I was looking to see if there was any shady news about or from Brad Pitt and his team, and I stumbled across this New York Times interview with MIT Professor Neri Oxman. As many of us remember – how could we forget?? – Brad Pitt tried to make Dr. Oxman into his most perfect unicorn, his one and only, the brilliant, beautiful, one-of-a-kind girlfriend who would make Angelina Jolie seethe with jealousy. Brad and his team spent about two months trying to convince people that Neri was his new girlfriend and that he wasn’t even thinking about Angelina anymore and America’s Sexiest Man had finally found his new sweetheart. It all blew up in his face. For a time, it did seem like Neri Oxman was playing along… and then, suddenly, she wasn’t. She was back with her billionaire boyfriend and everyone acted like the Pitt-Oxman thing never happened. I bring up this backstory because the New York Times asked Dr. Oxman about Pitt, and her answer was… interesting.
This past spring, Brad Pitt also reached out, in a visit to the Media Lab that inflamed the internet. They are not dating, Dr. Oxman said emphatically — her real-world boyfriend is William A. Ackman, the contrarian hedge funder who famously paid over $90 million for a penthouse in one of Manhattan’s supertall buildings — but she would love to do a project with Mr. Pitt in the future, she said.
To remind, Mr. Pitt’s interests include architecture, furniture design and urban planning. Dr. Oxman described him “as the last of the Mohicans in post-Netflix Hollywood. He brings together the timely and the timeless,” she said, “which is what cinema is all about.” (Dr. Oxman is a Fellini and Ingmar Bergman fan.)
She also had some fun with the paparazzi staked out in front of the Media Lab. As she left work during that Pitt period, she made sure to brandish a copy of the Feynman Lectures (a famous physics textbook) and of the Golden Record, the audio time capsule (in the form of an LP, otherwise known as an album or record) that went to Mars in 1977, in a subversive plug for Team Science.
“The Golden Record beats the Caviar quilted flap bag on any given day,” she said. “Toting the ultimate message to moon was my message in a bottle to the paparazzi. The Feynman Lectures followed.”
The whole interview is like that – she’s very worldly and science-y and brilliant, and honestly I did not understand half of what she was talking about. But I appreciate that she’s a beautiful science geek, and I appreciate her real-woman cred: she makes it known that she’s brilliant, of course, but she also talks about eating meatball subs and how she used to drink a lot of Coke. As for what she says about Brad… “They are not dating, Dr. Oxman said emphatically,” means that she’s done pretending for the sake of whatever she was getting out of it. “She would love to do a project with Mr. Pitt in the future, she said,” means that she might be up for a tabloid romance at some point, but only after he works out his sh-t. And Brad is “the last of the Mohicans in post-Netflix Hollywood. He brings together the timely and the timeless.” Nah, girl. He literally just did a Netflix movie (War Machine, which everyone hated) and he hasn’t starred in a hit movie in years. He’s no Robert Redford.
And I knew that she was getting pap’d on purpose, to show off her copy of the Golden Record.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
“The Golden Record beats the Caviar quilted flap bag on any given day,” she said. “Toting the ultimate message to moon was my message in a bottle to the paparazzi. The Feynman Lectures followed.”
She sounds up her own a**. Just like Pitt.
Its very try hard. Which doesnt make sense because she could stand on her achievements alone. Way too much purple prose.
yeah she sounds awful tbh. I’m sure she’s super brilliant, but it comes across as insufferable.
I thought so too. I don’t have the energy for people like that.
if someone told me this interview was a parody, i would have believed them at once. She sounds unbearably pretentious.
It was so ridiculous that I have trouble believing she’s actually all that brilliant. She sure thinks she is, though.
Honestly, any decent academic will tell you that sounding hyper-smart in an interview has the opposite effect because it just reveals your insecurity and social incompetence. Good scholars know how to communicate knowledge effectively at every level, whether among peers or layman. Being able to change tone and language is a very powerful skill and not one everyone has. It’s a sign of a good teacher to want to share knowledge rather than horde it by hiding it behind a maze of incomprehensibility.
Don’t get me wrong. If you’ve been in academia long enough, there will be atypical vocabulary that creeps into your daily language without meaning to. I use certain words that probably sound pretentious just because I read/write so much in my career and schooling that it’s become integrated into it, but self-awareness means that you learn to catch yourself and rephrase to make things sensible.
Good academics also know that they do not know everything and can learn something from everybody. Pretentious try hards on the other hand…often sound like this interview!
Good academics also know *that* superstar who believes their own hype. I give a hefty side-eye to academics who knowingly wield about the cultural power they have. She seems like a definite type to me.
