Brangelina

by Ian Halperin

  There was one thing, however, that virtually all critics agreed upon: Jolie had stolen the film from her co-star and producer, Winona Ryder, upstaging her and out-acting her. “Ryder seems to have misplaced the spunk of Heathers and evolved into a rather passive screen presence,” complained the Philadelphia Daily News. “Things get so dull that Angelina Jolie is the only character with whom one can identify—and she’s playing a sociopath,” wrote another reviewer.

  Still, some reviewers felt the opposite. Time praised Ryder’s performance as “first rate” while dismissing Jolie’s role as “problematic.” Entertainment Weekly’s verdict was even harsher: “James Mangold’s adaptation gets mired in snake-pit clichés, and Jolie’s performance ultimately crashes and burns in a climactic hissy fit that plays like the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West.”

  At the box office, the film failed to recoup its $40 million budget in domestic release, but it wasn’t a complete flop. The pundits were predicting that Jolie was a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination.

  With her third consecutive Golden Globe award in January 2000, the new millennium dawned with great promise for the career of Angelina Jolie. That week, a Time magazine profile compared her wild reputation to that of another young screen rebel, James Dean, and noted that she was the same age, twenty-four, as Dean had been at the time of his fatal auto accident. “I’ll probably live to be a ripe old age,” Jolie responded when asked whether she thought she’d die young like Dean. To illustrate her point, she described how she had welcomed in the New Year a week earlier. “I had a great time,” she deadpanned. “I was asleep.”

  She was also fast asleep on the morning of February 15, 2000, when her father’s old Midnight Cowboy co-star Dustin Hoffman strode to the podium at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills to announce the nominations for the 72nd Annual Academy Awards, alongside Academy President Robert Rehme. The announcement made it official: Angelina Jolie had been nominated for best supporting actress for playing Lisa in Girl, Interrupted. She would be up against Toni Collette in The Sixth Sense; Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich; Samantha Morton in Sweet and Lowdown; and Chloë Sevigny in Boys Don’t Cry.

  Jolie was in Mexico, where she was filming Dancing in the Dark with Antonio Banderas. When the press woke her to get her reaction to the announcement, she was nonchalant. Like many actors who have never been nominated, she had often charged that the Oscars were chosen to reward celebrities, rather than to advance the craft. “Look, it’s great to be recognized for a project that you’ve worked really hard in,” she said about the nomination. “But often you wonder how real that recognition is. Does it mean this thing is better or more important than something else? You just sometimes feel as if it’s not deserved.”

  Secretly, of course, she was thrilled. She was very familiar with the Oscars. Though she was only two years old when her father won his “Oscar” for Coming Home, she had long been aware of the aura that it bestowed on him in interviews and profiles. She had gotten used to being described as “daughter of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight,” even if the statue itself was always just a funny little gold man that was kept in a goldfish bowl on her grandmother’s mantel. This wouldn’t even be the first Academy Awards ceremony Jolie had attended. She and her brother accompanied their father to the Oscar ceremonies in both 1986, when he was nominated for his role in Runaway Train, and again in 1988.

  The 2000 Academy Awards ceremony was scheduled to take place on the afternoon of March 26, at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium, and would be hosted by comedian Billy Crystal. Jolie later described it as a “beautiful day,” though a week later she may have been tempted to reevaluate that assessment.

  “I spent that morning with my friends who helped me get ready, and my family came over,” she recalled. “They told me that it didn’t matter one way or another and that they loved me and were proud of me. It was the greatest day of my life already.”

  When she accompanied her father to the 1986 ceremony, the paparazzi had taken special notice of the ten-year-old Angie because of her unusual dress, which resembled angel’s wings, later described by Rolling Stone as “all mouth and eyes and eighties hair, decked out in enough pearls and white lace for an entire congregation’s worth of brides at a Tom Thumb wedding.”

