Names and faces

■ While the World War II drama Fury depicts a gruesome look at war through the exploits of a tank crew in Nazi Germany, Brad Pitt feels his 13-year old son, Maddox, can handle the content. “He’s a World War II buff,” Pitt said Wednesday night on the red carpet for the film’s world premiere in Washington. Some have criticized the film’s stark brutality. Scenes of a soldier’s body getting torn up from machine-gun fire or a tank commander decapitated has made the film a little too real. The newly married father of six contends that when it comes to what’s appropriate for his children, he comes from “another generation.” “My father would take us to the drive-in as very young kids and we’d see Clint Eastwood movies and kung fu movies,” the 50-year old actor said. He added: “The world is a beautiful place, but it’s also a very violent place. We talk about it afterward, so I’m not so opposed.” On the subject of family, Pitt was amused at the notion that he and George Clooney had a pact that they would both get married. Pitt married longtime love Angelina Jolie earlier this year, and Clooney tied the knot in September. Pitt laughed at the theory before responding: “We did it for the right reasons.”

■ The 20th-anniversary celebration of the pioneering King County Drug Court in Washington state was about half over when a famous participant strolled in and took a seat on the front bench. The audience of drug-court graduates and others buzzed at the arrival of Mackle

more, but the 31-year-old rapper introduced himself Tuesday simply as “Ben.” The Seattle Times reported that he told the crowd about the days when he was simply Ben Haggerty, a 15-year-old Seattle youth struggling with an alcohol and drug problem who ended up in King County’s drug court for minors. He told the crowd that “Drug court gives people a way to get sober, to heal.” The program provides eligible defendants with the opportunity to receive drug treatment rather than incarceration. King County’s was the nation’s 12th drug court when it opened in 1994. Since then, officials say, 2,050 defendants have graduated and had their charges dismissed. That’s a completion rate of about 70 percent. Officials say drug courts are now a widely accepted model. There are more than 2,800 of them across the country, and they save money by treating people who might otherwise be locked up.

Macklemore Pitt