The Harry Potter actor will star alongside Ashley Greene and Sebastian Stan.

Claim of separation 'false as well as intrusive', say lawyers, as Pitt and Jolie begin action in London high court

As Hollywood's most famous power ­couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are used to every aspect of their life together being dissected in the world's media, whether it's rumours over yet another adoption, the meaning of a new tattoo, or their feelings about the other's exes.

But when the News of the World ran a front page story last month declaring the couple were splitting up after six years and as many children, and dividing their £205m joint fortune, the pair decided enough was enough, and wrote to the paper to demand an apology for these "false and intrusive allegations".

The tabloid refused to retract the story, or apologise, according to Pitt and Jolie's lawyers, and so yesterday the actors decided to sue. The couple "unequivocally" say that the story was false, and appear to be suing not for just for libel, but also for "misuse of private information", or privacy.

The action comes two years after the News of the World lost its privacy battle with Max Mosley when a high court judge ruled the F1 boss had a right to keep private his adventures with five dominatrices.

Pitt and Jolie began their legal action in the high court in London against News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary which publishes the News of the World. News Group is owned by Rupert Murdoch – as is 20th Century Fox, which made Mr and Mrs Smith, the film that gave the setting for Pitt and Jolie's blossoming love affair six years ago.

Keith Schilling of Schillings, their London lawyers, said yesterday the allegations had been reproduced in other newspapers. "The News of the World has failed to meet our clients' reasonable demands for a retraction of and apology for these false and intrusive allegations, which have now been widely republished by mainstream news outlets. We have advised them to bring proceedings, which they have now done."

Schillings said the News of the World article contravened the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct, which states that a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion "once recognised must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and – where appropriate – an apology published".

The law firm added that publication amounted to a serious misuse of private information; it was not required to disclose whether the information was true or false. "However in this case we can confirm unequivocally, and upon instructions, that the allegations published by the News of the World are false as well as intrusive," the firm said.

The News of the World alleged on 24 January that the couple visited a lawyer to begin thrashing out a separation deal and that, last month, they signed a deal to divide their wealth. The article also claimed their children would live with Jolie but Pitt would have visitation rights; the separation would occur imminently.

Pitt and Jolie have three adopted children – Maddox, eight, Pax, six, and Zahara, five – as well as Shiloh, three, and 17-month-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

Schillings also said some media reports falsely identified a woman called Sorrell Trope as the couple's lawyer. Trope gave a statement to Schillings saying: "I have had no contact from .... Angelina Jolie and/or Brad Pitt. I have never met your ... ­clients or had any involvement with either of them. The foregoing is true with respect to all other members of this firm".

The News of the World's story went round the world but was rubbished by news outlets such as TMZ.com, which broke news of Michael Jackson's death, and US celebrity magazine People.

Pitt and Jolie have never married. Pitt divorced Jennifer Aniston, in 2005 after five years of marriage. Jolie has been married twice, to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton; both marriages ended in divorce.

A spokeswoman for the News of the World declined to comment.

In his action against the paper in 2008, Mosley was awarded £60,000 damages, after the judge, Mr Justice Eady, ruled: "The law now affords protection to information in respect of which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, even in circumstances where there is no pre-existing relationship giving rise of itself to an enforceable duty of confidence."

When celebrity scoops have turned sour

In 2008, the Daily Star had to apologise for a story headlined: "It's Sven Giggle Eriksson. Laughing boss still a hit with the ladies." The story said the former England manager "put on an irresistible charm show" as women queued to meet him. "Sven got so carried away with one ... that his hand appeared to stray towards her bum." Unfortunately, the lady in question was Lina, Eriksson's daughter.

Also in 2008, Le Monde published a front-page apology to President Nicolas Sarkozy after a mix-up over the first names of his third wife and his second. "An unfortunate slip" had caused the French daily to report on antics of one Cecilia Bruni-Sarkozy: "We were of course referring to the wife of the head of state, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy," explained the correction.

In 1988 the Sun ran a front-page apology under the headline SORRY ELTON, after it printed two false stories about the singer – one about him having sex with rent boys, and another accusing him of removing the voice boxes of his guard dogs because their barking kept him awake. Elton John was also awarded £1m in damages after suing in the high court.

The Sunday Mirror in 2003 claimed Victoria, below, and David Beckham had split up. The apology confirmed "that Victoria did not tell David to leave Spain, or that their marriage was over. David did not refuse to back down, and far from being in ruins, their marriage is very strong and they are as much in love as ever. They have not discussed a trial separation and there has been no row about the children's schooling."

