Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were ordered to pay $730,000—all because Pitt apparently wanted to light up their French chateau. In an April court case only now being reported, the former couple were ordered to pay $660,000 plus $70,000 in reputation-related damages after allegedly stopping payments to the designer overseeing a lighting update to their 17th-century property in Provence. Odile Soudant tells Liberation that Pitt sought her services in 2010 to ensure natural light flooded the 40-room Chateau Miraval, where Pitt and Jolie got married, per the Guardian. Soudant says she employed 17 people who worked on the project for months. But Soudant adds she was nearly driven to ruin when Pitt stopped paying.
Lawyers claimed Pitt stopped paying Soudant because he believed she had demanded nearly $6 million. But a French appeals court determined the amount had been overstated. Soudant says Pitt in an email demanded she "finish the project and be proud of it." Another email reportedly read, "Don't waste time with legal action. Follow your artistic journey and don't worry about the rest." Despite the April payout, Soudant says she's still fighting to get credit for the remodel, later taken over by another designer. A rep for Pitt confirms April's ruling "does not address any copyright issues involving [lighting] designs," per Vanity Fair. Pitt's lawyer, however, says the lighting work was based on Pitt's own ideas. (More Brad Pitt stories.)
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