Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie accepted undisclosed damages on Thursday from a Sunday newspaper in Britain over claims they were separating, their lawyer said.
The unmarried actors had sued the News of the World on privacy grounds over a front-page story in January that claimed they had consulted a lawyer and were dividing up their assets and access to their six children.
The story was picked up by media organisations around the world, but the tabloid newspaper has now agreed to publish an apology and pay the couple their costs and damages, their lawyer Keith Schilling said.
Schilling said the couple’s US lawyers had written to the newspaper to inform them the allegations were false but it failed to issue a retraction, and the publication “spawned an array of false stories” all over the world.
“In consequence, when the News of the World failed to publicly retract the allegations and apologise for them — thereby leaving their readers in the dark as to the true position — the couple felt they had no alternative than to sue,” Schilling said after the hearing in London’s High Court.
“Today’s victory marks the end of the litigation brought by Brad and Angelina.”
The couple, who were not present in court, would give the damages to charity, Schilling said.
The News of the World, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News International group and one of Britain’s biggest-selling papers, said it would not be commenting on the case. It is expected to publish the apology in Sunday’s edition. - AFP
Honestly this post is not really about Brad Pitt, but it is. Brad Pitt is talking a lot lately. He talked about his life before marriage, his life during marriage and his life with Angelina and the kids. He also talked about playing 2nd fiddle to Tom Cruise in "Interview with a Vampire". We all know that Brad is a private guy, as most A-List celebrities are, but why is he talking to much now? Oh yeah, how could I forget, he has a new movie coming out. I loathe when celebrities dodge the paparazzi and the general public 10 months a year, but as soon as they have a movie, book, album, etc. coming out they thrust themselves back into the spotlight and "open up" about their personal lives and how their latest project reflects that. After this movie comes out and it does good or bad at the theaters the next time you see Brad Pitt will be on a tabloid or at an awards show, and he probably will not talk unless he wins. Basically what I am saying is I do not think celebrities have to do a media tour to promote a project, that is what the millions of dollars worth of advertising the studios spend to promote the project is for. Also why must these celebs open up about their personal life? Why spend so much time protecting it from the press just to tell them about it when it is beneficial to you... I think I just answered my own questio
n. I could care less about their lives or their projects. If it seems worthwhile people will embrace it and buy what you are selling, but if the project is a bunch of crap then you just wasted a little piece of yourself that you could have saved for a better project in the future. Brad Pitt is getting a Digit Down but really he is just taking this Digit for all the other celebrities who do this...so pretty much everyone.
