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1 BIRD, MARELLA, RHOW,

LINCENBERG, DROOKS & NESSIM, LLP


2 John V. Berlinski (State Bar No. 208537)
jberlinski@birdmarella.com
3 Julia B. Cherlow (State Bar No. 290538)
jcherlow@birdmarella.com
4 1875 Century Park East, 23rd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90067-2561
5 Telephone: (310) 201-2100
Facsimile: (310) 201-2110
6
WACHTELL, LIPTON, ROSEN & KATZ
7 Jonathan M. Moses (admitted pro hac vice)
Adam L. Goodman (admitted pro hac vice)
8 Jessica L. Layden (admitted pro hac vice)
Ioannis D. Drivas (pro hac vice application pending)
9 51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
10 Telephone: (212) 403-1000
Facsimile: (212) 403-2000
11
Attorneys for Plaintiffs and Cross-Defendants
12 William B. Pitt and Mondo Bongo, LLC

13
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
14 COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, CENTRAL DISTRICT

15

16 WILLIAM B. PITT, an individual, and CASE NO. 22STCV06081


MONDO BONGO, LLC, a California limited
17 liability company, PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE
STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION
18 Plaintiffs, TO COMPEL FURTHER RESPONSES
AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS
19 vs. FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE

20 ANGELINA JOLIE, et al., Filed concurrently with Reply and Declaration


of Tony Webb
21 Defendants.
Judge: Hon. Lia Martin
22 Dept: 3
and RELATED CROSS-ACTIONS
23 Date: May 16, 2024
Time: 9:00 A.M.
24 Reservation ID: 257097942103
25 Action Filed: February 17, 2022
Trial Date: Not yet set
26
27

28

PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL


FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Pursuant to California Rule of Court 3.1345, Plaintiffs William B. Pitt and Mondo Bongo,

2 LLC (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) hereby submit the following Separate Statement in support of their

3 Motion to Compel Further Responses and Production of Documents from Defendant Angelina

4 Jolie (the “Motion”) in connection with Plaintiffs’ Second Set of Requests for Production (the

5 “Requests”).

6 REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 1:

7 All non-disclosure or non-disparagement agreements to which YOU are a party.

8 JOLIE’S RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 1:

9 In addition to the general objections, Jolie objects to this request on the following grounds:

10 (a) the request is overbroad as any non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements other than

11 those between Jolie and Pitt entered after Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their

12 children have no relevance to this case; (b) the request seeks documents protected from disclosure

13 by the attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine; and (c) for the parties to any such

14 agreements, the request seeks documents protected from disclosure by their rights of privacy under

15 the Constitution of the State of California.

16 Subject to the foregoing general and specific objections, Jolie responds as follows: Jolie

17 will produce any non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements between Jolie and Pitt,

18 entered after Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children, regarding their

19 personal conduct.

20 PLAINTIFFS’ FACTUAL AND LEGAL REASONS FOR COMPELLING FURTHER

21 RESPONSE AND PRODUCTION:

22 The defined term “YOU” refers here to the Defendant, Angelina Jolie. The sole question

23 before the Court in connection with this Request, therefore, is whether Jolie’s non-disclosure

24 and/or non-disparagement agreements with third parties are relevant or likely to lead to the

25 discovery of admissible evidence in this lawsuit.1 The answer is “yes.”

26
1
Jolie did not object and has not contended that it would be unduly burdensome to produce these
27
documents. Nor has she proffered any evidence of the “quantum of work required” to make such
28 a production as required to sustain such an objection. See Williams v. Superior Court, 3 Cal. 5th
2
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Jolie—not Pitt—places an oversized emphasis on the importance of non-disparagement

2 clauses in this lawsuit. For example, to rationalize her wrongful refusal to sell her indirect interest

3 in Château Miraval to Pitt, Jolie alleges that “the deal [for Pitt to purchase her stake in Château

4 Miraval] fell apart because Pitt demanded Jolie agree to a non-disparagement clause covering his

5 personal conduct as a condition of his purchase of the winery.” X-C ¶ 39. Jolie asserts that this

6 issue “goes to the very heart of this case,” and she seeks a declaratory judgment that Pitt’s request

7 rendered “unconscionable, void, and against public policy” the former couple’s implied-in-fact

8 contract providing that each of them would have a consent right over any sale to a third party. Id.

9 ¶¶ 39, 42(c). Jolie also recently filed her own Motion to Compel in which she claims that Pitt and

10 his winemaker partner Perrin’s suggested non-disclosure provision was “cruel,” “hurtful,” caused

11 her to “nearly shutdown,” and was the reason she terminated her negotiations to sell her indirect

12 interest in the winery to Pitt. Pitt, for his part, asserts that these claims are pretextual.

13 To probe the veracity of this NDA defense at “the very heart of” Jolie’s case, Pitt served

14 this Request seeking NDAs to which Jolie is herself a party. These documents are probative of

15 whether Jolie actually viewed the provision requested by Pitt and Perrin as an “abusive and

16 controlling deal-breaker” that released her of any contractual obligations to Pitt. Jolie,

17 unsurprisingly, wants to shield these documents from discovery, and therefore agreed to produce

18 only those NDAs, if any, between Jolie and Pitt themselves.2 Jolie adamantly refuses to produce

19 other NDAs that she willingly entered into during the relevant time period, presumably because

20 she knows they will severely undermine her defenses.

21 If Jolie willingly entered into similar or more restrictive NDAs with third parties, for

22

23 531, 549 (2017) (“[T]he party opposing discovery has an obligation to supply the basis for this
determination. An ‘objection based upon burden must be sustained by evidence showing the
24 quantum of work required.’”). Further, Jolie’s boilerplate objections that the Request calls for
information protected by the attorney/client privilege, the attorney work product doctrine, and/or
25 the right to privacy might justify redacting or withholding certain documents—but these
objections cannot justify her flat refusal to produce responsive documents.
26
2
In the meet-and-confer process preceding this Motion, Jolie agreed to produce documents
27
concerning “NDAs discussed or entered” and/or “entered or proposed between Mr. Pitt and
28 Ms. Jolie.” Ex. 4 at 1–2 (emphases added); see also Ex. 6 at 1–2.
3
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 example, that would cast serious doubt on her claim that she viewed Pitt’s request as so

2 unconscionable that it caused her to crater a $50+ million transaction that she was poised to enter

3 after months of negotiations. Documents showing the types of provisions that Jolie did not find to

4 be unconscionable (and the reasons why she found them acceptable) are therefore relevant (or, at

5 minimum, likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence) and should be produced. That

6 such documents exist is hardly speculative; Jolie herself proposed an even broader NDA to Pitt in

7 connection with their family litigation six months after Pitt and Perrin proposed the NDA that

8 Jolie now alleges caused her to “nearly shutdown” and pull out of the deal. See SAC ¶ 88.

9 Jolie nonetheless bases her objection on her alleged subjective belief that the non-

10 disparagement provision requested by Pitt was uniquely objectionable because it would have

11 covered (broadly speaking) the details of the parties’ relationship. But this argument goes to the

12 probative weight of the documents requested, not the relevance, and accordingly has no place at

13 the discovery phase. Nor is the Request overbroad or excessive. Rather, it is laser-focused on the

14 NDAs themselves, a narrow set of documents that are readily available to Jolie.

15 The Request is reasonably calculated to lead to discovery of documents that will test

16 whether Jolie was truly so offended by the proposed NDA and her claim that she was entitled to

17 breach her contract with Pitt and improperly sell to the Stoli Parties, or whether (as Pitt believes

18 these documents will help show) her defense is pure pretext. “That is enough to justify

19 discovery.” Lipton v. Superior Ct., 48 Cal. App. 4th 1599, 1616 (1996).

20 JOLIE’S RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFFS’ FACTUAL AND LEGAL REASONS FOR

21 COMPELLING FURTHER RESPONSE AND PRODUCTION:

22 As the moving party seeking to compel the production of documents, Pitt has the burden to

23 make a “fact-specific showing of relevance” concerning the documents he seeks. Glenfed Dev.

24 Corp. v. Superior Court, 53 Cal.App.4th 1113, 1117 (1997). In RFP No. 1, Pitt seeks to compel

25 the production of over 16 years’ worth of contracts to which Jolie was a party where the contract

26 includes either a non-disparagement agreement or a non-disclosure agreement (collectively


27 referred to as “NDAs”). According to Pitt, these other NDAs with other people about other

28 matters unrelated to this lawsuit somehow test Jolie’s credibility because Jolie asserts that Pitt’s
4
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 agreement to buy her interest in Miraval fell apart when she refused Pitt’s demand for an NDA to

2 cover Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children.

3 But Pitt’s argument is a non-sequitur. Its most obvious problem is that it attempts to equate

4 NDAs Jolie entered that do not cover Pitt’s abuse of their family with the NDA Pitt himself

5 demanded to cover-up his own abuse of Jolie and their children. There is no connection between

6 them at all—none. For this reason, these other NDAs do not probe Jolie’s veracity regarding the

7 impact of Pitt’s proposed NDA in any way. And contrary to Pitt’s suggestion, Jolie does not

8 contend in her Cross-Complaint that all NDAs are bad or problematic, and she does not seek such

9 a blanket ruling in this case. To the contrary, Jolie was at all times agreeable to the original NDA

10 Pitt proposed that was limited to the winery. It was only after Pitt changed the language to cover

11 his personal abuse of the family that Jolie objected. Indeed, there is a stark difference between an

12 NDA Jolie signed with a movie studio or an employee, and the last-minute, expanded NDA her

13 abusive ex-husband tried to force her to sign to bury his criminal conduct.

14 Pitt’s related argument that Jolie asking others to enter NDAs covering aspects of her

15 private life is probative of Pitt asking Jolie to be silent about criminal conduct he committed is a

16 false equivalence. If Jolie hired someone to prepare meals for her family inside her home and

17 asked that person to enter an NDA so the person would not disclose to the tabloids what her

18 family ate every day (Motion at 14), that particular NDA has no relevance to how Jolie felt when

19 Pitt asked her to sign an NDA silencing her from speaking about her own life and the painful

20 events she experienced at Pitt’s hands.

21 Pitt’s request for the documents fails for other reasons as well. The law is clear that “courts

22 shall limit the scope of discovery if it determines that the burden, expense, or intrusiveness of that

23 discovery clearly outweighs the likelihood that the information sought will lead to the discovery of

24 admissible evidence.” C.C.P. § 2017.020. Here, the burden, expense, and intrusiveness of Jolie

25 having to gather and produce nearly two decades of contracts clearly outweighs the likelihood that

26 the information sought will lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Moreover, if the Court
27 concludes that the evidence is relevant and admissible, this will then result in a series of mini-trials

28 for each and every contract Pitt hopes to use. The Court is never going to allow such mini-trials.
5
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 As a result, the documents are not only irrelevant, but they are also not likely to lead to the

2 discovery of admissible evidence.

3 In fact, Pitt’s use of these documents at trial will be separately barred by Evidence Code

4 sections 786, 787 and 1101(a) because this is improper character evidence. Section 786 states that

5 evidence “of traits of his character other than honesty or veracity, or their opposites, is

6 inadmissible to attack or support the credibility of a witness.” Section 787 states that, aside from

7 prior felony convictions, “Evidence of specific instances of his conduct relevant only as tending to

8 prove a trait of his character is inadmissible to attack or support the credibility of a witness.” And

9 Section 1101(a) states that “evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his or her character

10 (whether in the form of an opinion, evidence of reputation, or evidence of specific instances of his

11 or her conduct) is inadmissible when offered to prove his or her conduct on a specified occasion.”

12 Pitt’s theory is barred by each of these sections of the Evidence Code. He will not be able to use

13 prior instances of Jolie’s conduct (entering other NDAs with other people about other matters) to

14 prove that she should have been fine with agreeing to his abusive NDA too.

15 Further, Pitt’s request is also overbroad as to time and scope. It seeks all NDAs Jolie

16 entered from January 1, 2007 through the present, but Jolie contends the NDA Pitt proposed was

17 problematic because it attempted to bury Pitt’s abuse. There is no relevance to contracts she

18 entered into with other people about issues unrelated to the abuse. At best, Pitt is entitled to any

19 NDAs Jolie entered with Pitt, which Jolie has agreed to give. Anything else is overbroad as to

20 time and scope.

21 Pitt’s demand for nearly two decades worth of contracts also intrudes on Jolie’s right of

22 privacy. When assessing a claimed privacy right, the “privacy interests [must] be specifically

23 identified and carefully comparted with competing or countervailing privacy and nonprivacy

24 interests in a balancing test.” Hill v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 7 Cal.4th 37-38 (1994). As a

25 starting point, courts must first “place the burden on the party asserting a privacy interest to

26 establish its extent and seriousness of the prospective invasion, and against that showing must
27 weigh the countervailing interest the opposing party identifies.” Williams v. Superior Court, 3

28 Cal.5th 531, 557 (2017). “In weighing the privacy interests of the third party, the trial court should
6
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 consider the nature of the information sought, its inherent intrusiveness, and any specific showing

2 for a need for privacy, including any harm that disclosure of the information might cause.” In re

3 Marriage of Williamson, 226 Cal.App.4th 1303, 1319 (2014).

4 Here, most, if not all, of these agreements will be employment-related contracts that

5 include Jolie’s compensation or compensation she paid to third parties. These third parties have

6 their own privacy rights. Pitt has not even offered to give any form of notice whatsoever to these

7 third-parties to allow them the opportunity to protect their rights, nor does he acknowledge that

8 these other persons and entities have privacy rights here. Against this sensitive information, Pitt

9 has little countervailing interest in obtaining these documents. Moreover, any negligible relevance

10 is greatly outweighed by Pitt’s intrusion into Jolie’s and these third parties’ privacy rights, with

11 the balance in favor of protecting privacy rights—made all the more problematic by the fact that

12 such evidence has virtually no chance of being admitted at trial.

