As you know, dear readers, 2020 is a year unlike any other. This year, celebrity courtroom appearances ought to have been more entertaining as we live in interesting times. But they weren’t. If anything, court appearances have been scarce in the year of the coronavirus.
It’s been a pretty uneventful year, celebrity divorce-wise. There were no catchy catchphrases à la Coldflu vocalist Chris Martin and Goop Paltrow’s “conscious uncoupling”. Brangelina’s divorce is still up in the air, on track to top many “Hollywood’s Longest Divorces” lists this year and years to come. There’s not a lot to report on the personal injury front, either.
We believe that the best catchphrases are yet to come — 2021, we’re ready. In the meantime, here are some celebrity court appearances and non-appearances that made headlines in 2020.
7. ‘90s celeb and robot movie star divorce
Megan Fox, star of the critically derided and Oscar-nominated film Transformers, and Brian Austin Green, who Gen-Xers might remember as one of the stars in the show Beverly Hills, 90210, have divorced. There’s not much to say about these two stars, really. Mr. Green discussed the separation in his podcast, which is a refreshing alternative to doing it via Instagram.
6. Brangelina’s ongoing divorce
Four years ago, we were lamenting the fact that love was officially dead because Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had separated. Now, we can’t believe (actually, we can) that their divorce is still ongoing. Although the divorce process is moving along, micro-battles have crept in. In August, Ms. Jolie made a bid to remove one of the judges in the case, which has since been denied.
We cover the entire saga of one the most riveting celebrity divorces of our time in this epic guide.
5. These celebrity divorcees are B-listers compared to a one-named celeb called “Rona”
Despite being one of the more uneventful years in celebrity divorces, 2020 separations remain relatively star-studded. Here’s a list of celebrities who divorced this year:
- Julianna Hough and Brooks Laich
- Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler
- Kacey Musgraves and Ruston Kelly
- Armie Hammer and Elizabeth Chambers
Some of these are household names, while some are not. This year, one celebrity outshone them all: the coronavirus aka “Ms. Rona.” Ms. Rona is responsible for increasing interest in divorce by 34% in America. We may never know what caused these couples’ split, but what’s certain is that Ms. Rona is at least partially responsible.
4. What didn’t kill her will hopefully make her stronger
In June 2020, American idol Kelly Clarkson filed for divorce from her husband and former personal manager Brandon Blackstock. Theirs is not an amicable parting; in their custody battle, Ms. Clarkson fought to have her kids’ home base be Los Angeles where she’s based, while her ex wanted the kids to spend more time in Montana. The judge ruled in her favor, but the battle is not over yet. Ms. Clarkson recently claimed that Mr. Blackstock defrauded her of millions in commissions, and it looks like it’ll be a while before she truly breaks away from him.
3. Olsen twin prevented from making a courtroom appearance
As a couple, multi-millionaire Mary Kate Olsen and French citizen Olivier Sarkozy were largely perceived as an odd pair, which is a polite way of saying they were incompatible. When Ms. Olsen tried to file for divorce in April, she was prevented from doing so because of the pandemic. She was only allowed to do it in May, and finally, she and her ex will both make a courtroom appearance this December.
Hopefully, during the time that she and Mr. Sarkozy were disputing homeownership of their $13.5 million townhouse, she was able to find a temporary home. She was reportedly kicked out of their New York marital townhouse.
2. Celeb parents’ woe-is-me co-parenting issues
If there’s one category of people that do NOT need to be making courtroom appearances in 2020 amid the COVID-19 health crisis, it’s celebrities who have every conceivable means to fix co-parenting arrangements. And yet, look: Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani almost had to involve family courts for a co-parenting problem that could have been solved by a phone call.
1. Not a girl, not yet a woman, and not yet free from conservatorship
Amid cries of #FreeBritney across various social media platforms, elusive pop princess Britney Spears remains under a conservatorship put in place since 2008. This year, she asked the Los Angeles probate court (which grants conservatorship or guardianship) to remove her father Jamie Spears as her conservator. Interestingly, she didn’t ask to cut the conservatorship itself. Before, her fans’ call for justice was for flop albums that unjustly tanked in the Billboard charts. Now, they’re calling for her freedom to live her life as a 39-year old woman who just wants to live her best Instagram celebrity life.
Buckingham, LaGrandeur, & Williams are family law and personal injury attorneys in Washington. We’re the team to call to if you want to avoid having to make a courtroom appearance. Leave us a message.