• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Pitt-Jolie Guard Manhandles Photographer

Posted on: Sunday, 8 October 2006, 09:00 CDT

NEW DELHI - A bodyguard for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie manhandled a British photographer as he tried to take their picture at a hotel in western India, an incident caught on video by an Indian television station.

Pitt and Jolie are in Pune to shoot scenes for a movie about the life of the slain journalist Daniel Pearl.

The celebrity couple have been holed up at the city's Le Meridian hotel since arriving late week, presumably trying to avoid the horde of photographers, reporters and cameramen camped outside.

On Saturday afternoon, when Pitt and Jolie tried to leave the hotel, one of their security guards caught a British photographer trying to take their photo, grabbing the man by his neck and verbally abusing him.

Video of the incident was broadcast on India's CNN-IBN news channel, and the Hindustan Times newspaper identified the photographer as Sam Relph of Barcroft Media.

The newspaper reported that the security guard had shouted at photographers to stop shooting the couple and moved for Relph when he refused to put down his camera.

"He said if I took his pictures he would kill me," the Times quoted Relph as saying. "I couldn't breathe. He had his fingers on my windpipe and he knew what he was doing."

Two Indian journalists also complained that they too had been threatened by the same security guard, who was not identified in the report.

The couple are reportedly scheduled on Monday to start shooting scenes for "A Mighty Heart," in which Jolie plays Pearl's widow, Mariane.

The movie is based on an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl," and will be co-produced by Plan B, a production company founded by Pitt and his ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

More News in this Category