LOS ANGELES — Brad Pitt has put the weight of the war in Ukraine behind his Chateau Miraval winery lawsuit against ex-wife Angelina Jolie, filing an updated complaint Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Pitt first sued Jolie in February, alleging she illegally sold her shares in the winery and estate to Russian-expat vodka billionaire Yuri Shefler. Jolie used legal means to skirt an obligation to get Pitt’s approval of the deal, the complaint said. The Stoli-related Shefler and Alexey Oliynik were added as defendants to the complaint filed Friday.
In the new filing, Pitt’s attorneys state that despite Stoli’s attempts to distance itself from Russia, many supporters of Ukraine have associated the vodka brand with Russia and with Vladimir Putin’s military aggression against the smaller Eastern European nation. This association makes the Stoli brand dangerous to the Miraval Rosé brand, the lawsuit alleges.