13 Pitt wants to argue that because Jolie entered NDAs with other people, she could not have

14 been bothered by the NDA Pitt demanded she sign. But each and every one of these other NDAs

15 involve separate people, different interests, and unique facts. None will involve NDAs that

16 prohibit Jolie from speaking about Pitt’s abuse of her and their children. Forcing Jolie to spend the

17 time and expense of gathering and producing all of this documentation is expensive, wasteful, and

18 unreasonable—and the latest manifestation of Pitt’s abusive conduct toward Jolie. The Court

19 should not allow it.

20 PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY IN SUPPORT OF THEIR MOTION TO COMPEL FURTHER

21 RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION IN CONNECTION WITH REQUEST NO. 1:

22 Jolie argues that the Request seeks information about NDAs with “other people and

23 entities, about other matters not in any way connected with” the allegations she has made against

24 Pitt, which thus are not “comparable” to the proposed Pitt NDA and are therefore categorically

25 irrelevant. Opp. at 5. She also argues that even if the documents sought are relevant, it would be

26 improper to order production because “[b]y their nature,” the Request “seriously invade[s] Jolie’s
27 privacy and the privacy rights of third parties.” Opp. at 17. Her arguments fail for at least the

28
7
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 following reasons.3

2 First, Jolie’s overly narrow relevance framing is not supported by any evidence. Jolie

3 admits that she possesses responsive NDAs with “studios, sponsors, service professionals,

4 employees, and independent contractors (among others) over nearly two decades of [her] career.”

5 Opp. at 14. But Jolie offers nothing to back up her argument that there is a “stark and obvious

6 contrast” between these NDAs and the NDA proposed by Pitt and Perrin, on which her defense

7 hinges—no declaration, no information about the terms of these other NDAs, no description of the

8 “others” with whom she has entered into NDAs, and no evidence of what type of conduct these

9 NDAs covered. This is insufficient to meet Jolie’s burden to “justify [her] objection” following

10 the “fact-specific showing of relevance” made by Pitt in his Motion. Kirkland v. Sup. Ct., 95 Cal.

11 App. 4th 92, 98 (2002).

12 In fact, the limited information currently available to Pitt squarely contradicts Jolie’s

13 position that her use of NDAs is not “remotely comparable” to her allegations that “Pitt was

14 attempting to leverage his purchase of Miraval into silencing Jolie.” Opp. at 15. For example, the

15 concurrently filed Declaration of Tony Webb (“Webb Decl.”) reveals that Jolie is the one who has

16 weaponized NDAs in an effort to prevent an open airing of the couple’s family issues—the very

17 thing that Jolie claims was so sacred to her that Pitt’s proposed NDA caused her to renege on her

18 deal to sell to him. See Webb Decl. ¶¶ 2, 4–9 (averring that after the couple divorced and went to

19 family court, Mr. Webb received multiple calls from Jolie’s representative, who told Mr. Webb to

20 remind his staff that they had entered into NDAs with Jolie and that if they testified in a custody

21 proceeding, Jolie would sue them—and after they did so, Jolie fired Mr. Webb’s company).

22 Jolie’s use of NDAs to silence her security detail and attempt to prevent them from

23 testifying truthfully in court about what actually happened behind closed doors bears a striking

24 resemblance to Jolie’s (false) allegations in this case that Pitt improperly used an NDA to

25
3
Jolie’s lip-service arguments as to burden are waived and should be wholly disregarded because
26 she never objected to the Request on the ground that searching for responsive documents would
impose a burden, and she has not provided any “evidence showing the quantum of work required”
27
to search for the documents, as required to sustain a burden objection even if one existed.
28 Williams v. Sup. Ct., 3 Cal. 5th 531, 549 (2017) (emphasis added).
8
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 “silenc[e]” her. Yet, without presenting any evidence, Jolie asks this Court to find that “[t]here is

2 no connection between them at all—none,” Opp. SSUF at 4, and in doing so, deny Pitt’s Motion.

3 This unsupported and clearly incorrect conclusion is not credible, and Pitt should be entitled to

4 obtain the additional evidence at issue here to further undermine Jolie’s NDA defense.

5 Second, whether this discovery ultimately makes it more likely or less likely that Jolie is

6 telling the truth about why she abandoned the sale of her interest in Miraval to Pitt is not a

7 determination to be made on a motion to compel—because either way, the NDAs and related

8 documents at issue here are likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence about that

9 disputed issue. Under California’s broad discovery standards, the documents and information

10 sought by this Motion are relevant and therefore discoverable because they have “any tendency in

11 reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact that is of consequence to the determination of the

12 action.” Evid. Code § 210; Lipton v. Superior Ct., 48 Cal. App. 4th 1599, 1612 (1996) (“The

13 scope of permissible discovery is one of reason, logic and common sense.”).

14 More specifically, if Jolie intends to rely on the proposed NDA as a defense to the breach

15 of her obligations and her decision to abandon the transaction she and Pitt had been negotiating,

16 that is an ultimate question for the finder of fact to decide based on its own assessments and

17 conclusions (assuming arguendo that Jolie’s defense is legally viable at all). City of King City v.

18 Cmty. Bank of Cent. California, 131 Cal. App. 4th 913, 936 (“Any evidence refuting [party’s]

19 claims as pleaded was not only material, but potentially dispositive—and eminently

20 discoverable,” emphasis original); X-C ¶ 39 (“Why this non-disparagement clause was so

21 important to Pitt—and an abusive and controlling deal-breaker for Jolie—goes to the very heart of

22 this case.”); Opp. at 5:6–8 (“[W]hat happened in the intervening months” between February and

23 June 15, 2021 “is hotly disputed,” and “[a]t trial, the jury will have to resolve this important

24 factual dispute.”). And for Pitt to present this additional evidence to the ultimate finder of fact, he,

25 of course, needs to first obtain it from Jolie.

26 Third, Jolie’s blanket “nothing is comparable” argument has been rejected in several
27 analogous cases. E.g., Davies v. Superior Ct., 36 Cal. 3d 291, 301 (1984) (state records

28 concerning other accidents on a highway that accident victim contended was dangerous are
9
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 “relevant to the subject matter of a lawsuit arising out of another accident at the same location, and

2 may aid in the parties’ preparation for trial,” notwithstanding state’s “extraordinary” argument to

3 the contrary); Colonial Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Superior Ct., 31 Cal. 3d 785, 790–91 (1982)

4 (because plaintiff could establish a claim by showing that the acts at issue were a general business

5 practice, “[d]iscovery aimed at determining the frequency of alleged unfair settlement practices is

6 therefore likely to produce evidence directly relevant to the action,” notwithstanding the insurer’s

7 “patently meritless” objections); Lopez v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc’y of New York, Inc., 246

8 Cal. App. 4th 566, 593 (2016) (“[T]he fact that the other . . . incidents may have been different

9 from the one that allegedly occurred here does not mean the other perpetrator evidence was not

10 discoverable.”). In other words, because the documents deal with a subject of consequence to the

11 determination of the action, and one which Jolie herself has injected into the matter, the question

12 of “comparability” is not for Jolie to decide, and Jolie’s subjective position on the issue should not

13 bar production here.

14 In short, establishing that NDAs are a commonplace feature of Jolie’s personal and

15 professional life, and entirely routine for her, goes directly to the credibility of her defense—

16 regardless of the precise terms or subject matter of any one particular NDA.

17 Fourth, Jolie’s argument that “specific past instances of Jolie’s conduct to prove her

18 conduct on this occasion is . . . barred by Evidence Code sections 786, 787, and 1101(a)[,]” (Opp.

19 at 18 n.2), misses the mark. None of those provisions are applicable here—section 786 deals only

20 with “[e]vidence of traits of [] character,” section 787 deals only with “evidence of specific

21 instances of [] conduct relevant only as tending to prove a trait of [] character,” and section

22 1101(a) deals only with “evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his or her character.” Jolie’s

23 use of NDAs plainly is not evidence of her “propensity or tendency to act in a certain way under

24 certain circumstances.” Cal. Prac. Guide Civ. Trials & Ev. Ch. 8E-E (emphasis original); cf.

25 Evid. Code § 1105 (evidence of a person’s “habit or custom” is admissible). The evidence sought

26 here goes to the merits of Jolie’s factual contention that she viewed Pitt and Perrin’s request for an
27 NDA as “an abusive and controlling deal-breaker for Jolie,” X-C ¶ 39, not her character.

28 Fifth and finally, Jolie cannot meet her burden to “establish a legally protected privacy
10
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 interest, an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the given circumstances, and a

2 threatened intrusion that is serious,” Williams v. Superior Ct., 3 Cal. 5th 531, 552 (2017),

3 particularly given that the operative Protective Order in this case allows her to designate the

4 information as confidential and thereby avoid its improper distribution or filing to the public

5 docket, see Alch v. Superior Ct., 165 Cal. App. 4th 1412, 1432 (2008). Jolie has not offered any

6 declaration or actual evidence concerning what information exists in these NDAs, let alone

7 “specifically identified” a constitutionally protected privacy interest for herself or for third parties,

8 as she is required to do in the first instance. Hill v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Assn., 7 Cal. 4th 1, 37

9 (1994). And as for Jolie’s claim for the first time in Opposition that the NDAs may “include

10 Jolie’s compensation or compensation she paid to third parties,” Opp. at 17, Jolie does not cite a

11 single case showing that she (or the third parties) have a privacy right to such information—which

12 is routinely produced in commercial disputes, which would here be subject to a strict protective

13 order, and which Jolie could have asked during the parties’ meet-and-confer negotiations to

14 produce in redacted form, but chose not to.

15 Further, even if Jolie had satisfied her burden to establish that the requested documents

16 contain information that would pose a serious intrusion upon legally recognized privacy rights if

17 produced pursuant to the operative Protective Order—and she did not—Jolie would also have to

18 “show[] that the [documents] cannot successfully be redacted” to eliminate that risk of “serious”

19 invasion. Snibbe v. Superior Ct., 224 Cal. App. 4th 184, 194–96 (2014); Overstock.com, Inc. v.

20 Goldman Sachs Grp., Inc., 231 Cal. App. 4th 471, 508 (2014) (approving of redaction to protect

21 privacy rights). Jolie has not even tried to do this—indeed, when Plaintiffs suggested during

22 meet-and-confer negotiations that Jolie may redact personally identifying information of third

23 parties (at least in the first instance, and then the parties can meet and confer, if necessary, about

24 such redactions), Jolie rejected that offer too. See Cherlow Decl., Ex. 5 at 2, n.1; id. Ex. 6 at 1.

25 Because Jolie has not “specifically identified” a “serious invasion” of privacy rights at

26 stake, let alone explained why redactions and the protective order would not resolve any concern,
27 she cannot withhold the documents based on privacy rights either. Hill, 7 Cal. 4th at 37; Snibbe,

28 224 Cal. App. 4th at 194–96; Alch, 165 Cal. App. 4th at 1427.
11
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 2:

2 DOCUMENTS and COMMUNICATIONS CONCERNING YOUR reasons for entering

3 or agreeing to any non-disclosure or non-disparagement agreements to which YOU are a party.

4 JOLIE’S RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 2:

5 In addition to the general objections, Jolie objects to this request on the following grounds:

6 (a) the use of the term “concerning,” standing alone and as defined by Plaintiffs, renders the

7 request grossly overbroad in time and scope; (b) the request is overbroad as any non-disclosure

8 and non-disparagement agreements other than those between Jolie and Pitt entered after Pitt’s

9 physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children have no relevance to this case; (c) the

10 request seeks documents protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege, the work

11 product doctrine; and (d) for the parties to any such agreements, the request seeks documents

12 protected from disclosure by their rights of privacy under the Constitution of the State of

13 California.

14 Subject to the foregoing general and specific objections, Jolie responds as follows: Jolie

15 will produce any non-privileged documents and communications discussing or referencing Jolie’s

16 reasons for entering into non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements between Jolie and Pitt,

17 entered after Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children, regarding their

18 personal conduct.4

19 PLAINTIFFS’ FACTUAL AND LEGAL REASONS FOR COMPELLING FURTHER

20 RESPONSE AND PRODUCTION:

21 As an initial matter, Jolie objects that the defined term “CONCERNING” renders this

22 Request grossly overbroad in time and scope. For the avoidance of doubt, this Request seeks only

23 documents that set forth or explicitly reference Jolie’s reasons for entering or agreeing to NDAs

24 during the same time period for which she has agreed to produce documents in response to other

25 requests—not all documents that could conceivably relate to her thought process at the time, let

26
4
In the meet-and-confer process preceding this Motion, Jolie agreed to produce documents
27
concerning “NDAs discussed or entered” and/or “entered or proposed between Mr. Pitt and
28 Ms. Jolie.” Ex. 4 at 1–2 (emphases added); see also Ex. 6 at 1–2.
12
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 alone those concerning the underlying facts or events that may be covered by the NDAs.

