Angelina’s Desperate Bid to Save Her Image
After her bitter split from Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie will do anything to win back public sympathy
It looked like a scene from a bizarre movie. Wearing an apron, Angelina Jolie fried up a pan of tarantulas, then served them to her kids — Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 8 — as part of a BBC interview in Cambodia tied to the release of her new film First They Killed My Father. “I’m learning to cook them better,” she joked on Good Morning America the next day, Feb. 21. “A little more flair. Little more seasoning.”
Back at home, her ex Brad Pitt just rolled his eyes. “The sight of Angie with an apron made him laugh out loud because she is the least domestic person and she never cooks,” a source close to him tells In Touch. “And Angie took four nannies and a teacher with her to Cambodia — she’s hardly ever alone with the kids!” Regardless, the actress was in full earth-mother mode for her latest press appearances, says the source, as part of an elaborate campaign to win back public sympathy after a bitter, monthslong custody battle that had her hurling allegations of child abuse against Brad. (The allegations turned out to be unfounded.) “Angelina knows her reputation took a huge hit because of all the divorce and custody drama,” says the source. “And now she’s obsessed with saving her public image.”
But the one she’s presenting is far from reality. “Brad’s telling friends she was just acting,” the source says of the BBC interview, during which Angelina, 41, tearfully used the word “family” six times in seven minutes. (Coached much?) In the GMA interview, she answered “of course” when asked whether she still thought Brad, 53, was a wonderful father. “We will always be a family,” she insisted, but didn’t bother to explain why she had made such heinous accusations against her kids’ father or why her team insisted they were “traumatized” by the September incident aboard a plane that led to their split. “Brad wasn’t surprised she didn’t take the opportunity to clear his name,” says the source. “The entire interview was Angie’s attempt to change the narrative that she was to blame for the divorce” and that accusations she made against Brad didn’t hold up.
She cares a lot more about what people think than she lets on. “Angelina has said publicly that she wants to scale back on Hollywood work, but that is just a ruse,” the source says of the actress, who is reportedly in talks to join several new film projects. “Her ego constantly needs to be fed.” But lately, that simply hasn’t been happening for the onetime A-lister, whom powerful Hollywood producer Scott Rudin notoriously called a “minimally talented, spoiled brat” in a leaked 2014 email. That same year, Angelina barely spoke during a Q&A with a group of acclaimed filmmakers — one of whom elicited laughter when he blurted, “Are you a good director?” — while her epic, Unbroken, got mixed reviews. And now one of her most famous characters, Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, is being played by sexy 28-year-old Swedish star Alicia Vikander. “Angie was very unhappy that a much younger and hotter actress is taking over in the reboot, and she’s worried about not getting the big roles anymore,” says the source, adding that after years without a publicist, she’s looking to hire one. “She’ll do anything to get back in the press with favorable coverage.”
That includes publicly making peace with her ex. “Aside from telling friends and interviewers alike that she, Brad and the kids will always be a family, she’s even extended an olive branch to him through their handlers,” says the source. “But Brad suspects that it’s just damage control to make herself look good. And after all the pain and public humiliation she’s caused him, he’s not playing along.” ◼
The backlash against Angie has stunned her” — A SOURCE