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Who is Matthew Hiltzik? Brad Pitt hired PR and crisis expert who worked for Johnny Depp and Harvey Weinstein

Hiltzik, whose father is an entertainment lawyer in Hollywood, began his career at Harvey Weinstein's Miramax after working on a tour for Hillary Clinton

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Amid a lawsuit over a French winery, Angelina Jolie claimed her ex-husband Brad Pitt abused her and their shared children during a 2016 flight. Angelina Jolie filed a countersuit against Brad Pitt in a Los Angeles court on Tuesday, Oct 4, over a winery that the two prominent Hollywood actors once owned together. Angelina Jolie's lawyers said that negotiations over the sale of her share to Pitt had broken down because of his demand that she sign a “nondisclosure agreement that would have contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.”

The documents describe that Jolie and her six children flew from France to California in September 2016 and that a physical and verbal altercation ensued: "Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face" and "grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her," the lawsuit states, adding that at one point he "poured beer on Jolie; at another, he poured beer and red wine on the children," after which Jolie filed for divorce. Social media is now in an uproar over these allegations, comparing the case to that of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, and has highlighted that Brad hired the famous PR and crisis expert, attorney Matthew Hiltzik, to smear Angelina's name.

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Brad reportedly hired Matthew Hiltzik after their breakup, and Hiltzik keeps a very low profile, but now that rumors of Brad's abuse have surfaced, it is suspected that he is still working with Brad. Hiltzik had recently handled the trial of Johnny Depp against Amber Heard in another domestic violence case. Hiltzik worked to rehabilitate Johnny's image. The Internet was stunned after Brad's PR stunts and many sided with Jolie and criticized Brad's tactics. One user tweeted, "Just watch. Brad Pitt's well-financed PR / social media team is going to do to Angelina Jolie what Johnny Depp's team did to Amber Heard."

Another user tweeted as he urged people to do a background check about Brad's PR games and wrote, "It’s a pity that you fell for Brad Pitt’s PR games which has consistently villainized Angelina. Just search Brad Pitt with 1) Matthew Hiltzik 2) DARVO 3) Domestic Abuse 4) CAA 5) PR and you’d probably change your mind about AJ being the scary one." Users have also called out on Brad's recent dating rumours with model Emily Ratajkowski as yet another PR stunt to avid attention from his abuse allegations after he struck Jolie and their kids. "Disappointed in Emily Ratajkowski for agreeing to be recruited by Brad Pitt's PR for a quid pro deal so she gets her profile raised to upper A-List status & he gets to deflect attention of his domestic abuse of Angelina Jolie & her kid's, & his Stoli lawsuits #BradPittIsAnAbuser" the tweet read. Whilst another user simply wrote, "F**k Brad Pitt. Accountability for your actions never involves an aggressive PR campaign to clean up your image before it’s revealed you laid hands on your kids and your wife."

Who is Matthew Hiltzik?

Matthew Hiltzik is a prominent American public relations and communications attorney and consultant known for serving high-profile clients and organizations. Hiltzik has a long history of public relations work for liberal politicians and celebrities. In the 1990s, he worked for Chuck Schumer, Eliot Spitzer, and Hillary Clinton before going to work for Harvey Weinstein at Miramax and later starting his own communications firm, Hiltzik Strategies, while continuing to work for prominent Democrats, including Bill de Blasio. He is also known for representing celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Alec Baldwin, Katie Couric, and Justin Beiber. The Hollywood Reporter called Hiltzik “the PR guru behind Trump’s mouthpieces.” Hiltzik who went on to work with Republicans, after which his two staff Hope Hicks and Josh Raffe accepted prominent positions in the Trump White House.

Harvey Weinstein was one of the most famous and influential producers in Hollywood, accused of rape by over 80 women. This sparked the infamous #metoo movement. He confronted many of his loyal confidants about the repercussions of his accusations, such as strategist Matthew Hiltzik, who left Weinstein's Miramax in 2005, and former sex crimes prosecutor (and writer) Linda Fairstein. After a long hiatus, the disgraced producer turned himself into New York police for allegedly raping one woman and forcing another to perform oral sex. Hiltzik's recent high-profile case with Johnny Depp, whose lead press secretary on Team Depp was Carolina Hurley, a former Republican National Committee staffer and special assistant to the president under Trump.

It was Hurley who often sent out trial updates to reporters covering Depp's lawsuit. Hiltzik had hired Hurley at the recommendation of Hicks, Raffel, and Ivanka Trump reports Gawker. Hurley reportedly spent much of her White House tenure reporting to Ivanka, who had also worked with Hiltzik Strategies before her father became president. Hurley had kept a fairly low profile during the trail. Hiltzik's PR team was considered as the alleged reason to help turn around Depp's image. While Heard's lawyers had also claimed the media had overpowered their trial and were one of the reasons why they lost against Depp in court. Hiltzik reportedly told Gawker, “We’re proud to have her on the team.”

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