In this week’s issue of PARADE, Brad Pitt talks about his decision to become a father, why he won’t marry Angelina Jolie and the risks he’ll take for love. Check out the excerpts below, then visit Parade.com on Friday (Aug. 7) for the full interview.

Why he won’t marry Angelina Jolie.
“I have love in my life, a soul mate–absolutely. When someone asked me why Angie and I don’t get married, I replied, ‘Maybe we’ll get married when it’s legal for everyone else.’ I stand by that, although I took a lot of flak for saying it–hate mail from religious groups. I believe everyone should have the same rights. They say gay marriage ruins families and hurts kids. Well, I’ve had the privilege of seeing my gay friends being parents and watching their kids grow up in a loving environment.”

The right to love.
“Man, I resent people telling others how to live! It drives me mental! Just the other night, I heard this TV reverend say that Angie and I were setting a bad example because we were living out of wedlock, and people should not be duped by us! It made me laugh. What damn right does anyone have to tell someone else how to live if they’re not hurting anyone? How many times do you think real love comes to someone in a lifetime? If you’re lucky, maybe two or three.”

His early days in Hollywood.
“I liked to smoke a bit of grass at the time, and I became very sheltered. Then I got bored. I was turning into a damn doughnut, really. So I moved as far away from that as I could. I was done. In Missouri, where I come from, we don’t talk about what we do–we just do it. If we talk about it, it’s seen as bragging.”

(source)

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may be looking to buy in Manhattan.

We hear the star couple has been quietly checking out the Apthorp, the century-old upper West Side landmark that’s undergoing a condo conversion.

Until now, Pitt and Jolie have rented when they’ve come to town. Recently, while Angie’s been shooting “Salt,” the Brangelina brood has divided its time between the Waldorf Towers and Rupert Murdoch’s Rosehearty estate on the North Shore (where Rupe reportedly has been charging them $100,000 a month).

But the fortress-like luxury of Apthorp is apparently making the Pitt-Jolies consider settling down here.

“The gated courtyard means they can get in and out of their car without being hassled by paparazzi,” says a source. “The building also has several other exits.”

The Pitt-Jolies are said to be thinking about putting together three units in the building. “I heard they’re ready to spend as much as $25 million,” says a source.

That could buy them a lot of space, considering Douglas Elliman has slashed prices from $3,000 per square foot to as low as $1,500. (The most expensive unit - 6,197 square feet - sells for $15.5 million.)

Pitt, who is something of an architectural historian, is bound to be beguiled by the handwrought period details of the residence, built in 1908 by the Astor family. Some apartments are as large as 13 rooms and boast 11-foot ceilings and 44-inch-wide hallways. And restoration-minded buyers can customize the raw space to their liking.

What’s more, the Apthorp has long been celebrity-friendly. Nora Ephron and Cyndi Lauper are among those who rented before the condo offering. Among those who’ve checked out the conversion have been actors Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and Knick David Lee and his model-girlfriend Sabina Gadecki.

The globetrotting Pitt-Jolies already have grand homes in L.A. and New Orleans but could be attracted, like a lot of Hollywood wanderers, by New York’s private schools.

Buying in the Apthorp does come with some uncertainty. Prudential Douglas Elliman must sell 25 of the available 32 units so that the owner’s offering plan can continue to operate for another year. A Douglas Elliman rep says that there are currently 12 to 15 units “in negotiation.” But - who knows? - maybe Brad and Angie will decide to buy up the rest.

(source)

A variety of tabloids have come up with a wonderful assortment of outrageous claims this week in the never ending saga of Brad & Jen. At this point I just see this as some type of game for the tabloids where they can come up with a fresh story each week which sells copies. At this point it’s obvious the stories are crap, but I think they dish them out because there is a certain segment of the population of the world who loves this stuff. So, lets see what happened this week.

Look Magazine says that Angelina Jolie has been sending text messages to Jennifer Aniston from Brad Pitt’s cell phone and warning Jen to stay away from her man or else. Why would Angelina do this? You are going to love this one. Now Magazine says it is because Jen has been sending gifts to Brad’s office so they can stay friendly in case Brangelina is no more. Neither magazine explains why Angelina wouldn’t use her own phone instead of Brad’s or what the gifts were which got Angelina all riled. Hey, they need to save something for next week.

Maybe they could talk about the picture above. It is from Jen’s new movie and is what she likes to call acting. It is what I like to call ten years of the same look I saw every week on Friends and which continues to torture me through years of syndicated episodes. Go ahead. Turn on a Friends episode right now and you will see the same expression at least three or four times an episode. You could play a drinking game to it. I don’t know if she just went to one day of acting class or this was the only move she could remember, but it’s all she has.

(source)

Brad Pitt was the star attraction at this year’s edition of the world’s leading contemporary art fair.

He was also a customer.

