Angelina Jolie has reportedly begun legal action against the Daily Mail for publishing a video it claims showed her while she was addicted to heroin in the 1990s.
The newspaper suggested the footage, taken from the National Enquirer, featured a conversation between Jolie and her father Jon Voight about her brother James and late mother Marcheline Bertrand.
The Times writes Jolie is believed to regard the publication of the video as a gross violation of her privacy.
Angelina Jolie has launched legal action against the Daily Mail, according to The Times
Former drug dealer Franklin Meyer claims he supplied cocaine and heroin three times a week to the actress and allegedly recorded the footage.
Reports of Jolie’s legal action come just days after the Daily Mail was forced to apologise to actor George Clooney for suggesting his fiancee’s mother objected to their marriage on religious grounds.
How the article appeared online as of Friday, including a screenshot from the video (left)
Clooney blasted the publication for the story, writing a blistering op-ed in USA Today, in which he accused the Daily Mail of behaviour that “should be criminal”.
The Daily Mail appeared to lay blame for the article at the feet of its digital arm MailOnline and promised to launch a “full investigation.”
Clooney has refused to accept the apology, taking to USA Today once more to say: “There is one constant when a person or company is caught doing something wrong. The coverup is always worse.”
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Jolie, who is now a UN Ambassador, has been frank about her experiences with drugs, telling The Mirror in 1996: “I have done just about every drug possible: cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and my favourite, heroin.”
Sources in the industry say that while the video has never been made public before, the images are nothing new.
One insider told the New York Daily News: “This Angelina story is ancient history.
George Clooney launched a blistering attack on the Daily Mail earlier this week
“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.”
As of Friday, the video appeared to have been removed from the MailOnline.