In addition to his film Killing Them Softly (out in November) and his Chanel contract (the ads are due out tomorrow), Brad Pitt has another side project to promote: he’s the executive producer on a documentary called The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki. The documentary is about “what President Richard Nixon coined ‘the war on drug abuse’ in 1972. The film looks at how things have exploded since then, how we ever got there in the first place, and what the hell it all really means.” Brad made an appearance at an LA screening for the film on Friday night (we don’t have those photos, sorry), and Brad ended up discussing his own drug use and his thoughts on The War On Drugs (and Drug Users). You can read the full interview here, at HuffPo, and here are some highlights:

Brad’s drug confession: “My drug days are long since passed but it’s certainly true that I could probably land in any city in any state and get you whatever you wanted. I could find anything you were looking for. Give me 24 hours or so. And yet we still support this charade called the drug war. We have spent a trillion dollars. It’s lasted for over 40 years. A lot of people have lost their lives for it. And yet we still talk about it like it’s this success.”

What Brad thinks of ‘The War on Drugs’: “[It] is possibly a barrier to keep the impoverished down. To keep them shackled. And I thought well that [producing this documentary] may be even too liberal for me [laughs], but we just came off of Hurricane Katrina. We had just witnessed that there was a particular portion of our society that was being ignored and that this could be the case.”

Brad on why we don’t even talk about drugs in this election: “It’s been this taboo subject forever -– unless you’re claiming victory for a bust or a win. It’s absolutely taboo to talk about it as a failure. Which it is. It’s an incredible failure… If we spent a fraction of that on education …”

Brad on what the “War on Drugs” is really about: “Certainly that it’s a backwards strategy that perpetuates itself. But also Eugene came at it in a way that I had never thought about before. That the drug war is actually being used to hold a portion of our society down. It’s staggering to me what is being perpetrated in this name of a war on … immorality. It’s criminal in itself. And we’ve got to look at that. We have to change that.”

How we end the War on Drugs: “The only way to end the war on drugs is to take the profit out of it. I know this comes with a whole other host of problems and I don’t know if I’m actually presenting it as a reality, but we have to look at the what-if-everything-was-legal and people were allowed to make their own choices. And we were treating it less as a criminal issue and more as a sickness. People do drugs to escape. We’re not talking about experimentation. People with long-term drug use are escaping.”

Brad on de-criminalizing drugs: “There’s another issue. You can control quality. The quality of drugs is higher than it’s ever been, but it’s still all over the map. If you decriminalize, then they could control the quality.”

[From HuffPo]

The HuffPo interview is actually with Brad and the director, Eugene Jarecki, and Jarecki has a lot of interesting stuff to say about decriminalization and how our war on drugs has fundamentally changed the Mexican economy. It’s a fascinating discussion, and even if you don’t agree with Brad and Jarecki, I do wish this was a larger discussion in our society, and I wish politicians (from both parties) could discuss this situation with an eye towards the realpolitik.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Brad Pitt appears on the cover of the October/November issue of Interview Magazine. I’m including some of the more interesting shots from the Steven Klein pictorial – you can see the slideshow here. I guess the theme of the shoot is “Brad playing weird characters” – like, a Rastafarian, a dandy with a little mustache, a beer-drinking rock dude, a guy with an eye patch, etc. My favorites are the beer-drinking rock dude pics. This is Brad’s first major interview in support of Killing Them Softly, his new mobster film directed by his Jesse James director, Andrew Dominic. The interview is decent – Guy Ritchie interview Brad, and they seem reasonably tight in real life. Guy managed to avoid being sycophantic or ass-kissy, which is nice. You can read the full piece here, and here are some highlights:

Brad on how he decides to do a film: “Well, listen, I think I’m at a point now where I feel like I can jump into anything and lay something down that’s quality. Someone may be better at it—or maybe not—but I know that if I have a feeling for it, then I can make it interesting. But even more as I get older, it’s about the company that I keep. That’s the most important thing to me—that if I’m gonna spend however long it takes to make a movie, give up 14 hours a day for however many weeks or months, then it’s very important for me to know that I’m working with people who I respect and enjoy and that we’re going for something together. That’s it, really.”

Brad on accent work: “Well, you know, I like a bit of song, and dialect is a song. I’m most comfortable with the Southern dialects, really. It’s easy, for example, for me to do Irish because we’ve got Irish heritage where I come from. We also have some German heritage. The Upper East Coast, though, is a little bit more connected to a British heritage. I’ve never done a proper Brit.

