Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce turned so ugly so quick… talk about airing your dirty laundry for all the world to jeer over
Sun columnist cannot understand why the wealthy power couple didn’t meet with lawyers behind closed doors in private
THIS whole Brad and Angelina saga is sailing into very murky waters.
No one knows what goes on behind closed doors in any relationship, but I find the toxic allegations of Brad being a drunken, drug-taking, abusive father very difficult to swallow.
I also simply cannot understand why this wealthy power couple didn’t meet with their lawyers behind closed doors, thrash out a settlement, then issue a calm and considered joint divorce statement.
There would still have been a massive amount of interest in the story but not the sort of lurid headlines and endless speculation we have witnessed all week.
I feel very sorry for all of those caught in the crossfire.
First and foremost, there are six bewildered children who will likely find themselves at the centre of a very ugly custody battle and the prospect of seeing their parents tearing each other apart.
Then there is Brad’s co-star in his latest movie Allied, the classy and elegant French actress Marion Cotillard.
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Through no fault of her own, she has been dragged into this whole mess with accusations of them having an affair.
With breathtaking cynicism, the film company immediately released a trailer for the movie showing a steamy scene between Brad and Marion, which didn’t exactly dampen the flames of speculation.
Marion issued an admirably restrained but very firm statement refuting any impropriety and affirming her love for her long-term partner.
Orgasmically delighted at the collapse
The couple have a young son and are expecting their second child.
It’s grossly unjust that the family have been caught up in this mess.
Then there’s Jennifer Aniston, dumped by Brad when he became intoxicated by Angelina on the set of their movie Mr & Mrs Smith.
Jennifer has kept a dignified silence, but that hasn’t stopped so-called “friends” from throwing in their tuppence worth and pretending to speak on her behalf.
Social media was awash with pictures of Jennifer cackling with glee.
I suppose she wouldn’t be human if she didn’t have a wry smile to herself at seeing the Pitt/Jolie marriage unravel, but Jennifer moved on years ago and is now happily married to Justin Theroux.
Brad is very much part of her past and it’s horribly unfair to both her and her hubby to infer she is still in love with him or even cares enough to look orgasmically delighted at the collapse of his marriage to her one-time rival.
Interestingly, the cracks in the Brad and Angelina marriage became grand canyons after the couple made last year’s flop film By The Sea, about a warring couple whose relationship collapses.
It mirrors the time Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise filmed Eyes Wide Shut, about a dysfunctional marriage.
Shortly after the film wrapped, they too headed for the divorce courts.
Whatever happens next, it ain’t going to be pretty and I’m astonished the once fiercely private Angelina has chosen to air her family’s dirty laundry for all the world to jeer and snicker over.
So many would be keen to be in 'Chelle's shoes
MICHELLE KEEGAN hasn’t stopped working since she left Corrie.
She’s currently on TV in the BBC’s acclaimed Our Girl, where she plays an Army medic.
And we will soon see her as Bobby Moore’s wife Tina in a three-part drama about the England footballer.
Michelle has a luminous beauty and is a real natural in front on the camera.
Like fellow ex-Corrie stars Katherine Kelly, Suranne Jones and Sarah Lancashire, she has a long and successful career ahead of her.
I do, however, think it was ill advised of her to talk about feeling tired and burned out. I have no doubt she is exhausted after shooting two back-to-back, high-profile dramas.
But there are young actors out there who would cut their arms off for a chance of even a walk-on part in one of her productions.
She’s a young, strong girl and should be relishing her time to shine in the spotlight.
My advice is to take her hubby Mark Wright away for a trip somewhere quiet, hopefully without any glossy magazines following their every move.
Then she can chill out and get her batteries recharged for the next big acting job, and think herself lucky she is in such high demand.
IS THERE HOPE FOR BEN NEEDHAM?
ON Monday police will start to dig up scrubland on the Greek island of Kos, near where Ben Needham disappeared 25 years ago.
I cannot begin to imagine how his brave mum Kerry and the family will be feeling right now.
Kerry has always believed her son was alive and that one day they would be reunited. It is hope that has kept her campaigning for all of these years.
But new information could mean she will have to face up to the fact that her little boy was killed shortly after he went missing.
It is now believed that he may have been fatally struck by a digger driven by a local man who recently died.
A friend says he believes the late Dino Barkas killed the toddler in an accident then buried him.
Those who say that if Ben’s body is found it will at least mean Kerry can grieve for her son have no idea of the torture she has gone through.
She has been in a state of deep grief and shock for a quarter of a century.
The search for Ben has taken over her life at the expense of everything else, including her relationship with her daughter.
Kerry has served a life sentence. And if it does turn out that this man caused the death of her little boy, and stayed silent while she went through the torments of hell, then there
really is no justice.
I fear for Kerry if her hope has finally been taken away.
We need more like our Gemma
IT'S been a funny old week. I started on a high on Monday, interviewing the delightful actress Gemma Arterton.
We talked about her working with the legendary Glenn Close and the possibility of Idris Elba being Bond.
Then I said it was refreshing to see such a successful actress who was a “normal” size.
Gemma, a bright and beautiful “woman’s woman”, took this as the compliment I intended.
She went off happy and I thought no more of it.
But I hadn’t counted on a handful of permanently outraged twitterati, who sit quivering with mock indignation, ready to pounce on anything they happen to find offensive.
I found myself at the heart of a “Twitter storm”, where a couple of tweets are blown up out of all proportion by a bored reporter and inexplicably become a “story”.
I was accused of “body shaming” Gemma and calling her fat, which is nonsense, but ludicrously became news, with those who hadn’t seen the interview piling in with their negative comments.
It is extremely lazy journalism to cherry-pick tweets to cobble together a flimsy story.
It validates those who post nasty comments and encourages them to be even more vitriolic.
Oh how they must hug themselves with glee to see their names in print.
I welcome healthy debate on social media and know not everyone will agree with my point of view. They are all entitled to their opinion.
Increasingly though, there’s a nasty and vicious side to social media and every hour of every day people are lambasted, bullied and demeaned.
In my case, there’s a serious side that was lost amid the hoo-ha.
Young actresses in Hollywood are under enormous pressure to look impossibly thin.
If they refuse, there are legions of wannabes who will take their place.
That’s why we need actresses like Gemma and more female directors, producers, writers and big hitters in the film business or nothing will change.
That was the point I was making and those who chose to misrepresent my remarks, whether deliberately or not, really don’t help in trying to create equality and smash stereotypes.