Hollywood Scandal Part 3: What You Didn’t Know about Brangelina

4:22PM Jun 13, 2022

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Today we are continuing our Hollywood scandals week by jumping ahead to the 90s and the early 2000s. Diving into the intricate web of love divorce and no less than six children. Yep, today we're talking about benefits 1.0 And Brangelina. I'm Sarah Wendell. I'm Alisha Rai. Welcome to lovestruck daily where we're bringing love scandals to your ears every single day this week.

I'm in love with that I'm in love with you.

Now, let me give you in a few people a brief recap of a very dark time and gossip, which was the late in early 90s and early 2000s. There was a lot of slut shaming the narrative about Oh, it's terrible. It's a dark, dark time. It was really not good.

It was bad.

I do not recommend you go back and read gossip from that time. But the number 1.0 was Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston I would say Brenda for just ran a friendship. Brenda for Brian for is Brad and Jennifer. Yeah, get familiar with other big names and Jennifer's there's a lot of Jennifer right. And I will tell you there's also a lot of Sara's, but no one makes point portmanteau is out of Sarah and I'm very, very grateful.

I mean, it would be like bear I would be Yeah, right. No, I don't think that sounds right. I

think a portmanteau of Adam and me would be like a Dara and that's just not it's not very exciting. Who knows? Who knows. But the renovator got married in July 2000. And they were massive, massive celebrities at that time and celebrity was a little different than we didn't have Instagram. We didn't have Tik Tok. We didn't have direct channels of communication and celebrities. narratives were controlled largely by PR in studios, and it was a completely different time. Again, not a great one. Well, then, Denton TA in 2004, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie filmed a movie called Mr. And Mrs. Smith. And allegedly they went to bone town.

That's very, that's an elegant way of putting it. I like that. But they went to bone town and he cheated on him. Yeah, like they they travelled to bone town. Like it's like they got ticket ticket. They travelled. They took a journey on tour to Motown. Yeah,

yeah, they went to bone town. And then rumours began to spread and Brad and Jennifer announced that they were separated in 2005. She filed for divorce, cited irreconcilable differences. They got divorced. And then in January of 2006, Brad and Angelina announced they're expecting their first baby after adopting children from various countries. And now they've got six kids, and now they're getting divorced. Yeah, and every now and again, you'll see press coverage of Brad Pitt and Jennifer are they getting back together? Spoiler No,

they're like smile be like smile at each other and people are like, Oh my God, they're getting back together.

I know. Like, come on. Today we have an extremely special guest. I'm so excited. So we are so excited. Oh my gosh to welcome Ashley Hamilton with her co host Claire Parker. Ashley is one of the hosts behind celebrity memoir book club and Instagram account and podcast and tick tock devoted to exploring celebrity biographies and memoirs. So you don't have to. Ashley is joining us today and tomorrow to get all of the biggest scandals in Hollywood over the last two decades. Get ready. It's very dishy welcome, Ashley.

I'm a big fan of celebrity memoir book club. Yes.

Thank you so much for having me.

We're so excited. And we love everything you do. I'm I'm a huge fan of celebrity scandals. I know Sarah is a huge fan of celebrity scandals. And the book club is so great, because it's not like you're reporting on anything that they haven't put out in the world themselves. Right?

Yeah. So that was one of our reasons for starting it. So our origin story, I guess this is our third podcast that we've done. And our first podcast years ago was called Hold on one second, we're talking about Britney Spears. And then we're like, we want to get back to talking about celebrities. But in a way that like doesn't feel like an invasion of privacy, like the all of the 2000s like y2k pop culture stuff that was like paparazzi stalking and ruining the lives of women and like twisting horrific narratives about how hard they are to work with when they just get sick of them. Like there's so much. There's so many major stories about female superstars, that when you really look into what happened, you're like, what the like, why was she the villain? Like why did we let that happen? And it's because we didn't really know any better. And the people controlling the news cycle were evil. So anyway, we were like, the best way to handle this is to talk about celebrities in their own words, like using their own words. And if they wrote it down, or if they co signed it, even if they don't write their own memoir, it's still like, quote unquote by them, they signed off on This being their story. We can talk to it however much we want.

I found you actually on Tik Tok, which you guys use really well and are very good at because I initially found you after the John Mulaney Olivia Munn debacle. And it is so easy sometimes like like with Olivia, where her words are so damning on their own, that you don't need to do anything.

Yeah, we always say that a lot of people caught a pretty bad vibe from her and didn't really know why. And then when you really look into what she says you're like, Oh, well, there it is.

There it is. Well, we wanted to talk to you today about a pretty famous couple from the Oh 990 xolos. And that is Brangelina. Yes. So so give us while Brangelina slash Bretton Ofer. I don't know what the what was the Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt. Oh, Bennifer. Benefit also. Famous for though.

