Actress Angelina Jolie and actor Brad Pitt are pictured in these June 7, 2005 file photos taken in Los Angeles, California. - REUTERS
SANTA MONICA, California (AP):
A JUDGE granted a request yesterday by actress Angelina Jolie to change the names of her two adopted children to reflect that actor Brad Pitt intends to become their adoptive father.
Neither Jolie nor Pitt attended the hearing.
Superior Court Judge Linda Lefkowitz approved the motion during a closed hearing about a month after lawyers for Jolie filed the paperwork.
"The court granted the name change," attorney Evan Spiegel, who represents the actress, told reporters outside court. He did not take questions.
Pitt's publicist, Cindy Guagenti, said on January 11 that Jolie is pregnant with Pitt's child.
The names of the adopted
children will become Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt and Maddox Chivan Jolie-Pitt. Zahara celebrated her first birthday on January 8. Maddox, a boy, is four.
The 41-year-old actor accompanied Jolie, his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star, when she went to Ethiopia in July to adopt Zahara.
In 2002, Jolie adopted Maddox in Cambodia, where she filmed Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
SPLITTING WITH JENNIFER
Pitt divorced Jennifer Aniston last October after four and a half years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. He has denied Jolie was behind the split and for months the couple did not publicly acknowledge their relationship, despite increasingly frequent sightings together.
Jolie, who won an Oscar for her supporting role in 1999's Girl, Interrupted, is divorced from actors Billy Bob Thornton and Jonny Lee Miller.