Brad on media and politics: “Well, it’s what we were talking about, how so much of what’s in the media—at least in American media—falls in line in this way where it’s just parodying the mission statement. Again, so much of it seems to be about perception. We are a country that needs a story. You know, marketing is the word that I used earlier, but it’s really just a new term for propaganda. It might be a very human thing across the board, but we, in America, love a story—we need a story to get involved in. But then everything becomes more about how the story protects a certain perception as we pick sides… And, by the way, most people’s daily lives are just about surviving. Their lives are about making the weekly nothing and taking the kids out on a Sunday. Most people don’t have time to really study the issues. And the media could help us, but there’s capitalistic interest in the media outlets as well. I mean, the Internet has done a wonderful thing for us. But democracy doesn’t work unless people are well informed, and I don’t know that we are. People just don’t have the time.”

On ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’: “The Assassination of Jesse James remains one of my favorite films that I’ve done. You know, it’s still labeled a loser. In fact, Dominik couldn’t get a job for several years afterward because it got labeled that way after the opening weekend. But then we always knew, “That one’s a fine-wine film. It’s gonna age well.””

Family first: “Yeah. I want it to be worthy enough of a story to leave the family, you know? They’re everything. The family is first . . . I also don’t want to embarrass them.”

How he feels about himself as an actor: “Pretty damn solid. I’d say pretty damn solid.”

He enjoys producing more than acting: “Yeah. I’d rather be behind the camera. As a producer, obviously, you’re part of a team that brings the story to the screen. It wouldn’t be there if you didn’t champion it or if you and a group of people weren’t championing it. I like that.”

On World War Z’s neverending production: “We’ve got some tidying up to do there, but that one is gonna be big and entertaining. My boys are gonna love it.”

He’s still an Obama supporter: “Well, I just want to avoid confusion with this film and say I’m a big supporter of Obama, and I think he’s our best answer for the next four years.”

[From Interview Magazine]

Brad and Guy also have a lengthy discussion about the background of the 2008 financial meltdown and whether or not “business trumps humanity”. Brad makes some interesting points, but I think he over-simplifies the politics of it. As for whether Brad still gets love from fan-girls… did anyone swoon a little when he said, “I want it to be worthy enough of a story to leave the family, you know? They’re everything. The family is first . . . I also don’t want to embarrass them.” Brad Pitt: Family First. Epic!

Photos courtesy of Steven Klein/Interview Magazine.

Last week, we covered the Women’s Wear Daily exclusive on Brad Pitt’s Chanel contract, and how the new ad campaign would be dropping on October 15th, and how Brad probably got paid somewhere in the vicinity of $7 million for the campaign – a figure that many of you took issue with. You know that Nicole Kidman got much more than that when she became the face of Chanel No. 5, right? She was reportedly paid $12 million for her appearances in commercials and the print campaign. But I digress. WWD said that Brad’s Chanel commercial would “feature Pitt speaking in a way that the viewer assumes he’s speaking to a woman — and then it’s revealed that the addressee is actually the scent.” I wrote, “It might be kind of sexy. The commercial sounds like it’s just Brad talking dirty to a perfume. Which is kind of funny, and it could be really great.” Well, the teasers have come out, and it’s pretty much Brad talking dirty to a perfume:

It has potential. It could be good. I know this is going to become about how TOTALLY AWFUL Brad looks (?) and how “Jennifer Aniston had him when he was hot” and all of that middle school stuff – most of which I disagree with strenuously – but can we all just admit to ourselves that Brad actually has a great voice? He has that Missouri drawl, it’s sort of Southern and low and it makes me tingly. His voice has improved over the years. I remember when it was a lot higher.

These are some photos that some people claim are part of Brad’s Chanel campaign. They’re nice photos overall, so enjoy.

Photos courtesy of Chanel, Bolero Mag.

Back in May, Chanel announced that Brad Pitt was the new “Face” of Chanel No. 5, Chanel’s iconic perfume. Previously “faces” of Chanel No. 5 have included Nicole Kidman, Audrey Tautou, Vanessa Paradis and Catherine Deneuve, amongst others. So a lot of people were scratching their heads over Brad Pitt’s contract. Why hire a man – granted, an attractive man – to represent an iconic perfume for women? Well, Chanel is preparing all of us for the rollout, which should come in the next few weeks. Chanel released the second promotional photo (the header photo) to WWD, and they teased the new campaign:

Can a man effectively sell a women’s fragrance? Chanel is using Brad Pitt to find out.