2 The defined term “YOU” refers here to the Defendant, Angelina Jolie. The sole question

3 before the Court in connection with this Request, therefore, is whether Jolie’s non-disclosure

4 and/or non-disparagement agreements with third parties are relevant or likely to lead to the

5 discovery of admissible evidence in this lawsuit.5 The answer is “yes.”

6 Jolie—not Pitt—places an oversized emphasis on the importance of non-disparagement

7 clauses in this lawsuit. For example, to rationalize her wrongful refusal to sell her indirect interest

8 in Château Miraval to Pitt, Jolie alleges that “the deal [for Pitt to purchase her stake in Château

9 Miraval] fell apart because Pitt demanded Jolie agree to a non-disparagement clause covering his

10 personal conduct as a condition of his purchase of the winery.” X-C ¶ 39. Jolie asserts that this

11 issue “goes to the very heart of this case,” and she seeks a declaratory judgment that Pitt’s request

12 rendered “unconscionable, void, and against public policy” the former couple’s implied-in-fact

13 contract providing that each of them would have a consent right over any sale to a third party. Id.

14 ¶¶ 39, 42(c). Jolie also recently filed her own Motion to Compel in which she claims that Pitt and

15 his winemaker partner Perrin’s suggested non-disclosure provision was “cruel,” “hurtful,” caused

16 her to “nearly shutdown,” and was the reason she terminated her negotiations to sell her indirect

17 interest in the winery to Pitt. Pitt, for his part, asserts that these claims are pretextual.

18 To probe the veracity of this NDA defense at “the very heart of” Jolie’s case, Pitt served

19 this Request seeking those documents setting forth or referring to the reasons why Jolie agreed to

20 enter into NDAs with third parties. These documents are probative of whether Jolie actually

21 viewed the provision requested by Pitt and Perrin as an “abusive and controlling deal-breaker” that

22

23 5
Jolie did not object and has not contended that it would be unduly burdensome to produce these
24 documents. Nor has she proffered any evidence of the “quantum of work required” to make such
a production as required to sustain such an objection. See Williams, 3 Cal. 5th at 549 (“[T]he
25 party opposing discovery has an obligation to supply the basis for this determination. An
‘objection based upon burden must be sustained by evidence showing the quantum of work
26 required.’”). Further, Jolie’s boilerplate objections that the Request calls for information protected
by the attorney/client privilege, the attorney work product doctrine, and/or the right to privacy
27
might justify redacting or withholding certain documents—but these objections cannot justify her
28 flat refusal to produce responsive documents.
13
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 released her of any contractual obligations to Pitt. Jolie unsurprisingly wants to shield these

2 documents from discovery, and therefore agreed to produce only those NDAs, if any, between

3 Jolie and Pitt themselves.6 Jolie adamantly refuses to produce other NDAs that she willingly

4 entered into during the relevant time period, presumably because she knows they will severely

5 undermine her defenses. Specifically, these documents are probative of Jolie’s views about the

6 many legitimate reasons for entering into NDAs—for instance, to avoid negative publicity that

7 could harm a business (i.e., the very reason that Pitt pleads he and Perrin sought the non-

8 disparagement provisions at issue here). Evidence that Jolie entered into NDAs covering similar

9 subjects for similar reasons as Pitt would, among other things, undermine her contention that Pitt’s

10 request rendered their implied-in-fact contract unconscionable as a matter of public policy,

11 a defense that is legally deficient in any event, but which Jolie submits is at “the very heart of the

12 case.” Accordingly, these documents should be produced.

13 Jolie nonetheless bases her objection on her alleged subjective belief that the non-

14 disparagement provision requested by Pitt was uniquely objectionable because it would have

15 covered (broadly speaking) the details of the parties’ relationship. But this argument goes to the

16 probative weight of the documents requested, not the relevance, and accordingly has no place at

17 the discovery phase. Nor is the Request overbroad or excessive. Rather, it is laser-focused on the

18 NDAs themselves, a narrow set of documents that are readily available to Jolie.

19 The Request is reasonably calculated to lead to discovery of documents that will test

20 whether Jolie was truly so offended by the proposed NDA and her claim that she was entitled to

21 breach her contract with Pitt and improperly sell to the Stoli Parties, or whether (as Pitt believes

22 these documents will help show) her defense is pure pretext. “That is enough to justify

23 discovery.” Lipton, 48 Cal. App. 4th at 1616.

24

25

26
6
In the meet-and-confer process preceding this Motion, Jolie agreed to produce documents
27
concerning “NDAs discussed or entered” and/or “entered or proposed between Mr. Pitt and
28 Ms. Jolie.” Ex. 4 at 1–2 (emphases added); see also Ex. 6 at 1–2.
14
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 JOLIE’S RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFFS’ FACTUAL AND LEGAL REASONS FOR

2 COMPELLING FURTHER RESPONSE AND PRODUCTION:

3 As the moving party seeking to compel the production of documents, Pitt has the burden to

4 make a “fact-specific showing of relevance” concerning the documents he seeks. Glenfed Dev.

5 Corp. v. Superior Court, 53 Cal.App.4th 1113, 1117 (1997). In RFP No. 2, Pitt seeks to compel

6 the production of over 16 years’ worth of “documents and communications” about contracts to

7 which Jolie was a party where the contract includes an NDA—specifically demanding every

8 “document and communication” reflecting the reason why she considered or entered an NDA with

9 any person over this time period. According to Pitt, these other NDAs with other people about

10 other matters unrelated to this lawsuit somehow test Jolie’s credibility because Jolie asserts that

11 Pitt’s agreement to buy her interest in Miraval fell apart when she refused Pitt’s demand for an

12 NDA to cover Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children.

13 But Pitt’s argument is a non-sequitur. Its most obvious problem is that it attempts to equate

14 NDAs Jolie entered that do not cover Pitt’s abuse of their family with the NDA Pitt himself

15 demanded to cover-up his own abuse of Jolie and their children. There is no connection between

16 them at all—none. For this reason, these other NDAs do not probe Jolie’s veracity regarding the

17 impact of Pitt’s proposed NDA in any way. And contrary to Pitt’s suggestion, Jolie does not

18 contend in her Cross-Complaint that all NDAs are bad or problematic, and she does not seek such

19 a blanket ruling in this case. To the contrary, Jolie was at all times agreeable to the original NDA

20 Pitt proposed that was limited to the winery. It was only after Pitt changed the language to cover

21 his personal abuse of the family that Jolie objected. Indeed, there is a stark difference between an

22 NDA Jolie signed with a movie studio or an employee, and the last-minute, expanded NDA her

23 abusive ex-husband tried to force her to sign to bury his criminal conduct.

24 Pitt’s related argument that Jolie asking others to enter NDAs covering aspects of her

25 private life is probative of Pitt asking Jolie to be silent about criminal conduct he committed is a

26 false equivalence. If Jolie hired someone to prepare meals for her family inside her home and
27 asked that person to enter an NDA so the person would not disclose to the tabloids what her

28 family ate every day (Motion at 14), that particular NDA has no relevance to how Jolie felt when
15
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Pitt asked her to sign an NDA silencing her from speaking about her own life and the painful

2 events she experienced at Pitt’s hands.

3 Pitt’s request for the documents fails for other reasons as well. The law is clear that “courts

4 shall limit the scope of discovery if it determines that the burden, expense, or intrusiveness of that

5 discovery clearly outweighs the likelihood that the information sought will lead to the discovery of

6 admissible evidence.” C.C.P. § 2017.020. Here, the burden, expense, and intrusiveness of Jolie

7 having to gather and produce nearly two decades of “documents and communications” relating to

8 these other NDAs clearly outweighs clearly outweighs the likelihood that the information sought

9 will lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Moreover, if the Court concludes that the

10 evidence is relevant and admissible, this will then result in a series of mini-trials for each and

11 every contract Pitt hopes to use. The Court is never going to allow such mini-trials. As a result, the

12 documents are not only irrelevant, but they are also not likely to lead to the discovery of

13 admissible evidence.

14 In fact, Pitt’s proposed argument is going to be barred by Evidence Code sections 786, 787

15 and 1101(a). Section 786 states that evidence “of traits of his character other than honesty or

16 veracity, or their opposites, is inadmissible to attack or support the credibility of a witness.”

17 Section 787 states that, aside from prior felony convictions, “Evidence of specific instances of his

18 conduct relevant only as tending to prove a trait of his character is inadmissible to attack or

19 support the credibility of a witness.” And Section 1101(a) states that “evidence of a person’s

20 character or a trait of his or her character (whether in the form of an opinion, evidence of

21 reputation, or evidence of specific instances of his or her conduct) is inadmissible when offered to

22 prove his or her conduct on a specified occasion.” Pitt’s theory is barred by each of these sections

23 of the Evidence Code. He will not be able to use prior instances of Jolie’s conduct (entering other

24 NDAs with other people about other matters) to prove that she should have been fine with

25 agreeing to his abusive NDA too.

26 Further, Pitt’s request is also overbroad as to time and scope. It seeks all “documents and
27 communications” about all NDAs Jolie entered from January 1, 2007 through the present, but

28 Jolie contends the NDA Pitt proposed was problematic because it attempted to bury Pitt’s abuse.
16
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 There is no relevance to contracts she entered into with other people about issues unrelated to the

2 abuse. At best, Pitt is entitled to any NDAs Jolie entered with Pitt, which Jolie has agreed to give.

3 Anything else is overbroad as to time and scope.

4 Pitt’s demand for nearly two decades worth of contracts also intrudes on Jolie’s right of

5 privacy. When assessing a claimed privacy right, the “privacy interests [must] be specifically

6 identified and carefully comparted with competing or countervailing privacy and nonprivacy

7 interests in a balancing test.” Hill v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 7 Cal.4th 37-38 (1994). As a

8 starting point, courts must first “place the burden on the party asserting a privacy interest to

9 establish its extent and seriousness of the prospective invasion, and against that showing must

10 weigh the countervailing interest the opposing party identifies.” Williams v. Superior Court, 3

11 Cal.5th 531, 557 (2017). “In weighing the privacy interests of the third party, the trial court should

12 consider the nature of the information sought, its inherent intrusiveness, and any specific showing

13 for a need for privacy, including any harm that disclosure of the information might cause.” In re

14 Marriage of Williamson, 226 Cal.App.4th 1303, 1319 (2014).

15 Here, most, if not all, of these documents and communications will concern employment-

16 related contracts that include Jolie’s compensation or compensation she paid to third parties. These

17 third parties have their own privacy rights. Pitt has not even offered to give any form of notice

18 whatsoever to these third-parties to allow them the opportunity to protect their rights, nor does he

19 acknowledge that these other persons and entities have privacy rights here.

20 Against this sensitive information, Pitt has little countervailing interest in obtaining these

21 documents. Moreover, any negligible relevance is greatly outweighed by Pitt’s intrusion into

22 Jolie’s and these third parties’ privacy rights, with the balance in favor of protecting privacy

23 rights—made all the more problematic by the fact that such evidence has virtually no chance of

24 being admitted at trial.

25 Pitt wants to argue that because Jolie entered NDAs with other people, she could not have

26 been bothered by the NDA Pitt demanded she sign. But each and every one of these other NDAs
27 involve separate people, different interests, and unique facts. None will involve NDAs that

28 prohibit Jolie from speaking about Pitt’s abuse of her and their children. Forcing Jolie to spend the
17
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 time and expense of gathering and producing all of this documentation is expensive, wasteful, and

2 unreasonable—and the latest manifestation of Pitt’s abusive conduct toward Jolie. The Court

3 should not allow it.

4 PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY IN SUPPORT OF THEIR MOTION TO COMPEL FURTHER

5 RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION IN CONNECTION WITH REQUEST NO. 2:

6 Jolie argues that the Request seeks information about NDAs with “other people and

7 entities, about other matters not in any way connected with” the allegations she has made against

8 Pitt, which thus are not “comparable” to the proposed Pitt NDA and are therefore categorically

9 irrelevant. Opp. at 5. She also argues that even if the documents sought are relevant, it would be

10 improper to order production because “[b]y their nature,” the Request “seriously invade[s] Jolie’s

11 privacy and the privacy rights of third parties.” Opp. at 17. Her arguments fail for at least the

12 following reasons.7

13 First, Jolie’s overly narrow relevance framing is not supported by any evidence. Jolie

14 admits that she possesses responsive NDAs with “studios, sponsors, service professionals,

15 employees, and independent contractors (among others) over nearly two decades of [her] career.”

16 Opp. at 14. But Jolie offers nothing to back up her argument that there is a “stark and obvious

17 contrast” between these NDAs and the NDA proposed by Pitt and Perrin, on which her defense

18 hinges—no declaration, no information about the terms of these other NDAs, no description of the

19 “others” with whom she has entered into NDAs, and no evidence of what type of conduct these

20 NDAs covered. This is insufficient to meet Jolie’s burden to “justify [her] objection” following

21 the “fact-specific showing of relevance” made by Pitt in his Motion. Kirkland v. Sup. Ct., 95 Cal.

