Here are some photos of Angelina Jolie last night in NYC. She attended yet another industry screening for Pablo Larrain’s Maria, this one for the Directors Guild. I don’t have the IDs on her ensemble, but she’s been wearing similar stuff to these kinds of industry screenings – trench coats, black (sack) dresses. She looks tired – she’s already been hustling for Maria for months, and Maria’s limited theatrical release isn’t until November 27 (it comes on Netflix on December 11).
Meanwhile, there’s been a well-publicized update on Angelina and Brad Pitt’s years-long legal battle over Chateau Miraval. He’s suing her because he claims they had a secret agreement that she would only sell her half of Miraval to him. She’s countersuing him because he’s a liar and an emotional, physical and financial abuser. Angelina has been fighting for at least two years to get Brad’s lawsuit thrown out. Well, a judge just threw out Angelina’s demurrers, meaning Angelina’s motions to dismiss were not granted.
Brad Pitt just secured an important win in his ongoing legal battle with ex-wife Angelina Jolie over the French winery Château Miraval. In new court documents filed on Friday, Nov. 8 and obtained by PEOPLE on Monday, Nov. 11, judge Lia Martin of Los Angeles County Superior Court dismissed three demurrers — otherwise known as motions to dismiss — recently filed by Jolie’s legal team related to Pitt’s own assertions in court that Jolie violated a verbal and written agreement to not sell their stakes in Miraval without both parties’ permission.
The ruling was made in response to Jolie’s requests to dismiss three separate causes of action Pitt made in a complaint filed in the case back in April, in which Pitt’s attorneys asserted that the former couple’s companies, Mongo Bongo and Nouvel, “entered into a written agreement in 2013 to give each other a right of first refusal over any sale of their respective interests in Miraval” and that the written agreement “precluded Mondo Bongo and Nouvel from selling their interests without the other’s consent.”
This written agreement between the two companies, Pitt’s lawyers asserted in the April complaint, related to any sale of Miraval existed in addition to a verbal agreement between Jolie and Pitt to gain the other’s consent before selling their stakes in the winery. According to the Nov. 8 ruling, Jolie has 30 days to respond.
“This is a clear victory for Brad which demonstrates the legitimacy of his claims and demonstrates yet again the other side’s talk is not backed up with substance,” a source close to Pitt tells PEOPLE.
I’ve lost the plot of all of these smaller legal issues. I thought the whole point of all of this was that Brad had zero evidence that Angelina ever entered into a legal agreement or written agreement that she would only sell Nouvel to him? And wasn’t his other argument that he was shocked by Angelina’s “surprise” sale, only she literally went to court to sell Nouvel AND she informed him in writing? Brad and his lawyers keep changing their stories and throwing sh-t against the wall to see what sticks, and I guess the judge is like… these issues should be worked out in trial, not in pre-trial hearings.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Angelina Jolie is spotted arriving at the DGA Theater in New York City Featuring: Angelina Jolie Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 11 Nov 2024 Credit: Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages
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- Angelina Jolie is spotted arriving at the DGA Theater in New York City Featuring: Angelina Jolie Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 11 Nov 2024 Credit: Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages
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- Angelina Jolie is spotted leaving the DGA Theater in New York City Featuring: Angelina Jolie Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 11 Nov 2024 Credit: Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages
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- Angelina Jolie is spotted leaving the DGA Theater in New York City Featuring: Angelina Jolie Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 11 Nov 2024 Credit: Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages
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- Angelina Jolie signing autographs at the DGA Theater for ‘Maria Callas’ screening Featuring: Angelina Jolie Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 11 Nov 2024 Credit: Darla Khazei/INSTARimages
Denial of a motion to dismiss does not get you to trial — it gets you to discovery. Post-discovery, either side can ask for summary judgment to avoid a trial. But discovery is expensive and no doubt his team will try to overreach and harass. It’s a small victory but proves absolutely nothing and means that Brad will continue to rack up very large legal fees.
Sadly, I guess she will continue to accrue the lawyers fees as well regardless of whether she is a millionaire or not. It’s still a form of abuse and control.
I swear to God, I think he might use his last dollar to pay lawyers who harrass and break Jolie but would still consider it a win as long as she was ruined…even if he no longer had a pot to p*ss in.
it looks a bit like brad wants a jury trial because he’s counting on their favor. after all he’s a world famous hollywood legend, adored by women and men. but if he can afford all that… (i don’t think so, because selling most of his production company and real estate, and on top of that acting in movies that were not promising from the very beginning and taking other “cheap” jobs shows that he’s not very well off with money…)
Where are the contract lawyers at? I’m so confused.
My guess is that the judge is giving weight to Brad’s claims that they had an oral agreement and is going to allow discovery to see what they each say at deposition. Even if there is a written agreement, certain oral statements can come in under certain circumstances. It seems enntirely far-fetched to me, but it is also not crazy to hear about a judicial system that heavily favors the male perspective. And it is about to get 100x worse.
