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The Stateside phone hacking-scandal suit that a former body double for ANGELINA JOLIE filed against NEWS CORP last summer looks likely to end up in the U.K. if a federal judge doesn’t change

his mind. Before a hearing Monday on the company’s motion to dismiss, Judge Michael Fitzgerald said in a tentative ruling that Eunice Huthart‘s case belonged in “the courts of England and

Wales” not the U.S. Alleging that her phone was tampered with in 2004 while living with Jolie in L.A., Huthart’s initial complaint on June 13 was the first hacking scandal suit filed against

News Corp and its UK Press arm in the U.S. Back in September of last year, News Corp and News International filed their motion to toss the case or have it move to Britain. After issuing his

tentative and hearing arguments from lawyers representing the English-born stuntwoman and the media corporation, Judge Fitzgerald said he would take the matter under submission (read it

here). Though it happens, it is very unusual for a judge to reverse himself after issuing such a clear tentative. RELATED: Phone-Hacking Trial – Rebekah Brooks Cleared Of One Charge As

Defense Begins As has proven the case in many of the suits in the on-going hacking-scandal, the longtime ex-Jolie stuntwoman’s allegations are years old. Huthart, whose most recent gig was

as a stunt coordinator on Disney’s upcoming _MALEFICENT _starring Jolie, says she realized while staying in the States and working with Jolie on _Mr. and Mrs. Smith_ that there was odd

activity on her cell. Among other occurrences, messages were missing, Huthart claims. The stuntwoman’s name and phone number later turned up in the notes of Glenn Mulcaire, the jailed P.I.

who worked for the now-closed tabloid _News Of The World_. PAlso a number of stories about Jolie and her then growing romance with Brad Pitt were published in the UK paper. Part of News

Corp’s multi-headed argument to dismiss the case is that Huthart’s cell was actually a UK phone with a UK company and Mulcaire’s alleged actions against her originated in the UK. Other parts

of the company’s motion is that Huthart’s claims are outside the statue of limitations and do not pierce the corporate veil in naming the company as a defendant for actions taken by its

non-U.S. subsidiaries. News Corp also wanted the case moved to a U.K. jurisdiction because “a trial on these matters in the United States would be complex, expensive, and burdensome for a

Court with one of the most congested dockets in the United States.” On one level or another, Judge Fitzgerald seems to agree. WATCH ON DEADLINE News Corp and the other defendants were

represented in court on Monday by Louis Karasik of LA firm Alston & Bird LLP along with  Joseph Terry and Jonathan Pitt of D.C. firm Williams & Connolly LLP.Craig Stein of LA’s The

Stein Law Firm as well Steven Hyman, Paul Levinson, and Bruce Langer of McLaughlin & Stern, LLP and Norman Siegel and Sara Lee Evans of Siegel Teitelbaum & Evans LLP represented

Huthart.