There was like a couple benefactors?

I guess there were a couple benefactors? Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. Athletes

had two of them, because he was a to Jennifer. Right.

Correct. Well, to amend back to the first lob. So yeah, it was three

and a half benefits to one

and a quarter for that one, man. And then let's say let's say Brian ufer. Just to keep it up. So where does the story start? And like, where do you guys come in? Like, whose memoir Did you read? And how did you get into this?

This is one that we don't really have a lot of like memoir backstory on it, because they're all notoriously private until they're not. Right. So this is one that I'm, we just, I feel like it was so part of the zeitgeist, that again, this is another story where like, you look at how the media treated Jennifer Aniston after all this happened. What did we agree to that was so I mean, to this day, people are like, this poor poor woman can't have a baby. And it's like, maybe she doesn't want one? Or maybe she does and you saying that is really hurting her? Like what stop saying that? Either way, having gone

through infertility, I saw an interview with her recently. And I remember the picture, she was lying by the pool, looking effortlessly fabulous, as usual. And she said something like she cut herself off. But she said something like, what if I can't? What if I don't? What if I can't and then and that made it into print? And as someone who dealt with people out when are you guys going to have a baby? Like, I just had a miscarriage? Could you please take off now, you know, is not a thing I can say to family when she said that? I thought Oh, honey, this is horrible. And you're right. The early 2000s Were a very dark time. Yeah, very

Gabrielle Union's book, she talks about that situation where when she and Wade Wade were trying to conceive. And she cut in she had a couple of miscarriages. And she was like at the doctor, you know, at her fertility doctor trying to like figure out a plan and people were constantly saying, like, are you pregnant? Are you pregnant? I think you are,

like you said with Jennifer Aniston. Even now people talk about oh, it's so sad. Shoot. Yeah, the beach. And I was like, now if people choose that they don't want to have children. They constantly have to justify that choice to random strangers who are not entitled to

that. Yeah, it's too much. It's exhausting. So like, I guess, is not public domain. Yeah. And also, like, some days, I'm just well fed. Take a photo and I posted it. And I don't want everyone commenting on my belly. But it happens. Yeah, it's amazing. Like people feel really entitled. When it comes to any woman, whether they, like you know, you have like a parasocial relationship with who you don't know. But you watch on Instagram or Tiktok. And you think like I have a I have a right to know about their uterus, like I have a right to be a part of their fertility journey. And it's 10 times worse, I'm sure for anybody on TV or movies and especially like, such a long running show like friends. I mean,

and then her life seemed well, here's the thing that's really interesting about Brad and Jen and Angelina, is that we, their relationships have all been like such a major part of the Zeitgeist but none of their relationships have been hyper public. If you really think about what we know about their relationships it's like only ever been what was done to us very specifically in extremely curated like magazine layouts. I don't think they've ever had any sort of behind the scenes, like on the loose moments like they've had a couple interview swipes at each other we're gonna like that was definitely not choreographed. Like that was definitely not on purpose. I don't think he meant to reveal that or she meant to reveal that. But we don't really know. They're not like there hasn't been like a leak of a phone call with one of them crying. It's only ever been like what we see on red carpet. Yeah. And then a couple little tidbits from interviews and everyone, but like they're they're just one of the most famous couples that has ever existed

existed. Yeah. And so Brad and Jennifer, just to give people an idea of the timeline, Brad and Jennifer met in 1994. They got married in 2000. And then in 2004, Brangelina met on this and became Brangelina, basically on the set of Mr. And Mrs. Smith. What I love in our timeline is that our researcher also included that in 2001, bread get started on friends. And I vividly remember that episode, like I was not a huge friends fan, but my roommate was at the time. And I remember when he walked out and my roommates were so excited. They're like, Oh my God, that's so like, it was like her private life was kind of bleeding into this very popular show.

That whole episode was such a win. Get the audience with like, I heart, Rachel that I hate Rachel Green Club. Yeah, I was like, Oh, that's so funny. Because he loves Rachel Green. Yeah, right.

Oh, my God. It's hilarious because they're really in love.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. What I was gonna say is I think that okay, here's the thing is obviously we don't know a single thing about their relationship other than what we've been given. It's not one of those relationships where like, that like kind of existed on social media nowadays. And so nowadays, we like seeing more of couples together. We're like, oh, they like really seem so in love, because they're always like, Instagramming each other. No, you know, like, then I think it was really easy, because there were such a like, golden couple, just like truly the two prettiest people in the world combined to create the prettiest couple in the world. And you're like, of course, and then it wasn't easy to project anything you wanted on to them. Like whatever you thought a perfect couple should be like, that's how you imagined them. And everyone had this thing in their head of like, this is the ideal couple because they are everything I want to be because we didn't know anything about what they actually were like. Like maybe they argued all the time. We don't know anything. All we know is gorgeous shots of them wearing like, iconic outfit. Yes.

