Absolument Jolie

Angelina Jolie's four-year divorce battle with Brad hits new speed bump as actress parts ways with another high-priced attorney and refuses to agree to Pitt's request for 50/50 custody of their kid

Details: Published on Thursday, 29 October 2020 07:20; Written by Daily mail

Angelina Jolie's bitter divorce battle with Brad Pitt has hit yet another bump in the road after the actress parted ways with one of her high-priced attorneys.Priya Sopori, a Los Angeles-based former federal prosecutor who has been working with Jolie's lead lawyer, Samantha DeJean, is out after filing a 'Notice of Withdrawal of Attorney of Record' with LA Superior Court, DailyMail.com has learned.Experienced trial bulldog Sopori is a partner with California law firm Greenberg Glusker LLP.It's not clear whether Jolie - who is fighting Pitt's efforts to win 50/50 custody of their children - fired Sopori or if the attorney made the decision to quit.But the change in her high profile team at this late stage signals Jolie's resolve to get what she wants has only hardened.A source close to Jolie told DailyMail.com: 'Angelina has fought tooth and nail to get what she wants in this divorce, when it comes to her kids she won't back down.''She's paying her legal team a fortune, so if she believes one of her lawyers needs to go she won't hesitate to pull the trigger.' It's not the first time the mercurial 45-year-old Girl, Interrupted star has parted company with a lawyer she's hired during the long-running four year divorce saga.In 2018, superstar LA divorce attorney Laura Wasser - whose client list reads like a Who's Who of Hollywood - stopped working for Jolie when the actress's legal fight with Pitt, 56, reportedly became too 'venomous and nasty.'Wasser - who has represented Johnny Depp, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Reynolds, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Ashton Kutcher and many other stars - has earned a reputation as a lawyer who tries to take the sting out of break-ups by promoting compromise between warring couples and shared custody of children.So it was thought at the time that Jolie's hard-nosed attitude toward Pitt was not a good fit with Wasser's more gentle, conciliatory approach.After Wasser, Jolie hired San Francisco-based DeJean who is now the only lawyer representing her in the long-running custody dispute with Pitt.The former couple are dragging security experts from two continents, an entourage of personal assistants and bodyguards, a former Jolie co-star and an army of child psychologists and doctors to give evidence in an upcoming custody trial that's expected to be held in private.Lists of witnesses filed in a Los Angeles court and seen by DailyMail.com reveal 21 people who will be testifying in the movie stars' legal fight over their children, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12. They have a sixth child, Maddox, but he's a 19 year-old adult.One witness will be domestic violence expert Alyce LaViolette, who controversially clashed with a prosecutor in a 2013 murder trial by describing killer Jodi Arias as the victim of abuse. The kids are shuttled back and forth in blacked-out SUVs and limousines between their parent's LA homes, which are around a mile from one another in the affluent suburb also inhabited by A-listers including Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, Jon Hamm and Zac Efron.In early April, the superstars came to an agreement that will see the children attend a more traditional schooling program in LA, marking an end to their homeschooling regime.Jolie said she stands by her choice to leave Pitt.'It was the right decision,' the actress told Vogue in June.'I continue to focus on their (the kids') healing. Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds.'The custody trial was due to start earlier this month but it has been delayed after Jolie asked for the private judge to be replaced, claiming that he 'failed to disclose' that he was working other cases with one of Pitt's lawyers.

source : Daily mail

Angelina Jolie LOSES battle to remove judge in her bitter four-year-long divorce from Brad Pitt... after asking for a 'fair trial' with 'no special favors'

