by Ian Halperin
By most accounts, Aniston is still bitter about her breakup with Pitt and especially Jolie’s subsequent comments about the start of her relationship with Pitt, which Aniston described as “uncool” to Vogue magazine in December 2008. Jolie had told a reporter that during the filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, she realized she “couldn’t wait to get to work.” In the same interview, Aniston said that she was still “in touch” with Pitt, setting off much speculation in the tabloid press. But there is no proof of this whatsoever.
Jolie-haters were encouraged by a report in April 2009 that the former head of Jolie’s security detail, Mickey Brett, was planning to write an explosive tell-all book about his tenure working for Pitt and Jolie. Brett, who first started working for Jolie while she was still with Billy Bob Thornton, was allegedly fired by Pitt in 2008 for getting too rough with photographers and others who got too close to his clients. In April, Brett began shopping around a proposal for a book detailing his seven years working for Jolie, to be ghostwritten by British author Robin McGibbon. Among the sensational revelations reportedly promised in the proposal, Brett claims that he “walked in on Angelina being intimate with Brad in her trailer,” three weeks into the filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
He also reportedly claimed that Jolie cheated on Pitt several times during their relationship, including an affair with a famous female pop star. “Mickey set up at least twenty secret meetings for Angie with this woman at hotels when Brad was working,” the proposal claimed.
The couple’s attorney, Martin Singer, immediately moved to discredit Brett and claimed that he was an unreliable source and was bound by a confidentiality agreement. Singer also claimed that the stories in the proposal had been embellished by the ghostwriter, Robin McGibbon. But McGibbon insisted that he wrote down the stories exactly as Brett told them. A month later, facing threats of a lawsuit if he proceeded with the tell-all, Brett backed down and claimed that he had never considered writing a book.
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A woman who worked with Pitt while he was filming Troy, and who is in touch with other present-day employees who have witnessed some of what has gone on, offered to fill me in on the current status of Pitt and Jolie’s relationship. “Well, first off, their relationship is not a fake,” she begins:
They were definitely in love but that’s where it gets tricky. If you want to know if they’re still together, the answer depends on when you ask the question. I’ve heard that they’ve broken up so many times it would make your head spin. No, really, like Linda Blair in The Exorcist, that’s how often it’s happened.
Apparently it’s always him that ends up moving out, after some big fight over who knows what. There are apparently screaming matches, usually with her doing the screaming. Nobody really witnesses that part of it; they just see him leaving in a huff. But then he ends up coming back again, and nobody knows what happened to bring him back. Partly I think he really does love her. Partly he considers them a family, and he loves that element of it. He’s supposed to be a great dad with those kids. And partly there’s the whole Brangelina thing.
He’s really committed to their work; it’s like they’re superheroes fighting evil together and saving the world. I’m not sure if he can give that up so easily. If you knew Brad, he’s very earnest—no bullshit for him. But then again, I don’t know how he can handle her crazy temper. I’ve never met her, and I’ve never seen them spend any time together; maybe I’d get a better sense if I could.
A woman who worked on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith when it was filming in Los Angeles recalled how they were on-set. “They were really into each other,” the employee said, though she says she only heard rumors that they were having an affair at the time. She herself didn’t witness anything physical between them. She says she knew somebody on the set who claimed to have seen them together. What she did see, however, makes her wonder how they’ve lasted so long. “She’s very erratic,” she told me in an interview. “Everybody who’s seen her knows what I mean. She’s not unpleasant. Just erratic.”
An example of her volatility was related to me by a limousine driver. “I used to drive them both all the time,” he replied. “I’ve driven everybody.” He described the couple as “good kids” who were usually quite friendly. In the beginning of their public relationship, he recalled, they were very affectionate. Twice he said he saw them “going at it in the back seat.” But in 2007, he saw what he described as a “U-turn” in their relationship when they got into an argument in the back of the car. “I was more worried about his safety than hers,” the driver said. “She really flew off the handle, threatening him and lashing out at him. I’m not sure what it was all about, but after that I can’t imagine how anyone would want to be with her every day, no matter how sexy she is. She has a temper like a cobra.”
