They were known for their image-making savvy.
As their divorce reenters the press cycle, were reminded of whos better at it.
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At the June 2005 premiere ofMr.
He was a vision, and so wasAngelina Jolie.
But one photographer did manage to capture them together.
Physically they remain apart, his body facing the opposite direction and awkwardly blocking half the shot.
But her eyes, beaming his way, tell a story of closeness.
This was a different time in the history of stardom.
The paparazzi photo added certainty to the rumors that their affair had begun on the set ofMr.
& Mrs. Smith,torpedoing Pitts golden couple marriage to Jennifer Aniston.
They were two people seemingly at the peak of their beauty, influence, and power.
And part of the appeal was in how diametrically opposed their reputations were.
He was the Missouri-raised, laid-back pretty boy who made it out to Hollywood.
She was the wild child, and her relationship to the industry was inherited.
The image-making power of Brangelina was first exercised in the pages of a bombshell July 2005 issue ofWmagazine.
Pitt and Jolie play out a dream of wealth and sorrow in a glamorous white suburban setting.
Page after page of it.
A gourmands dark thrill.
Pitt goes darker, while Jolie plays into a refined side of her sultry image.
It felt bracing considering the images they had fashioned before.
(Fight Club,with its homoerotic machismo and social commentary, was an outlier.)
Its her swimming in a pool in her gown at a Golden Globes after-party in 1999.
But Jolie also projected a depth that made her next moves both understandable and surprising.
Jolie was a woman in the midst of an evolution.
TheWshoot would cement another idea of her that was already starting to form.
Pitt responds with a swift no before Sawyer speaks to Jolies reputation: Everyone says shes a home-wrecker.
Pitt gets to the heart of the matter in his response: Its a good story.
But the tense dynamic with Aniston is actually the least interesting aspect of Pitt and Jolies relationship.
Whats most compelling is how they elevated each other in the public eye.
In many ways, they each offered the other a different kind of legitimacy and power.
Were constantly in competition with each other, Jolie toldVogueduring a January 2007 cover-story interview.
We push each other to be better.
Even if its just a better bike rider or a better pilot.
Here are two millionaires racing each other on bikes and piloting airplanes for the vertiginous pleasure of it.
They were peripatetic, bouncing from India to Ethiopia back to Southern California.
They put their growing family first.
Mariane worked for many years in radio and journalism in different areas of migration.
IfVogueandVanity Fairappreciated the luxurious scope of their globe-trotting partnership,Peoplewas crucial to the coverage of their sacrificial philanthropy.
Pitt produced the film under his Plan B shingle.
Aniston had previously said she was excited about nurturingA Mighty Heartand that she was considering playing Mariane herself.)
But who could think about that?
Pitt, in aviators and a tan suit, looked like hed taken a page from Robert Redfords book.
They were two glittering supernovas in love.
Jolie went on to nab a Best Actress nomination forA Mighty Heartfrom the NAACP itself.
Whatever sizzle bolstered their early relationship had been replaced by a more traditional vision of romance.
It was the first time she seemed like a punch line.
At the same time, Pitt was flying high.
As Pitt deepened his skills and visibility as a producer, Jolies career was entering a fraught period.
She directed her first feature,In the Land of Blood and Honey,about the Bosnian war.
It was tepidly received at best.
From an A-lister, it makes sense.
Superstar entitlement that which comes from within and without is the only logical explanation for this horrendous movie.
Jolie was swiftly lambasted for considering her own relationship to beauty and motherhood as worthy of sustained artistic consideration.
The movie was seen as marking the death knell for the celebrity vanity project.
Only theTimesreview from Dargis seemed interested in exploring what Jolie was doing as a director and actress.
Compared to the scintillating sexual heat they demonstrated on the dance floors inMr.
By the end of 2016, they reached a temporary agreement in which she maintained physical custody.
They would also undergo individual counseling, and Pitt would voluntarily take drug and alcohol tests.
He allegedly choked one of the kids and hit another in the face.
At one point, Jolie said, he poured beer on her and the children.
Pitt allegedly yelled, No, Mommys not okay.
Shes ruining this family.
Jolie said his behavior had made her feel scared and like a hostage.
When a celebrity breakup plays out this publicly, the media becomes another weapon in the arsenal.
But its his eyes that do the true work brimming with tears about to fall.
This, the photograph suggests, is a man come undone.
A few themes recur in all three.
His decision to quit alcohol and weed.
And finally, his love of art and building things with his hands.
In the age of the relatable star, Pitt made an intelligent shift toward such expectations.
Here is Hollywoods most golden god brought closer to our atmosphere.
Jolies September 2017Vanity Faircover profile by Evgenia Peretz accomplished the opposite.
In the photo shoot, shes as gorgeous as ever.
In one image, she sits on the Warner Bros. studio lot in a directors chair.
It was a detail about how the film was cast.
Pitt hasnt been seen publicly with his children since the divorce.
Meanwhile, his power as a producer and actor has only become further enshrined.
He won his first acting Oscar forOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood …in 2020.
It was hard for me when Brad did.)
In recent months, Pitt has upped his press game.
In it, he spoke with soft reverence for Paltrows late father.
The exes beamed with approval when they won their respective awards.
Hes holding her there.
Its a fantasy of the man who did the work.
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