Celebrity divorce expert Rob Shater revealed to our colleagues from the American Bureau of Marie Claire the details of the masterfully produced breakup of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
The news of Jolie and Pitt’s divorce, which shocked the entire world, first appeared last Thursday evening on the American news portal TMZ, then Brad commented to People magazine, and Angelina’s agent to the E! News website. According to rumors, the main reasons for the divorce were her husband’s infidelity, incessant quarrels, and different views on raising children. To find out what is true and what is false in this story and what is really behind the shocking news, our colleagues from the American bureau of Marie Claire turned to the famous expert in the field of celebrity divorces, Rob Shater. Legal red tape, analysis of the behavior of former spouses, their motives, and hidden interests – all this is Rob’s natural habitat. His portfolio is impressive: he was Jessica Simpson’s press agent when she was divorcing singer Nick Lachey, and he was the one who communicated with the press on behalf of Jennifer Lopez when the star broke up with Ben Affleck. In an interview with Kate Storey, Rob reveals how celebrity couples plan and orchestrate their divorces, and teaches us how to read the hidden signs.
Marie Claire: Brad and Angelina’s divorce was announced on Thursday, at the end of the week…
Rob Shater: Yes, Angelina’s legal team knows their job. They announced it late on Thursday because they knew that by that day, all the influential weeklies (like People, Us Weekly, Life & Style) would have already sent all their new issues to print and would not be able to put this news on their covers. In general, Angelina herself communicates with weeklies quite often, so the fact that the news got to TMZ first surprised me at first. Most likely, this was the idea of the team handling the actress’s affairs, because they do not like to work with weeklies.
“Something really big had to happen for this step [Angelina’s decision to divorce]. I don’t know anything yet, but I plan to talk to her soon,” Jolie’s father Jon Voight comments on the news of Brangelina’s divorce.
MC: Do you think TMZ intercepted the documents Pitt and Jolie needed to dissolve their marriage? Or did someone tip them off?
RS: Harvey [Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ – editor’s note] knows the law. He’s a lawyer, and he knows how lawyers work. Of course, it’s possible that they just stumbled upon the documents, but as a columnist and publicist, I can tell you that just stumbling upon something like that is too much luck. Unimaginable. Usually, someone will tell you where to look – in their interests, of course. This is just a hypothesis, but in my experience, there is always someone who will say, “Hey, you might be interested in digging into these files from such-and-such a date.” And then it’s like clockwork: you find everything yourself. So the fact that only TMZ was able to find the documents, and on a Thursday, when all the print weeklies were powerless, makes me think that Jolie’s lawyers were involved in this.
Moreover, it is interesting not only that TMZ was the first to get this news. Yes, of course, in journalism, whoever gets the exclusive first gets the slippers. But TMZ did not just release an exclusive – they released an article that is pro-Jolie (in favor of Jolie) in content, mood, and style. In it, we read that Brad is a bad father, and that he is a drunkard, and that he is a drug addict… Not a single bad word about Angelina. In my opinion, this is, of course, a commissioned article. It does not look like TMZ journalists just went and found the documents; rather, someone wanted the first material in the press on this topic to be a story that completely defends Angelina’s honor. And now Pitt’s people will have a hard time.
“I am very saddened by this, but the most important thing right now is the well-being of our children. I ask from the bottom of my heart for journalists to leave our children alone during this difficult time,” Brad Pitt commented to People magazine regarding the news of his divorce from Jolie.
MC: After the divorce news in TMZ, Brad Pitt commented to People magazine. What do you think about it?
RS: I think People is a great choice. The magazine has had a good reputation for a long time: celebrities love to talk to them, because they can always be sure that People won’t twist their words. People themselves, of course, will want to get a personal interview with Angelina, so in the next few weeks, the magazine will tiptoe and write very restrained news about the divorce, so as not to anger Angelina. Of course, they really want to cover this lucrative topic, but if they anger Jolie, she will simply refuse to talk to them. And People are eager to hear the story from her point of view. I can already see the headline: “Brangelina’s Divorce Through the Eyes of Jolie.”