  This time she chose something a little more streamlined: a black Versace gown, which Entertainment Weekly later described as “something Christina Ricci would look like if she’d continued wearing her Addams Family costume in public,” but which Jolie loved. “It’s silky,” she said. “And very me.” Asked to describe the most important accessory she would use to go with the dress, she answered, “A friend, and making sure my tattoos don’t show.”

  Officially she had been single since a short fling with Timothy Hutton, though she later revealed that there was a “secret” boyfriend whom she had been successfully hiding from the world. Her date for this grand evening was, she later said, a choice between her mother and her brother, Jamie. She had already been on the awards circuit for weeks, and each time she had been escorted by her brother. So she asked him to attend this big night with her as well.

  For reasons neither of them have ever explained, Angelina and Jamie decided to pass up the traditional pre-Oscar red carpet stroll. They arrived late, after the show had already started, and talked their way past security guards, who allowed them to sprint to their seats while the cameras were focused on host Billy Crystal during his opening number.

  The late James Coburn had won the Oscar for best supporting actor the year before, and, following tradition, he was designated to present the award to the winner of the best actress in a supporting role category. “It’s wonderful to work in this town with so many creative, talented, gorgeous, sexy women,” said Coburn, as he prepared to present the second Oscar of the evening and the first major award of the ceremony. “And I have that enviable job of getting close to one of them and presenting her with an Oscar.”

  After reading the nominations, followed by a short clip from each of the nominated performances, Coburn opened the envelope with a dramatic flourish, paused and looked into the camera. “And the Oscar goes to Angelina Jolie.” At that moment, as the auditorium burst into applause, a tearful Jolie, still seated, leaned over to her brother while he grabbed her head and brought their lips together for a kiss that appeared to linger. On television, it was impossible to see more than their heads, so a billion viewers were left in the dark about what had transpired until photos of that kiss appeared the following day. They may have got a hint of their unusual sibling affection, however, when Jolie bounded up to the microphone and gave her much talked-about speech:

  God. I’m surprised nobody’s ever fainted up here. I’m in shock, and I’m so in love with my brother right now. He just held me and said he loved me, and I know he’s so happy for me, and thank you for that. And thank you to Columbia. Winona, you’re amazing, and thank you for supporting all of us through this. And all the girls in this film are amazing, and Whoopi, everybody. And my family, for loving me. Janine Shrier and your sister Michelle, we love you. Geyer Kosinski. My mom who is the most brave, beautiful woman I’ve ever known, and Dad, you’re a great actor, but you’re a better father, and Jamie, I have nothing without you, you’re just the strongest, most amazing man I’ve ever known, and I love you, and thank you so much.

  An employee of ABC who had been chosen to be a seat filler— replacing invitees in their seats when they get up to use the bathroom so that an empty seat won’t appear on television—described being in the audience at the moment Jolie kissed her brother. “I was sitting almost directly behind [an Emmy-winning actress] and her date; it might have been her husband. When the kiss happened, not everybody could see it. I didn’t get a clear look myself, but I heard the guy lean over to [the actress] and say as clear as day, ‘Do you think she’s fucking him?’ I think just about everybody in the auditorium wondered that after they heard her speech.”

  BROTHERLY LOVE

  By the next
morning, the kiss had been felt around the world. In the press room at the Oscars, however, Jolie was oblivious to the coming furor. Still riding high from her victory and clutching her golden statuette, a reporter asked her to explain the unusually affectionate kiss. “Can you explain the nature of your closeness to your brother?” she was asked.

  “Oh God,” Jolie said, suddenly a little flustered. “Well, I don’t know if it’s divorced families or what it is, but he and I were each other’s everything, always, and we’ve been best friends. He’s been always my strongest support … He’s just given me so much love and taken care of me.”

  When he was asked about the kiss, her brother also denied there was anything improper. “I did not give Angie a French kiss; it was something simple and lovely,” Haven insisted. “She was about to go off to Mexico to finish filming Original Sin with Antonio Banderas. I congratulated her on the Oscar win and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.”

  When the newspapers published a photo of their liplock the next morning, and people saw that it looked like more than just a peck of sibling affection, it set off a fierce debate and inspired many snickers. More than one outlet noted that the two had been extremely affectionate at the Golden Globes ceremony two months earlier, where Haven had also gone as his sister’s escort.

