Eunice Huthart, who says she worked as a stunt double for Angelina Jolie, has filed a lawsuit against News Corp. for intercepting her voice-mail messages.
The complaint was filed in California last week and is believed to be the first claim brought by a victim in the U.S. over the ongoing hacking scandal that has been haunting Rupert Murdoch‘s company.
Several thousands of people have been identified as phone hacking victims and News Corp. has already paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money.
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In the latest case, Huthart says that she is a resident of Liverpool, England, and first worked with Jolie in 2000 and on the movies Beyond Borders and Tomb Raiders 2. She says she developed a close relationship with the actress and is a godmother to Jolie’s first biological child.
In 2004, Huthart adds that she was living with Jolie in a Brentwood, Los Angeles house while filming Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Starting that year, Huthart identified suspicious activity about missed messages left on her cell phone system. She says that others asked why she had not replied. “They included Ms. Jolie,” says the lawsuit, “who left messages concerning hotel arrangements where she was staying, code names for hotels and individuals, dinner reservations, meet-up times and, on occasion, when she sought the help of the Plaintiff during times of need.”
Huthart says her name, cell number, account number and PIN number later surfaced in the notes of Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the News of the World and was jailed in January 2007.
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According to the complaint, “The unidentified investigators, the unidentified journalists and Mr. Mulcaire, upon information and belief, had Plaintiff’s cellular telephone number, and its PIN number, and they intentionally and willfully reset Plaintiff’s PIN number on several occasions in order to intercept her cellular telephone messages.”
She’s now suing for wiretap violations, saying that News Corp.’s alleged hacking activities extended to California.
And in the lawsuit, she reveals how tabloids allegedly got the source for certain information.
For example, the lawsuit states that “On May 1, 2005, while Plaintiff was in Los Angeles, a story appeared in News of the World entitled ‘Pitt Stop for Jolie.’ This article reported that Ms. Jolie threatened to quit making movies for good … Ms. Jolie had communicated with Plaintiff on this subject prior to the article appearing in the newspaper, and would leave messages on Plaintiff’s cell phone, some of which she did not receive. This was during the time Plaintiff believed her cell phone was hacked, and the information contained in the article was privately shared with Plaintiff.”
Read the full lawsuit below.
