Wouldn’t it be easier to become Mr. & Mrs. Pitt?
Brad Pitt is seeking to become the adoptive father of Angelina Jolie‘s children. A legal petition seeking to change the names of the children to Zahara Jolie-Pitt and Maddox Jolie-Pitt was filed Friday in Los Angeles, Pitt’s publicist confirmed.
Rumors of an off-screen relationship between the stars of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” have been circulating for a year. Pitt accompanied Jolie to Ethiopia in July to pick up Zahara, now about 10 months old.
Seeking the adoption without marrying Jolie “is not the easiest way of doing things,” said David Baum, president of the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers.
“Frequently what you do if you are in a relationship with someone and you want to adopt their children, you marry them and do a step-parent adoption,” Baum said. “There are extra requirements when you are not related by marriage to the children you are adopting.”
But as Us Weekly editor Janice Min notes: “These are two people for whom marriage hasn’t necessarily worked out, especially for Angelina.”
Shutterbug off!
Brad Pitt‘s ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston, is suing a paparazzo, claiming he used a telephoto lens to take topless pictures of her inside her home.
But photographer Paul Brandt says he took the pictures while standing on a public street about 300 yards from Aniston’s house. He says he was trying to photograph her with Vince Vaughn.
“I wish she hadn’t just walked out topless. That’s not what I was looking for,” says Brandt, adding that he has no plans to sell the pictures.
Out some cash
British pop star Robbie Williams accepted undisclosed libel damages Tuesday from publishers of a newspaper and magazines that had claimed he was a homosexual.
Publishers of The People, a Sunday tabloid, and Star and Hot Stars magazines agreed to publish prominent apologies to the 31-year-old singer and to pay damages and legal costs.
Not so jolly goodfella
Henry Hill, the former mobster immortalized in “Goodfellas,” has been sentenced to 180 days in jail for threatening his wife and another man last summer.
The judge ordered the sentence to be served concurrently with a six-month term Hill is already serving for attempted methamphetamine possession.
Hill, 62, portrayed by Ray Liotta in the 1990 mob movie, was also given credit for time served after his wife, whom he threatened with a knife, and the other victim wrote letters on his behalf.
Stone-cold deaf Foxy?
Foxy Brown‘s lawyer revealed during a hearing Monday that the rapper is almost totally deaf.
Asked why he and Brown were exchanging notes while waiting for her case to be called, Joseph Tacopina said: “She can’t hear me. We have to write things back and forth. Anything I have to communicate with her now has to be written.”
Brown, 25, has said she would undergo surgery to try to correct her hearing.
She is charged with misdemeanor assault, attempted assault and harassment for allegedly assaulting two nail salon workers in a fight over payment for a manicure.
The birthday bunch
Actor Eli Wallach is 90. Actress Ellen Burstyn is 73. Singer Tom Waits is 56. Announcer Edd Hall (“The Tonight Show With Jay Leno”) is 47. Actor C. Thomas Howell is 39. Rapper Kon Artis (D12) is 29. Actress Shiri Appleby (“Roswell”) is 27. Singer Aaron Carter is 18.