Brad Pitt Demands Angelina Jolie Prep For 'Trial By Jury' In Tense Legal Battle Over French Winery!

Brad Pitt wants his day in court!

Just in case you haven’t had your fill of celeb courtroom drama this year — like Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard, or Kim Kardashian‘s famous family facing off against Blac Chyna — Pitt is apparently trying to one-up everybody with his own attempt at legal recourse against ex-wife Angelina Jolie!

We’ve been reporting on the 58-year-old star’s ongoing legal fight with the Maleficent actress over his beloved Château Miraval, a 1,000-acre vineyard in the South of France. Earlier this week, the Seven actor’s legal team filed new court docs calling out Jolie for alleged vindictive business practices by selling her stake in the winery to Russian businessman Yuri Shefler.

The US Treasury Department claims Shefler is an “oligarch in the Russian Federation,” who owns vodka brand Stolichnaya and supposedly has had suspicious business dealings tied to Vladimir Putin‘s political regime. In the deal with Jolie, Shefler allegedly used one of his competitor entities, Tenute del Mondo, to engage as a shady “hostile third-party competitor bent on taking control of Miraval,” per the court docs.

Now, per the New York Post, Pitt wants his day in court — and in front of a jury of his peers — to go after Jolie’s supposedly shady stake sale! The outlet reported on Tuesday night that the Big Short star’s newly-filed court docs include one very explicit demand for “a trial by jury” against the Unbroken director.

Filed in a Los Angeles courtroom, Pitt’s new claim comes via his business entity, Mondo Bongo, and focuses on legally going after Jolie’s personal limited liability company, Nouvel. The newly-amended complaint, which was originally filed and reported on late last week, claims that the 47-year-old actress “sought to force Pitt into partnership with a stranger, and worse yet, a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions,” in the alleged backroom deal with Shefler.

At issue for Pitt is the context that he was apparently “prepared to buy Jolie out, either in whole or in part, on reasonable terms.” The former couple’s initial contract involving the winery reportedly granted Brad the right of first refusal to buy Jolie’s stake if she ever were to put it up for sale. She didn’t give him that opportunity before dealing off her shares to Shefler, Pitt’s legal team claims, and now they want a jury to decide on the potential penalty for that alleged transgression.

angelina jolie sadness brad pitt separation — These two have come a long way from where they used to be together… / (c) WENN

The Post reports the next hearing in this case is set for July 19. So whether or not the jury trial ends up coming about, we’re definitely going to have to wait a bit to see how it plays out.

Considering Pitt filed this complaint with the Los Angeles Superior Court, the potential media spectacle here may not be nearly what the world watched with, say, Depp and Heard. California Rules of Court Rule 1.150 requires that judges in the Golden State “use discretion when allowing cameras and other recording devices into their courtroom.”

In El Lay specifically, per the RTDNA, Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rule 2.17 “prohibits any person inside a courtroom from photographing, recording, broadcasting … unless such activity is allowed by order or express permission.” That prohibition requires that media outlets file “the appropriate forms” more than five days in advance of trial — and even then, the presiding judge has final say as to whether or not he or she wants to allow filming. So the media spectacle part of this perhaps wouldn’t be quite so simple!

Broadcast drama aside, what do U think about Pitt apparently gearing up for another legal battle with his ex-wife, Perezcious readers? These two have been engaging in legal skirmishes on and off for years now. Should we ever expect anything different at this point??