Brangelina’s Canadian connection
Relationship blossomed partly in Alberta, always the talk of TIFF
TORONTO — Few celebrity couples have captivated Canadians quite like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
The megastars, now in the throes of a highly publicized divorce, caused a frenzy unlike any other whenever they appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival or elsewhere in Canada, say red carpet regulars.
“It was one of those things that you could actually feel. People were vibrating,” says Cheryl Hickey, host of ET Canada, in recalling when Jolie and Pitt walked the TIFF red carpet together in 2007 for his film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
“Even the people who were trying to act cool before she arrived, that went out the window as soon as she stepped out of the limo and flashed that 1,000-watt smile at everyone and just won everyone over.”
The film was partly shot in Alberta in 2005, just months after Pitt and Jennifer Aniston announced their divorce. Pitt’s arrival up north was front page news and a casting call for film extras drew thousands of fans. Media interest only intensified when Jolie was also seen in Calgary with her children.
“There were photos and Maddox was very young then and they went to an indoor playground,” recalls Elaine Lui, the celebrity gossip blogger who co-hosts The Social and is a senior correspondent on etalk.
“The other parents who saw them in the indoor playground couldn’t believe that they were enjoying an indoor playground experience with ‘Brange.’ That was big, because it was so fresh, too, and new. Maddox was already calling him ‘dad’ at that point.”
The next year, Pitt appeared at the Toronto film fest with Babel and talked at a news conference about being a parent with Jolie.
“Being a father now ... it becomes your big worry,” he said. “It becomes the one thing that keeps you up at night.”
After the Jesse James TIFF red carpet in 2007, the it-couple held court at a posh hotel rooftop party.
“She was there with him and they were talking to Sean Penn and they were still really super intense into each other,” says Lui, who was there. “There was a lot of touching, her hand was on the back of his neck, his hand was on her thigh.
“It was obviously the greatest party to be at, if you’re lucky enough to be in that space, because you were watching the supernova of Hollywood celebrity.”
Brangelina, as they were widely called, also walked the TIFF red carpet in 2011 for the premiere of Pitt’s Moneyball.
The duo’s presence at TIFF was unmatched, says Hickey, who notes there hasn’t been such a megacouple since Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
“All the stories you’ve heard about Angelina, the good and the bad, go right out the window when you see her because she has this thing about her, that star quality that just makes you in awe,” says Hickey. “And then there’s Brad. He’s just the quintessential superstar and Hollywood actor.
“When you put the two together it’s just this crazy, crazy thing that happens. So when they were here at the film festival, it was pretty spectacular.”
Even the people who were trying to act cool before she arrived, that went out the window as soon as she stepped out of the limo and flashed that 1,000-watt smile at everyone and just won everyone over.” Cheryl Hickey, host of ET Canada