Several weeks ago, Angelina Jolie filed a new declaration in her years-long legal dispute over the sale of her half of Chateau Miraval. Brad Pitt sued her over her legal sale, and she countersued him for being an abusive a–hole (in essence). Allegedly, this sh-t goes to trial next year, although I have my doubts. In any case, Angelina’s declaration was partly to describe her mindset and reasoning for the sale, and she once again described Brad’s abuse, his attempt to force her to sign a gag order about the abuse, and her need to free up her cash from Brad’s mismanagement of Miraval. You see, Brad is trying to get his hands on her emails between her lawyers and her management team, emails which she claims are privileged and which he disputes. Angelina’s declaration from several weeks ago was a description of her actual mindset and the timeline of events, in essence what she wrote about in those emails. Well, Brad it still trying to get his hands on the emails, because he thinks they will “prove” his case.
Brad Pitt accused his ex-wife Angelina Jolie of “persistent misdirection” in their court battle and asked a judge to shut down her demand that he pay her $33,000, Us Weekly can exclusively report. On October 27, the F1 actor, 61, filed court docs asking a judge to step in and force Jolie, 50, to turn over a series of private emails she has thus far refused to produce.
The actor has his eyes on Jolie’s emails with her business manager, Terry Bird, her British publicists, Chloe Dalton and Arminka Helic, and two financial consultants. Pitt said Jolie admitted in her own declaration that it was “her routine practice to engage in lengthy conversations with her non-attorney business manager Terry Bird about ‘essentially all aspects of [her] business and professional life’ including discussion about ‘legal advice and proposed strategy’ at issue.’”
He said, “What Jolie is describing here are brainstorming sessions between non-lawyers. The fact that these brainstorming sessions may have followed or preceded advice from a lawyer on the same general topic or a related topic does not shield them from [being turned over].” (In previous filings, Jolie’s team has adamantly denied Pitt’s claims the emails are not covered by attorney-client privilege and said she has no duty to turn over the requested documents.)
The actor said Jolie “has categorically withheld such communications, including the entirety of all but one of Bird’s internal communications discussing the terms of the sale of her interest in Chateau Miraval to the [third party] — the key transaction at issue in this litigation.”
In regard to her emails with her publicists, Pitt said no lawyers were copied on the emails. He said Jolie has not explained why the assistance of “British image consultants was reasonably necessary to receive legal advice regarding the sale of the French home and winery she owned” with Pitt. Pitt said after three and a half years of litigation, Jolie “has still produced only one internal email that even mentions the terms of the sale at the center of this case.” He believes there are a ton of missing emails.
The actor said Jolie complained about him asking her to voluntarily submit the emails for an in-person review in court. He said, “It is odd that Jolie has declined to do so, given that it would presumably be the easiest way to meet her burden to show that she has redacted only privileged legal advice.”
The “British image consultants” mentioned are her good friends. Because sometimes you just want to talk to your girlfriends when your estranged husband is trying to bully you into signing an NDA about his physical abuse. I find it strange that Brad seems to know what’s in Jolie’s private communications before she’s turned everything over. Anyway, I have no idea what Brad thinks these emails prove beyond “Angelina didn’t want to sign the NDA and so she went looking for someone else to buy her half of Miraval.” Like, we already know that she did that. That’s what the whole lawsuit is about. Brad’s like, “look, proof that she emailed her manager about selling Nouvel, something she had every legal right to do!”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
