With the Brangelina “brand” in tatters, the New York Post published an informative dissection of how actress Angelina Jolie constantly reinvents herself and her divorce from Brad Pitt blows up one of her incarnations.
“Jolie carved her own niche, controlled her own narrative, and it was impossible to look away,” notes New York Post journalist Maureen Callahan. But with her charges of child abuse leveled at Pitt, Jolie overplayed her hand and damaged her own celebrity image.
“By so publicly disparaging the father of her children — some old enough to read what’s being said online — Jolie is endangering her own self-created myth, that of depraved Hollywood hellion-turned-St. Angelina, humanitarian nonpareil,” says the NY Post article. She was with Pitt for 12 years of respectability. Her earlier reputation is that of oddball, hellraiser and breaking up marriages, including Pitt’s with Jennifer Aniston.
“Jolie has never used a publicist, and this has only added to the sense — true or not — that she’s authentic,” the article continues. “In 2007, Jolie began forcing celebrity journalists to sign contracts before interviewing her. These forbade ‘any questions regarding her personal relationships,’ even though her personal relationships were exactly what she was selling. In April of that year, ‘People’ glowingly reported Jolie’s adoption of a 3-year-old boy from Vietnam.”
She seems to be reinventing herself again as philanthropist and political activist, with ambitions of enlarging on her title of United Nations special envoy on refugees. “Jolie has been publicly on the verge of quitting acting since 2005, ready to sacrifice movie stardom for her kids — never a mention of the nannies — her charities, the world,” says the article. “In November, she begins a visiting professorship at the London School of Economics. She is reportedly seeking to move to England permanently to join the House of Lords, which requires UK citizenship, and remake herself yet again, this time as a politician.”
Others are piling on. On her Netflix variety show, Chelsea Handler defended Pitt saying that if he’s using drugs — as Jolie alleges in the debunked child abuse charges — it’s to “self medicate” against Jolie’s excesses. Another New York Post article also noted that when the Brangelina duo starred in the same movie, the movie was a dud.
Hollywood celebrities have always been magnets attracting public fascination, but only in recent years have they exploited their personal brands independently. “Hollywood talent leveraging their fame in product advertising is not a complete surprise because professional athletes have long been aggressive endorsers for hire, and music stars have done so to a greater extent than actors,” notes the third edition of book “Marketing to Moviegoers.”
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