In the Daily Mirror had to fall on its sword when showbiz reporter Fiona Cummins wrote, together with a photo, that Sienna Miller was seen drunkenly rolling on the floor at a children's charity ball. The paper acknowledged she had not been drunk and the photo was of her playing on the floor with a seriously ill six-year-old child

• News of the World
• Brad Pitt
• Angelina Jolie
• Law
• Newspapers & magazines
• Celebrity

Stephen BrookHelen Pidd
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Originally published on 9 February 1983

It is Friday night in Philadelphia. The streets are uncomfortably quiet for a New Yorker. A car or two, a man stretched out on the sidewalk fast asleep beneath the watching eye of a bored policeman, ("He's here every night"), hardly a passer-by.

On the corner of Market and 12th Streets there is an unexpected crowd of people queueing for the cinema. But what really astonishes the New Yorker is the film for which they are lining up. Across the road, Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie is showing to a deserted house. Here there is Gandhi.

In Manhattan, Tootsie is the hit of the moment. In movie guides it is referred to as "a pungent commentary on contemporary sexual confusion," of which more later. In the little restaurants around Central Park, over glasses of chilled Chablis, it is the subject of long, serious discussions about its political relevance. Those who talk confidently of Dustin Hoffman's inevitable Oscar are puzzled by the Golden Globe nomination for Ben Kingsley as Gandhi (all too often referred to as Ben Who as What?).

The insularity of even educated Americans has often been remarked upon. It takes a film like this to bring it home. India might never have existed; Gandhi is yet more alien than E.T.

It cannot be said often enough that there is no way to absorb the misery of the Third World in newspapers whose fat advertising is a celebration of the American feast. It is often said that Americans no longer care; it is more likely that they cannot hear.

And thus we have Tootsie lauded as a social event and political breakthrough. The "suffering" of women, their bottoms caressed, their very names lost in a morass of "honey," "sweetie" and "tootsie" – this is ­suffering to be grasped easily against the din of advertising for Beefsteak Charlie's or the newest television commercial slogan.

And in this land of more, Tootsie is important not because it is charming and funny but because it exposes the horror of exploitation, namely of beautiful and educated women wondering not whether they will have dinner today, but with whom they will have it.

The joke is, of course, that Dustin Hoffman's character is the only interesting woman in the film. It may be the best of Hollywood but it is still Hollywood, that hold-out of pashas and concubines. It is a film conceived by men, concerned with men's feelings about women and thus designed to make men feel better. It is women through the distanced eyes of a small club of brilliant men – charming, safe and therefore infinitely discussable.

• United States
• Dustin Hoffman
• India

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This is about a family film. But it is not a family article. If you are a child, stop reading. If you are offended by genital slang, look away now. Because here comes a lyric from Chris Columbus's iPod: "I'm horny for beaver. Gimme a call, Sigourney Weaver."

The tradition over Chinese New Year in Hong Kong is to spend time with family and friends, to gather them together -- and to head off to the cinema.

Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard have come aboard.

Take a look at this brand new DVD starring Val Kilmer.

The annual football classic eclipsed the 27-year-old record held by the M*A*S*H series finale.

'When I was a child, I looked up an agent in the Yellow Pages, called from the school payphone – and signed on'

What got you started as an actor?

I was a strange, antisocial child. I had insomnia, so I watched a lot of late-night movies from the 30s and 40s, and then I started reading about Hollywood. I realised acting was a job you could choose to do – so I looked under A for agent in the Yellow Pages, then called from the school payphone and signed up. My first job was a public service ­announcement encouraging kids not to be embarrassed by their grandparents if they had a weird ­accent because they came from a foreign country.

What one song would work as the soundtrack to your life?

That's How Strong My Love Is by OV Wright, because I'm a romantic at heart.

What's your favourite museum or art gallery?

The Exploratorium in San Francisco. It's really interactive: you can freeze your shadow or go into a whisper chamber. You can also spend the night. I haven't yet, but would like to as a birthday treat.

What's the greatest threat to ­film-making today?

The same as always: the fact that there's a bunch of guys in charge, with sometimes questionable tastes, who dictate what gets seen.

Which other living artists do you most admire?

My uncle Haskell Wexler, who is a ­cinematographer and photographer, for fighting for justice ever since he was young. The FBI have a file on him, because he protested against Gone With the Wind for its representation of black people, aged 13. And Banksy, for his ­humour and irreverence.

What's been your biggest challenge?

Overcoming my shyness and ­insecurity. That held my work back for a long time, but eventually I realised that everybody in movies is so consumed by themselves, they don't really care about you.

Complete this sentence: At heart I'm just a frustrated . . .

Musician. I write folksy ballads or slow blues on guitar or piano, because I can't change chords very quickly.