  Predictably, the Internet blazed with rumors, and crude jokes overflowed from the likes of the Howard Stern Show and Politically Incorrect. But the mainstream media weighed in as well, giving more than a little credibility to the speculation. “Angelina Jolie’s declaration of love for her brother was just a little too creepy for comfort,” wrote the Richmond Times Dispatch. “ ‘Ewww!’ viewers everywhere screamed in squeamish delight, pelting their television screens with popcorn,” wrote Toronto’s Globe and Mail. “Even considering that perhaps she and her bro share the unusually close bond of children whose parents divorce, this was a tad strange,” wrote the Fort Wayne News Sentinel.

  Nearly everyone who saw the kiss experienced a strongly negative gut reaction. As a rule, American audiences are very uncomfortable with just the slightest hint of incest. Even 1995’s Clueless, where Alicia Silverstone’s Cher makes out with her former stepbrother (with whom she is not related by blood), disgusted theatre-goers across the nation. To see it happen for real was more than many people could stomach.

  Perhaps the one serious media outlet that did more than any other to cast doubt on the innocence of the siblings’ relationship was the Early Show on CBS, hosted by the respected television personality Bryant Gumbel. The morning after the Oscars, Gumbel was discussing the ceremony with his co-host Jane Clayson, herself a serious news journalist. Also joining the discussion were the show’s meteorologist Mark McEwen and newsreader Julie Chen. Millions of viewers watched the four discuss the footage and photos that had emerged showing the kiss:

  CHEN: And she said, “I’m so in love with my bro … brother …”

  CLAYSON: Right.

  CHEN: “… right now.” And …

  CLAYSON: And the same thing at the Golden Globes.

  CHEN: Yeah. But what tipped me off was through the preshow … Bryant, get in on this, I know you agree with us.

  GUMBEL: What? No. What?

  CHEN: He was … the way he was holding her. She was …

  GUMBEL: I didn’t see that.

  CHEN: OK, someone was interviewing her. Did you see …

  GUMBEL: I was watching the Lakers and the kids …

  CLAYSON: It’s the way they kiss each other. I’m telling you.

  CHEN: No. But did you see how he was holding her when she was doing an interview with, like, Joan Rivers.

  GUMBEL: Mark, you’re laughing. This is serious stuff.

  CHEN: Her back … her back was …

  MCEWEN: I’m laughing just because I didn’t see all of that.

  CHEN: … to him like this, and he was holding her like this … like really tight to him, and it was …

  CLAYSON: Eugh.

  CHEN: I was like, “I don’t think brothers and sisters …”

  CLAYSON: Didn’t … didn’t you notice that, Mark?

  MCEWEN: Well, I don’t know. I’m very clo … I’m not that close with my sister.

  CLAYSON: I hope not.

  MCEWEN: But I’m pretty … I’m very close …

  GUMBEL: I hope not.

  MCEWEN: … to my younger sister so I can to … I can understand that.

  GUMBEL: I hope not.

  MCEWEN: But I … you know, I … I didn’t see all of that because we were busy watching other stuff.

  Indeed, as the CBS crew discussed, footage and photos had emerged showing Angelina and her brother with their hands all over each other before and after the ceremony. Other journalists were quick to accept that their affection was merely the result of a bond between two children of a broken home, as Jolie had explained. “So what’s up with Angelina and her brother?” asked Sandy Banks of the L.A. Times. “Does that relationship seem a little strange? Maybe the questions simply reflect the image that the young actress has created: an eccentric iconoclast pushing the limits of convention on matters of sex and social mores. Or maybe it’s a sign of how disconnected we are from our own families, that so many of us could be made uncomfortable by the image of such strong familial love. As a woman with a brother I deeply love, I found myself moved by Jolie’s tribute to Haven … and bewildered by the prurient tone of inquisitors who implied there must be something weird about her affection.”

