Brad Pitt

[Ginger]

Ronan Farrow for some reason tweeted about this. I guess he's Team Angelina:

@ronanfarrow 22h Haven't covered this case and can't speak to the intricacies. But I will say in my experience, as a reporter and as an attorney, when you see a round of publicity pushing stories about a victory in one side of these disputes, there are often still a lot of unanswered questions.

Did I miss where Brad did a big press conference declaring that he's been fully vindicated, Angelina is a lying beeyotch, and all 6 kids just gifted him with a "World's #1 Dad" mug?

There was a court ruling that said Brad should be granted joint custody. That's it. It is a victory for Brad, although I don't think he's issued any comment about it.

Mr. Farrow, if you have to give a disclaimer before you make your public insinuations that you don't actually know anything about the case, then you shouldn't be making public insinuations.

Same goes for TV doctors like Dr. Drew issuing diagnoses on people they have never met. Touting your professional credentials to give an opinion on matters you know nothing about is a violation of those professional credentials.

[hellsbells]

I think Ronan is bringing some heavy baggage to that comment.

[askye]

The twins are 13 so this only needs to drag out 5 more years and then it won’t matter.

Realistically, by the time the kids are in high school, they're old enough to decide who they want to live with. (In California, some family court judges will give weight to what a 13 year old says.)

That's basically what happened with Frances Bean Cobain. When she was 16 or 17, her grandparents petitioned for custody, Frances told the California family court judge she didn't want to live with Courtney Love anymore, and that was that.

There was a court ruling that said Brad should be granted joint custody. That's it. It is a victory for Brad, although I don't think he's issued any comment about it.

I'm #TeamNoOne here, but the ruling was discussed in People, Page Six, and several other mainstream outlets, and there were plenty of quotes from "anonymous sources" (who were most likely Pitt's PR team or connected with his PR team.) Both Brad and Angelina know how the game works, and they can keep their names out of the press if they want to.

It's not uncommon in high profile celebrity cases for one party to "leak" things to the press to force the other party's hand. In this case, it sounds like Angelina is appealing the ruling, so if a lot of the press is favorable to Brad (or makes AJ look bad,) then that gives her further incentive to drop the appeal.

[Ginger]

I did see anonymous comments from both sides, but this was Brad's in People Magazine:

In response to the ruling, a source close to Pitt, 57, tells PEOPLE the actor "has always wanted what is best for the kids, and to spend time with them."

"A few weeks ago, the judge's decision came down after a months long trial," the insider adds. "Brad has been awarded significantly more time with the kids. He had had very limited time before."

I don't think it supports Ronan's insinuations that Brad is using this to declare premature victory in World War Brange, or absolve himself of anything. Brad's been trying to get increased custody of the kids for 5 years and has finally achieved it, so that is a significant milestone in the case.

Woody Allen goes around saying that he wasn't charged with child molesting and there that means he's innocent. Brad is not out there saying that getting increased custody means he is and always has been a fantastic parent.

[royalwave]

I agree that Brad's publicity really isn't focused on a "victory" for him. I don't think he's stupid enough to think this is all over now. He is, however, using it to get a few more swipes in at Angelina (not that I necessarily blame him)--having his people note that she has paraded the kids around for publicity while he avoids dragging them into the spotlight, and noting that a, quote, "Fu@!-ton" of witnesses that have direct experience with the kids have already testified. I think he wants to make the point that after all these years and all this testimony, the courts have still not found any reason why his custody should be so severely limited. And in fairness to him, he really has been pretty circumspect about the whole thing and never tried to paint himself as an innocent in all of this.

The one thing I'll have to agree with Ronan Farrow on is that there does have to be a lot more to this case than we've heard. All I've ever seen mentioned was the one incident of potential physical abuse of Maddox on the private jet, which didn't appear to reach the level that would necessitate a years-long custody dispute. There have to be large chunks of info and a bunch of other occurrences missing from the public picture, which also begs the question of why Angelina stuck around as long as she did if things were that awful. There is just no way that one drunken incident of shoving his son on the plane should have resulted in all of this.

[askye]

I think he wants to make the point that after all these years and all this testimony, the courts have still not found any reason why his custody should be so severely limited. And in fairness to him, he really has been pretty circumspect about the whole thing and never tried to paint himself as an innocent in all of this.

I did think it was weird that Angelina Jolie has changed divorce lawyers so often during this case. She originally hired Laura Wasser, who is one of the best divorce lawyers in the business, but Wasser allegedly left because she felt like AJ's expectations weren't reasonable. It looks like one of the divorce attorneys after that also asked to be relieved.

So who knows what's going in with this case.

[lae]

One thing I’ve learned after seeing many divorce and custody disputes is that some kind of joint custody is basically the norm, no matter how terrible one parent might be. You can fight, drag it out for years, and go totally bankrupt but sole custody is rare unless the other parent truly isn’t interested. I also have no horse in this race and I don’t think Brad Pitt is a great guy or anything but the people (not here) who insist that all of his children hate him, they never want to see or speak to him again, and he is only pursuing custody to be spiteful seem so extra. No one personally knows any of them and it seems like there is a ton of information that has been kept under wraps.

[gremlin45]

I wouldn't be surprised if it dragged out this long because Angelina was set on sole custody. I think she's used to getting her own way.

[Ginger]

I think Angelina decided a long time ago that whatever Brad did was unforgivable, and that she would not settle for anything less than removing him from their lives permanently.

Maybe having been burned by her own father repeatedly after giving him so many second chances factors into this? Maybe she genuinely thinks she can spare her children a lifetime of being disappointed by their father if she cuts him off from them.

[Beyle]

May 28, 2021 16:12:16 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I think Angelina decided a long time ago that whatever Brad did was unforgivable, and that she would not settle for anything less than removing him from their lives permanently.

Maybe having been burned by her own father repeatedly after giving him so many second chances factors into this? Maybe she genuinely thinks she can spare her children a lifetime of being disappointed by their father if she cuts him off from them.

I've often wondered if Angelina's own fractured relationship with her mostly absent father is what's been driving her custody issues with Brad.