In mid-October, the brand will do a global unveiling of its first project with Pitt (whom it signed in May): a commercial and print ad for the iconic Chanel No.5.

“To keep a legend fresh, you always have to change its point of view,” said Andrea d’Avack, president, Chanel Fragrance & Beauty. “It is the first time we’ve had a man speaking about a women’s fragrance. We think very much that the perfume is a seduction between a man, a woman and the perfume. No.5 is our leading fragrance, and we are willing to make the investment to keep it on that level.”

D’Avack emphasized that the brand plans to use Pitt only on No.5. He joins a host of celebrity faces to front the 91-year-old scent — from Ali MacGraw, Catherine Deneuve and Candice Bergen to Nicole Kidman, Audrey Tautou and Vanessa Paradis.

While he wouldn’t spill many details, d’Avack noted that the commercial, shot by Joe Wright, features Pitt speaking in a way that the viewer assumes he’s speaking to a woman — and then it’s revealed that the addressee is actually the scent. Wright has worked with Chanel since 2006, and directed several Coco Mademoiselle commercials with Keira Knightley, whom he is also directing in the upcoming “Anna Karenina.”

The Pitt commercial is planned for an Oct. 15 global launch, while the print ad is expected to begin appearing in November fashion, beauty and lifestyle magazines. D’Avack added that the campaign will also include extensive social-media outreach. “We are reaching the ecosystem of communications vehicles,” he said. “We believe this dynamic, modern campaign will make people think in a completely different way about No.5.”

While d’Avack declined to comment on the advertising spend for the Pitt campaign, industry sources estimated that the brand was spending at least $10 million on U.S. advertising, as well as an estimated $7 million for Pitt’s services.

[From WWD]

If the print ads are already appearing in November fashion magazines, then we should be getting our first look at them very, very soon. The UK fashion magazine come out before the American magazines for the most part, especially for subscribers. I wonder what image they’ll use? A closeup of Brad’s face, which is what Chanel released in May (image below)? As for the commercial… it might be kind of sexy. The commercial sounds like it’s just Brad talking dirty to a perfume. Which is kind of funny, and it could be really great.

Header photo is Brad Pitt and Joe Wright shot by Sam Taylor-Wood for CHANEL, courtesy of WWD, second photo courtesy of CHANEL as well. Additional pic by WENN.

Angelina Jolie is in Jordan right now, visiting the thousands of Syrian refugees who have crossed the border, fleeing one of the largest Middle East humanitarian crises in recent memory. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been systematically killing thousands (hundreds of thousands) of his own people for the past 18 months. I keep hearing that the interior conflict was rooted in the Arab Spring, and the Syrians’ own movement to live in a country that was more democratic and less of a police state, but at this point it feels like less of “a dictator/junta cracking down on protests in an urban civil war” and more like a full-fledged genocide. As I said, thousands of Syrians have escaped and are now living in refugee camps in Jordan. You can read the UNHCR’s coverage of Angelina’s trip, and here’s Us Weekly’s coverage:

Angelina Jolie met with nearly 200 new Syrian refugees near Mafraq, Jordan, overnight on September 11, Us Weekly has learned. The actress and UNHCR special envoy was joined by high commissioner for refugees Antonio Guterres and Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh.

The Za’atri refugee camp hosts about 28,000 Syrians displaced by the 18-month conflict. Guterres told the Associated Press the “camp needs massive international funding” and that “the conditions are still not acceptable.”

After talking to Syrian women and touring the tent city, a teary-eyed Jolie shared the refugees’ “horrific” and “heartbreaking” stories with the Associated Press.

“I am very concerned; the world is very concerned,” the Academy Award winner and mother-of-six said. “What is very heartbreaking is when Syrian people ask you why you think no one is able to find a solution for them. What they described on the ground, hearing it from them, is so horrific.”

According to spokesman for the UNHCR, “Refugees tell us that artillery and air attacks are continuing in villages and towns close to the Jordanian border. There are reports of thousands of displaced people in Syria’s south, moving from village to village seeking safety before they can cross the border.”

“This mission that we are sharing has a key objective,” Guterres added. “It is to draw attention to the international community to express a much more stronger solidarity with Syrian refugees and the host countries that have kept their borders open to all those fleeing the conflict.”

Guterres and Jolie are planning to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II Ibn Al-Hussein, Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh mid-afternoon September 11.