22 App. 4th 92, 98 (2002).

23 In fact, the limited information currently available to Pitt squarely contradicts Jolie’s

24 position that her use of NDAs is not “remotely comparable” to her allegations that “Pitt was

25
7
Jolie’s lip-service arguments as to burden are waived and should be wholly disregarded because
26 she never objected to the Request on the ground that searching for responsive documents would
impose a burden, and she has not provided any “evidence showing the quantum of work required”
27
to search for the documents, as required to sustain a burden objection even if one existed.
28 Williams v. Sup. Ct., 3 Cal. 5th 531, 549 (2017) (emphasis added).
18
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 attempting to leverage his purchase of Miraval into silencing Jolie.” Opp. at 15. For example, the

2 concurrently filed Declaration of Tony Webb reveals that Jolie is the one who has weaponized

3 NDAs in an effort to prevent an open airing of the couple’s family issues—the very thing that

4 Jolie claims was so sacred to her that Pitt’s proposed NDA caused her to renege on her deal to sell

5 to him. See Webb Decl. ¶¶ 2, 4–9 (averring that after the couple divorced and went to family

6 court, Mr. Webb received multiple calls from Jolie’s representative, who told Mr. Webb to remind

7 his staff that they had entered into NDAs with Jolie and that if they testified in a custody

8 proceeding, Jolie would sue them—and after they did so, Jolie fired Mr. Webb’s company).

9 Jolie’s use of NDAs to silence her security detail and attempt to prevent them from

10 testifying truthfully in court about what actually happened behind closed doors bears a striking

11 resemblance to Jolie’s (false) allegations in this case that Pitt improperly used an NDA to

12 “silenc[e]” her. Yet, without presenting any evidence, Jolie asks this Court to find that “[t]here is

13 no connection between them at all—none,” Opp. SSUF at 10, and in doing so, deny Pitt’s Motion.

14 This unsupported and clearly incorrect conclusion is not credible, and Pitt should be entitled to

15 obtain the additional evidence at issue here to further undermine Jolie’s NDA defense.

16 Second, whether this discovery ultimately makes it more likely or less likely that Jolie is

17 telling the truth about why she abandoned the sale of her interest in Miraval to Pitt is not a

18 determination to be made on a motion to compel—because either way, the NDAs and related

19 documents at issue here are likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence about that

20 disputed issue. Under California’s broad discovery standards, the documents and information

21 sought by this Motion are relevant and therefore discoverable because they have “any tendency in

22 reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact that is of consequence to the determination of the

23 action.” Evid. Code § 210; Lipton v. Superior Ct., 48 Cal. App. 4th 1599, 1612 (1996) (“The

24 scope of permissible discovery is one of reason, logic and common sense.”).

25 More specifically, if Jolie intends to rely on the proposed NDA as a defense to the breach

26 of her obligations and her decision to abandon the transaction she and Pitt had been negotiating,
27 that is an ultimate question for the finder of fact to decide based on its own assessments and

28 conclusions (assuming arguendo that Jolie’s defense is legally viable at all). City of King City v.
19
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Cmty. Bank of Cent. California, 131 Cal. App. 4th 913, 936 (“Any evidence refuting [party’s]

2 claims as pleaded was not only material, but potentially dispositive—and eminently

3 discoverable,” emphasis original); X-C ¶ 39 (“Why this non-disparagement clause was so

4 important to Pitt—and an abusive and controlling deal-breaker for Jolie—goes to the very heart of

5 this case.”); Opp. at 5:6–8 (“[W]hat happened in the intervening months” between February and

6 June 15, 2021 “is hotly disputed,” and “[a]t trial, the jury will have to resolve this important

7 factual dispute.”). And for Pitt to present this additional evidence to the ultimate finder of fact, he,

8 of course, needs to first obtain it from Jolie.

9 Documents regarding the circumstances of Jolie’s NDAs with third parties are also highly

10 relevant for so long as Jolie is permitted to raise this defense. For example, if Jolie signed NDAs

11 with third parties that limited her (or others’) ability to speak about actual or potential misconduct

12 similar to what she alleges against here against Pitt, and she signed those NDAs after the conduct

13 occurred, a jury would be less likely to credit her purported justification for breaching the parties’

14 agreement not to sell their interests without the other’s consent. Again, this is not mere

15 speculation: After Jolie sold her interests in Miraval to Stoli claiming that the NDA proposed by

16 Pitt’s counsel was ”emotionally devastating,” her divorce lawyer proposed an even broader NDA

17 in connection with resolution of the family court proceeding that would have further limited her

18 “freedom to speak.” But if Jolie gets her way, Pitt will never even discover whether such NDAs

19 exist, let alone present them to a jury.

20 Third, Jolie’s blanket “nothing is comparable” argument has been rejected in several

21 analogous cases. E.g., Davies v. Superior Ct., 36 Cal. 3d 291, 301 (1984) (state records

22 concerning other accidents on a highway that accident victim contended was dangerous are

23 “relevant to the subject matter of a lawsuit arising out of another accident at the same location, and

24 may aid in the parties’ preparation for trial,” notwithstanding state’s “extraordinary” argument to

25 the contrary); Colonial Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Superior Ct., 31 Cal. 3d 785, 790–91 (1982)

26 (because plaintiff could establish a claim by showing that the acts at issue were a general business
27 practice, “[d]iscovery aimed at determining the frequency of alleged unfair settlement practices is

28 therefore likely to produce evidence directly relevant to the action,” notwithstanding the insurer’s
20
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 “patently meritless” objections); Lopez v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc’y of New York, Inc., 246

2 Cal. App. 4th 566, 593 (2016) (“[T]he fact that the other . . . incidents may have been different

3 from the one that allegedly occurred here does not mean the other perpetrator evidence was not

4 discoverable.”). In other words, because the documents deal with a subject of consequence to the

5 determination of the action, and one which Jolie herself has injected into the matter, the question

6 of “comparability” is not for Jolie to decide, and Jolie’s subjective position on the issue should not

7 bar production here.

8 In short, establishing that NDAs are a commonplace feature of Jolie’s personal and

9 professional life, and entirely routine for her, goes directly to the credibility of her defense—

10 regardless of the precise terms or subject matter of any one particular NDA.

11 Fourth, Jolie’s argument that “specific past instances of Jolie’s conduct to prove her

12 conduct on this occasion is . . . barred by Evidence Code sections 786, 787, and 1101(a)[,]” (Opp.

13 at 18 n.2), misses the mark. None of those provisions are applicable here—section 786 deals only

14 with “[e]vidence of traits of [] character,” section 787 deals only with “evidence of specific

15 instances of [] conduct relevant only as tending to prove a trait of [] character,” and section

16 1101(a) deals only with “evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his or her character.” Jolie’s

17 use of NDAs plainly is not evidence of her “propensity or tendency to act in a certain way under

18 certain circumstances.” Cal. Prac. Guide Civ. Trials & Ev. Ch. 8E-E (emphasis original); cf.

19 Evid. Code § 1105 (evidence of a person’s “habit or custom” is admissible). The evidence sought

20 here goes to the merits of Jolie’s factual contention that she viewed Pitt and Perrin’s request for an

21 NDA as “an abusive and controlling deal-breaker for Jolie,” X-C ¶ 39, not her character.

22 Fifth and finally, Jolie cannot meet her burden to “establish a legally protected privacy

23 interest, an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the given circumstances, and a

24 threatened intrusion that is serious,” Williams v. Superior Ct., 3 Cal. 5th 531, 552 (2017),

25 particularly given that the operative Protective Order in this case allows her to designate the

26 information as confidential and thereby avoid its improper distribution or filing to the public
27 docket, see Alch v. Superior Ct., 165 Cal. App. 4th 1412, 1432 (2008). Jolie has not offered any

28 declaration or actual evidence concerning what information exists in these NDAs, let alone
21
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 “specifically identified” a constitutionally protected privacy interest for herself or for third parties,

2 as she is required to do in the first instance. Hill v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Assn., 7 Cal. 4th 1, 37

3 (1994). And as for Jolie’s claim for the first time in Opposition that the NDAs may “include

4 Jolie’s compensation or compensation she paid to third parties,” Opp. at 17, Jolie does not cite a

5 single case showing that she (or the third parties) have a privacy right to such information—which

6 is routinely produced in commercial disputes, which would here be subject to a strict protective

7 order, and which Jolie could have asked during the parties’ meet-and-confer negotiations to

8 produce in redacted form, but chose not to.

9 Further, even if Jolie had satisfied her burden to establish that the requested documents

10 contain information that would pose a serious intrusion upon legally recognized privacy rights if

11 produced pursuant to the operative Protective Order—and she did not—Jolie would also have to

12 “show[] that the [documents] cannot successfully be redacted” to eliminate that risk of “serious”

13 invasion. Snibbe v. Superior Ct., 224 Cal. App. 4th 184, 194–96 (2014); Overstock.com, Inc. v.

14 Goldman Sachs Grp., Inc., 231 Cal. App. 4th 471, 508 (2014) (approving of redaction to protect

15 privacy rights). Jolie has not even tried to do this—indeed, when Plaintiffs suggested during

16 meet-and-confer negotiations that Jolie may redact personally identifying information of third

17 parties (at least in the first instance, and then the parties can meet and confer, if necessary, about

18 such redactions), Jolie rejected that offer too. See Cherlow Decl., Ex. 5 at 2, n.1; id. Ex. 6 at 1.

19 Because Jolie has not “specifically identified” a “serious invasion” of privacy rights at

20 stake, let alone explained why redactions and the protective order would not resolve any concern,

21 she cannot withhold the documents based on privacy rights either. Hill, 7 Cal. 4th at 37; Snibbe,

22 224 Cal. App. 4th at 194–96; Alch, 165 Cal. App. 4th at 1427.

23 REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 3:

24 Any draft or executed non-disclosure or non-disparagement agreements that YOU, any

25 entity YOU control, or any PERSON acting on YOUR behalf, have requested or proposed that any

26 other PERSON sign or agree to, including non-disclosure or nondisparagement agreements that
27 were never signed or agreed to.

28
22
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 JOLIE’S RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 3:

2 In addition to the general objections, Jolie objects to this request on the following grounds:

3 (a) the request is overbroad as any non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements other than

4 those between Jolie and Pitt entered after Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their

5 children have no relevance to this case; (b) the request seeks documents protected from disclosure

6 by the attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine; and (c) for the parties to any such

7 agreements, the request seeks documents protected from disclosure by their rights of privacy under

8 the Constitution of the State of California.

9 Subject to the foregoing general and specific objections, Jolie responds as follows: Jolie

10 will produce non-privileged drafts and executed non-disclosure and nondisparagement agreements

11 between Jolie and Pitt, entered after Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children,

12 regarding their personal conduct.

13 PLAINTIFFS’ FACTUAL AND LEGAL REASONS FOR COMPELLING FURTHER

14 RESPONSE AND PRODUCTION:

15 The defined term “YOU” refers here to the Defendant, Angelina Jolie. The sole question

16 before the Court in connection with this Request, therefore, is whether Jolie’s non-disclosure

17 and/or non-disparagement agreements with third parties are relevant or likely to lead to the

18 discovery of admissible evidence in this lawsuit.8 The answer is “yes.”

19 Jolie—not Pitt—places an oversized emphasis on the importance of non-disparagement

20 clauses in this lawsuit. For example, to rationalize her wrongful refusal to sell her indirect interest

21 in Château Miraval to Pitt, Jolie alleges that “the deal [for Pitt to purchase her stake in Château

22

23 8
Jolie did not object and has not contended that it would be unduly burdensome to produce these
24 documents. Nor has she proffered any evidence of the “quantum of work required” to make such
a production as required to sustain such an objection. See Williams, 3 Cal. 5th at 549 (“[T]he
25 party opposing discovery has an obligation to supply the basis for this determination. An
‘objection based upon burden must be sustained by evidence showing the quantum of work
26 required.’”). Further, Jolie’s boilerplate objections that the Request calls for information protected
by the attorney/client privilege, the attorney work product doctrine, and/or the right to privacy
27
might justify redacting or withholding certain documents—but these objections cannot justify her
28 flat refusal to produce responsive documents.
23
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Miraval] fell apart because Pitt demanded Jolie agree to a non-disparagement clause covering his

2 personal conduct as a condition of his purchase of the winery.” X-C ¶ 39. Jolie asserts that this

3 issue “goes to the very heart of this case,” and she seeks a declaratory judgment that Pitt’s request

4 rendered “unconscionable, void, and against public policy” the former couple’s implied-in-fact

5 contract providing that each of them would have a consent right over any sale to a third party. Id.

6 ¶¶ 39, 42(c). Jolie also recently filed her own Motion to Compel in which she claims that Pitt and

7 his winemaker partner Perrin’s suggested non-disclosure provision was “cruel,” “hurtful,” caused

8 her to “nearly shutdown,” and was the reason she terminated her negotiations to sell her indirect

9 interest in the winery to Pitt. Pitt, for his part, asserts that these claims are pretextual.

10 To probe the veracity of this NDA defense at “the very heart of” Jolie’s case, Pitt served

11 this Request seeking NDAs to which Jolie requested third parties agree. These documents are

12 probative of whether Jolie actually viewed the provision requested by Pitt and Perrin as an

13 “abusive and controlling deal-breaker” that released her of any contractual obligations to Pitt.