And they got matching highlights. I remember very clearly the press coverage of their matching highlights.

Right. Okay. There was like, Oh, that's perfect. A perfect couple has matching hair.

Yes. And I have to say like how well they handled, because I mean, obviously Brad and Angelina met on the set of a movie when he was still married to Jennifer Aniston. But I feel like the excitement around Brad and Angelina getting together kind of drowned out the fact that you probably definitely cheated in general, right? Or at least, or at least their timelines overlapped. And maybe I'm like, misremembering that. I don't know. But I feel like the public outcry there wasn't that big.

I mean, there was like the team. Angelina team Jennifer. Yeah, Team Jen shards. I think that people like kind of viewed Angelina. It's like a saucy homewrecker. They were like look at this sex pot.

And her public narrative was so weird. She, she did have a public narrative. She had the Billy Bob we drink each other's blood and we just had sex in the limo. There was the thing with her brother. I mean, her public narrative has been consistently like, we're

just like, always so provocative. Yeah. And then Jennifer Aniston was always so like all American gal. And so then I think everyone like who had been like obsessed with Brad and Jen, there was some people who were like, of course, he's gonna go for this bonafide sex taught. And then other people were like, but what about the perfect family with the white picket fence? Why don't we want that the American Dream is crumbling? Yeah,

there's a little bit of projection there. Hmm.

A lot. I think it's so interesting to me, because I do feel like Angelina, like invested a tonne of money and resources into cleaning up her image, both like simultaneously meeting Brad and before it where she like, became a global ambassador and was travelling the world and then, you know, they adopted their children together. And it did feel like it was like they were two polar opposites. These two women, you know, like, we have somebody who's kind of homegrown or we have somebody who was saving the world and you know, yeah, but it was it's just, it is so interesting to me. And it's, they get married, right? Like they get engaged and they get married. And then I remember, there was like a magazine spread that they did where basically Angelina was like, I met the love of my life on this movie set. And you know, and afterwards I think somebody's like, shoved a mic in Jennifer's face. And she's like, Well, that didn't feel great.

That was really not cool. Yeah, good for you. It wasn't

there was one interview where he like kind of called Jennifer boring.

I remember it was

really kind of like what everyone was thinking was the problem but here's the thing. Yeah, I think there is a lot of narrative about the team, Jen team Angelina like it's always Like Which woman did Brad the perfect man wants everyone thinks they want this all American girl but then this like saucy humanitarian comes along and you're like, oh, I want to like she's hot. I feel like people forget to question if Brad is crazy.

And now we're going to take a quick break, but don't go anywhere the story will continue

there are a lot of like low key stories that get buried very quickly. If you really look into Brad Pitt. He was like accused of abusing his sons. He has like been accused of pretty severe alcoholism, which I'm not saying makes you a bad person or makes you untrustworthy. I just like think that that is of note, I don't mean like that makes him crazy. But there are a lot a lot of stories that have like a tiny, tiny blip on the radar about Brad and then they get buried immediately. Like his PR team is very talented. And they do a lot of great work. But I don't know, I'm like, sure it could be like about whether this perfect man wants the blonde girl or the brunette girl. But it also might be like, this is an unstable man who's hard to be married to and maybe he and Jen had a lot of problems. And she wanted out. And then on set, he meant Angelina and was like, let's do this. And it looked like you know what I mean? Like we don't know any of the behind the scenes of it really. And like there's one narrative that's been pushed heavily. And it's that Brad cheated. Because why wouldn't he like that the story they post is like, of course, look at her look at Angelina, she's gorgeous. Yeah. And it's like maybe though, relationships and Yeah.

And that's the part by the way of like, what I love about what you do. The Celebrity narrative is always multiple narratives, right? Like there's always the public narrative and the sanction narrative and the PR narrative, and then there's what's actually happening and sometimes those are like nine miles apart.

Yeah, like, I think that one story that people just never really talked about is like maybe Brad is hard to be married. Oh, the devil you say a bad person. Maybe he just sucks. Maybe he is abusive. Maybe he just sucks like again. I don't know him. I don't know them. But like, I don't know. He seems Yeah, like that. GQ should he did when he was in the pink sweater like rolling through the desert? She says unpleasant. Yeah,

I agree. I agree. And he did you read the the Ian Halperin book, The Brangelina The Untold Story of of Brad and Angelina? Oh, he, I mean, he just accuses Brad of like, cheating and stuff like that. But it was it was interesting. I believe it. Yeah. And he did. I mean, they got divorce for Angelina is done. I hope Angelina is happy. We don't hear a lot from her. Like she is very, also very tight. But I mean, she looks happy. And Jennifer looks very happy. I gotta say like, Jennifer. Amazing. She looks amazing. Like she looks like she's having the love like just loving life right now and I'm very happy.