I guess I’m confused because she did everything legally. He signed off on the sale. Is he pissed because the other guy who now owns her share is going after him for mismanagement? I would be interested in knowing how that is going.
Bluesky, brad used to do whatever he wanted, spend money on whatever he wanted and didn’t have to explain himself because angelina trusted him at first, and then he cut her off and when the divorce came he wouldn’t give her access to anything. So it’s no wonder he’s behaving like this now. he’s lost control of his expensive “toy” that he’s been so eager to brag about for years.
As a threshold matter, contract law is messy and complicated and its hard to boil down a situation like this with multiple moving parts into a People blurb. So everyone here needs to bear that in mind when reading these articles.
It sounds to me from everything I’ve read about this that Pitt’s team is saying there was a written agreement not to sell as well as a verbal agreement. But if there is a written agreement I’m not sure why Pitt’s team isn’t producing it? (Unless they have and I’ve missed it?) Then the burden would be on AJ to prove that she complied with the terms of the agreement which could be an issue for a jury but not necessarily – if there are no facts in dispute it would likely just go to the judge (that’s how it is in my state anyway.) If the written agreement is no longer in existence and he’s just relying on this verbal agreement, then yes, the case is going to have to go to discovery.
Anyway based on what I’ve read (which is not a great deal, I admit) this ruling kind of makes sense. If there is a legitimate legal question regarding any kind of written or verbal agreement, then discovery is going to be warranted.
This means the case got a lot more expensive for Jolie but it does not mean she is going to lose.
What his side is saying makes very little sense tbh. What they’re trying to use as a written agreement says nothing about giving consent to sell each other shares. The judge also didn’t rule that any contract was valid yet. This was just a demurrer so the judge doesn’t decide the terms yet.
I’d like to hear from a contract attorney too. First right of refusal is not identical to requiring consent to sell to someone else. I was under the impression that it meant that you give the other party the first chance to acquire the asset and if the two parties couldn’t negotiate a reasonable and mutually agreed upon deal, then the asset could be sold to someone else (as long as the terms of sale to the other party weren’t less stringent than the terms of the first offer from). Brad Pitt refused to the offer to purchase unless Jolie and made any purchase contingent of her signing a very strict NDA regarding their personal lives so didn’t Jolie satisfy the first right of refusal agreement?
Didn’t Brad get in trouble once with a corrupt judge? This is abuse using the legal system just like Samantha has done to Meghan for years, these lawsuits should have been thrown out years ago.. this is exactly why everyone should research every judge on the ballot and everyone that is being considered for appointment. Judges can ruin lives. Looks like Brad found himself another corrupt judge. It won’t be long before all of his children drop the Pitt from their names.
If there is really a contract on paper, signed by the parties, then Brad should be the one seeking summary judgment and winning. If the “contract” is, in fact, in doubt as to its terms, then sure, a trial may be necessary.
Well, this contract was supposedly not only not written down, but not verbally agreed upon either. Brad supposedly assumed that since they were married, he had the right of first refusal. And he was given that option anyway.
You are absolutely correct. Summary judgement is where they finalize the contract details. Angelina’s lawyer has already said they will file one
It’s never going to end, i’m sad for her. I can’t even imagine how emotionally and physically draining it must be. His children dropping his name one by one isn’t stopping him. It wasn’t enough for him to break up the family with his violent alcoholic behavior, he needed to harass their motheir in the press, sued her and spread lies about her. The plane incident was terrible but I guess in some way his behavior post it was even more traumatizing for Angie and the children.
And Fuck the justice for always allowing those men to continue the post separation abuse by using the courts
This feels ominous to me. I really, really hope that AJ is able to make it through this unending court drama with BP as painlessly as possible, because it looks like he’s abusing her via the courts and the justice system is going along with it.
Kind of unrelated, but someone on Reddit swore that she’s an undercover Trumper. This was news to me given all of her UNICEF work but I did notice that she kept completely silent about the election.
She never does political endorsements and she’s visited the Biden White House several times. Pres. Biden even invited her & Zahara to the VAWA reauthorization signing.
Thank you for that. I’m canceling people left and right for being Trumpers. Bye Nicole Scherzinger!!! Sorry not sorry!
I don’t think she is a Trump supporter but she might not be on board with the current administration either. The situation in Gaza is horrendous and much has happened under the current administration. I voted for Kamala but I know some people did not vote for them because of this issue.
I understand her lawyers have 30 days to respond to this judge’s ruling.
You’re right Kaiser. They keep changing the story to see what sticks. However it will still be worked out in the pretrial stage with a summary judgement. This was just a demurrer meaning the judge wasn’t questioning veracity facts of his complaint. They take his complaint and ask if there was a contract could it have been broken.
The summary judgement is where Angelina is allowed to show why there wasn’t a meeting of the minds and why the verbal contract holds no weight.