14 Jolie unsurprisingly wants to shield these documents from discovery, and therefore agreed to

15 produce only those NDAs, if any, between Jolie and Pitt themselves.9 Jolie adamantly refuses to

16 produce other NDAs that she willingly entered into during the relevant time period, presumably

17 because she knows they will severely undermine her defenses.

18 Specifically, the scope, terms, and subject matter of NDAs that Jolie asked third parties to

19 enter into are highly relevant to Jolie’s defenses because they evidence non-disparagement terms

20 that Jolie believes are appropriate and not “unconscionable” to request from others. For example,

21 if Jolie conditioned her continued employment of an individual on that individual’s agreement to

22 an NDA covering what he or she witnessed in her home—including Pitt’s treatment of her and her

23 children—that would be highly probative of whether she truly believed the provision requested by

24 Pitt was an “unconscionable gag order.” The same is true with respect to any NDA between Jolie

25 and any third party with whom she is in a relationship or who has assisted with the care of the

26
9
In the meet-and-confer process preceding this Motion, Jolie agreed to produce documents
27
concerning “NDAs discussed or entered” and/or “entered or proposed between Mr. Pitt and
28 Ms. Jolie.” Ex. 4 at 1–2 (emphases added); see also Ex. 6 at 1–2.
24
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 couple’s children. To the extent that Jolie requested this third party’s silence about her family or

2 homelife, particularly in a circumstance where there was no business justification, it would speak

3 volumes about whether Jolie actually viewed Pitt’s request linked to the Miraval business as the

4 deal-ender she subsequently alleged it to be. NDAs dealing with different subject matter are also

5 likely to lead to admissible evidence—namely, deposition testimony about why Jolie believed

6 those subjects were appropriate for NDAs while others were unconscionable. These documents

7 should be produced.

8 Jolie nonetheless bases her objection on her alleged subjective belief that the non-

9 disparagement provision requested by Pitt was uniquely objectionable because it would have

10 covered (broadly speaking) the details of the parties’ relationship. But this argument goes to the

11 probative weight of the documents requested, not the relevance, and accordingly has no place at

12 the discovery phase. Nor is the Request overbroad or excessive. Rather, it is laser-focused on the

13 NDAs themselves, a narrow set of documents that are readily available to Jolie.

14 The Request is reasonably calculated to lead to discovery of documents that will test

15 whether Jolie was truly so offended by the proposed NDA and her claim that she was entitled to

16 breach her contract with Pitt and improperly sell to the Stoli Parties, or whether (as Pitt believes

17 these documents will help show) her defense is pure pretext. “That is enough to justify

18 discovery.” Lipton, 48 Cal. App. 4th at 1616.

19 JOLIE’S RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFFS’ FACTUAL AND LEGAL REASONS FOR

20 COMPELLING FURTHER RESPONSE AND PRODUCTION:

21 As the moving party seeking to compel the production of documents, Pitt has the burden to

22 make a “fact-specific showing of relevance” concerning the documents he seeks. Glenfed Dev.

23 Corp. v. Superior Court, 53 Cal.App.4th 1113, 1117 (1997). In RFP No. 3, Pitt seeks to compel

24 the production of over 16 years’ worth of contracts, whether executed or mere drafts, where Jolie,

25 any entity Jolie controls, or any of Jolie’s agents, proposed to include an NDA in the contract.

26 According to Pitt, these other NDAs with other people about other matters unrelated to this
27 lawsuit somehow test Jolie’s credibility because Jolie asserts that Pitt’s agreement to buy her

28 interest in Miraval fell apart when she refused Pitt’s demand for an NDA to cover Pitt’s physical
25
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children.

2 But Pitt’s argument is a non-sequitur. Its most obvious problem is that it attempts to equate

3 NDAs Jolie or entities she owned or controlled considered or entered that do not cover Pitt’s abuse

4 of their family with the personal NDA Pitt himself demanded to cover-up his own abuse of Jolie

5 and their children. There is no connection between them at all—none. For this reason, other NDAs

6 Jolie considered or entered with other people and entities do not probe Jolie’s veracity regarding

7 the impact of Pitt’s proposed NDA had on Jolie in any way. And contrary to Pitt’s suggestion,

8 Jolie does not contend in her Cross-Complaint that all NDAs are bad or problematic, and she does

9 not seek such a blanket ruling in this case. To the contrary, Jolie was at all times agreeable to the

10 original NDA Pitt proposed that was limited to the winery. It was only after Pitt changed the

11 language to cover his personal abuse of the family that Jolie objected. Indeed, there is a stark

12 difference between an NDA Jolie or an entity she owned or controlled considered or entered with

13 a movie studio, vendor, service professional or an employee, and the last-minute, expanded NDA

14 her abusive ex-husband tried to force her to sign to bury his criminal conduct.

15 Pitt’s related argument that Jolie asking others to enter NDAs covering aspects of her

16 private life is probative of Pitt asking Jolie to be silent about criminal conduct he committed is a

17 false equivalence. If Jolie hired someone to prepare meals for her family inside her home and

18 asked that person to enter an NDA so the person would not disclose to the tabloids what her

19 family ate every day (Motion at 14), that particular NDA has no relevance to how Jolie felt when

20 Pitt asked her to sign an NDA silencing her from speaking about her own life and the painful

21 events she experienced at Pitt’s hands. Even farther removed are actual and draft NDAs with

22 vendors and service professionals for Jolie’s businesses and business interests.

23 Pitt’s request for the documents fails for other reasons as well. The law is clear that “courts

24 shall limit the scope of discovery if it determines that the burden, expense, or intrusiveness of that

25 discovery clearly outweighs the likelihood that the information sought will lead to the discovery of

26 admissible evidence.” C.C.P. § 2017.020. Here, the burden, expense, and intrusiveness of Jolie
27 having to gather and produce nearly two decades of contracts clearly outweighs the likelihood that

28 the information sought will lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Moreover, if the Court
26
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 concludes that the evidence is relevant and admissible, this will then result in a series of mini-trials

2 for each and every contract Pitt hopes to use. The Court is never going to allow such mini-trials.

3 As a result, the documents are not only irrelevant, but they are also not likely to lead to the

4 discovery of admissible evidence.

5 In fact, Pitt’s use of these documents at trial will be separately barred by Evidence Code

6 sections 786, 787 and 1101(a) because this is improper character evidence. Section 786 states that

7 evidence “of traits of his character other than honesty or veracity, or their opposites, is

8 inadmissible to attack or support the credibility of a witness.” Section 787 states that, aside from

9 prior felony convictions, “Evidence of specific instances of his conduct relevant only as tending to

10 prove a trait of his character is inadmissible to attack or support the credibility of a witness.” And

11 Section 1101(a) states that “evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his or her character

12 (whether in the form of an opinion, evidence of reputation, or evidence of specific instances of his

13 or her conduct) is inadmissible when offered to prove his or her conduct on a specified occasion.”

14 Pitt’s theory is barred by each of these sections of the Evidence Code. He will not be able to use

15 prior instances of Jolie’s and her businesses’ conduct (considering or entering other NDAs from

16 other people about other matters) to prove that she should have been fine with agreeing to his

17 abusive NDA too.

18 Further, Pitt’s request is also overbroad as to time and scope. It seeks all draft and final

19 NDAs Jolie considered from January 1, 2007 through the present, but Jolie contends the NDA Pitt

20 proposed was problematic because it attempted to bury Pitt’s abuse. There is no relevance to

21 contracts she entered into with other people about issues unrelated to the abuse. At best, Pitt is

22 entitled to any NDAs Jolie entered with Pitt, which Jolie has agreed to give. Anything else is

23 overbroad as to time and scope.

24 Pitt’s demand for nearly two decades worth of requested or entered NDAs from her and

25 her businesses also intrudes on Jolie’s right of privacy. When assessing a claimed privacy right,

26 the “privacy interests [must] be specifically identified and carefully comparted with competing or
27 countervailing privacy and nonprivacy interests in a balancing test.” Hill v. Nat’l Collegiate

28 Athletic Ass’n, 7 Cal.4th 37-38 (1994). As a starting point, courts must first “place the burden on
27
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 the party asserting a privacy interest to establish its extent and seriousness of the prospective

2 invasion, and against that showing must weigh the countervailing interest the opposing party

3 identifies.” Williams v. Superior Court, 3 Cal.5th 531, 557 (2017). “In weighing the privacy

4 interests of the third party, the trial court should consider the nature of the information sought, its

5 inherent intrusiveness, and any specific showing for a need for privacy, including any harm that

6 disclosure of the information might cause.” In re Marriage of Williamson, 226 Cal.App.4th 1303,

7 1319 (2014).

8 Here, most, if not all, of these agreements will be employment-related contracts that

9 include Jolie’s actual or proposed compensation or compensation she or her businesses considered

10 or paid to third parties. These third parties have their own privacy rights. Pitt has not even offered

11 to give any form of notice whatsoever to these third-parties to allow them the opportunity to

12 protect their rights, nor does he acknowledge that these other persons and entities have privacy

13 rights here. Against this sensitive information, Pitt has little countervailing interest in obtaining

14 these documents. Moreover, any negligible relevance is greatly outweighed by Pitt’s intrusion into

15 Jolie’s and these third parties’ privacy rights, with the balance in favor of protecting privacy

16 rights—made all the more problematic by the fact that such evidence has virtually no chance of

17 being admitted at trial.

18 Pitt wants to argue that because Jolie and her businesses considered or entered NDAs with

19 other people, she personally could not have been bothered by the NDA Pitt demanded she sign.

20 But each and every one of these other NDAs involve separate people, different interests, and

21 unique facts. None will involve NDAs that prohibit Jolie from speaking about Pitt’s abuse of her

22 and their children. Forcing Jolie to spend the time and expense of gathering and producing all of

23 this documentation is expensive, wasteful, and unreasonable—and the latest manifestation of Pitt’s

24 abusive conduct toward Jolie. The Court should not allow it.

25 PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY IN SUPPORT OF THEIR MOTION TO COMPEL FURTHER

26 RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION IN CONNECTION WITH REQUEST NO. 3:


27 Jolie argues that the Request seeks information about NDAs with “other people and

28 entities, about other matters not in any way connected with” the allegations she has made against
28
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Pitt, which thus are not “comparable” to the proposed Pitt NDA and are therefore categorically

2 irrelevant. Opp. at 5. She also argues that even if the documents sought are relevant, it would be

3 improper to order production because “[b]y their nature,” the Request “seriously invade[s] Jolie’s

4 privacy and the privacy rights of third parties.” Opp. at 17. Her arguments fail for at least the

5 following reasons.10

6 First, Jolie’s overly narrow relevance framing is not supported by any evidence. Jolie

7 admits that she possesses responsive NDAs with “studios, sponsors, service professionals,

8 employees, and independent contractors (among others) over nearly two decades of [her] career.”

9 Opp. at 14. But Jolie offers nothing to back up her argument that there is a “stark and obvious

10 contrast” between these NDAs and the NDA proposed by Pitt and Perrin, on which her defense

11 hinges—no declaration, no information about the terms of these other NDAs, no description of the

12 “others” with whom she has entered into NDAs, and no evidence of what type of conduct these

13 NDAs covered. This is insufficient to meet Jolie’s burden to “justify [her] objection” following

14 the “fact-specific showing of relevance” made by Pitt in his Motion. Kirkland v. Sup. Ct., 95 Cal.

15 App. 4th 92, 98 (2002).

16 In fact, the limited information currently available to Pitt squarely contradicts Jolie’s

17 position that her use of NDAs is not “remotely comparable” to her allegations that “Pitt was

18 attempting to leverage his purchase of Miraval into silencing Jolie.” Opp. at 15. For example, the

19 concurrently filed Declaration of Tony Webb reveals that Jolie is the one who has weaponized

20 NDAs in an effort to prevent an open airing of the couple’s family issues—the very thing that

21 Jolie claims was so sacred to her that Pitt’s proposed NDA caused her to renege on her deal to sell

22 to him. See Webb Decl. ¶¶ 2, 4–9 (averring that after the couple divorced and went to family

23 court, Mr. Webb received multiple calls from Jolie’s representative, who told Mr. Webb to remind

24 his staff that they had entered into NDAs with Jolie and that if they testified in a custody

25
10
Jolie’s lip-service arguments as to burden are waived and should be wholly disregarded because
26 she never objected to the Request on the ground that searching for responsive documents would
impose a burden, and she has not provided any “evidence showing the quantum of work required”
27
to search for the documents, as required to sustain a burden objection even if one existed.
28 Williams v. Sup. Ct., 3 Cal. 5th 531, 549 (2017) (emphasis added).
29
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 proceeding, Jolie would sue them—and after they did so, Jolie fired Mr. Webb’s company).

2 Jolie’s use of NDAs to silence her security detail and attempt to prevent them from

3 testifying truthfully in court about what actually happened behind closed doors bears a striking

4 resemblance to Jolie’s (false) allegations in this case that Pitt improperly used an NDA to

5 “silenc[e]” her. Yet, without presenting any evidence, Jolie asks this Court to find that “[t]here is

6 no connection between them at all—none,” Opp. SSUF at 16, and in doing so, deny Pitt’s Motion.