In April, Jolie was promoted to the diplomat-level position of UNHCR special envoy after serving more than 10 years as a goodwill ambassador. She is currently engaged to actor and philanthropist Brad Pitt, 48, her costar from the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

[From Us Weekly]

I know some people are just going to hate on her and nit-pick about the politics no matter what I say, so let’s just do this… here’s the donation page for the UNHCR. If you feel like donating, you’ll be helping to support many people in very desperate straits.

Meanwhile, the other half of Brangelina was recently discussing gay marriage once again. When Brad Pitt attended a screening of his latest film, Killing Them Softly, he was asked about the presidential election and gay marriage, and Brad said, “I am an Obama supporter and I’m backing his US election campaign. Gay marriage is inevitable. The next generation, they get it. It is just a matter of time before it becomes a reality.” Brad also discussed the wedding plans, saying, “No plans yet, other than we are going to do it. I plan very little as I get older”

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

Just like two weekends ago, I kept checking in this past weekend to see if Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had finally gotten hitched. The Mail ran an extensive story about what the wedding would look like at their French chateau, and I kept seeing reports about all of the photo agencies sending photographers to the South of France in the hopes of getting some good wedding photos. Alas, it seems like Brad and Angelina weren’t even IN France last week or this past weekend. They weren’t in England either. According to Page Six, Brangelina were vacationing in Greece, and according to a “source,” Angelina “laughed off” rumors that their wedding is coming up soon:

While rumors continue to swirl about Brad Pitt’s wedding to Angelina Jolie at their French chateau, the A-list couple were recently spotted in Greece.

We’re told they were seen a week ago at a restaurant in Halkidiki, northern Greece.

A source tells us, “Angelina was in white, but she laughed and said ‘not yet’ when the restaurant owner asked if she was getting ready to be married. She also said, ‘We love Greece too much to leave . . . we have other islands to go to before heading back to France.”

The source added that Angelina, Brad and their kids were traveling on a super-yacht and had visited islands including Mykonos and hoped to visit Santorini. Guests in the local restaurant were stunned to see them, but were banned from taking photos.

Other stars vacationing in Greece include Robert De Niro and John Travolta, who were seen admiring the Acropolis museum in Athens in early August and relaxing on a yacht. And Tom Hanks was seen taking a swim off the island of Antiparos.

[From Page Six]

Er… so is Angelina done filming Maleficent? Is Brad Pitt done with his (smaller) role in The Counselor? Is Brad done with the reshoots for World War Z? WHY ARE THEY ON VACATION?! And why Greece? It’s funny, you know – a few months ago, the tabloids were reporting that Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux were planning on a secret elopement – in Greece! And Jennifer is famously part Greek, and she’s vacationed there before. So… was this some Uncool Triangle BS? Or did Brad and Angelina just decide to go on vacation, with no thought to Brad’s ex-wife? Or are they even really in Greece? I have no idea.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

The Leg is displeased.

The rumors of Brad and Angelina’s August wedding seem to have died down considerably, right? After failing to marry on the tabloids’ schedule last weekend, there were rumors that the wedding would go down this weekend, but I can’t see anything about it this morning. Maybe the tabs are taking a wait-and-see approach. Maybe the tabs are tired of footing the bill to send photographers to the south of France for nothing. Maybe it will be an autumn or winter wedding like I said all along?

In any case, The Enquirer has a funny story about Brad’s half-assed “bachelor party” which infuriated The Leg, of course. The Leg waited for Brad to come home. The Leg quietly fumed, envisioning a booze-soaked bachelor-party involving strippers and hookers and… and… and FOOD. The Leg was so angry. Finally, Brad stumbled in at dawn, reeking of ale and cheap perfume. The Leg exploded!

An irate Angelina Jolie exploded in a rage after hubby-to-be Brad Pitt snuck off to a boozy all-night bachelor party with British director pal Guy Ritchie and didn’t return home until dawn, The Enquirer has learned.

In London, Brad slipped away from Angie and the kids to join Guy and some film cronies for a secret boys-only bash at The Punch Bowl, a rough and tumble pub owned by Guy. “The Punch Bowl is a pretty rowdy place for the Mayfair area, and Brad spent most of his time partying in the back room, slugging down ales with the boys… Brad kept referring to the evening as his bachelor party and his last hurrah before he marries Angelina.”

By the time Brad crawled back to the gated home he shares with Angelina, it was 6 a.m. and she was waiting for him in the living room, added the source. According to the insider, Angelina read him the riot act. She told him how worried she’d been and that she wouldn’t tolerate any more wild boozing in the days leading up to their wedding… and she blamed Guy for leading him astray. Brad made the mistake of defending his pal, saying Guy’s one of the finest people he’s ever met and it was his fault for taking advantage of his amazing hospitality.”

