrangements
regarding the custody of their six children.
Lawyers for the couple lodged a claim at London's High Court
on Monday to begin a legal case against the newspaper,
Schillings said.
"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. We have
advised them to bring proceedings which they have now done,"
Schillings said.
He also said Sorrell Trope, a high profile divorce lawyer in
Los Angeles, had denied claims she had been in contact with
the couple, as had been reported.
"I have had no contact from ... Angelina Jolie and/or Brad
Pitt," Trope wrote, according to a letter sent to the
couple's lawyers and partially quoted in Schillings'
statement. "I have never met ... your clients or had any
involvement with either of them. The forgoing is true with
respect to all other members of this firm."
Hayley Barlow, spokeswoman for the News of The
World, declined to comment on the couple's decision to
sue the newspaper.
On Sunday, Pitt, 46, and Jolie, 34, attended the Super Bowl
in Miami with their 8-year-old son, Maddox. They watched the
game together from a private box at Sun Life Stadium.
The couple have ties to New Orleans, the home city of the
Saints, who beat the Indianapolis Colts. Pitt and Jolie
bought a French Quarter mansion in 2007, the same year Pitt
founded the Make It Right organisation to build houses for
low-income residents who lost their homes during Hurricane
Katrina.
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