^^Very well put. Love this insight comment about how academics can skilfully communicate. Her pap stroll with the golden record. I am totally here for it.
If she’s half as brilliant as she thinks she is, that’s a very high bar. Quietly assured confidence is a beautiful thing, not this self-involved posturing.
I actually don’t mind what she said about her pap walks. I didn’t know about the Golden Record so I’m glad to have some fun research ahead of me. Celebrities say all kinds of crap about their pap walks, which are often just advertising ploys, and/or pretend that their pap walks are not pap walks, etc etc. I appreciate that she was up front about it. This is a smart woman and she can say what she wants, however she wants to. I don’t think she cares about appealing to the masses in the way we usually expect, and I like that. I’d rather hear from people like her than a Kardashian blathering about materialistic garbage.
And I totally get the importance of academics needing to communicate in simple terms. My dad is an academic and he has mastered the casual, humble, layperson style, and thinks it’s very important in certain situations. But this woman isn’t teaching a class or giving a lecture. If she doesn’t want to dumb it down, I’m fine with that. It kind of seems like people are judging her for allegedly presenting herself as being smarter than she is, like she’s acting too confident? Or “flaunting” her intelligence in an unladylike way…? No woman should have to dumb it down ever, or stick to the “code” of pap walks. Also, I don’t think we’d be as critical of a male scholar. 🤷🏻♀️
Lady don’t you EVER compare the abusive alcoholic Brad to the wonderful real last of the Mohicans aka Daniel Day Lewis.
If anyone is the epitome of time & timeless then that is Keanu Reeves. That man never ages and looks divine.
It’s very clear that Neri actually used Brad’s pr games against him by gaining more publicity for herself and her work.
Good for her I say – Brad tried to gain pr kudos by using her but she turned it around.
Brad truly has become a joke, who would have predicted that few years ago…
10000% agree on all those points. When I read the “last Mohican” line, I was deeply offended.
The Media Lab is a PR machine. It’s basically her job to do this.
Thank you for saying this. I’ve known people on and off for years who did a stint at the Media Lab and it sounds like a haven for smart people who are extremely fame-thirsty more than anything. There is far more serious and useful scholarship going on at less visible institutions, When I heard she was associated with it back when we first heard about her my first thought was, that sounds about right.
And William Ackman? He’s a jerk. Google him. He elevates personal slights into multimillion dollar lawsuits.
Perhaps she’s talking about Plan B productions, Pitt’s production company that makes timely and timeless films such as 12 Years A Slave, Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk.
I agree with your assessment that Neri’s talking about his production company…and I agree with Neri’s description regarding Brad’s list of production achievements, which includes “World War Z”..Brad HAS curated a magnificent selection of titles which he has produced and presented to the public for consumption…
His production company is the ONLY thing keeping him in ANY sort of good standing with me currently….
He’s making some interesting and important films. I never thought personally that he was much of an actor and we see that his architectural hobby does more harm than good, so at least he has this one saving grace.
I don’t think she has any interest in Brad. If she did Neri would break up with her boyfriend. I think there’s a difference between not commenting and playing ball. Neri isn’t a celebrity so she probably didn’t care and thought it was funny.
She obviously wasn’t being papped on purpose, she just decided to have some fun with the paps. No one calls the paps just to show off a book they didn’t even write.
I don’t think she called the paps but she knew they were there and decided to go for it. As a non celebrity she probably found it silly.
Her message to the paparazzi is just vanished but tabs aren’t intellectual enough to get her message.
Who talks like that? It’s insufferable and so try-hard. I happen to know many MIT science people and none of them talk this way.
Hang around Media Lab! It’s a wacky and very interesting place that specializes in this sort of thing. My sweetie worked on a project with Neri’s team and admires her immensely.
All this said, do not underestimate how much money can be tied to their projects. Fundraising and PR are a constant. Neri is not going to say anything negative about Pitt– he could be an investor in one of her projects, and I know of a few that would have new life if they just had a nice pile of money to draw on.
I don’t mind her, or rather I don’t care enough about her to shade her. She is what she is.
lol
Pretentious much?
” America’s Sexist Man”
LMAO best typo!!! Please don’t change it, it’s perfect.
Sorry, that was a legit typo, I did fix it!
He has a fake image and he looks old. The lying drive by tabloid media keep repeating how young he looks to brainwash the public in believing the lie.
What an arrogant and insensitive bitch.
Pitt is an idiot to let this kind of PR run over his family.
A bitch, really? Seems a bit harsh.
You really think Pitt still cares about his family? I don’t.
I *want* to like her. She *is* beautiful and stylish and *must* be intelligent.
