Brad Pitt Attacker Fired by Ukrainian TV Network
Vitalii Sediuk, the 25-year-old Ukrainian television personality/celebrity prankster who attacked Brad Pitt on the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of Maleficent on May 28, has lost his job on Ukrainian TV. Although not for the Brad Pitt incident.
While Sediuk's firing from 1+1 TV is only just becoming public news, he was actually fired on May 17, the day after his prank on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival, in which he stuck his head under America Ferrera's dress, a "prank" that I'm stunned didn't lead to criminal charges.
This basically means that Sediuk was working without any media affiliation when he attacked Brad Pitt at the Maleficent premiere.
Galyna Grubliak, a spokeswoman for the network, confirmed the firing in a statement, saying that Sediuk "no longer represents the interests of the company."
"[The] prank on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival was Vitalii's personal initiative," Grubliak continues. "The journalist did not report his plans to the channel's Editorial Office."
"1+1 Media Company is sorry for the inconvenience caused to the American actress America Ferrera by the journalist’s behavior," the statement closes. "Such behavior of the journalist is contrary to the values ??of the company and notions of journalistic ethics."
In the past, Sediuk told The Hollywood Reporter that he relied on the celebrity-obsessed 1+1 network, which sounds like the equivalent of E! in the U.S., to cover the obscene court costs that have resulted from all the legal trouble his asinine "pranks" have necessitated. For example, after rushing the stage in an attempt to accept an award on Adele's behalf at the 2013 Grammy Awards, Sediuk received three years probation and a lifetime ban from the L.A. Live complex. For that incident, 1+1 footed the bill for his legal expenses. However, now that he's a free agent, he'll have to pay his own way out of trouble. And, as any twentysomething defendant without the backing of a major Ukrainian network will tell you, getting out of trouble isn't cheap.
Sediuk is currently being held by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department on suspicion of battery, pending $20,000 bond. His first court appearance is scheduled for today, Friday, May 30, so I guess it's too late to start playing scratch-off lotto tickets to try and make bail. As of now, he is already under an emergency protective order barring him from approaching Brad Pitt. While the order expires on Monday, it's likely to be extended, because who knows when you might end up encountering Brad Pitt on the streets of Los Angeles? Better to slam him with an order of protection, lest he try to pull another America Ferrera and shove his head up Pitt's pants.
Credit: The Hollywood Reporter