I'M SHILOH JOLIE

She was thought to be the child closest to him, but Brad Pitt's daughter has chosen to drop his surname

- NICOLA WHITFIELD

IT'S 2002 and a Los Angeles judge has a petition before him from a young woman: she wants to drop her father's surname and go only by the names she's been using professionally.

Angelina Jolie. No more Voight.

The judge signs the petition and Angie is freed from the moniker of the man she blamed for her parents' divorce.

Leap ahead 22 years and history seems to be repeating itself. Shiloh, the first biological child of Angie and Brad Pitt, is seeking a court order to legally rid herself of her dad's name. She wants to be known only as Shiloh Jolie no more Jolie-Pitt.

There are differences between Shiloh's case and her mom's: Angie was 27 and already building a career. In 2003, a year after her petition, she'd win an Oscar for Girl, Interrupted.

Shiloh is still a schoolgirl - but when she turned 18 on 27 May she legally became an adult. And on that very day she filed her petition to drop dad Brad's surname.

It's the latest development in the long, drawn-out implosion of a family that once charmed and captivated the world - and many people were taken by surprise by Shiloh's move.

We already knew her brothers Maddox (22) and Pax (20) had turned their back on Brad - both are angry young men harbouring complicated feelings of resentment and even loathing towards him.

Sister Zahara (19) clearly wants little more to do with him either, announcing in her university introductory video that her name is "Zahara Marley Jolie". No Pitt in there anywhere.

But Shiloh? Earlier this year there were reports she was the closest of all the kids to her father and even wanted to spend more time at his home once she'd turned 18 and could make her own decisions.

Yet her court application blasts that well and truly out of the water.

Clearly the bond she and Brad had once so obvious in pictures of a young Shiloh and her adoring dad - has been severed.