  Dismissing the rumors, the L.A. Times interviewed a number of therapists who explained that it is not uncommon for siblings to be drawn closer by the trauma of divorce and for one to step into the breach and fill the role of an absent parent. “When divorce occurs, it’s a very intense experience,” Susan Maxwell, a West Los Angeles therapist, told the paper. “Everyone is suffering; there’s a lot of sadness and grief. Your little nuclear family that has given you security has been blown apart … You feel a sense of abandonment. A situation like that can make the sibling bond stronger. It’s the two of you against the world. It’s like surviving a war. Or an airline crash. When you share an experience like that, you can come through it feeling very close, very bonded.” Maxwell added that she too has an older brother with whom she weathered a family breakup. “And we’re very close. We talk all the time; we understand each other. It’s like we’re speaking the same language.”

  Camille Paglia, the controversial author and social critic, had a different explanation for the Oscar kiss. “I think [Angelina] was messing with people’s heads,” she said. “I think she enjoys doing the unexpected.” Ian Drew, West Coast editor of US Weekly echoed Paglia’s assessment. “Only Angelina Jolie could turn that moment of Hollywood acceptance into the ultimate moment of Hollywood rebelliousness,” he said.

  Indeed, many people believed that the shenanigans were part of Jolie’s carefully crafted image as a Hollywood wild child. After all, wrote one paper, Jolie’s life has been “an open book of bizarre behavior,” noting that she “sports numerous tattoos” and has “experimented with bisexuality and sadomasochism.”

  The controversy and speculation probably would have died down very quickly were it not for a number of new details emerging about the siblings’ relationship. First, the New York Observer published details of the post-Oscars Vanity Fair party, where brother and sister partied together into the night. Frank DiGiacomo noted the “double takes” partygoers cast at Jolie and Haven, “whose cuddling appeared to surpass sibling affection. One partygoer told the Observer that even their father Jon Voight, who was at the party, seemed a little unnerved by their closeness.”

  Then the media dug back two months, to the Golden Globes ceremony, where Jolie had dragged her brother up onto the stage after winning for Girl, Interrupted—she wanted him to “see the view from up here.” The Fort Wayne News Sentinel wrote, “First we see her at the Golden Globes and the Oscars, demonstrating a strange and unsettling fondness for her brother, who was her date at both events. At the Gol
den Globes, she led him to the stage with her when she accepted her award, their fingers intertwined, their glances not sibling-like at all, nor their kisses.” On top of that, backstage in the press room at the Golden Globes, another photo had been taken of Angelina leaning backwards into her brother’s chest and kissing him passionately on the lips, eyes closed, again in an embrace that seemed nothing like an innocent sisterly kiss.

  Soon, news leaked that Elle magazine had done a recent photo shoot— weeks before the Oscars—where Jolie had showed up accompanied by her brother. The New York Observer reported that, during the shoot, the brother and sister had repeatedly kissed in front of the photographer and crew, posing in “their favorite scandalous pose without even being asked.” Photographer Gilles Bensimon told the paper that the two first exchanged a kiss on the lips, he discreetly refrained from snapping a shot. “We don’t try to use the picture in a tabloid way,” he said. “But the third time they were kissing, I take the picture.” Other photos from the shoot showed Haven standing with Jolie like her lover, with his hands on his sister’s hips with the top of her dress open to expose a good portion of her breasts.

  * * * *

  It is difficult to get a handle on James Haven because he has always lived in the shadow of his famous sister and father. Jolie has always maintained that it was her brother who was most likely to follow in Jon Voight’s footsteps.

  In one of the few times they were ever interviewed together, a portrait emerged of the origins of their close sibling bond. “I’m so proud of him,” Jolie said. “Growing up, I couldn’t have cared less about movies. He had to drag me to them. Jamie always loved film. He should’ve been the one who was working first.” Asked how she compared to her brother, she claimed the two were “almost perfect opposites.” “He never swears,” she said. “I swear like a truck driver when I’m angry. When it comes to the moral high ground, he wins. When it comes to being crass and loud and tough, that’s me.”