14 DAY TRIAL // Though it’s been quite some time that reports of an imminent breakup between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt first emerged a few weeks ago, when a British tab thought the two had seen a divorce attorney to make provisions for when they split, the rumors just won’t die down. The couple recently relocated to Venice, Italy, where Jolie is to spend the next three months shooting for a new film – and used the occasion to stage a photo op, PageSix says.
According to the reports, the Brangelina is in full rumor-control mode and has considered the best way to do so is by staging a photo op to show the world that there is no trouble in paradise. This is the only explanation the tab can offer for the fact that photos of the entire family were made available online, when it’s a known fact that Brad and Angelina usually go to unusual lengths to keep their private life out of the media – and the best way to do that is, clearly, by hiding from the paparazzi.
“Those happy family photo ops in Venice are being staged ‘like a military operation’ to quash reports that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are splitting, sources said. The pair, who have vehemently denied a rift, have been seen daily as a family unit in the romantic Italian city, where Jolie is filming ‘The Tourist’ with Johnny Depp,” PageSix writes, citing the usual unnamed but very reliable sources familiar with what is going on in the Pitt-Jolie household.
Admittedly, the two are either no longer together or are having serious issues, so, for some reason or another (that not even the aforementioned tab can explain), they remain keen on making people think they’re still an item and everything is fine. “They are usually very shy about being photographed, but now they're making a point of being seen in public as a happy family unit. They're making a statement. They want the world to know the reports are wrong and they are strong,” one such anonymous source says for PageSix.
As we also reported over the past couple of weeks, word on the street had it that the two stars had broken up and saw an attorney to settle all financial matters between them. Because they have children together (three by adoption, and three of their own), Brad and Angelina decided to go about the separation as if it were a real divorce, even though they never wed, it was said.