7 This unsupported and clearly incorrect conclusion is not credible, and Pitt should be entitled to

8 obtain the additional evidence at issue here to further undermine Jolie’s NDA defense.

9 Second, whether this discovery ultimately makes it more likely or less likely that Jolie is

10 telling the truth about why she abandoned the sale of her interest in Miraval to Pitt is not a

11 determination to be made on a motion to compel—because either way, the NDAs and related

12 documents at issue here are likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence about that

13 disputed issue. Under California’s broad discovery standards, the documents and information

14 sought by this Motion are relevant and therefore discoverable because they have “any tendency in

15 reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact that is of consequence to the determination of the

16 action.” Evid. Code § 210; Lipton v. Superior Ct., 48 Cal. App. 4th 1599, 1612 (1996) (“The

17 scope of permissible discovery is one of reason, logic and common sense.”).

18 More specifically, if Jolie intends to rely on the proposed NDA as a defense to the breach

19 of her obligations and her decision to abandon the transaction she and Pitt had been negotiating,

20 that is an ultimate question for the finder of fact to decide based on its own assessments and

21 conclusions (assuming arguendo that Jolie’s defense is legally viable at all). City of King City v.

22 Cmty. Bank of Cent. California, 131 Cal. App. 4th 913, 936 (“Any evidence refuting [party’s]

23 claims as pleaded was not only material, but potentially dispositive—and eminently

24 discoverable,” emphasis original); X-C ¶ 39 (“Why this non-disparagement clause was so

25 important to Pitt—and an abusive and controlling deal-breaker for Jolie—goes to the very heart of

26 this case.”); Opp. at 5:6–8 (“[W]hat happened in the intervening months” between February and
27 June 15, 2021 “is hotly disputed,” and “[a]t trial, the jury will have to resolve this important

28 factual dispute.”). And for Pitt to present this additional evidence to the ultimate finder of fact, he,
30
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 of course, needs to first obtain it from Jolie.

2 Even to the extent that “Jolie sought NDAs from third parties to protect her own business

3 interests,” Opp. at 16, these documents are relevant in assessing whether this NDA was

4 “unconscionable.” Jolie argues otherwise, repeating her refrain that “[t]hese are other contracts

5 with other parties about other matters.” Id. But for public figures, the line between business

6 interests and personal conduct is often blurred. Public figures often seek or sign non-disclosure

7 and non-disparagement agreements with terms that may appear onerous to others, in large part, to

8 protect their personal brands and businesses with which they are closely affiliated from costly

9 reputational harm. Indeed, Jolie’s counsel stated in correspondence that Jolie understood that “the

10 primary if not sole concern” that Pitt and Perrin expressed when they allegedly stepped back from

11 deal negotiations was “how this situation might affect a business.” Cherlow Decl., Ex. 8 at 2

12 (emphasis added). Likewise, while Jolie asserts that NDAs with sponsors can never be relevant,

13 Opp. at 14, if those NDAs also contained provisions related to her personal conduct—particularly

14 in connection with a morality clause—it would be probative of the extent to which Jolie truly

15 perceived the proposed NDA at issue in this case as unconscionable or whether she in fact

16 understood that Pitt and his business partner Perrin were seeking the NDA to protect the value of

17 the business that they were buying in full.

18 Third, Jolie’s blanket “nothing is comparable” argument has been rejected in several

19 analogous cases. E.g., Davies v. Superior Ct., 36 Cal. 3d 291, 301 (1984) (state records

20 concerning other accidents on a highway that accident victim contended was dangerous are

21 “relevant to the subject matter of a lawsuit arising out of another accident at the same location, and

22 may aid in the parties’ preparation for trial,” notwithstanding state’s “extraordinary” argument to

23 the contrary); Colonial Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Superior Ct., 31 Cal. 3d 785, 790–91 (1982)

24 (because plaintiff could establish a claim by showing that the acts at issue were a general business

25 practice, “[d]iscovery aimed at determining the frequency of alleged unfair settlement practices is

26 therefore likely to produce evidence directly relevant to the action,” notwithstanding the insurer’s
27 “patently meritless” objections); Lopez v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc’y of New York, Inc., 246

28 Cal. App. 4th 566, 593 (2016) (“[T]he fact that the other . . . incidents may have been different
31
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 from the one that allegedly occurred here does not mean the other perpetrator evidence was not

2 discoverable.”). In other words, because the documents deal with a subject of consequence to the

3 determination of the action, and one which Jolie herself has injected into the matter, the question

4 of “comparability” is not for Jolie to decide, and Jolie’s subjective position on the issue should not

5 bar production here.

6 In short, establishing that NDAs are a commonplace feature of Jolie’s personal and

7 professional life, and entirely routine for her, goes directly to the credibility of her defense—

8 regardless of the precise terms or subject matter of any one particular NDA.

9 Fourth, Jolie’s argument that “specific past instances of Jolie’s conduct to prove her

10 conduct on this occasion is . . . barred by Evidence Code sections 786, 787, and 1101(a)[,]” (Opp.

11 at 18 n.2), misses the mark. None of those provisions are applicable here—section 786 deals only

12 with “[e]vidence of traits of [] character,” section 787 deals only with “evidence of specific

13 instances of [] conduct relevant only as tending to prove a trait of [] character,” and section

14 1101(a) deals only with “evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his or her character.” Jolie’s

15 use of NDAs plainly is not evidence of her “propensity or tendency to act in a certain way under

16 certain circumstances.” Cal. Prac. Guide Civ. Trials & Ev. Ch. 8E-E (emphasis original); cf.

17 Evid. Code § 1105 (evidence of a person’s “habit or custom” is admissible). The evidence sought

18 here goes to the merits of Jolie’s factual contention that she viewed Pitt and Perrin’s request for an

19 NDA as “an abusive and controlling deal-breaker for Jolie,” X-C ¶ 39, not her character.

20 Fifth and finally, Jolie cannot meet her burden to “establish a legally protected privacy

21 interest, an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the given circumstances, and a

22 threatened intrusion that is serious,” Williams v. Superior Ct., 3 Cal. 5th 531, 552 (2017),

23 particularly given that the operative Protective Order in this case allows her to designate the

24 information as confidential and thereby avoid its improper distribution or filing to the public

25 docket, see Alch v. Superior Ct., 165 Cal. App. 4th 1412, 1432 (2008). Jolie has not offered any

26 declaration or actual evidence concerning what information exists in these NDAs, let alone
27 “specifically identified” a constitutionally protected privacy interest for herself or for third parties,

28 as she is required to do in the first instance. Hill v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Assn., 7 Cal. 4th 1, 37
32
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 (1994). And as for Jolie’s claim for the first time in Opposition that the NDAs may “include

2 Jolie’s compensation or compensation she paid to third parties,” Opp. at 17, Jolie does not cite a

3 single case showing that she (or the third parties) have a privacy right to such information—which

4 is routinely produced in commercial disputes, which would here be subject to a strict protective

5 order, and which Jolie could have asked during the parties’ meet-and-confer negotiations to

6 produce in redacted form, but chose not to.

7 Further, even if Jolie had satisfied her burden to establish that the requested documents

8 contain information that would pose a serious intrusion upon legally recognized privacy rights if

9 produced pursuant to the operative Protective Order—and she did not—Jolie would also have to

10 “show[] that the [documents] cannot successfully be redacted” to eliminate that risk of “serious”

11 invasion. Snibbe v. Superior Ct., 224 Cal. App. 4th 184, 194–96 (2014); Overstock.com, Inc. v.

12 Goldman Sachs Grp., Inc., 231 Cal. App. 4th 471, 508 (2014) (approving of redaction to protect

13 privacy rights). Jolie has not even tried to do this—indeed, when Plaintiffs suggested during

14 meet-and-confer negotiations that Jolie may redact personally identifying information of third

15 parties (at least in the first instance, and then the parties can meet and confer, if necessary, about

16 such redactions), Jolie rejected that offer too. See Cherlow Decl., Ex. 5 at 2, n.1; id. Ex. 6 at 1.

17 Because Jolie has not “specifically identified” a “serious invasion” of privacy rights at

18 stake, let alone explained why redactions and the protective order would not resolve any concern,

19 she cannot withhold the documents based on privacy rights either. Hill, 7 Cal. 4th at 37; Snibbe,

20 224 Cal. App. 4th at 194–96; Alch, 165 Cal. App. 4th at 1427.

21 REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 4:

22 All DOCUMENTS and COMMUNICATIONS CONCERNING the reasons that YOU,

23 any entity YOU control, or any PERSON acting on YOUR behalf, requested or proposed that any

24 other PERSON sign or agree to any non-disclosure or nondisparagement agreements, including

25 non-disclosure or non-disparagement agreements that were never signed or agreed to.

26 JOLIE’S RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 4:


27 In addition to the general objections, Jolie objects to this request on the following grounds:

28 (a) the use of the term “concerning,” standing alone and as defined by Plaintiffs, renders the
33
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 request grossly overbroad in time and scope; (b) the request is overbroad as any non-disclosure

2 and non-disparagement agreements other than those between Jolie and Pitt entered after Pitt’s

3 physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children have no relevance to this case; (c) the

4 request seeks documents protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege, the work

5 product doctrine; and (d) for the parties to any such agreements, the request seeks documents

6 protected from disclosure by their rights of privacy under the Constitution of the State of

7 California.

8 Subject to the foregoing general and specific objections, Jolie responds as follows: Jolie

9 will produce any non-privileged documents and communications discussing or referencing Jolie’s

10 reasons for entering into proposed or entered non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements

11 between Jolie and Pitt, entered after Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children,

12 regarding their personal conduct.

13 PLAINTIFFS’ FACTUAL AND LEGAL REASONS FOR COMPELLING FURTHER

14 RESPONSE AND PRODUCTION:

15 As an initial matter, Jolie objects that the defined term “CONCERNING” renders this

16 Request grossly overbroad in time and scope. For avoidance of doubt, this Request seeks only

17 documents that set forth or explicitly reference Jolie’s reasons for entering or agreeing to NDAs

18 during the same time period for which she has agreed to produce documents in response to other

19 requests—not all documents that could conceivably relate to her thought process at the time, let

20 alone those concerning the underlying facts of events that may be covered by the NDAs.

21 The defined term “YOU” refers here to the Defendant, Angelina Jolie. The sole question

22 before the Court in connection with this Request, therefore, is whether Jolie’s non-disclosure

23 and/or non-disparagement agreements with third parties are relevant or likely to lead to the

24 discovery of admissible evidence in this lawsuit.11 The answer is “yes.”

25
11
Jolie did not object and has not contended that it would be unduly burdensome to produce these
26 documents. Nor has she proffered any evidence of the “quantum of work required” to make such
a production as required to sustain such an objection. See Williams, 3 Cal. 5th at 549 (“[T]he
27
party opposing discovery has an obligation to supply the basis for this determination. An
28 ‘objection based upon burden must be sustained by evidence showing the quantum of work
34
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Jolie—not Pitt—places an oversized emphasis on the importance of non-disparagement

2 clauses in this lawsuit. For example, to rationalize her wrongful refusal to sell her indirect interest

3 in Château Miraval to Pitt, Jolie alleges that “the deal [for Pitt to purchase her stake in Château

4 Miraval] fell apart because Pitt demanded Jolie agree to a non-disparagement clause covering his

5 personal conduct as a condition of his purchase of the winery.” X-C ¶ 39. Jolie asserts that this

6 issue “goes to the very heart of this case,” and she seeks a declaratory judgment that Pitt’s request

7 rendered “unconscionable, void, and against public policy” the former couple’s implied-in-fact

8 contract providing that each of them would have a consent right over any sale to a third party. Id.

9 ¶¶ 39, 42(c). Jolie also recently filed her own Motion to Compel in which she claims that Pitt and

10 his winemaker partner Perrin’s suggested non-disclosure provision was “cruel,” “hurtful,” caused

11 her to “nearly shutdown,” and was the reason she terminated her negotiations to sell her indirect

12 interest in the winery to Pitt. Pitt, for his part, asserts that these claims are pretextual.

13 To probe the veracity of this NDA defense at “the very heart of” Jolie’s case, Pitt served

14 this Request seeking a narrow set of documents setting forth or referring to the reasons why Jolie

15 proactively requested NDAs from third parties. These documents are probative of whether Jolie

16 actually viewed the provision requested by Pitt and Perrin as an “abusive and controlling deal-

17 breaker” that released her of any contractual obligations to Pitt. Jolie unsurprisingly wants to

18 shield these documents from discovery, and therefore agreed to produce only those NDAs, if any,

19 between Jolie and Pitt themselves.12 Jolie adamantly refuses to produce other NDAs that she

20 willingly entered into during the relevant time period, presumably because she knows they will

21 severely undermine her defenses.