Is there an art form you don't relate to?

Mime. I'm not a big fan of those guys who torment you in the street.

What's the biggest myth about actors?

That they are interesting because they play an interesting character. Remember, if they are in the role of some high-powered, brilliant businessman, walking down the street with a briefcase, it's just filled with crumpled newspapers. It's not real.

In short:

Born: Chicago, 1960.

Career: Films include Blade Runner, Splash and Kill Bill. Her latest film, A Closed Book, is out on DVD on 22 February.

High point: "Blade Runner. It was like the Wizard of Oz: we all went into another reality."

Low point: "Doing some films just for the cash, which hopefully went straight to video and no one ever saw."

Sarah Phillips
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Take a look at the latest episode of this hit freshman series on USA.

When directors wanted their films to ooze cool, they called on Johnny Dankworth. Richard Williams on the man who made British cinema swing

There was a time when jazz and film formed a natural partnership. When a ­director wanted a hectic ­accompaniment to criminal activity, or a splintered melody to echo an on-screen psychodrama, or a cool, lush sound to accompany a cocktail-lounge seduction, jazz was the sound to use. And Johnny Dankworth was one of the men who could provide it, on time and to length.

Dankworth, who died at the ­weekend, was a fine musician, although not ­perhaps a great one. His playing and his composing did not alter the course of jazz, and he has no disciples. His real achievement, and his knighthood, came as a result of his ambition to make jazz acceptable on the concert platform and in the conservatory. He will also be remembered as one of those who popularised the music by ­exposing its sounds and gestures in film soundtracks and television themes.

Starting with Karel Reisz's We Are the Lambeth Boys in 1958, over the next decade Dankworth built up such an impressive list of soundtracks to important British films that he almost seemed to ­enjoy a monopoly of the role. He worked with Reisz again on Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, on Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, and with John Schlesinger on Darling in 1965. But it was with Joseph Losey's films that he made his greatest impact: The Criminal (1960), a prison drama ­featuring Stanley Baker, was ­followed by The Servant (1963), the first of Losey's three highly successful ­collaborations with Harold Pinter, and by ­Accident in 1967. (The soundtrack for the third, The Go Between, was ­assigned to Michel Legrand.) For Losey, Dankworth was adept at creating a sound that reflected WH Auden's Age of Anxiety.

Jazz and film had been ­associated since the inter-war years, but the ­relationship deepened in the 1950s, when directors found that it ­provided the ideal accompaniment to movies with social or underworld themes. ­Surprisingly, it took a while for film noir to catch on. The genre was in decline by the time Miles Davis ­improvised an atmospheric and highly influential soundtrack for Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour l'Echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold) in 1957, the year that Roger Vadim used the Modern Jazz Quartet to accompany Sait-on Jamais (No Sun in Venice), a drama of amoral hedonists.

What most directors wanted was not actual jazz but music that sounded "jazzy", and that was what the ­versatile Henry Mancini gave ­Orson Welles for A Touch of Evil in 1958: ­chattering bongos, smeary saxes and cocktail-lounge vibes. The ­results tended to be even ­better when ­produced by actual jazz ­musicians, such as ­Dankworth. In 1959, Duke ­Ellington displayed aspects of his compositional genius and ­featured his orchestra's great soloists in his ­soundtrack to Anatomy of a ­Murder, a courtroom drama in which Otto Preminger ­explored the theme of rape.

Certain directors, mostly ­Europeans, demonstrated a notable affinity for the music's innate modernity. Michelangelo Antonioni invited the Italian ­pianist and composer ­Giorgio Gaslini to ­provide an evocative soundtrack for La Notte in 1961, and in 1962 the young Roman ­Polanski used the band of his ­compatriot Krzysztof Komeda, ­another gifted pianist and composer, for Knife in the Water. When Polanski and ­Antonioni came to make their portraits of Swinging London, both men used American jazz ­musicians – the Chico Hamilton ­Quartet for the former's Repulsion in 1965, and the quintet of Herbie Hancock for the latter's Blow Up a year later.

By the end of the 60s, mainstream cinema had begun to move away from jazz, although ­the ­timbre of the saxophonist Gato ­Barbieri, ­Argentina's greatest jazz musician, lent distinction to Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris in 1972. The old use of jazz on the screen now survives only in the work of Clint Eastwood, who retains an affection for the cool sounds of his youth.

Dankworth's television work ­included the original music for The Avengers (replaced in 1964 by Laurie Johnson's better-known theme) and the signature tune for Tomorrow's World. Had they asked him, you can bet he would have come up with just the thing for Mad Men: bongos, vibes, a hint of disquiet.

• Jazz

Richard Williams
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