Details: Published on Thursday, 08 October 2020 04:37; Written by Daily mail

Angelina Jolie has lost her battle to remove Judge John W. Ouderkirk from her bitter divorce proceedings with ex-husband Brad Pitt. Jolie had previously claimed that Ouderkik - who married the couple at their lavish French wedding in 2014 - failed to disclose 'ongoing business and professional relationships' that he had with Pitt's legal team, and therefore didn't think it was 'fair' to have him on the case. However, court documents reveal that the case is still "assigned to Honorable Judge W. Ouderkirk (Ret.) for all purposes" per a Friday report by UsWeekly. A source also told the publication that Ouderkirk will still be presiding over the case between Pitt, 56, and Jolie, 45. In August, Jolie was accused of deliberately trying to delay their bitter four-year long divorce battle by Pitt's legal team, after she filed a request to remove Ouderkirk. But Jolie hit back via her own legal representative, who said her client just wanted a 'fair trial' with 'no special favors' for either herself or Pitt. 'All my client is asking for is a fair trial based on facts, with no special favors extended to either side,' Jolie's lawyer, Samantha Bley DeJean, told UsWeekly in a statement. The statement added: 'The only way litigants can trust the process is for everyone involved to ensure that there’s transparency and impartiality.'The report also added a comment from Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, who believes that Judge Ouderkirk is 'biased in Brad's favor' due to the personal connections they have. An insider recently told UsWeekly of the divorce battle: 'They're at a total impasse. And there's no end in sight.' As previously reported in court documents, Jolie claimed that Ouderkik - who married the couple at their lavish French wedding in 2014 - failed to disclose 'ongoing business and professional relationships' that he had with Pitt's legal team.However, Pitt responded in papers filed on August 13, calling Jolie's filing a 'Hail Mary' - an American Football reference to deliberately delay a game.In them, Pitt's legal team accuses the actress of making a 'transparently tactical gambit' to delay matters, adding that it will be their own children who are 'hurt most' by the hold up. The papers describe Jolie's request as 'a thinly-veiled attempt by Jolie to delay the adjudication of long-pending custody issues in this case.'
The former power couple - who first split in 2016, effectively ending a 12-year relationship and two years of marriage - share six children, Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12. Jolie alleged in her filing that Ouderkirk 'failed to make timely mandatory disclosures of ongoing business and professional relationships between himself' and Pitt's legal team. She added in her request that she was 'never afforded the opportunity to even raise a concern or to object to the ever-increasing business relationships between Judge Ouderkirk and [Pitt's] counsel — relationships that were providing a steady stream of income to Judge Ouderkirk and the potential for future work.'Adding: 'These are precisely the type of repeat customer circumstances that create doubts about a privately-compensated private judge’s ability to remain impartial.' Yet, Pitt's team has responded saying Jolie had been made fully aware that Ouderkirk had accepted 'additional new engagements' involving the actor's team, and that she had 'never objected' to Ouderkirk's 'continued involvement' in the proceedings until now.In Pitt's response, he also pointed out three times where Jolie and her lawyers are said to have asked to extend Ouderkirk's appointment to their ongoing divorce case.The documents add that Pitt is concerned about how the continued delays will affect their children, saying: 'Unfortunately, the individuals hurt most by Jolie's transparently tactical gambit are the parties' own children, who continue to be deprived of a final resolution to these custody issues.' Jolie's lawyer DeJean responded to Pitt's filing last week in a statement to PEOPLE saying: 'It is unfortunate that Mr. Pitt's team has sought to intervene ahead of Judge Ouderkirk's response.''One can only conclude that this is an attempt to obstruct or influence Judge Ouderkirk's answer. Any delay in these proceedings is due to their zealous attempt to create an unrecognized special exception for their client's benefit.' The report adds that a source close to Pitt's team claim that it was Jolie's team who actually knew the judge first, and that 'the only excuse for their filing is that her team knew they were likely to lose and they needed to stall by changing the referee in the fourth quarter.' 'This is the Judge who married them, someone who her team knew well and who her team actually introduced to the couple,' a Pitt source claims.

source : Daily mail

'Tensions have escalated': Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie 'no longer in family therapy' ahead of trial to determine custody of their kids