22 Specifically, these documents setting forth or referring to the reasons why Jolie proactively

23

24 required.’”). Further, Jolie’s boilerplate objections that the Request calls for information protected
by the attorney/client privilege, the attorney work product doctrine, and/or the right to privacy
25 might justify redacting or withholding certain documents—but these objections cannot justify her
flat refusal to produce responsive documents.
26
12
In the meet-and-confer process preceding this Motion, Jolie agreed to produce documents
27
concerning “NDAs discussed or entered” and/or “entered or proposed between Mr. Pitt and
28 Ms. Jolie.” Ex. 4 at 1–2 (emphases added); see also Ex. 6 at 1–2.
35
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 requested NDAs from third parties are probative of Jolie’s views about the many legitimate

2 reasons for entering into NDAs—for instance, to avoid negative publicity that could harm a

3 business (i.e., the very reason that Pitt pleads he and Perrin sought the non-disparagement

4 provisions at issue here). Evidence that Jolie entered into NDAs covering similar subjects for

5 similar reasons as Pitt would undermine her contention that Pitt’s request rendered their implied-

6 in-fact contract unconscionable as a matter of public policy, a defense that is legally deficient in

7 any event, but which Jolie submits is at “the very heart of the case.” Accordingly, these

8 documents should be produced.

9 Jolie nonetheless bases her objection on her alleged subjective belief that the non-

10 disparagement provision requested by Pitt was uniquely objectionable because it would have

11 covered (broadly speaking) the details of the parties’ relationship. But this argument goes to the

12 probative weight of the documents requested, not the relevance, and accordingly has no place at

13 the discovery phase. Nor is the Request overbroad or excessive. Rather, it is laser-focused on the

14 NDAs themselves, a narrow set of documents that are readily available to Jolie.

15 The Request is reasonably calculated to lead to discovery of documents that will test

16 whether Jolie was truly so offended by the proposed NDA and her claim that she was entitled to

17 breach her contract with Pitt and improperly sell to the Stoli Parties, or whether (as Pitt believes

18 these documents will help show) her defense is pure pretext. “That is enough to justify

19 discovery.” Lipton, 48 Cal. App. 4th at 1616.

20 JOLIE’S RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFFS’ FACTUAL AND LEGAL REASONS FOR

21 COMPELLING FURTHER RESPONSE AND PRODUCTION:

22 As the moving party seeking to compel the production of documents, Pitt has the burden to

23 make a “fact-specific showing of relevance” concerning the documents he seeks. Glenfed Dev.

24 Corp. v. Superior Court, 53 Cal.App.4th 1113, 1117 (1997). In RFP No. 4, Pitt seeks to compel

25 the production of over 16 years’ worth of “documents and communications” about contracts where

26 Jolie, any of her companies, or her agents, proposed to include an NDA in a contract, whether that
27 contract was ever executed or not—specifically demanding every document reflecting the reason

28 why Jolie and her businesses sought or agreed to an NDA with any person over this time period.
36
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 According to Pitt, Jolie’s and her businesses’ reasons for requesting other NDAs from other

2 people about other matters will probe whether Jolie was genuinely offended by Pitt asking for an

3 NDA that prohibited Jolie from personally speaking about abuse she and their children suffered at

4 Pitt’s hands. Even farther removed are actual and draft NDAs with vendors and service

5 professional for Jolie’s businesses and business interests.

6 But Pitt’s argument is a non-sequitur. Its most obvious problem is that it attempts to equate

7 reasons Jolie and her businesses requested NDAs that do not cover Pitt’s abuse of their family

8 with the NDA Pitt himself demanded to cover-up his own abuse of Jolie and their children. There

9 is no connection between them at all—none. For this reason, these communications about other

10 NDAs Jolie requested do not probe Jolie’s veracity regarding the impact of Pitt’s proposed NDA

11 in any way. And contrary to Pitt’s suggestion, Jolie does not contend in her Cross-Complaint that

12 all NDAs are bad or problematic, and she does not seek such a blanket ruling in this case. To the

13 contrary, Jolie was at all times agreeable to the original NDA Pitt proposed that was limited to the

14 winery. It was only after Pitt changed the language to cover his personal abuse of the family that

15 Jolie objected. Indeed, there is a stark difference between an NDA Jolie or her businesses

16 proposed or entered with a movie studio, vendor, service professional or an employee, and the

17 last-minute, expanded NDA her abusive ex-husband tried to force her to sign to bury his criminal

18 conduct.

19 Pitt’s related argument that Jolie asking others to enter NDAs covering aspects of her

20 private life is probative of Pitt asking Jolie to be silent about criminal conduct he committed is a

21 false equivalence. If Jolie hired someone to prepare meals for her family inside her home and

22 asked that person to enter an NDA so the person would not disclose to the tabloids what her

23 family ate every day (Motion at 14), that particular NDA has no relevance to how Jolie felt when

24 Pitt asked her to sign an NDA silencing her from speaking about her own life and the painful

25 events she experienced at Pitt’s hands.

26 Pitt’s request for the documents fails for other reasons as well. The law is clear that “courts
27 shall limit the scope of discovery if it determines that the burden, expense, or intrusiveness of that

28 discovery clearly outweighs the likelihood that the information sought will lead to the discovery of
37
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 admissible evidence.” C.C.P. § 2017.020. Here, the burden, expense, and intrusiveness of Jolie

2 having to gather and produce nearly two decades of documents and communications clearly

3 outweighs clearly outweighs the likelihood that the information sought will lead to the discovery

4 of admissible evidence. Moreover, if the Court concludes that the evidence is relevant and

5 admissible, this will then result in a series of mini-trials for each and every contract Pitt hopes to

6 use. The Court is never going to allow such mini-trials. As a result, the documents are not only

7 irrelevant, but they are also not likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

8 In fact, Pitt’s proposed argument is going to be barred by Evidence Code sections 786, 787

9 and 1101(a). Section 786 states that evidence “of traits of his character other than honesty or

10 veracity, or their opposites, is inadmissible to attack or support the credibility of a witness.”

11 Section 787 states that, aside from prior felony convictions, “Evidence of specific instances of his

12 conduct relevant only as tending to prove a trait of his character is inadmissible to attack or

13 support the credibility of a witness.” And Section 1101(a) states that “evidence of a person’s

14 character or a trait of his or her character (whether in the form of an opinion, evidence of

15 reputation, or evidence of specific instances of his or her conduct) is inadmissible when offered to

16 prove his or her conduct on a specified occasion.” Pitt’s theory is barred by each of these sections

17 of the Evidence Code. He will not be able to use prior instances of Jolie’s and her businesses’

18 conduct (requesting NDAs from other people about other matters) to prove that she should have

19 been fine with agreeing to his abusive NDA too.

20 Further, Pitt’s request is also overbroad as to time and scope. It seeks all documents and

21 communications about all NDAs Jolie requested from January 1, 2007 through the present, but

22 Jolie contends the NDA Pitt proposed was problematic because it attempted to bury Pitt’s abuse.

23 There is no relevance to contracts she entered into with other people about issues unrelated to the

24 abuse. At best, Pitt is entitled to any NDAs Jolie entered with Pitt, which Jolie has agreed to give.

25 Anything else is overbroad as to time and scope.

26 Pitt’s demand for nearly two decades worth of communications also intrudes on Jolie’s
27 right of privacy. When assessing a claimed privacy right, the “privacy interests [must] be

28 specifically identified and carefully comparted with competing or countervailing privacy and
38
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 nonprivacy interests in a balancing test.” Hill v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 7 Cal.4th 37-38

2 (1994). As a starting point, courts must first “place the burden on the party asserting a privacy

3 interest to establish its extent and seriousness of the prospective invasion, and against that showing

4 must weigh the countervailing interest the opposing party identifies.” Williams v. Superior Court,

5 3 Cal.5th 531, 557 (2017). “In weighing the privacy interests of the third party, the trial court

6 should consider the nature of the information sought, its inherent intrusiveness, and any specific

7 showing for a need for privacy, including any harm that disclosure of the information might

8 cause.” In re Marriage of Williamson, 226 Cal.App.4th 1303, 1319 (2014).

9 Here, most, if not all, of these documents and communications will concern employment-

10 related contracts that include Jolie’s compensation or compensation she or her businesses paid to

11 third parties. These third parties have their own privacy rights. Pitt has not even offered to give

12 any form of notice whatsoever to these third-parties to allow them the opportunity to protect their

13 rights, nor does he acknowledge that these other persons and entities have privacy rights here.

14 Against this sensitive information, Pitt has little countervailing interest in obtaining these

15 documents. Moreover, any negligible relevance is greatly outweighed by Pitt’s intrusion into

16 Jolie’s and these third parties’ privacy rights, with the balance in favor of protecting privacy

17 rights—made all the more problematic by the fact that such evidence has virtually no chance of

18 being admitted at trial.

19 Pitt wants to argue that because over the last two decades, Jolie and her businesses

20 proposed or entered NDAs with other people, she could not have been bothered by the NDA Pitt

21 demanded she sign. But each and every one of these other NDAs involve separate people,

22 different interests, and unique facts. None will involve NDAs that prohibit Jolie from speaking

23 about Pitt’s abuse of her and their children. Forcing Jolie to spend the time and expense of

24 gathering and producing all of this documentation is expensive, wasteful, and unreasonable—and

25 the latest manifestation of Pitt’s abusive conduct toward Jolie. The Court should not allow it.

26 PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY IN SUPPORT OF THEIR MOTION TO COMPEL FURTHER


27 RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION IN CONNECTION WITH REQUEST NO. 4:

28 Jolie argues that the Request seeks information about NDAs with “other people and
39
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 entities, about other matters not in any way connected with” the allegations she has made against

2 Pitt, which thus are not “comparable” to the proposed Pitt NDA and are therefore categorically

3 irrelevant. Opp. at 5. She also argues that even if the documents sought are relevant, it would be

4 improper to order production because “[b]y their nature,” the Request “seriously invade[s] Jolie’s

5 privacy and the privacy rights of third parties.” Opp. at 17. Her arguments fail for at least the

6 following reasons.13

7 First, Jolie’s overly narrow relevance framing is not supported by any evidence. Jolie

8 admits that she possesses responsive NDAs with “studios, sponsors, service professionals,

9 employees, and independent contractors (among others) over nearly two decades of [her] career.”

10 Opp. at 14. But Jolie offers nothing to back up her argument that there is a “stark and obvious

11 contrast” between these NDAs and the NDA proposed by Pitt and Perrin, on which her defense

12 hinges—no declaration, no information about the terms of these other NDAs, no description of the

13 “others” with whom she has entered into NDAs, and no evidence of what type of conduct these

14 NDAs covered. This is insufficient to meet Jolie’s burden to “justify [her] objection” following

15 the “fact-specific showing of relevance” made by Pitt in his Motion. Kirkland v. Sup. Ct., 95 Cal.

16 App. 4th 92, 98 (2002).

17 In fact, the limited information currently available to Pitt squarely contradicts Jolie’s

18 position that her use of NDAs is not “remotely comparable” to her allegations that “Pitt was

19 attempting to leverage his purchase of Miraval into silencing Jolie.” Opp. at 15. For example, the

20 concurrently filed Declaration of Tony Webb reveals that Jolie is the one who has weaponized

21 NDAs in an effort to prevent an open airing of the couple’s family issues—the very thing that

22 Jolie claims was so sacred to her that Pitt’s proposed NDA caused her to renege on her deal to sell

23 to him. See Webb Decl. ¶¶ 2, 4–9 (averring that after the couple divorced and went to family

24 court, Mr. Webb received multiple calls from Jolie’s representative, who told Mr. Webb to remind

25
13
Jolie’s lip-service arguments as to burden are waived and should be wholly disregarded because
26 she never objected to the Request on the ground that searching for responsive documents would
impose a burden, and she has not provided any “evidence showing the quantum of work required”
27
to search for the documents, as required to sustain a burden objection even if one existed.
28 Williams v. Sup. Ct., 3 Cal. 5th 531, 549 (2017) (emphasis added).
40
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 his staff that they had entered into NDAs with Jolie and that if they testified in a custody

2 proceeding, Jolie would sue them—and after they did so, Jolie fired Mr. Webb’s company).

3 Jolie’s use of NDAs to silence her security detail and attempt to prevent them from

4 testifying truthfully in court about what actually happened behind closed doors bears a striking

5 resemblance to Jolie’s (false) allegations in this case that Pitt improperly used an NDA to

6 “silenc[e]” her. Yet, without presenting any evidence, Jolie asks this Court to find that “[t]here is

7 no connection between them at all—none,” Opp. SSUF at 22, and in doing so, deny Pitt’s Motion.

8 This unsupported and clearly incorrect conclusion is not credible, and Pitt should be entitled to

9 obtain the additional evidence at issue here to further undermine Jolie’s NDA defense.

10 Second, whether this discovery ultimately makes it more likely or less likely that Jolie is

11 telling the truth about why she abandoned the sale of her interest in Miraval to Pitt is not a

12 determination to be made on a motion to compel—because either way, the NDAs and related

13 documents at issue here are likely to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence about that

14 disputed issue. Under California’s broad discovery standards, the documents and information

15 sought by this Motion are relevant and therefore discoverable because they have “any tendency in

16 reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact that is of consequence to the determination of the

17 action.” Evid. Code § 210; Lipton v. Superior Ct., 48 Cal. App. 4th 1599, 1612 (1996) (“The

18 scope of permissible discovery is one of reason, logic and common sense.”).

19 More specifically, if Jolie intends to rely on the proposed NDA as a defense to the breach

20 of her obligations and her decision to abandon the transaction she and Pitt had been negotiating,

21 that is an ultimate question for the finder of fact to decide based on its own assessments and

22 conclusions (assuming arguendo that Jolie’s defense is legally viable at all). City of King City v.