“And that’s when Angelina really let him have it, pointing out that she’d calmed down her wild ways now that they have responsibilities, and that Brad was acting like a 20-year-old frat boy in the company of Guy. She was so mad, she was shaking with fury.”

Angelina is concerned that Brad’s partying is a sign that he’s still not ready to settle down. “Brad later tried to pass off his boozy night by saying he usually drank cans of Budweiser and wasn’t used to the strong English beer! Then he hugged her and said he was just celebrating his good fortune in having her as his bride. But Angelina won’t buy that line until the day he puts a wedding band on her finger!”

[From The Enquirer, print edition]

Don’t you think the fact that they have six children that they raise together is a “sign” that they’re already “settled down”? Anyway, Gossip Cop’s “source close to the couple” says that “It’s true that Pitt and Ritchie are friendly, but it’s absolutely false there was any epic ‘bachelor party’ ending in a fight with Jolie.” Except that back in June, there were photos of Brad, George Clooney, and Guy Ritchie enjoying a boozy night together. But they probably didn’t call it a “bachelor party”. And Angelina probably wasn’t mad.

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to track down the source of these allegedly “new” Brad quotes, but I still can’t find the original interview. So… they might be BS, I don’t know. Allegedly, Brad was discussing poverty and how much he gives to charity: “Listen, it’s never enough and it’s a whole new set of problems, just with a different scale. I hit the Lottery so I think you need to pass that on… [but] You can’t get to every beggar on the street because you end up with nothing in your pocket.”

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Us Weekly has a “scoop” on the alleged Brangelina wedding. If you ask me, they kind of buried the lead, though. The lead should have been: Brad and Angelina are already sort of married, because they filed paperwork for some kind of French civil union months ago, right after they got engaged. Still, Us Weekly claims that Brad and Angelina are totally going to have a small-ish wedding on their French property in the next few weeks. Huzzah!

The date is finally set! A source reveals to Us that the vows of the century will take place in the next few weeks at the quaint 16th-century chapel on the pair’s 1000-acre Chateau Miraval estate in France.

“The ceremony will be close friends and family members,” says a Jolie confidant. George Clooney is not on the guest list. Brad and Angelina don’t want celebrities to overshadow the affair. Says the source, “Angie wants a simple, joyous gathering.”

Pitt considers the French estate their permanent home, and because the little ones pushed Dad so hard to propose, “they will help plan the ceremony.”

Angelina will wear a white sliplike dress, and “she’ll have flowers in her hair picked from the countryside.” The kids will decorate the chapel with homemade drawings, and Brad will let them choose family photos from his collection to hang.

The reception promises to be just as homey, featuring French fare by their chef. “Just like a family dinner… with cake from a local bakery.”

As for the chateau, the grounds are under renovation, but “the main house should mostly be finished.”

A source says Brad and Angelina will not be selling wedding images, though.

One last surprise: Jolie has confided to close friends that they’re technically already wed. “Around the time of the proposal, they filled out civil paperwork in France,” and the documents give them similar rights to a married couple, but do not have to be publicly registers in court.

After the wedding, they’ll return to the UK where Brad and Angelina can finish their films and they will likely change their surnames officially to “Jolie-Pitt”. Also, Brad “wants to bring the kids up with strong, traditional family values, far away from Hollywood.”

[From Us Weekly, print edition]

I believe this story more than I believed the UK and French tabloids last week. That being said, my gut still kind of says that the wedding will be later rather than sooner, but my gut is weakened this week (I’m sick, in case you couldn’t tell by some of my nonsensical asides – the antihistamines make me want to type “JEAH!!!” in every post). Could a Brangelina wedding go down the way that US Weekly claims? Sure. Why not? It sounds low-key enough that I would buy Angelina’s participation – she doesn’t seem like the kind of woman who want to make some crazy big deal about everything. Also, I would absolutely adore it if Brad changed his name to Brad Jolie-Pitt. It reminds me of when John Lennon changed his name to John Ono Lennon. It’s such a feminist move. I really would love it.

Last thing: Jolie will wear a slip-dress? What a fancy way to say “a white sack”.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Is it okay if I think the Brangelina-wedding speculation was kind of ridiculous this week? It’s not that I couldn’t see them doing a spur-of-the-moment elopement, and it’s not that I don’t believe that Brad is a groomzilla and that Angelina has very little to do with planning her wedding. I just never believed that Brad and Angelina would get married in the middle of August, on the same weekend as his parents’ anniversary, while both Brad and Angelina are working in England, etc. There was just too much going against it. And, as I said on Friday, it wasn’t going to happen and it did not happen:

Forget garden-variety buzz. The possibility that Brad Pitt is marrying Angelina Jolie this weekend in France is getting “real buzz.”