“Angelina will always act only for the good of her family. And she is very grateful to everyone who respects her privacy, especially during this difficult time,” Jolie’s permanent manager Geyer Kosinski commented to E!News
MC: Do you think Jolie and Pitt’s lawyers met with each other to discuss their clients’ divorce strategy before it was leaked to TMZ?
RS: This is usually how it works: one spouse initiates communication with their lawyer, who contacts the other spouse’s representatives, and they get together, develop a common strategy. After which, a press conference is held, at which a template statement about the divorce is announced to the public. But what is interesting in the case of Brangelina is that the spouses’ teams did not coordinate their actions. There was no joint statement from the couple.
In my opinion, Brad’s team is losing to Angelina’s team in terms of strategic thinking, because they allowed the first press article on this topic to label the actor a bad father from the first paragraph. [Quotes from the TMZ article: “Sources close to the star couple told us that … Angelina’s decision to file for divorce was due to the way Brad is raising the children. She is very concerned about his parenting methods. The actress’s representative, Robert Offer, said that Angelina made this decision “for the health of her family” – Ed. All this resembles a combat command post, big politics, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Both have their teams and their response teams that know how to create an image of their clients in the press. Giving Angelina’s team a head start, allowing the image of Brad – a bad father – to be launched in the press, is a very big strategic blunder by Pitt’s team.
Meanwhile, Angelina has already made her next move: TMZ has published another batch of exclusives. It says that the actress accuses Pitt of abusing their son Maddock, who allegedly stood up for his mother during a quarrel between her and his father during a private flight from France to Los Angeles. The FBI has already taken an interest in the story, and Pitt’s team is still silent.
MC: When you were working with Jessica Simpson, did you also think about when to tell the press?
RS: It was a long time ago. There were no sites like TMZ back then. We announced it all on a holiday weekend because we also wanted to avoid the weeklies. US Weekly was the king back then, and it was the one that got the exclusive. I think we can now acknowledge that we helped the journalists “find” the information they needed…
MC: I read that Jolie doesn’t have her press agent. Do you know anything about her relationship with the press?
RS: She never really had one. Angelina does the press better than anyone. Very smart. She is her press agent, and she makes all the strategic decisions in that area. Then she just hires the right people to implement her decisions.
MC: When Pitt was divorcing Jennifer Aniston, the couple did issue a joint statement to People magazine. Does that mean anything?
RS: Of course, they made that statement; that’s what all celebrity couples do. But Angelina has this amazing power over the press that,t from now on, when a couple decides to get divorced and it’s not going to be a nice divorce, she can say, “We’re not making a joint statement. Angelina didn’t.”
MC: The news of the divorce came at almost the same time as the release of the trailer for the film “5 Seconds of Silence” starring Pitt and the accompanying rumors of the actor’s affair with his co-star Marion Cotillard. Suspicious?
RS: Actually, it’s a very rash move to blow an on-screen romance out of proportion to a real-life romance. It’s not always clear to viewers, but it’s important to keep in mind that studios and celebrity agents rarely let stories like this leak out. Think about it: no one wants to watch Brad have an on-screen affair with a woman he’s rumored to be cheating on his wife with. It’s a risky move, but sometimes it works. The most iconic example is Mr. & Mrs. Smith. But in general, these stories always have consequences, and studios spend millions of dollars to smooth things over. That’s why I say everyone is careful in this business – it’s better to have no attention than to have the public backlash. Sure, you can tease the public with rumors of a romantic dinner and so on, but no one is going to create “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
MC: Both sides insist that there are no third parties involved in their conflict. Does that mean anything?
RS: It means absolutely nothing. Believe me, I was a press agent for a long time, and press agents do not always tell the truth.