Details: Published on Friday, 11 September 2020 05:54; Written by Daily mail

       Their high-profile split has been full of drama.And it seems that tensions may once again be ramping up between celebrity exes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.Relations between the former couple who share six children have deteriorated to the point where they are no longer engaging in family therapy ahead of a custody trial slated for next month, UsWeekly reported Thursday.'Tensions have escalated between Brad and Angelina, with family therapy no longer taking place,' a source exclusively told Us Weekly. Pitt and Jolie had appeared to reach a cordial understanding about co-parenting their kids, with the Once upon A Time... In Hollywood actor spotted leaving the actress' LA home in June after spending time with the children.However, UsWeekly claims they are now at odds again over how much time they each get with Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and 12-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne. Eldest child Maddox, 19, is allowed to choose his own timetable and is rumored to no longer have any contact with his father. 'Brad wants 50/50 joint physical and legal custody of the kids. Angelina has been unagreeable to those terms,' a source told UsWeekly.The insider added that Jolie 'will only agree to talk about an agreement if the home base for the children isn't Los Angeles. The younger kids are in school in Los Angeles, which Angelina has always been opposed to.' It's previously been suggested that Jolie wants to relocate to the UK and base the children with her there.DailyMail.com has reached out representatives for Pitt and Jolie seeking comment.Pitt and Jolie - who enjoyed the moniker Brangelina during their time together - separated in September 2016 when the Maleficent star filed for divorce following an incident aboard a private jet involving son Maddox and Pitt.The two had met on the set of the film Mr. & Mrs. Smith that was released in June 2005.Several months before the movie's debut, Pitt and then wife Jennifer Aniston had announced they were separating after five years of marriage, with the Friends star subsequently filing for divorce in March 2005.On January 11, 2006, Jolie finally confirmed the romance with Pitt when she confirmed she was pregnant with his child.Their daughter Shiloh was born in Namibia in May 2006 and two years later, in July 2008, the couple welcomed twins Knox and Vivienne, who were born in Nice, in the south of France.
       In early 2006, Pitt also officially adopted Jolie's adopted son Maddox, born in Cambodia, and daughter Zahara, born in Ethiopia. In 2007, they adopted son Pax who is from Vietnam. On August 23, 2015, the couple officially wed at Château Miraval, their estate in Provence, saying at the time that they had made their union legal for the sake of their children.Fast forward five years, and the pair, who were declared legally single last year, have still not been able to finalize terms regarding custody and support of the children.The reports of renewed friction between the exes come after Pitt, 56, visited Château Miraval at the end of August with rumored new girlfriend, German model Nicole Poturalski, 27.He and Jolie had purchased the estate including the Château and vineyard in 2011 for $60 milljon after leasing it for three years. 'Taking Nicole to Miraval on their former wedding anniversary, Brad knows exactly what he is doing and the reaction it's going to get from Angelina,' a source told UsWeekly at the time. 'He just doesn't care if Angelina is going to lash out. He expects she will.'Britain's The Mirror reported that Jolie, 45, was 'furious and utterly stunned Brad could stoop this low.' Pitt and Poturalski, who is married with a son, were spotted arriving in the south of France on a private jet.'They were kissing and Brad was being super attentive to her,' a source told OK! magazine.'He was in a semi public place but didn’t seem to mind people seeing him. She’s a real beauty and obviously a lot younger than him.' It's believed that the pair may have been dating for the best part of a year, as they both attended a performance of Kanye West's opera Nebuchadnezzar at the Hollywood Bowl in November 2019.The model, who is currently signed to Next Management in Los Angeles and A Management in Germany, is married to Berlin-based restaurateur Roland Mary, 68, with whom she's allegedly in an open relationship. Meanwhile, a trial has been scheduled for October in Los Angeles where a judge will adjudicate on the child custody and support issues that remain unresolved between Jolie and Pitt. The two had previously signed off on the appointment of retired Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk to oversee the proceedings; he had presided over their marriage in 2014.
       However, last month, Jolie requested he be removed from the case claiming she feared he would be 'biased' against her because he had failed to disclose an existing relationship between himself and Pitt's lawyers.Pitt's legal team accused the actress of making a 'transparently tactical gambit' to delay matters, adding that it will be their own children who are 'hurt most' by the hold up. Ouderkirk denied Jolie's request that he recuse himself, stating that he is within his rights to continue working as the celebrity divorce continues to drag on and declaring that he can and will be impartial.The fairytale romance between Jolie and Pitt had come to an end in September 2016.There was an alleged 'altercation' that involved Pitt and Maddox aboard a private jet that was heading from Nice, France to Los Angeles, California; after they landed, Angelina 'kicked him out,' according to Vanity Fair.Brad was cleared of any wrongdoing but the stage had been set for a very acrimonious divorce.Jolie filed legal documents straightaway and sought custody of the six children. Pitt countered by asking for joint custody. In August 2018, the divorce battle between the pair exploded in public with Jolie accusing her ex of being a deadbeat dad and Pitt revealing he has paid millions of dollars to the actress including money to buy a new home in LA.A judge overseeing the case previously cautioned Jolie for allegedly not helping the kids have a relationship with Pitt and threatening to reduce her time with them. The two reached an interim custody agreement and have engaged in family therapy since then as they seek to find a way forward.

source : Daily mail

Why Does Angelina Jolie Want a New Judge in Her Divorce?