Other reports from people who have worked near the couple is that their relationship was shaky up until January 2007, when Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Betrand, succumbed to ovarian cancer in Los Angeles after a long battle with the illness. “Angelina was absolutely devastated by her mother’s death,” said a crew member who had worked with her on the set of Wanted in the summer of 2007, a few months after Bertrand died. “I heard she sometimes burst into tears without any explanation while she was in the middle of a scene. She’d then explain that she couldn’t stop thinking about her mom. Brad would fly in with the kids, and that would cheer her up. He was very attentive, and I think it really helped her mood.”
In the months after Bertrand’s death, media reports suddenly appeared with regularity claiming that her last wish was to have her daughter marry Pitt. No source was ever cited. “If you follow Jolie’s familiar pattern, it means she was angling to be Mrs. Pitt and she may have even convinced Brad that this was her mother’s deathbed request. I’m doubtful,” says an L.A.-based journalist who covers the industry. “I met Marcheline three times, and I doubt if she cared one way or another about whether they made it official. I think Jon Voight is more old-fashioned than she was. If he does marry her, though, she won’t be after his money, and they won’t need a pre-nup. She’s getting to be almost as rich as he is. Not quite, though; he had a head start. But she’s no pauper.”
Publicly, Pitt has always been coy about the prospect of marrying Jolie. At one point he said he would “consider” tying the knot with her when everybody else could legally marry, referring to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.
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It’s September 2009, and I’m drinking coffee at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market with an experienced Jolie-Pitt watcher, who works for an industry publication and has covered the couple for almost three years. Like almost everybody in the entertainment media that I meet, she tells me that she can never keep all the rumors straight about the two of them. But she informs me she can already see the “signs.” Then she makes a prediction.
“They’ll be split within eighteen months, probably sooner,” she assures me. “And here’s how it’s going to play out. They’re going to split amicably, work out some kind of arrangement with the kids, and everything will be very civilized. Then you’re going to see unidentified friends leak stories about how Angelina couldn’t put up with Brad’s partying and his drinking and his pot smoking. She’s worried about the kids, and she’s afraid it’s not the right environment for them. Maybe he’ll even take part of the blame and go along with that. You’re already seeing him work his love of the herb into the occasional interview. For example, he recently claimed smoking pot was turning him into a ‘doughnut.’ Nothing that makes him out to be too much of a jerk, just enough to explain how the golden relationship slowly fizzled. That’s exactly how it’s going to happen. If they’re still together in eighteen months, I’ll buy you dinner at Morton’s.”
Still, given what I have learned about the nature of Pitt and Jolie while following the couple and their activities, I’m not sure I would venture a prediction with the same confidence as my journalist friend. On paper, all the signs point to
exactly the scenario she laid out for me. But both players have a considerable investment in keeping the Brangelina brand alive, maybe more than either of them is willing to risk. It’s possible that each of them might even feel they would be hurting their causes by breaking up the dynamic duo of social justice.
And yet, watching what they have become, I can’t help but feel like I’m watching a fairy tale in reverse. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the two have broken up by Christmas, 2010. Meanwhile, the world will continue to follow the couple with voyeuristic fascination, and the public will be kept in the dark about the real state of their relationship through a combination of misdirection and careful image management.
CONCLUSION
So who is “Brangelina”? It’s not enough to say “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.” Not any more. While it may have begun as a cute phrase concocted by the tabloids to describe Hollywood’s latest hot couple, Brangelina has moved beyond that. Despite the careful nurturing by sophisticated professionals to craft a flawless, fairytale image for an adoring public, there is yet something more behind the hype. Brangelina is not just a veneer, a shell composed of little but Hollywood superlatives. Brangelina actually has substance, thanks to its two component individuals.
