This was alluded to in yesterday’s Billy Bob Thornton-Angelina Jolie post, but I honestly thought the BBT quotes were old. They weren’t. BBT is in the midst of a book tour to promote his memoir, The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts, and basically he’s been giving a TON of quotes about his marriage, divorce and ongoing relationship with Angelina Jolie. Thankfully, BBT doesn’t sound bitter and he’s not being a jackass about anything. I do feel like… he wouldn’t have gotten so many prominent TV interviews unless he agreed to discuss Angelina, though. Anyway, last night he was on Piers Morgan, and he had some nice things to say about Brangelina’s engagement and how he “loves” both Angelina and Brad:

A veteran of more than 50 films, Thornton was famously married to Hollywood mega-star Angelina Jolie from 2000 to 2003. Now, nearly a decade since the pairs divorce, Thornton details his relationship with both Jolie, and her fiancé, Brad Pitt.

“I only see her occasionally when she comes to town, and I talk to them on the phone sometimes,” reveals the 56-year-old actor. “She’s a great friend, and would be there if I needed her, and vice-versa. And Brad’s a great guy and I love them both.”

On the heels of Pitt and Jolie’s recent engagement, Piers Morgan asks his guest about the possibility of attending a “Brangelina” wedding: “If I were invited to something, I would go for any friend of mine. Like I said, they’re friends,” says Thornton of the A-list actors. “If I didn’t go, it certainly wouldn’t be because of being uncomfortable. It would be because I don’t go anywhere.”

[Via CNN]

Nice, right? I think it’s nice that both of Angelina’s exes have nice things to say about her and that she seems to have friendships with both BBT and Jonny Lee Miller (God, I love that man). BBT also had an interview with Nightline, and in this one he got more into his history with Angelina and why they split up. Some highlights:

BBT on why his marriage to Jolie didn’t work out: “I blew it because I didn’t think I was good enough for her. She has one way she wanted to live her life and I had another way to live mine and I was just too insecure. I did feel like the Phantom of the Opera hiding in the catacombs. People have actually said that I didn’t deserve to be with her.”

He struggled with ADD and dyslexia: “I have a very hard time reading. It’s hard to explain to somebody how I read. I can’t read normally. I can’t pick up a book and read left to right and get something out of each sentence.”

He lived off a can of tuna and Twizzlers for months so he could look “gaunt.”: “If you want to [lose weight] quickly, you just pick something and because I happen to know if you eat a can of tuna and a pack of Twizzlers, you will lose weight, I promise you.”

When he and Jolie got together: “When you’re in a relationship, any two celebrities or whatever, you know, I think that puts on a lot of pressure. When Angie and I got married, during that time, I was more famous than she was to start with and then when she becomes this big thing, it’s hard in these relationships.”

On blood vials, etc: The reports that he and Jolie were “vampires with a dungeon” were “absolutely not true,” and even reports that they wore vials of each other’s blood around their necks were blown out of proportion. “[Jolie] bought these clear lockets, they were little bitty things,” he said. “Angie and I literally poked each other in the finger with a pin and rubbed a little bit of it on that locket. When we were apart, it was a symbolic thing to do.”

He never hated Angelina: “We had a great time together. We had a great marriage and I chickened out because I didn’t feel good enough. That’s all that happened. It was no big deal, we never hated each other.”

[Via ABC]

I disagree with BBT’s assessment of where he and Angelina were in their respective levels of fame when they got together: “When Angie and I got married, during that time, I was more famous than she was to start with and then when she becomes this big thing, it’s hard in these relationships.” BBT was a critically acclaimed writer and director, true, and he was probably better known within the industry. But Angelina was already an Oscar-winner and a significant star on the rise when she married Billy in 2000. Now, doing Lara Croft did take her fame to another level, of course. But she was already pretty famous before that.

Photos courtesy of WENN.