But all that intello-pretentious, precious, self-regarding word salad… I kinda just can’t w/ that & I thereby hope she goes back to promoting herself or whatever the media lab does and that we don’t have to hear much more from her bc of brad pitt etc.
His two producers Jeremy and Dede do all the work for his production company and he takes all the Bows.
She sounds annoying but not unlike many brainy types I’ve encountered. lol. Good for her if she can weasel a bit of publicity and funding for her projects via this Pitt nonsense. 😉
Isn’t she being the opposite of pretentious? Saying she’d rather show off one of the coolest and probably, to her, most prized possession (being the gold/moon records) than flaunt a Chanel bag?
Sounds to me like she turned the tables (pun intended) and knowing she’d be papped and used as fodder, she used it to her advantage and worked the sh*t out of her 15 (okay, 5) minutes.
Doesn’t sound pretentious to me. She seems like she knew what was happening and was smart enough to use the users right back.
Lisa, I agree!
I have issue in that both she & pitt used each other for publicity, without giving a single thought to his kids. They had to hear this garbage for two months from media & press saying nasty things about them & their mother, because of his “more intelligent, more beautiful new love”. The kids weren’t in regular contact with pitt, so they probably thought this ‘relationship’ was true.
The fact is she nor Pitt cared what the media or celeb blogs were saying about Angelina or the kids. They both liked the publicity and praise. Do you honestly think she didn’t love being compared and heisted above one of the most famous and beautiful women in the world ? SHe didn’t give two s##ts about Pitt. She loved the praise and glory of herself.
Pitt just wanted to be paired with someone like her and have the conversation be more about his love life rather than why he didn’t have custody of his kids yet. The media just wanted a reason to get back at Jolie because of Aniston and someway put Bradley in a better position than her.
I get so tired of Lainey always yelling to the clouds of how Pitt is winning and has won the PR battle. I don’t feel that was a competition Angie was gonna win no matter how she tried. She wasn’t gonna win against Aniston or Pitt because of their golden couple images. They have labeled her the villian since 2005 and she knows that.
Why is this surprising to anyone? Look at all the trash Pitt has leaked about their mother? He does not care about them or their privacy or he would’ve shut a lot of things down and stopped his shady trump/Weinstein fixer from giving tabloids garbage. He’s not a good person.
The kids would probably be fine with their father moving on, especially after two years or whatever it was. Anyway, after skimming that NYT article I find I don’t mind this Oxman lady. She actually has a vision and promotes it. And however much you might disagree with the substance, she seems genuine and passionate. Compared to someone like say Amal Clooney who pretends to promote human rights (more criminal law barrister) but actually promotes Met Ball, fashion, and a frivolous and materialistic lifestyle with her reflected fame.
I don’t have a strong opinion about her, but I find the situation funny. Specially how his team framed those first articles as if SHE was the one who had to be on his level… lol
What dumbass at The New York Times thought The Golden Record went to Mars? Both of them were on the Voyager probes on a mission to the outer planets. They both went straight to Jupiter first, not Mars; and how’s that a “message to moon”?
The relationship rumor was built on a lie, this should tell the truth about him he never denied the relationship. I have do not have any respect for Brat pitt.
“…an LP (otherwise known as an album or record)”
I’m dead. That explanation is actually necessary now?
I knew they were never together.she was with her billionaire the entire time. The billionaire was going through a difficult divorce so leaky Pitt getting his sh*t together isn’t what’s stopping her from dating him. She doesn’t want him. She wants attention on her projects and thinks being linked to him can help her… It worked because more people know who she is. I guess she hasn’t read about the make it right lawsuits.
She’s bit of a rock star in the design-meets-tech world, but her products seem kind of stunt driven (give me something practical every time). I have a friend who works in the art world so maybe there are similarities. They’re all the opposite of analytical, straight-down-the-line suits and take pride in being as over the top as possible. From this small extract she seems cool and quirky like my friend. Not intent on pleasing anyone but their own cool-nerdiness sensibilities.
Who wrote that nonsense? The Golden Record is attached to the twin Voyager Spacecraft launched to the outer planets in 1977.
Again Pitt and the media went on some dreamy idea that Neri was worthy to be with him because they were comparable
Opposed to the dumb spoiled bratty witch Angelina! Even Amal Clooney is beyond Angie. They need to stop the shite. They put Angie down every chance they get why JEALOUSY!
He is better than Angie, Neri, Amal, Jennifer all anyone! It is so pathetic and stupid and lame.
And to top it off he and his team put out some statement about her being impressive and just friends when she isn’t even a friend of his. That is the BP Angelina wants you all to meet.
Brad isn’t worthy of Neri and she is arrogant and pretentious just like he is.
OMG