LOS ANGELES: For years, Laura Wasser has been one of the go-to divorce attorneys when Hollywood power couples break up.
Now Wasser wants to bring some of the strategies she’s developed during her career representing stars such as Angelina Jolie, Christina Aguilera and Johnny Depp to help regular couples. Her new site, It’s Over Easy, aims to get couples divorced from their computers or tablets, without having to hire an attorney — or ever set foot in a courthouse.
The website’s formal launch Thursday will allow couples in New York County and throughout California to handle their divorces and child custody arrangements online. Wasser said the inspiration came from her own online shopping habits, and hearing from people who want to handle their own divorces but find the process too confusing, expensive, intimidating — or all of those things and more.
“I feel like there’s so many people who these days shop online, date online, bank online — maybe they actually even met dating online — and now they’re married,” she said. “Why not give them the opportunity to do this online?“
She said the site’s goal is “changing the face of divorce.” It requires both parties to use the site to complete their judgment, although work is transferable to a lawyer if needed.
The process is based on core questions Wasser asks clients and techniques she uses to try to keep breakups amicable.
Wasser, 49, said she urges people undergoing a divorce or end of a long-term relationship to try to think about the moments they really cared for the other person, such as when they proposed marriage or the birth of a child. “Try to get back to them and realize that there is something good that did come out of your relationship. Focus on that and try to find a way forward,” she said. “It’s so much better for your emotional health to be able to do it that way.”
It’s Over Easy is part service-oriented and part-lifestyles site, with Wasser and others sharing their approaches to managing finances during a breakup, co-parenting children, and surviving holiday gatherings.
Users of the site fill in financial information and details about what days are most important for them to have their children. At the end of process, both sides will have documents that can lead to legal divorces and custody agreements.
The site has three tiers, ranging from $750 for a guided do-it-yourself filing to a premium, $2,500 service that includes filing of court documents, 90 minutes of mediation counseling and document filing with the court.
Wasser’s services, by comparison, start with a $25,000 retainer and $850 an hour.
The site could even work for some of her clients. “I think there are probably some that can go through this process. They probably wouldn’t mind seeing me less, paying me less,” she joked.
Other sites offer similar services, such as Wevorce, which is affiliated with another online legal resource, LegalZoom. But those services aren’t fronted by a lawyer like Wasser, who doesn’t comment about her celebrity clients but is familiar to readers of TMZ and other celebrity sites.
Wasser became a family law attorney after she finished law school and her marriage was coming to an end. She asked her father, divorce lawyer Dennis Wasser, for a job. Her first assignment was to handle her own divorce. She remains friends with her first husband, she said.
As for concerns the site will make it too simple for couples to divorce, Wasser is skeptical.
“We’re not making it too easy,” Wasser said. “Divorce is very difficult, but it is happening. And I hardly think that anybody is going to see ... our advertisements and go ‘Oh I hadn’t even thought of that. Now I’m going to get divorced.’”
Celebrity divorce lawyer launches site to simplify breakups
Celebrity divorce lawyer launches site to simplify breakups
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