23 Cmty. Bank of Cent. California, 131 Cal. App. 4th 913, 936 (“Any evidence refuting [party’s]

24 claims as pleaded was not only material, but potentially dispositive—and eminently

25 discoverable,” emphasis original); X-C ¶ 39 (“Why this non-disparagement clause was so

26 important to Pitt—and an abusive and controlling deal-breaker for Jolie—goes to the very heart of
27 this case.”); Opp. at 5:6–8 (“[W]hat happened in the intervening months” between February and

28 June 15, 2021 “is hotly disputed,” and “[a]t trial, the jury will have to resolve this important
41
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 factual dispute.”). And for Pitt to present this additional evidence to the ultimate finder of fact, he,

2 of course, needs to first obtain it from Jolie.

3 Even to the extent that “Jolie sought NDAs from third parties to protect her own business

4 interests,” Opp. at 16, these documents are relevant in assessing whether this NDA was

5 “unconscionable.” Jolie argues otherwise, repeating her refrain that “[t]hese are other contracts

6 with other parties about other matters.” Id. But for public figures, the line between business

7 interests and personal conduct is often blurred. Public figures often seek or sign non-disclosure

8 and non-disparagement agreements with terms that may appear onerous to others, in large part, to

9 protect their personal brands and businesses with which they are closely affiliated from costly

10 reputational harm. Indeed, Jolie’s counsel stated in correspondence that Jolie understood that “the

11 primary if not sole concern” that Pitt and Perrin expressed when they allegedly stepped back from

12 deal negotiations was “how this situation might affect a business.” Cherlow Decl., Ex. 8 at 2

13 (emphasis added). Likewise, while Jolie asserts that NDAs with sponsors can never be relevant,

14 Opp. at 14, if those NDAs also contained provisions related to her personal conduct—particularly

15 in connection with a morality clause—it would be probative of the extent to which Jolie truly

16 perceived the proposed NDA at issue in this case as unconscionable or whether she in fact

17 understood that Pitt and his business partner Perrin were seeking the NDA to protect the value of

18 the business that they were buying in full.

19 Documents regarding the circumstances of Jolie’s NDAs with third parties are also highly

20 relevant for so long as Jolie is permitted to raise this defense. For example, if Jolie signed NDAs

21 with third parties that limited her (or others’) ability to speak about actual or potential misconduct

22 similar to what she alleges against here against Pitt, and she signed those NDAs after the conduct

23 occurred, a jury would be less likely to credit her purported justification for breaching the parties’

24 agreement not to sell their interests without the other’s consent. Again, this is not mere

25 speculation: After Jolie sold her interests in Miraval to Stoli claiming that the NDA proposed by

26 Pitt’s counsel was ”emotionally devastating,” her divorce lawyer proposed an even broader NDA
27 in connection with resolution of the family court proceeding that would have further limited her

28 “freedom to speak.” But if Jolie gets her way, Pitt will never even discover whether such NDAs
42
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 exist, let alone present them to a jury.

2 Third, Jolie’s blanket “nothing is comparable” argument has been rejected in several

3 analogous cases. E.g., Davies v. Superior Ct., 36 Cal. 3d 291, 301 (1984) (state records

4 concerning other accidents on a highway that accident victim contended was dangerous are

5 “relevant to the subject matter of a lawsuit arising out of another accident at the same location, and

6 may aid in the parties’ preparation for trial,” notwithstanding state’s “extraordinary” argument to

7 the contrary); Colonial Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Superior Ct., 31 Cal. 3d 785, 790–91 (1982)

8 (because plaintiff could establish a claim by showing that the acts at issue were a general business

9 practice, “[d]iscovery aimed at determining the frequency of alleged unfair settlement practices is

10 therefore likely to produce evidence directly relevant to the action,” notwithstanding the insurer’s

11 “patently meritless” objections); Lopez v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc’y of New York, Inc., 246

12 Cal. App. 4th 566, 593 (2016) (“[T]he fact that the other . . . incidents may have been different

13 from the one that allegedly occurred here does not mean the other perpetrator evidence was not

14 discoverable.”). In other words, because the documents deal with a subject of consequence to the

15 determination of the action, and one which Jolie herself has injected into the matter, the question

16 of “comparability” is not for Jolie to decide, and Jolie’s subjective position on the issue should not

17 bar production here.

18 In short, establishing that NDAs are a commonplace feature of Jolie’s personal and

19 professional life, and entirely routine for her, goes directly to the credibility of her defense—

20 regardless of the precise terms or subject matter of any one particular NDA.

21 Fourth, Jolie’s argument that “specific past instances of Jolie’s conduct to prove her

22 conduct on this occasion is . . . barred by Evidence Code sections 786, 787, and 1101(a)[,]” (Opp.

23 at 18 n.2), misses the mark. None of those provisions are applicable here—section 786 deals only

24 with “[e]vidence of traits of [] character,” section 787 deals only with “evidence of specific

25 instances of [] conduct relevant only as tending to prove a trait of [] character,” and section

26 1101(a) deals only with “evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his or her character.” Jolie’s
27 use of NDAs plainly is not evidence of her “propensity or tendency to act in a certain way under

28 certain circumstances.” Cal. Prac. Guide Civ. Trials & Ev. Ch. 8E-E (emphasis original); cf.
43
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Evid. Code § 1105 (evidence of a person’s “habit or custom” is admissible). The evidence sought

2 here goes to the merits of Jolie’s factual contention that she viewed Pitt and Perrin’s request for an

3 NDA as “an abusive and controlling deal-breaker for Jolie,” X-C ¶ 39, not her character.

4 Fifth and finally, Jolie cannot meet her burden to “establish a legally protected privacy

5 interest, an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the given circumstances, and a

6 threatened intrusion that is serious,” Williams v. Superior Ct., 3 Cal. 5th 531, 552 (2017),

7 particularly given that the operative Protective Order in this case allows her to designate the

8 information as confidential and thereby avoid its improper distribution or filing to the public

9 docket, see Alch v. Superior Ct., 165 Cal. App. 4th 1412, 1432 (2008). Jolie has not offered any

10 declaration or actual evidence concerning what information exists in these NDAs, let alone

11 “specifically identified” a constitutionally protected privacy interest for herself or for third parties,

12 as she is required to do in the first instance. Hill v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Assn., 7 Cal. 4th 1, 37

13 (1994). And as for Jolie’s claim for the first time in Opposition that the NDAs may “include

14 Jolie’s compensation or compensation she paid to third parties,” Opp. at 17, Jolie does not cite a

15 single case showing that she (or the third parties) have a privacy right to such information—which

16 is routinely produced in commercial disputes, which would here be subject to a strict protective

17 order, and which Jolie could have asked during the parties’ meet-and-confer negotiations to

18 produce in redacted form, but chose not to.

19 Further, even if Jolie had satisfied her burden to establish that the requested documents

20 contain information that would pose a serious intrusion upon legally recognized privacy rights if

21 produced pursuant to the operative Protective Order—and she did not—Jolie would also have to

22 “show[] that the [documents] cannot successfully be redacted” to eliminate that risk of “serious”

23 invasion. Snibbe v. Superior Ct., 224 Cal. App. 4th 184, 194–96 (2014); Overstock.com, Inc. v.

24 Goldman Sachs Grp., Inc., 231 Cal. App. 4th 471, 508 (2014) (approving of redaction to protect

25 privacy rights). Jolie has not even tried to do this—indeed, when Plaintiffs suggested during

26 meet-and-confer negotiations that Jolie may redact personally identifying information of third
27 parties (at least in the first instance, and then the parties can meet and confer, if necessary, about

28 such redactions), Jolie rejected that offer too. See Cherlow Decl., Ex. 5 at 2, n.1; id. Ex. 6 at 1.
44
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 Because Jolie has not “specifically identified” a “serious invasion” of privacy rights at

2 stake, let alone explained why redactions and the protective order would not resolve any concern,

3 she cannot withhold the documents based on privacy rights either. Hill, 7 Cal. 4th at 37; Snibbe,

4 224 Cal. App. 4th at 194–96; Alch, 165 Cal. App. 4th at 1427.

6 DATED: May 9, 2024 Respectfully submitted,

7
By: /s/ John V. Berlinski
8
John V. Berlinski
9
BIRD, MARELLA, RHOW,
10 LINCENBERG, DROOKS & NESSIM, LLP
John V. Berlinski (State Bar No. 208537)
11 Julia B. Cherlow (State Bar No. 290538)
12
WACHTELL, LIPTON, ROSEN & KATZ
13 Jonathan M. Moses (admitted pro hac vice)
Adam L. Goodman (admitted pro hac vice)
14 Jessica L. Layden (admitted pro hac vice)
15 Attorneys for Plaintiffs and Cross-Defendants
16 William B. Pitt and Mondo Bongo, LLC

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26
27

28
45
PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL
FURTHER RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA JOLIE
1 PROOF OF SERVICE

2 Pitt v. Jolie
Case No. 22STCV06081
3
STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
4
At the time of service, I was over 18 years of age and not a party to this action. I am
5 employed in the County of Los Angeles, State of California. My business address is 1875 Century
Park East, 23rd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90067-2561.
6
On May 9, 2024, I served the following document(s) described as PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY
7 SEPARATE STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO COMPEL FURTHER
RESPONSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS FROM DEFENDANT ANGELINA
8 JOLIE on the interested parties in this action as follows:

9 SEE ATTACHED SERVICE LIST

10 BY E-MAIL OR ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION: I caused the document(s) to be


sent from email address kminutelli@birdmarella.com to the persons at the e-mail addresses listed
11 in the Service List. I did not receive, within a reasonable time after the transmission, any
electronic message or other indication that the transmission was unsuccessful.
12
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the
13 foregoing is true and correct.

14 Executed on May 9, 2024, at Los Angeles, California.

15

16 /s/ Karen M. Minutelli


Karen M. Minutelli
17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26
27

28

46
PROOF OF SERVICE
1 SERVICE LIST
Pitt v. Jolie
2 Case No. 22STCV06081

3 Paul D. Murphy Laura W. Brill


Daniel N. Csillag Daniel Barlava
4 MURPHY ROSEN LLP Matthew Bernstein
100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1300 KENDALL BRILL & KELLY LLP
5 Santa Monica, CA 90401 10100 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 1725
Telephone: (310) 899-3300 Los Angeles, CA 90067-4013
6 Email: pmurphy@murphyrosen.com Telephone: (310) 556-2700
Email: dcsillag@murphyrosen.com Email: lbrill@kbkfirm.com
7 Counsel for Defendant and Cross- Email: dbarlava@kbkfirm.com
Complainant Angelina Jolie Email: mbernstein@kbkfirm.com
8 Counsel appearing specially to challenge
jurisdiction on behalf of Cross-Defendants
9 Roland Venturini and Gary Bradbury

10 Joe Tuffaha Keith R. Hummel


Prashanth Chennakesavan Justin C. Clarke
11 LTL ATTORNEYS LLP Jonathan Mooney
300 South Grand Avenue, Suite 1400 CRAVATH, SWAINE & MOORE LLP
12 Los Angeles, CA 90071 Worldwide Plaza
Telephone: (213) 612-8900 825 Eighth Avenue
13 Email: joe.tuffaha@ltlattorneys.com New York, NY 10019
Email: Telephone: (212) 474-1000
14 prashanth.chennakesavan@ltlattorneys.com Email: khummel@cravath.com
Counsel for Defendant and Cross- Email: jcclarke@cravath.com
15 Complainant Nouvel, LLC and Defendant Email: jmooney@cravath.com
Tenute del Mondo B.V. and specially Counsel for Defendant and Cross-
16 appearing to challenge jurisdiction on behalf Complainant Nouvel, LLC and Defendant
of Defendants Yuri Shefler and Alexey Tenute del Mondo B.V. and specially
17 Olivnik appearing to challenge jurisdiction on behalf
of Defendants Yuri Shefler and Alexey
18 Olivnik
19 Mark Drooks S. Gale Dick
BIRD, MARELLA, RHOW, LINCENBERG, Phoebe King
20 DROOKS & NESSIM, LLP Randall Bryer
1875 Century Park East, 23rd Floor COHEN & GRESSER LLP
21 Los Angeles, CA 90067-2561 800 Third Avenue
Telephone: 310 201-2100 New York, NY 10022
22 Email: mdrooks@birdmarella.com Telephone: (212) 707-7263
Counsel appearing specially to challenge Email: SGDick@CohenGresser.com
23 jurisdiction on behalf of Cross-Defendants Email: PKing@CohenGresser.com
Marc-Olivier Perrin, SAS Miraval Provence, Email: rbryer@cohengresser.com
24 Familles Perrin, SAS Petrichor, Vins et Counsel appearing specially to challenge
Domaines Perrin SC, SASU Le Domaine, and jurisdiction on behalf of Cross-Defendants
25 SAS Distilleries de la Riviera Marc-Olivier Perrin, SAS Miraval Provence,
Familles Perrin, SAS Petrichor, Vins et
26 Domaines Perrin SC, SASU Le Domaine,
and SAS Distilleries de la Riviera
27

28

47
PROOF OF SERVICE

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