One of the top rated episodes of Friends on IMDB is the season eight episode “The One With the Rumor.” Surprising if you believe that most comedies stop being funny after the third or fourth season, but unsurprising if you remember who guest starred on that particular episode.
The premise: Monica runs into an old friend from high school, a friend who was once overweight but has since flourished. Who is this newly hunky friend? Why, it’s none other than Brad Pitt, arguably at the height of his fame and husband to Rachel Green herself, Jennifer Aniston. So naturally, the gag of the episode centers on Brad Pitt’s character despising Rachel. Had the guest star been an actor of equal fame like Tom Cruise, the episode would have been funny, but not top ten episode worthy. The episode’s whole punch line rests on the 2001 fact that Jennifer and Brad are together. And as funny as the episode remains, there are teenagers watching the show on Netflix for the first time right now who don’t know Brad and Jennifer were ever married.
Only, that’s probably a lie.
That episode Friends came out in the fall of 2001. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, was filmed in 2004. Aniston and Pitt announced their separation in 2005. I was only nine years old when the rumors began swirling that Pitt cheated on Aniston with Jolie. Very few nine year olds I know are invested in the lives of adult celebrities. I only started getting interested in celebrity gossip in my teenage years, so I began reading magazines like People in 2010. At that point, all the turmoil between Aniston, Jolie, and Pitt should have been over. Old news. Yet, I know the full story and not because I had to put a considerable amount of effort into research. Since 2005, I’ve rarely seen a tabloid cover featuring Aniston or Jolie that does not mention Pitt or the other woman. It’s 2016.
Arguably, the coverage is forgivable in light of the recent “Brangelina” divorce. For better or worse, Aniston is part of the narrative. The jokes made out of Aniston’s possible reactions to the divorce are amusing and light-hearted, lacking any cruel intentions. Congratulations to Jen, she won the break up a decade later. But have Aniston, or Jolie for that matter, really won anything?
Look at it this way: Jennifer Aniston made $21 million in 2016, making her the fourth highest paid actress in Hollywood. She will appear or provide her voice in four movies this year. Since 2005, she has appeared in over twenty films. She is an Emmy awarding winning actress and gained critical acclaim for her role in the movie Cake.
Angelina Jolie is also one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. She has directed five films since her directing debut in 2007. She wrote three of those five movies. She has received countless humanitarian awards, including an honorary damehood from Queen Elizabeth. She is an Academy Award winning actress and a mother to six children, three adopted before 2005.
When you google Jennifer Aniston, the first article that comes up is “Jennifer Aniston Steps Out After Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie Split.”
When you google Angelina Jolie, the first article that comes up is “Brad Pitt Is ‘Wrecked’ by Angelina Jolie’s Decision to Divorce.”
Again, the Jolie article is undeniably relevant. While we may complain endlessly about how celebrity gossip is reported as though it’s legitimate news, people want the inside scoop on the lives of their favorite celebrity and that’s not a cardinal sin. What’s not relevant is a stream of articles and invasive pictures of Jennifer Aniston, ex-wife or not.
It’s been a decade and yet, if you look at magazine covers from Life & Style, Us, Star, and all the other magazines you see at the grocery store check out, you’d assume Pitt and Aniston broke up six months ago. The bylines read: Angeline and Brad are having twins! How does Jen feel? Jen is getting married! What was her messaged to Angelina and Brad?
Yes, Life & Style and Us are unreliable, trashy magazines. People is hardly any better. However, it says something about us that after eleven years, the narrative of scorned ex-wife and the other woman still sells magazines. It says that we’re only interested in these women when they are pitted against each other over a man. It says that we may enjoy their movies and shows, but we will still pick “Team Jen” or “Team Angelina” and harbor ill feelings towards the other. We have forced both women into a box. Aniston is the woman scorned, the one we feel sympathy for. But we also force bitter feelings on to her by implying she still cares about Pitt and Jolie’s relationship, even while in a happy relationship of her own. Perhaps worse, Jolie is the home wrecker, a seductress who stole Pitt from Aniston. That label may have felt right in 2005 (ignoring all implications that it's the woman's fault when an affair begins). However, Jolie and Pitt were together for over ten years. Jolie stopped being the other woman a long time ago. She is the woman. Only, once the world gives a female celebrity an image, it is very hard to shed.
Why do we love placing women at odds with each other? I don’t have a deep, psychologically sound answer. However, the end result of these media created “wars” is too often the vilification of both women. Just look at what happened with Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift. People choose sides and in order to be on that side, they have to shame the enemy. Things get nasty and things get personal. The female celebrities come out the other side looking catty, vain, bitter, the list goes on. Suddenly, their achievements turn into an afterthought, something to say after ranting about their personal life. "She's a total snake...but her music's okay" or "She totally stole him from her...but I like Girl, Interrupted." No one ever wins.
Unfortunately, I doubt the world will ever be through with Angelina, Jen, and Brad, so long as all three remain in the public eye. Aniston may one day receive an Academy Award and at least two magazines will insinuate she called Pitt drunk at the after party. Jolie may marry again and several “close sources” to Pitt will comment on his grief. The story sells because it’s built on lies, but also because many of us do crave the drama. We can feel anger for Aniston, anger that makes us feel closer to her. We can defend Jolie, comment on her marriage with the comfort of knowing it’s not our own.
Yet, now that it’s 2016, I hope we will never have to see an Angelina, Jen, and Brad situation again. Celebrities will continue to cheat on their spouses, just as normal people all over America do, but when it does happen, I hope the drama lasts a few short weeks and we never have to read about it again. No more scorned women. No more seductresses. No more men who get some anger thrown their way, but never anger of the caliber directed towards the alleged home wrecker.
In 2017, let’s strive to stop constantly pitting women against each other. Let’s look at their work first and relationships second. It’s the actual least we can do.