So says an excited but unnamed source to the U.K’s Sun, based on rumors that the couple are hosting some kind of event at their château with guests including Pitt’s parents and Jolie’s engagement-ring jeweler.

But multiple sources tell PEOPLE there is no wedding this weekend. (Reps did not respond for comment.) The local newspaper Var Matin also shot down a France 3 TV report of a Saturday wedding. And officials in the village say they don’t know anything about it and that it likely couldn’t happen anyway.

“Under French law couples have to get married at the town hall,” Patrick Mareschi, deputy culture secretary of the nearby village of Correns, tells Reuters. “Unlike with a religious wedding, there’s no way a couple can hold a civil ceremony at their own home.”

Which is pretty much what the photo agency X17 found out. It grumbled on its website:

“We sent an X17 photographer all the way down to the south of France – it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere – to check out Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s chateau Miraval to see just what’s going on and … drumroll, please … there’s NOTHING going on!” the site says.

Not only did its photographer not find any signs the couple, engaged last spring, were tying the knot – no security guards, no party planners – it didn’t even see evidence of other rumors that Pitt was hosting a wedding anniversary party for his parents.

[From People]

My theory: it will happen in the autumn or winter. Angelina as a summer bride? Are you joking? Of course not. Angelina wants to wear leather. She wants to wear a voluminous wedding sack. She’ll probably go with sleeves too. So, autumn or winter wedding. Probably when she wraps Maleficent and Brad wraps the neverending production of World War Z. Brad’s parents will fly out. James Haven will fly out. Family members will be the priority, not George Clooney or Gwen Stefani. And who knows if it will even go down in France? I think France is the best option for them, but France isn’t the only option.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie might be getting married this weekend at their French chateau. Maybe. Possibly. Allegedly. This, according to UK and French tabloids, which… you know what? I just don’t see how the UK tabloid The Sun is any more or less reliable than In Touch Weekly or Star Magazine. All of those publications – The Sun, ITW, Star – are on the same level of credibility to me. Meaning that they sometimes get some stuff right, but you should always treat the information with skepticism. So, what are the chances this wedding news is for real this time? Let’s game it. First of all, both Brad and Angelina have been working in England – Angelina on Maleficent and Brad on The Counselor. Would they drop everything to fly to France for a quickie wedding? Eh. But… the tabloids are saying that Brad’s parents have already flown in to France.

BRAD Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sparked fevered wedding speculation by hosting a family bash at their French home this weekend.

Guests already at the chateau include Brad’s mum Jane and dad Bill — and top jeweller Robert Procop, who made Angelina’s engagement ring.

The bash is said to be for Jane and Bill’s 50th wedding anniversary — but locals think otherwise and claim there is a “real buzz” there.

A source said: “Brad flew in to oversee preparations but they’re all here now. They say it’s for Jane and Bill, but some think this could be it. Even Angelina’s private jeweller is here.”

The couple, who met on the set of hit film Mr and Mrs Smith in 2005 and have six kids, announced their engagement in April.

Their plan was always for a small ceremony at their Chateau Miraval home in the south of France. Brad, 48, recently bought Angelina, 37, a £250,000 watch as a pre-wedding gift.

Their guest list, said to be no more than 20, would include actor George Clooney, 51, who’s yet to arrive. A source said: “George and Brad are best pals, there’s no way he’d miss it.

“He’s at his house in Italy, but could fly to Marseille in an hour. There’s a real buzz around the estate.”

[From The Sun]

In Touch Weekly and The Enquirer were both ahead of this whole “Brangelina will marry on his parents’ anniversary, it will be a double wedding” idea. But In Touch also claimed that Angelina had shut it down in the wake of Jane Pitt’s anti-Obama letter to the editor. I also believe that Brad wouldn’t want to pull focus from his parents’ anniversary celebration by making it all about his wedding, you know? Plus, why would Angelina and Brad want to share the proverbial stage with Brad’s parents? The whole “getting married on your parents’ anniversary” storyline has just seemed odd to me from the start. But hey, it may happen. Weirder stuff has gone down in the Brangelina World. If they do get hitched, I hope we get some photos.

Photos courtesy of WENN.