The world fell hard for Pitt and Jolie when the couple went public more than four years ago. We can ask ourselves: Are these two really the ultra-glamorous superheroes of social justice that the world has come to admire and envy? Is Jolie really a supermother who can make three movies a year, travel around the globe saving the planet, and still change diapers while helping her kids with their homework? Are Jolie and Pitt really soul mates who have left behind their personal demons and found perfect fulfillment through their philanthropy and their children?
Maybe not. But all that means is that the two individuals who make up this couple are human.
Brad Pitt, the wholesome Midwesterner who charmed Hollywood— and quite a few of its women—is, by all accounts, a very nice guy. Easy to get along with. Likes his pals, dotes on his children. Drinks beer, and smokes a little pot, too, like plenty of average guys. No extreme vices. He left Jennifer Aniston for Jolie in a flight of passion, but, who knows, maybe if Aniston had gotten pregnant, he would have stayed and started a family with her.
Angelina Jolie is a more complicated person, to be sure. Intense, passionate, and very sexual, her life at times looks like an experiment in serial risk-taking. But she appears to have risen above her flamboyant and often troubled past and created stability for herself.
Both are acclaimed actors. Pitt has won a Golden Globe for best actor and has received two Academy Award nominations. Jolie has won an Oscar and three Golden Globe awards and has been nominated for two Emmys, two more Golden Globes, and another Oscar.
And both are humanitarians. Since 2001, Jolie’s work for refugees has been unceasing, and she continues this work as a UN Goodwill Ambassador. She was an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and travels constantly around the world in support of the causes she believes in. Pitt has worked for AIDS prevention, has acted on behalf of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and founded Not On Our Watch, an organization that combats genocide.
So Brangelina means something more than a pair of megastar lovebirds. It means a hard-working pair who have done extremely well in their admittedly glamorous, yet often fickle profession. It also means a couple that gives back to the world, a couple who uses their wealth and influence to do good, a lot of good.
And yes, they have used the smoke and mirrors of the Hollywood dream-making machine to their advantage: to distract public scrutiny from embarrassing situations, to promote pet causes, to convey the impression of a stable family life, in short to convince the public that everything in their lives is in balance, that they have succeeded in having and doing it all. But this is Hollywood. A public image that is anything less than perfection is failure to the myth-making machine.
But can Brangelina endure? Perhaps the better question is, can Angelina keep up the pace she has set for herself? Pitt seems to take things in stride, but Jolie seems driven, not just to achieve, but to convince the world that she can be everything to everyone: companion to her mate, mother both to her own and to her adopted children, advocate for the refugees she sees across the globe. Mother, star, activist … saint?
Jolie has always liked living on the edge. She reveled in knives when she was young, and that is almost a metaphor for her life. Knives cut; they make you bleed. This may make you feel more alive, but, as she found out, cutting too deep risks your life. Whether it was knives or sex or drugs, each consumed her until she had to pay a big price, coming all too close to self-destruction.
Jolie saved herself at a critical time by channelling her addictive impulses into other consuming drives. She now has three great passions: her films, her causes, and her children. And, despite her claims to the contrary, she shows no sign of giving any one of them up to concentrate on the others. She wants it all. But an addiction to work, to doing good, is still an addiction. At the moment, she seems to have mastered her impulses, but for how long?
Her own sharp edge is now fraying. She is “erratic.” She has “episodes.” Pitt is there, and has remained true. But how much can he take if she starts to fall apart? In many ways it would be a great shame if they broke up, not just for them personally or for the family they have created, but for the very public that so seeks their flaws. It would be a shame because Brangelina serves as an ideal for individual achievement and social commitment. It is a glittering standard for us all, even if a lot of it has been deliberately tailored for public consumption.
But looking at Brangelina now, the clock seems to be ticking louder. How long before there is another “episode,” one from which Jolie doesn’t recover fast, or at all? If she starts to self-destruct again, what and who will be affected? Will Pitt leave? Who will take on her causes? Who will take care of the kids?
But most of all, who will take care of Angelina?