I don't know how she does it. And then that's the thing is that was hard. When her adjustment the robot divorced and everyone was like, wow, she can't hang on to a man can she? Because the abuse stuff is legit. And I don't want to like counted into what we know of the situation of the confirmed things that have happened as a result of this situation. I will say like one of the hardest parts to watch is like the narrative of Jennifer Aniston being pathetic. Yeah, constant which was like absolutely a result of this situation if that everyone decided that Jennifer Aniston is pathetic, and it keeps getting hammered and everyone's like, well, she couldn't hold on to Brad Pitt because she's too boring. And then she ended up with Justin Trudeau and he left her immediately probably because she's boring. She can't have a baby. She can't keep her husband. This sad, sad birch and it's like, look at her. She's incredible. She's glowing. She's amazing. She's probably fine.

Yeah, she's doing fine.

She's got a vino moisturiser she's got SmartWater is collecting her

vino money. Yes.

SmartWater commercial with puppies like she like she seems fun and chill. Not boring. Yeah,

by the Yeah, she seems like she's just relaxed and counting her friends money. So I'm happy for do you think this would have played out differently? If it were to happen today in the age of like Instagram and Tiktok and all these social media apps? It's a good question.

I think definitely. I think we would have been monitoring the follow and the unfollow I think that there would have been like, I think that there's always a weird moment especially because of the way that Brad and Jen have like refound a sort of cordial friendship and everyone's been like obsessed with it in this insane way. Being like, I mean, the amount of people who are like oh my god, maybe they'll get back together. I'm just like, do we not remember how he cheated on her left her and then called her boring in the press like that? Yeah, really mean? It's

not a win. Like what If

he did was mean, it's mean yeah, it wouldn't have been the exact same like weird, like, what the hell's going on story but it probably would have been either like psycho messy or would have been like just like a very coordinated like a nap like Notes app announcements, like who we have decided to amicably end our marriage blah, blah, blah and then like there would have been the feed premiere of Brangelina. And then there would have been the like, hard launch of some other No, no, it would have been like, a weird thing to look at.

Here's what my my prediction would have been an I take this purely off of not to make everything about Olivia Munn, but purely off of John Mulaney. And Olivia Munn and Anna Tendler, who, you know, kind of had a similar kind of messy breakup, you know, maybe Messier, I would say. But John Mulaney, these people were really good at keeping his image like pristine, I think, in a lot of ways, and then it kind of went off the rails with this. And I think part of the reason is that Anna Marie Tendler had access to Tik Tok, and like, rapidly was able to show like, I'm thriving, like, I am living the best life here and my Victorian mansion and, and just going about her day to day stuff, and being funny and relatable. And getting quickly on her side. So I do wonder if if Jennifer Aniston had access directly to the public, the way people do now.

And people would have been like, really like stocking for those first picture. Oh, yeah. Brad and Angelina, and she would have been able to just like, come on and be like, no stress and just making smoothies. Yeah, just

rubbing my vino in. And I'm great. It might have that would that would be my prediction, but it's hard to know. So. But it's, I love that we're talking about this like 20 years later. I just think it's such a timeless story.

It was just such a weird one where everyone was like, this is the perfect couple and maybe the only couple the only existed as far as I'm concerned. And then all of a sudden it like, went away.

This has been so fascinating. Tomorrow, we're gonna switch to a beautiful 2000s Funny couple. It's, of course, Chris Pratt and Anna Faris. And I'm really excited about that conversation. So thank you so much, Ashley. This has been quite a treat and we'll talk to you tomorrow. All right.

Alicia, yeah. Do you have tea?

I have tonnes of tea because I

think we need more tea. I think we do. I think we need more tea. Tomorrow. We're going to sit down with Ashley again for even more tea about Hollywood scandal. Now if you have a favourite scandal, you can email us at lovestruck Daliah frolic dot media. Listen, if you just want to tell us your family scandal, I totally want to hear it. I love that stuff. Please leave us a review. If you enjoyed this episode. We would absolutely love it if you did. And we will see you back here tomorrow. For piping hot Hollywood T. Our researcher is Jesse Epstein. Our editor is Jen Jacobs. We are produced by Abigail steckler and little Scorpion studios with executive producer frolic media. This is an I Heart Radio Podcast. We wish you a very satisfying happily ever after. I'm in love with the saying to you I'm in love with you. I'm in love with you