Details: Published on Saturday, 22 August 2020 17:51; Written by Vanity Fair

Follow-up question: How is this divorce still happening? In a little book called War and Peace—ever heard of it?—Leo Tolstoy wrote, “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt must understand this better than anyone. They’ve been untangling their lives since their divorce began in 2016, a time that is both yesterday and a thousand years ago. They’ve been up, they’ve been down, there’s been war, there’s been peace, and still these warriors persist.Just this Monday, Jolie filed in Los Angeles Superior Court to have the private judge John W. Ouderkirk removed from the case. They’ve been working with him on their divorce for at least three years (Pitt and Jolie are both divorced and working on their divorce, since the judge declared them legally single in April 2019 while they continued to hash out the terms privately in court). Jolie’s filing argues that the Ouderkirk had “failed to disclose the cases that demonstrated the current, ongoing, repeat-customer relationship between the judge and [Pitt’s] counsel,” whose name is Anne C. Kiley. Kiley, the filing continues, “actively advocated for Judge Ouderkirk’s financial interests in moving—over the opposing party’s opposition—to have his appointment (and his ability to continue to receive fees) extended in a high profile case.” Without getting too in the weeds during this pre-law seminar, Jolie’s side maintains that, per California law, if one “might reasonably entertain a doubt” about a judge’s ability to remain impartial, he or she can be removed from the case at hand. Why now, three years in? Another mystery that even time may not reveal. They have a private judge and most of the proceedings are sealed, so there’s little information on even what could be left to resolve. A source close to Jolie, however, told Vanity Fair, “Angela’s team was kept in the dark about matters that should have been disclosed. Any attempt to suggest otherwise is only to distract from behavior that violates the rules of ethics for judges.”

source : Vanity Fair

Angelina Jolie ‘Insisted’ That Brad Pitt Quarantine for 2 Weeks Before Seeing Kids After His Trip to France

Details: Published on Saturday, 03 October 2020 13:51; Written by US magazine

Better safe than sorry! Angelina Jolie worried about her ex-husband Brad Pitt reuniting with their children after he traveled to France with his new girlfriend, Nicole Poturalski, amid the coronavirus pandemic.“Angelina insisted Brad quarantine for 14 days after he returned from France, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases in the country,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly. “She didn’t want to chance the kids getting it.” The Ad Astra actor, 56, wanted to take two tests “days apart” in hopes of “shortening the quarantine period,” but the Maleficent actress, 45, “wasn’t having it,” according to the source.Ultimately, Pitt agreed to quarantine and has since “resumed seeing the kids,” the source tells Us.The 12 Years a Slave coproducer and Poturalski, 27, touched down at Paris–Le Bourget Airport on August 26, the same day that news broke of their romance. They later made their way to Château Miraval, the estate in the South of France that Pitt and Jolie bought in 2008 and where they married in 2014.“Taking Nicole to Miraval on their former wedding anniversary, Brad knows exactly what he is doing and the reaction it’s going to get from Angelina,” an insider exclusively told Us at the time. “He just doesn’t care if Angelina is going to lash out. He expects she will.” While Pitt’s romance with the German model did not make headlines until this summer, they were first spotted together in November 2019 at a Kanye West concert in Los Angeles. A source exclusively told Us earlier this month that the relationship is “currently a go-with-the-flow situation, and Nicole’s not running around yelling about her love for Brad from the rooftops.” However, the budding couple, who have a 29-year age difference, are “totally falling for each other,” the source added.The Fight Club star was previously married to Jennifer Aniston from 2000 to 2005 and Jolie from 2014 to 2019. The Mr. & Mrs. Smith costars are still fighting over custody of their five youngest children: Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12. At 18, their eldest, Maddox, who is a student at Yonsei University in South Korea, is legally considered an adult.

source : US Magazine

Judge overseeing Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt divorce says he 'can and will remain impartial' following Jolie's claims he's 'biased' against her