He bought a painting titled, “Etappe,” by the German artist Neo Rauch, said Art Basel spokeswoman Maike Cruse.

The David Zwirner Gallery in New York had advertised the work as an “enigmatic and dreamlike” representation of a race car being serviced mid-competition.

Its list price was about $960,000. The gallery refused to comment.

Rauch is among Europe’s top painters, drawing on traditions of Eastern Bloc realism and Western abstraction.

The 40th Art Basel fair opened to the public Wednesday.

It features works from over 2,500 artists. Pitt also attended last year.

(source)

Move over, George Clooney.

Looks like Brad Pitt has found a new celeb to heckle: Mel Gibson.

The actor poked fun at Gibson’s 2006 DUI arrest at Spike TV’s Guys Choice Awards Saturday in L.A.

Just before the show began, Pitt entered the room and sat in a booth off to the side of the stage with Fight Club costar Ed Norton and the film’s director David Fincher.

Gibson opened the show riding in on a horse and wearing a Viking helmet. He then introduced Fight Club, which was inducted into the Guy Hall of Fame.

“Thanks, sugar t***!” Pitt told Gibson as he accepted the honor. (When he was arrested for DUI, Gibson reportedly called a female police officer “sugar t***.”)

Pitt, Norton and Fincher then read all of the bad reviews of Fight Club and cheered at each criticism.

After plugging his upcoming movie, the intentionally misspelled Inglourious Basterds, Pitt told the crowd, “Thank you for the greatest moment of my f****** life!” He stayed on stage for a few more seconds, pumping his fists above his head and egging on the audience to scream.

Before leaving, Pitt posed for photos backstage with Gibson and actress Halle Berry. He then darted out a side door where his car was waiting.

(source)

Burly bodyguard Mickey Brett has tangled with some tough customers, but none so tough as his former clients Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Once they entrusted their lives, and those of their children, to Brett. But now that they’ve learned he’s been thinking about revealing their intimacies in a book, the star couple has come down on him with the fury of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”

Pitt and Jolie, who played married assassins in that movie, have recruited some of the most fearsome libel attorneys in the U.S. and the U.K. to
make sure Brett’s lips stay zipped.

Recently we obtained a proposal for a memoir and a TV show, both offering Brett’s first-person account of his years guarding the likes of Sandra Bullock, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sly Stallone and Richard Gere.

The main focus of the pitches, though, was Brangelina. Suffice it to say that Brett had fond memories of Jolie, whom he had been protecting since 2001, and less fond recollections of Pitt.

Seeking comment from them, we received a bracing phone call from Marty Singer, the couple’s American litigator.

Singer alleged that Brett wasn’t a reliable source. In fact, he was a “pathological liar.” He said Brett’s lies to U.S. Immigration officials here had led to his being barred from entering this country. Singer said that only recently did Pitt and Jolie discover that Brett, who’d claimed he was a British SAS commando, never even served in the military.

Singer noted that in 1993 Brett was questioned in the murder of British tycoon Donald Urquhart, though he was later released. In 2006, Brett was arrested for assaulting a restaurant owner in Namibia. The same year, in India, he was accused of choking a photographer and arrested for roughing up and making racial insults against some parents who were trying to pick up their kids.

All told, Singer said, Brett had been convicted 11 times of various crimes.

Pitt and Jolie had repeatedly come to Brett’s defense. But they apparently came to have doubts about his style of problem-solving.

As for his book and TV proposals, Singer said Brett was bound by a confidentiality agreement. According to Singer, Brett has now stated that he’d never signed off on the pitches and that many of the yarns attributed to him were fabricated by his ghost writer.

Brett’s attorneys told us: “Our client disputes what has apparently been said by Mr. Singer, but is not in a position to comment further at this stage.”
Brett’s ghost writer, Robin McGibbon, insists that he did not embellish the bodyguard’s stories.

“Mickey was definitely going to consider a book or TV deal if the offer was good enough,” says McGibbon. But at this point, he said, “there’s not going to be any book.”

(source)

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive at the Academy Awards.

(source)

THE Academy Awards could bring Jennifer Aniston and “Changeling” Best Actress nominee Angelina Jolie face-to-face. Aniston has yet to turn up at a single event that Jolie has attended since Jolie stole Brad Pitt away four years ago on the set of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” But we hear Oscar event planners have timed the red-carpet arrivals of the two rivals only a few minutes apart, meaning they could run into each other. “Jen, who usually complains about her spot, has not said a word this time be cause she’s bringing John Mayer,” says a source. Asked in last month’s GQ whether she speaks to Jolie, Aniston re plied, “No. Nuh-uh,” and forced a little tongue-biting grin. Says our spy: “It’s funny now, because Jen was the one who made a huge deal over not running into them in the past, and now she’s OK with being placed right near Angie.”

(source)