Just in time for the fifth anniversary of #MeToo, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Brad Pitt, was accused in recent court documents of physically assaulting ex-wife Angelina Jolie and two of their six children on a private plane in 2016. If Hollywood history is any indication, the A-lister could benefit from the same outpouring of positive treatment that Johnny Depp received following allegations that he abused Amber Heard.
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years, the #MeToo movement as we know it rose up out of a viral tweet from actress Alyssa Milano. Milano penned a response to the reporting of New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey and Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker, which shed light on the many alleged sex crimes of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The disgraced Weinstein, incidentally, is one of the only people who has faced a literal cancellation in the wake of #MeToo and is currently serving time for one count of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and one count of rape in the third degree, while also on trial for further charges.
The purpose of the hashtag was to show support for the brave women who spoke out against Weinstein, whose sexual misconduct and assault was long an open secret in the industry. “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem,” Milano tweeted. It’s worth noting that the “Me Too” movement was originally started in 2006 by survivor and activist Tarana Burke, who coined the term.
A maelstrom of survivors rallied in response, revealing that harassment and abuse was far more widespread than anyone knew. (Let’s be real: if you’re a person of a marginalized gender, you probably had a pretty good idea already.)
While the influx of allegations has slowed, major Hollywood stars have dominated the #MeToo-related headlines this year. And, if we believe what we read, the #MeToo backlash is in full effect.
There was the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial, which prompted a wave of public support for Depp, particularly on TikTok, becoming a total cesspool that punished a woman fifteen years younger than one of the most powerful actors in history for speaking out about her alleged abuse. Regardless of whether the court of public opinion thought Depp was guilty of what he was accused of (UK’s High Court of Justice ruled against Depp’s claims of defamation in a 2020 libel lawsuit against tabloid The Sun, finding that the outlet’s reference to Depp as a “wife beater” was “substantially true” based on evidence provided by Heard), the actual jury believed he was not. That ruling could have devastating effects on survivors who choose to speak out.
Next is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The base reaction à la Depp and Heard has already started, with a familiar pattern of angry YouTube and Twitter comments dismissing the allegations. Even Jolie’s position as one of the crown jewels of Hollywood likely won’t protect her from the vitriol our society has for women who speak up.
Pitt may benefit from this. Much of the criticism around the Depp/Heard case was how easy it is for alleged male abusers to cast doubt on their accusers. Now, we see that cycle begin again. Tabloids are already picking a side, with TMZ giving Pitt’s reps a platform to attack Jolie and The News International re-upping old reports about how Pitt leaving Aniston was the “biggest mistake of his life.” It feels all too familiar to Depp’s defense wheeling out his high-profile, notoriously media-shy ex Kate Moss as a witness. The model “had nothing but kind things to say about him… which is very powerful testimony,” legal analyst Emily D. Baker told the Discovery+ two-part docuseries Johnny VS. Amber: The U.S. Trial.
If Pitt is indeed guilty of what Jolie alleges, he’s may have been making strategic career moves for a while, producing diverse endeavors from the likes of Barry Jenkins and Ava DuVernay and women’s empowerment pictures such as Women Talking and She Said, based on the book by the New York Times journalists who broke the story that started #MeToo.
But the devil is in the details for those who care to look: Pitt’s former fiancé, Gwyneth Paltrow, told Pitt about the sexual harassment she suffered at the hands of Weinstein. Jolie also reported experiencing unwanted advances from Weinstein. Yet, Pitt continued to work with him. Pitt hasn’t been seen publicly with his kids since the alleged incident on the plane — a damning chink in his above-mentioned PR armor. He also employed PR and crisis expert Matthew Hiltzik after Jolie filed for divorce, perThe Hollywood Reporter. Hiltzik works for Depp, and was previously a corporate employee for Weinstein’s production company Miramax. Per the Times, Jolie claimed Pitt tried to get her to sign a nondisclosure agreement — contracts long employed by Hollywood abusers which stopped #MeToo allegations from being brought to light much earlier. She alleged that the agreement would have “contractually prohibited her from speaking outside of court about Pitt’s physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.”
Fawning profiles by the likes of GQ in which Pitt talks about poetry and dream journaling plus a bombardment of promo for his most recent films Bullet Train and Babylon adds to the movie star facade that few actors still possess. Indeed, perhaps one of the reasons why it was so easy to throw Armie Hammer away after allegations that he engaged in non-consensual sexual relationships is because he was a failed experiment at the very thing Pitt excels at — true stardom.
Will it all come crashing down for Pitt? Five years removed from #MeToo, only time will tell but my money’s on unlikely.
A previous version of this article noted that Matthew Hiltzik worked for Harvey Weinstein. It has since been amended to clarify that he was previously employed by Harvey Weinstein’s production company Miramax.
Before you go, click here to see celebrities who have opened up about surviving sexual assault.
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