If you suffered some sort of embarrassing moment at work this week, perhaps you can take a measure of comfort in the knowledge that your humiliation was almost certainly not as great Olivia Wilde’s.
While addressing an audience of fans and peers at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Wilde was served with court documents pertaining to her custody battle with ex Jason Sudeikis.
As Wilde was presenting the trailer for upcoming film she directed, she was approached by a young woman wielding a manilla envelope.
“Is this for me?” Wilde innocently asked the process server.
To her credit, when she removed the documents and realized what was going on, Wilde did not react with visible shock or anger.
Instead, she calmly returned the papers to their envelope and proceeded with her presentation.
But you can be absolutely certain that she was not happy.
After learning the truth of what had happened, fans were left with a lot of questions — namely, how could something like this happen?
Sudeikis seems like a decent dude — hell, the only criticism of his hit series Ted Lasso seems to be that it’s too wholesome and kind-hearted — so why would he ambush the mother of his children in this way?
Well, according to family law attorney David Glass, the decision probably wasn’t up to Sudeikis.
“The process server follows the directions of the attorney who hired him or her,” Glass tells People magazine.
“We always start with the easiest place and we try to do it at a time when the kids are not going to be around,” the Southern California-based attorney continues.
“In fact, before even going with a process server, most times I will send an email to the opposing party and attach all the documents to say, ‘Please give this to your attorney and have your attorney contact me.'”
Glass went on to recall a similar occurrence that happened nearly 20 years ago when a firm he worked for was tasked with serving baseball player Steve Garvey.
“He was hiding, he was always staying inside. And we found out that he was going to be speaking at this seminar. And so my boss at the time had our process server buy a ticket, went into the event and basically the same thing that they did here, walked up on stage and gave it to them,” he recalls.
“I wouldn’t have approved it, but that’s what my boss did. And so it’s not unheard of, but it’s not a frequent occurrence.”
“Papers were drawn up to establish jurisdiction relating to the children of Ms. Wilde and Mr. Sudeikis,” a source close to the situation tells Variety.
“Mr. Sudeikis had no prior knowledge of the time or place that the envelope would have been delivered as this would solely be up to the process service company involved and he would never condone her being served in such an inappropriate manner.”
Wilde and Sudeikis have two children together, but were never married.
The couple went their separate ways several years ago, but were believed to be on civil terms with one another.
Hopefully, they’ll be able to overcome this bump in the road and resume their civil co-parenting arrangement.
