Report says she’s going after the Daily Mail for violation of privacy

Jul 11, 2014 14:47 GMT  ·  By
Angelina Jolie is considering suing over the leak of an older video of her allegedly on drugs
   Angelina Jolie is considering suing over the leak of an older video of her allegedly on drugs

British tabloid the Daily Mail is having a very bad week: after being called out on a story about George Clooney and his upcoming nuptials by the star himself, chances are it will also be dragged to court soon for running a video from 1989, of Angelina Jolie reportedly on drugs.

The video was supplied to the National Enquirer and Radar Online by Franklin Meyer, who has gone on the record before saying he provided the star with copious amounts of cocaine and heroin back in her dark days. He was her “official” dealer, as it were.

He shot it on a camera in Jolie’s NYC apartment and it basically consists of 17 minutes’ worth of footage of her pacing a room, talking on the phone with her father in a very animated fashion. Her brother and mother also come up in the conversation.

The video also came accompanied by a story saying that Meyer had just delivered drugs to the actress and that he had captured her on camera while high. Because it was embeddable, it was run by several media outlets, including the Mail.

Now, the Huffington Post says, Angelina wants this particular tabloid to pay and she’s considering her legal options: she believes the Mail grossly violated her privacy by running the video (though it’s unclear why she wouldn’t feel the same way about all the other media outlets who did it too, starting with the Enquirer and Radar).

All these media outlets suggested that the video contained “proof” of just how deep Jolie had succumbed to drug addiction, namely her very slender frame (which has always been this slender, if you think about it), the bags under her eyes, some spots on her arms and face, and the fact that she appeared to be quite agitated.

The truth is that Angelina never made a secret of her past drug use and how bad it had gotten for her at one point, so the release of the “leaked” footage didn’t have the impact whoever released it was hoping for: if anything, the fans shrugged it off with just a question, “why bring this all up again?”

One possible theory is that the Enquirer was probably sitting on this video for long (it could have had it for years), waiting for the right moment to release it. That “right” moment would be the moment when the entire world would have moved past this dark stage in her life, which just happens to be now.

“This Angelina story is ancient history,” says a source for the Post. “Pictures like this have been floating around for years. The Enquirer has run pictures like this before. They’re just revisiting old news that they think people have forgotten about and slapping a big ‘exclusive’ on it. The video was probably floating around back then, too. Thing is, nobody cared about the video back then.”

So, if Angelina really is suing over it, she’s doing it not because she’s trying to hide something, but rather to make a point. What’s past is past and, most importantly, what happens in the privacy of her own home (“drug den” or not), stays there.