Imagine someone in Hollywood actually saying no to smug Golden Boy Brad Pitt, and at the last minute to boot. Amazingly, Angelina’s baby daddy is getting more time to spend with the kids after Sony found the nerve to pull the plug on Steven Soderbergh’s “Moneyball,” which was scheduled to begin shooting today. Variety

reports

Sony’s Amy Pascal red-lit the movie Friday afternoon after reading the latest draft of Steve Zaillian‘s script for the baseball flick. Or maybe it’s the economy, with the financially-stressed corporation chickening out of backing a movie on a subject that usually flops overseas, where Pitt has more fans than here in the U.S. Pitt, who reportedly took a salary deferment to bring the budget down to $55 million, is ironically known for walking away from about-to-shoot movies because of script issues. On “State of Play,” Brad was replaced by Ben Affleck, while Hugh Jackman took his role in “The Fountain.” Now Soderbergh and Pitt get to shop “Moneyball” around to other studios like Warner and Paramount, which likely haven’t seen a nickel’s worth of profit yet from their pricey co-production starring Pitt, the brilliant “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” but are said to be interested in this one nonetheless.