Virginia Blackburn

JUST when you think it is safe to go back into the celebrity-filled water… It’s been nearly two years since the very acrimonious split of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and given the fact that the two of them, especially her, like to present themselves as the world’s greatest humanitarians, you’d have thought they’d have tried to keep it civil. Not a bit of it. This week they’ve been at it again: she’s accusing him of lack of financial support while he (or rather “sources close to him”) is accusing her of being extremely difficult and uncooperative over access to the offspring. He also totally denies claims that he’s not paying his share of the children’s upkeep, saying he spends hundreds of thousands every month on travel for them, round-the-clock bodyguards and therapists. That must be a fun lifestyle for the infant PittJolies and they are certainly going to need those therapists.

Because while divorce is a sorry affair there are ways to minimise the pressure on everyone involved but these two seem intent on making every toxic mistake in the book. Every child psychologist who has ever lived warns against making the children pawns in a war between the parents but what else are these two doing? Divorce is miserable for any child but when your parents are two of the most high-profile people on the planet, all this public slagging each other off is going to make the agony that little bit worse. There’s no doubt that Angelina is truly committed to helping the world’s disadvantaged but can’t she see what she’s doing a little closer to home?

And like it or not (and they’ve certainly given the impression of liking