THE 'Brangelina' divorce saga took another twist last night when the husband of Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard hit out at "stupid and unfounded" rumours his wife had an affair with Brad Pitt.
Cotillard, 40, was dragged into the furore over Angelina Jolie and Pitt's divorce last week, when reports claimed she and Pitt had become romantically entangled while filming the upcoming Second World War drama Allied.
She has already dismissed the reports and confirmed she was expecting her second child with her husband, French actor and director Guillaume Canet. The couple already have a five-year-old son, Marcel.
Yesterday Canet said until now he had "carefully protected" his private life but felt compelled to speak out.
Writing in French on Instagram he said: "I do not usually comment on rumours about us ... I do not usually talk about my private life, which until now I have always carefully protected.
"But the fury of the tabloids, the venal stupidity of some people calling themselves journalists, the hatred of some users feeling stronger behind a keyboard, push me to speak of the pride, the love, respect and admiration I have for Marion, for staying so strong and intelligent in the face all these stupid and unfounded accusations.
"I think we're all living with much more important things at the moment and now it is time to move on and raise the bar a bit.
"Even if that is a lot of work for some people, I want to be positive. And as Marion said, I hope you become better and aspire to something else in your life other than constantly coming out with shit!"
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt on Monday, citing irreconcilable differences and has asked for physical custody of the couple's six children.
It has since emerged the FBI is considering an investigation into an alleged altercation between Pitt and one of his children on a private plane.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here