Angelina Jolie, Man Stealer?

Remember when Brad and Jen were all the rage? You couldn’t look at any celebrity mag without seeing them on the cover, back when Jen had her shorter hairstyle (no, not the one that everyone was copying) and she was still on Friends (i.e. the greatest sitcom to ever appear on television — eh hem). And some of those same celebrity mags would talk about their body language. Once, Brad and Jen were on the red carpet at some awards show (you don’t expect me to remember which one, do you?) and his arm was around her waist, but his legs were pointed away from her, not toward her. All the magazine people said how he was closed off toward her, and that maybe there was trouble in Brad and Jen-land. I laughed at them. After all, Brad had just done a guest spot on Friends (a hilarious one at that) and I was head over heels for that couple.

Until Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Which, I’ll admit, is a hilarious movie, but as I’ve always said (well, like I said once), chemistry can easily develop on a movie set. You’re with these people for an eternity in very close quarters, pretending to be someone else. It’s easy to forget who you really are, and to embrace the person you’re acting like. It’s happened to the best of actors, this lack of separation between private and work, and why not? I will never understand how someone can be so close to anyone other than their spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend, no matter how good of an actor, and not develop some kind of attachment that crosses those already admittedly blurred lines. And before you could say “boo,” Brad was proving those celebrity mag people right, going after his co-star from the film.

And I don’t blame Angelina, unlike so many people at the time. She wasn’t trying to steal somebody else’s man. Brad made his own decisions, and he was the one who had to live with them. The media practically vilified Angelina, though, as if she was the catalyst that destroyed a marriage. I read every article. I listened to every interview. I watched Entertainment Tonight (Entertainment Tonight, for heaven’s sakes). And I realized something as the whole saga was starting to die down. People were so shocked and blamed Angelina because Brad could do no wrong. It couldn’t have possibly been poor Jen’s fault. So the fingers had to point at someone.

Then I saw them together, and I realized something else. They loved each other. That was as obvious as the nose on my face (you know you’ve seen it). It wasn’t contrived. Brad didn’t have the look of someone who had run away. He had the look of someone who had come home, and that’s what did it for me. He didn’t leave for sex, for lust, or for whatever else was said about Angelina’s feminine wiles. He did it for love, and while I feel sorry for Jen, I’m a big romantic. Anything done for love, while it might sting something horrible for other people caught in the crossfire, I can identify with. Love is dynamic, and love chooses even when we don’t. And I look at them now, and I still see that love. They belong together.

Now, when I see Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I don’t see the man who ran off on his wife and ran off with a tramp. I see a man who was conflicted, but who chose love in the end. And a woman who did the same.

Sam