Jolie vs Pitt: How bitter feud could affect their careers

As Angelina Jolie takes on Brad Pitt in a bitter legal battle, this is how it could affect their Hollywood careers.

It was the red-eye flight that ended Hollywood’s most famous marriage.

Six years on, could it end a career? That seems like a question worth asking, as the world finally learns what Angelina Jolie claims Brad Pitt did to her and their six children on board a private plane above the Atlantic Ocean.

And yet, in the days since the Maleficent star’s allegations became public, her ex-husband has avoided the public cancelling that might have been expected in the #MeToo era.

Back in 2016, mystery shrouded the fateful flight that brought down Brangelina. Five days after flying from their French winery to Los Angeles, Jolie ended their 11-year relationship and filed for divorce.

Brad Pitt, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, Zahara Jolie-Pitt and Angelina Jolie are seen at LAX in June 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Picture: GVK/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

While there were reports that Pitt physically abused his children on the plane, the FBI and LA’s Department of Children and Family Services quickly decided not to press charges.

Jolie kept quiet at the time, saying she was restricted by their divorce proceedings, other than to tell a journalist who asked if she feared for the safety of her children: “Yes, for my family. My whole family.”

But this week, in a court filing linked to a legal battle over ownership of the winery, Jolie’s lawyers put on record what she alleged Pitt had done.

He was aggressive before the flight had taken off, Jolie claimed, so she asked him in the air what was wrong. Pitt responded by accusing her of being “too deferential” to their children, before pulling her into the bathroom.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at a movie premier in November 2015. Picture: AFP

“Pitt grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall,” the filing stated.

“Pitt then punched the ceiling of the plane numerous times.”

When one of their children asked if Jolie was okay, Pitt yelled: “No, mummy’s not okay.”

Jolie claimed he “lunged at his own child” who tried to defend her, and threw himself into a seat with Jolie on his back, injuring her back and elbow.

“The children rushed in … Before it was over, Pitt choked one of the children and struck another in the face,” the filing stated.

Jolie alleged Pitt continued yelling at his family throughout the flight, even pouring beer and wine on them.

Angelina Jolie with her children Maddox, Zahara, Pax and Shiloh arriving at the Narita International Airport in July 2010. Picture: AFP

Jolie’s lawyers said she went public after she and Pitt failed to agree on the winery’s ownership because he demanded she sign a nondisclosure agreement “that would have prohibited Jolie from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of Jolie and their children”.

In response, Pitt’s spokesman said the allegations were “completely untrue”.

A source close to him said it was “another rehash that only harms the family”, while another unnamed friend accused Jolie of a “concerted effort to smear Brad”.

Despite the seriousness of her allegations, these anonymous quotes fuelled gossip items that cast doubt on Jolie’s account, prompting fans to accuse her of lying.

Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Knox Jolie-Pitt and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, pictured together in November 2015. Picture: GC Images

According to University of Melbourne gender and pop culture researcher Lauren Rosewarne, this reflected Pitt’s status as a “favourite son” of Hollywood, compared to Jolie’s reputation as “kind of an outlier”.

Rosewarne compared it to the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard case, suggesting even though the Pirates of the Caribbean actor was not as universally admired as Pitt, he had “broad enough appeal that people were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and work out ways to think that the woman is telling lies”.

“We’re consuming it like it’s an episode of a TV show, and making judgments but on really scant information,” she said.

For Pitt and Jolie, this dynamic had existed since they met filming Mr and Mrs Smith in 2004.

At the time, Pitt had already cemented himself as Hollywood’s golden boy, delivering hit after hit including Ocean’s Eleven, Troy and Fight Club. He was also married – and his wife, Jennifer Aniston, was America’s sweetheart.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt together in September, 2007, in Venice, Italy. Picture: Getty Images

Jolie admitted she fell in love with Pitt on set, although she denied they had an affair before Pitt and Aniston separated, saying she “could not look at myself” if she slept with a married man.

But Jolie was nevertheless characterised as a “home-wrecker”, while Pitt mostly escaped any consequences for his infidelity.

If Aniston was the girl next door, Jolie was – in the words of Vanity Fair – “a tattooed vixen with a taste for bisexuality, heroin, brotherly incest, mental institutions and wearing her husband’s blood”.

And unlike her celebrity contemporaries, she did not have a publicist to tilt public opinion in her favour, leaving fans to side with the Friends star.

A fashion label even cashed in by producing “Team Aniston” and “Team Jolie” T-shirts. “Team Aniston” reportedly outsold “Team Jolie” by 25 to one.

By the time she and Pitt divorced, Jolie’s wild child reputation had faded as she became known as a hardworking humanitarian.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the 84th Annual Academy Awards in 2012. Picture: AFP

Pitt went to rehab and admitted he was “boozing too much”, as he set about protecting his own image. The latest film he produced premieres next week: She Said, a drama about the journalists who exposed serial predator Harvey Weinstein.

“Important figures like (Pitt) are rarely torn down,” Rosewarne said.

“There’s so much investment, not only from studios but audiences.”

She said the response to Jolie’s allegations was a reminder that the #MeToo movement had not eradicated “the narrative that women somehow get something from accusing men”.

“Some audiences don’t want to believe their favourite celebrity man has ever done anything wrong,” Rosewarne said.

“If the actual attempt of (#MeToo) was to get people’s attitudes around sexual abuse and sexual misconduct to change, that hasn’t happened.”

“We’re very much still in that zone of rationalising men’s behaviour and also somehow implicating women in their own victimisation.”

Originally published as Jolie vs Pitt: How bitter feud could affect their careers