Recently one hashtag swept through Twitter like a wildfire — #Brangelina. Of course, the biggest news was the end of Brad Pitt–Angelina Jolie marriage. Speculation was rampant. Within minutes of Jolie initiating divorce proceedings the internet went berserk. There were gifs of Pitt’s ex, Jennifer Aniston, smirking. Then allegations – vigorously denied – that Pitt, 52, had an affair with co-star Marion Cotillard. Then claims that he boozed and smoked too much weed for Jolie’s comfort. And that he was being investigated for child abuse following an in-flight tantrum, a claim since discredited.
The Guardian’s Rory Carroll profiles Laura Wasser, the high profile Hollywood lawyer, who is guiding Jolie through the divorce. “Wasser, 47, a partner at the law firm Wasser, Cooperman & Mandles, has proved so skilled at the game that she is known as Hollywood’s “disso queen”, for dissolution of marriage. Her clients are a roll-call of entertainment royalty: Johnny Depp, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, Heidi Klum, Stevie Wonder,” he writes. Wasser’s fee is steep. She may charge up to a $25,000 retainer and $850 per hour. As a matter of fact, her father, the founder of the firm named her after the law. Wasser herself was divorced after being married for a brief while. Her own views of marriage, of course, coloured by her profession, are markedly unsentimental. She has just one word of advice for people contemplating tying the knot: “Don’t”.
Source : The Guardian