Details: Published on Friday, 28 August 2020 05:16; Written by Daily mail

The judge overseeing the high profile divorce between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt has denied Jolie's claims he's 'biased' against her.The 45-year-old actress had earlier this month asked to take Judge John W. Ouderkirk off the case amid claims he had failed to disclose an existing relationship between himself and Pitt's lawyers.However Ouderkirk countered that he is within his rights to continue working as the celebrity divorce continues to drag on.'I will continue to consider accepting other cases as other additional cases may arise from time to time while the Jolie/Pitt case is still pending,' wrote the judge in court documents obtained by ET on Wednesday.'Such other cases might involve party, lawyer‚ law firm and/or witnesses involved in the Jolie/Pitt matter,' continued the former Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. He then went on to declare he can and will remain impartial in the family dispute, according to ET. Jolie has previously been accused of deliberately trying to delay the bitter four-year long divorce battle by Pitt's legal team, after she filed a request to remove the judge.However the Academy Award winning actress' lawyer Samantha Bley DeJean retorted that 'all my client is asking for is a fair trial based on facts, with no special favors extended to either side,' in a statement to UsWeekly last Thursday.The statement adds: 'The only way litigants can trust the process is for everyone involved to ensure that there’s transparency and impartiality.'The report also adds a comment from Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, who believes that Judge Ouderkirk is 'biased in Brad's favor' due to the personal connections they have.An insider recently told UsWeekly of the divorce battle: 'They're at a total impasse. And there's no end in sight.'As previously reported in court documents, Jolie claimed that Ouderkik - who married the couple at their lavish French wedding in 2014 - failed to disclose 'ongoing business and professional relationships' that he had with Pitt's legal team.However, Pitt responded in papers filed on August 13, calling Jolie's filing a 'Hail Mary' - an NFL term for a desperate, often last-ditch play.
In them, Pitt's legal team accuses the actress of making a 'transparently tactical gambit' to delay matters, adding that it will be their own children who are 'hurt most' by the hold up.The papers describe Jolie's request as 'a thinly-veiled attempt by Jolie to delay the adjudication of long-pending custody issues in this case.'The former power couple - who first split in 2016, effectively ending a 12-year relationship and two years of marriage - share six children, Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12.Jolie alleged in her filing that Ouderkirk 'failed to make timely mandatory disclosures of ongoing business and professional relationships between himself' and Pitt's legal team.She added in her request that she was 'never afforded the opportunity to even raise a concern or to object to the ever-increasing business relationships between Judge Ouderkirk and [Pitt's] counsel — relationships that were providing a steady stream of income to Judge Ouderkirk and the potential for future work.'Adding: 'These are precisely the type of repeat customer circumstances that create doubts about a privately-compensated private judge’s ability to remain impartial.'Yet, Pitt's team has responded saying Jolie had been made fully aware that Ouderkirk had accepted 'additional new engagements' involving the actor's team, and that she had 'never objected' to Ouderkirk's 'continued involvement' in the proceedings until now.In Pitt's response, he also pointed out three times where Jolie and her lawyers are said to have asked to extend Ouderkirk's appointment to their ongoing divorce case.The documents add that Pitt is concerned about how the continued delays will affect their children, saying: 'Unfortunately, the individuals hurt most by Jolie's transparently tactical gambit are the parties' own children, who continue to be deprived of a final resolution to these custody issues.'Jolie's lawyer DeJean responded to Pitt's filing last week in a statement to PEOPLE saying: 'It is unfortunate that Mr. Pitt's team has sought to intervene ahead of Judge Ouderkirk's response.''One can only conclude that this is an attempt to obstruct or influence Judge Ouderkirk's answer. Any delay in these proceedings is due to their zealous attempt to create an unrecognized special exception for their client's benefit.'The report adds that a source close to Pitt's team claim that it was Jolie's team who actually knew the judge first, and that 'the only excuse for their filing is that her team knew they were likely to lose and they needed to stall by changing the referee in the fourth quarter.''This is the Judge who married them, someone who her team knew well and who her team actually introduced to the couple,' a Pitt source claims.

source : Daily mail

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie divorce proceedings have been 'slowed down because of COVID-19'

Details: Published on Sunday, 12 July 2020 08:33; Written by Daily mail

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's divorce proceedings are allegedly being held up because of the coronavirus pandemic.Angelina, 45, filed for divorce nearly four years ago but the work of getting it finalized has reportedly been impeded by the impact of lockdowns.'Brad is seeing the kids but everything involved in their process of resolving legal matters between Angelina and Brad, including the courts, is slowed down because of COVID,' dished an Us Weekly insider.'With the pandemic, it has been hard for everyone, including them. The legal process is slowed because of that. They are continuing regular visits but there has not been a lot of progress in terms of resolving anything.' Angelina and Brad share six children together - Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 11.Over the past two weeks Brad has been glimpsed twice at Angelina's mansion in Los Feliz possibly signaling that their equation with each other was improving.A source told People this week that the couple are 'in a better place' in terms of co-parenting the children after their custody battle.'It’s taken them a long time, with a lot of family therapy, to get to this point. The younger kids go back and forth between their houses, and Brad loves spending as much time with them as possible. He seems much happier,' said the insider.Although they got together in 2005 they waited until 2014 to get married, only for Angelina to file for divorce in September 2016.Since then they have battled legally over custody and finances, with Angelina reportedly demanding more money than Brad wanted to give.Living arrangements also became a sticking point as Brad was allegedly preventing Angelina from moving out of the country with their children.'I would love to live abroad and will do so as soon as my children are 18,' she told Harper's Bazaar late last year for their December/January issue. 'Right now I’m having to base where their father chooses to live.'Brad has confessed to having been an alcoholic before Angelina left him but he has since gotten sober, and last year a judge granted him more time with the children.

source : Daily mail