Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie rumors & gossip: Calming the masses

Okay, it’s high time to address something. I generally ignore tabloid stories. Or at least I mostly ignore them. Honestly, I love to stand in line at the store and laugh at the headlines. More than once I’ve seen headlines screaming that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have split up, and I smirk because just the day before I’ve been online posting a ton of photos that show otherwise.

Other than a source of amusement though, I pay little attention to the tabloids – online or in magazine format – beyond the effort that it takes me to roll my eyes. As you can imagine, I’ve been over-working those optic muscles with all the rolling my eyes have been doing lately because you’ve all seen the headlines too.

However, there have been comments left here on PittWatch and emails sent to my inbox that have alerted me to the fact that some fans are alarmed by the stories that are coming out and want reassurance that Brad and Angelina are still together, happily in love.

Here is the absolute, 100% truth: I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that they are but despite my hard work here at PittWatch, I am not directly affiliated with Brad or Angelina. I don’t know them, I don’t know their security, I don’t know anyone in direct contact with them. I’ve been fortunate enough to speak with others who have acted on set or taken their photos, but that’s the extent of my contact. Everything I post as news comes from photo agencies and as many reliable sources as I can get.

Despite that, I can hope to reassure those of you who are panicked at least a little bit. For one thing, all of these “stories” – the ones claiming that Brad and Angelina have split, that they want an open relationship with other lovers, that they’re screaming and carrying on in front of the kids, that Brad has a drinking problem, that Angie is wasting away and collapsing on set, take your pick – are coming from tabloids. Not news sources, tabloids. Even the more major celebrity news sites that write about these stories source back to tabloids.

Here’s the thing about tabloid magazines. They need to make money. They have to sell their hard copies at the newsstands and they have to sell their ads on their websites, and they know very well which names bring in the most money. Naturally, Brad and Angelina are big names that bring in big bucks for them. If the couple is not currently doing anything visible – walking the red carpet at awards shows, attending premieres, or taking the kids out in busy cities that are overloaded with paparazzi – then the tabloids need to get creative with their headlines and their stories. That’s when unnamed “sources” suddenly come out, random family friends who are allegedly desperate to share secret information with so-called reporters, and we start hearing of all the trouble in paradise.

It happens all the time. Long-time PittWatch readers will recall that we go through this at least once a year. Right now Angelina is filming Salt and lately her scenes haven’t been in public places, so we haven’t seen her. Brad is busy gearing up for Inglourious Basterds premiering at Cannes in May. The kids are in an area where they’ve been able to enjoy some privacy. We haven’t seen them all out – or just on a date night – in ages.

And it’s happened before, and when it did, there was the same tabloid uproar with people insisting that Brad and Angelina had broken up. It’s nothing new and it will happen again and again and again.

On top of that, if you go into your local market, you’ll probably see that for every break-up headline there’s another that will claim Brad and Angelina have secretly gotten married, are adopting a child within the month, or are expecting another baby. It’s ridiculous but it sells and it works so it’s not going away any time soon.

So please, take a deep breath folks. Yes, this is Hollywood and Hollywood relationships don’t have the best track records in general and even Brad and Angelina have been divorced themselves. Heck, Mel Gibson and his wife are filing for divorce after almost three decades together. It does happen and our couple is not bullet-proof.

But as long as it’s just tabloids – or news people quoting tabloids – I’m not believing the rumors. Let’s just enjoy the positive stories, hold tight for the photos of Brad and Angelina that we do get from time to time, and in the meantime, we can look forward to Brad on the red carpet in Cannes next month – especially considering that Angelina will join him unless there are serious filming schedule conflicts.

Please feel free to chat this topic up in the comments!

Image: Splash News Online