Crying Over Spilt Rosé: Celeb Ex-Couple Winery Spat Continues as Brad Pitt’s Legal Team Urges Judge Not to Dismiss Lawsuit Against Angelina Jolie

Attorneys representing Brad Pitt pushed for a judge to reconsider a potential dismissal of Pitt’s suit against the actress for selling her share of Château Miraval. (Photo: zz/DP/AAD/STAR MAX/IPx 2009 5/20/09 Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the premiere of “Inglourious Basterds” held on May 20, 2009 during the 62nd Annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France.)

On Monday, Law 360 reported that an attorney representing actor Brad Pitt pushed a judge at the Los Angeles County Superior Court to not dismiss Pitt’s lawsuit against Pitt’s ex-wife and fellow actor, Angelina Jolie, over selling her share of their French winery to a Russian oligarch.

Château Miraval was purchased by Pitt and Jolie in 2008 and has been the epicenter of a bitter legal battle between the couple, who were divorced in 2016.

According to Pitt, revenue from the estate has grown from $3 million in 2013 to $50 million in 2021. His attorney, Jonathan M. Moses of Wachtell Lipton Rosen and Katz, argued that Jolie’s sale of the winery to “a stranger,” was a vindictive violation of their agreement and considered a “breach of contract.”

“The reason we are here is that despite that yearslong course of conduct and understanding, [Jolie] sold her 50% interest to a stranger who showed up unannounced saying that he was now Brad Pitt’s partner,” Moses claimed according to Law 360. “And that is more than enough to survive at the pleading stage and have this go to a fact finder.”

Judge Martin has issued a tentative ruling, but that ruling is not publicly available.

Pitt filed a lawsuit against Jolie in February 2022 after she sold her stake in Château Miraval to a Russian oligarch named Yuri Shefler. Shefler controls Tenute del Mondo, a wine company whose parent company is the Stoli Group.

The “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” actor alleges that Jolie did “nothing” to build the business.

In July, Jolie’s legal team fought back and claimed that Pitt is an actor who was simply play-acting the part of a vigneron, a French term used to describe a winemaker.

“While he no doubt visited the vineyards to admire the work of the French laborers who actually made the business successful, Pitt is no vigneron.”

Jolie additionally alleges that Pitt abused both her and their children during an overnight flight from the estate to Los Angeles in 2016. According to The New York Times, Jolie claims that on the flight back from Château Miraval, “Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face,” then “grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her.”

Jolie alleges Pitt then poured beer on her and poured beer and red wine on the children.

The “Maleficent” actress filed for divorce a few days after the alleged incident. Jolie’s lawyer, Paul D. Murphy of Murphy Rosen LLP, claims Pitt’s arguments for continuing the suit are based too much on what he was thinking.

“We don’t look at what Mr. Pitt thought, felt, or did not express,” Murphy claimed. “We look at a reasonable person, how they would interpret that conduct.”

Pitt’s legal team holds a different opinion:

“I don’t think it’s surprising at all that they would have an understanding by their mutual conduct, where one would not sell it out from the other, sell it out from this family-centric holding, without the other’s consent, let alone sell it to a complete stranger,” Moses said.

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