Rumors are going around about a possible marriage in Italy soon between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. After all, Brad’s good friend, George Clooney, has a lovely lakefront villa just perfect for a wedding ceremony. Why is everyone so concerned about a possible marriage of these two? You remember Brad and Angelina – they starred together in Mr. and Mrs. Smith and now get more publicity for their romance than anything they do on the screen. It is hard to check out at the grocery store without seeing some tabloid with photos of Brad, Angelina, and the children plastered all over it. People are in an uproar about Brad leaving Jennifer Aniston, saying Angelina is a home wrecker. There are even Team Aniston and Team Jolie shirts available to show on which side your loyalty falls.
It’s true that Angelina has, at best, had a checkered past with men. Her marriage to her first husband, Jonny Lee Miller lasted less than three years. Her second marriage to Billy Bob Thornton was just as stormy. Billy Bob and Angelina met on the set of Pushing Tin. Billy Bob left promptly then live-in love Laura Dern while she was away on a movie set to marry Angelina. After much public display of affection, Billy Bob and Angelina split shortly after she adopted her first child, Maddox. It seemed that after the dissolve of her second marriage, Angelina began to change. Instead of investing her time in male co-stars, she began traveling all over the world, Maddox in tow, to bring attention to problems plaguing the children of the world.
Whose side am I on? I like Jennifer Aniston, I really do. She is cute, funny, a good actress, and seems somewhat down to earth (for an actress, that is). But, for all that she is, she doesn’t strike me as maternal. I know she’s done interviews where she’s professed to wanting children. I also have always said I wanted children, but didn’t give birth to my one and only until I was 42. Brad married Jennifer when he was 37, certainly a time to start thinking about having a family. And after five years of marriage, Jennifer seemed to concentrate more on her career than anything else. Maybe Brad just got tired of waiting on a family. He certainly got a built in family with Angelina. It seems Brad saw something attractive about Angelina and her love of children while filming Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I don’t think Angelina travels and adopts children for the fame and glory – she is no Joan Crawford. I think she genuinely had a change of heart, going from a wild child to earth mother. Now, she and Brad are expecting their own little bundle of joy and I saw more power to them. Though not in a traditional way, they are forming a family, something we often criticize Hollywood celebrities of not doing.
Did Angelina “steal” Brad away from Jennifer? We will probably never know the true story, but if luring him away with love and compassion for others is “stealing,” then perhaps she did.
What do you think?