Classic Reissue: What Angelina Jolie Couldn't Say

Team Angelina, always and forever.

Last month, it was revealed that Shiloh Jolie had legally filed to have her name changed to officially remove Pitt from her surname. She made this decision the moment she turned 18 years old. It came after “sources” ran to the Daily Mail to preach how Brad Pitt was oh-so-eager to reconnect with his daughter now that she was an adult and not being controlled by her mother. That narrative doesn’t really work when your own children are desperate to legally and personally disassociate from every aspect of your life (I wrote up the story for Pajiba here.) The continuing PR spin to position Pitt as an angel and Angelina Jolie as a money-hungry manipulator has left me queasy. As the Jolie kids all near adulthood and it becomes increasingly obvious that they want nothing to do with Pitt, we should expect more “sources” claiming that Pitt is as pure as the driven snow and that these six kids are either brainwashed patsies or ungrateful swine.

It got me thinking about how Jolie has been forced to remain silent and graceful in the face of this extensive cruelty. Jolie is one of my favourite celebrities and I’ve long admired how she works, both as an actress and a philanthropist. It reminded me of this story, and how Jolie tried to speak about her trauma without opening the floodgates of her and her children’s private lives.

Guardian. "Angelina Jolie: ‘I just want my family to heal’." September 4, 2021. Simon Hattenstone.

(Image via Vanity Fair. I love her.)

(Read the profile here.)

In 2021, when this piece was first published, it was announced that Brad Pitt was suing his ex-wife Angelina Jolie over her decision to sell her stake in their co-owned French vineyard. Pitt's lawyers are claiming that Jolie 'sought to inflict harm' on him through this deal, and that her decision to sell her share to a Russian oligarch forced him into partnership with 'a stranger with poisonous associations and intentions.' It is the latest in a seemingly never-ending cycle of legal battles the couple have been in since their marriage ended in 2016. Two of the most famous people on the planet, a pair whose coupling became instantly iconic, have engaged in a bitter divorce. It has received a lot of press coverage over the past six years, although most of the war has been surprisingly silent given the subjects.