Brad Pitt’s f-cksh-t on Angelina Joliehas been the reasonhe’s been making headlines lately– and that f-cksh-t has been going on for a long time. While at this point most people understand that most celebrities manipulate the media to their advantage, the culture holds this against women more than they do men, even the men who relentlessly weaponise the media against their famous counterparts.

Over the years, Brad Pitt has cultivated the kind of “movie star but still an everyman” reputation that has shaped public opinion about him. Like even though he’s one of the biggest stars on the planet, and has been for a long time, for whatever reason, the MiniVan Majority is still out there buying into the image of him as the non-movie star, uncontaminated by Hollywood and as decent as the guy next door…who owns a French estate.

Brad’s latest move? Tapping into Gossip Nostalgia. Those of you who were around back then will remember his relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow was a big deal. They were the poster Hollywood couple – young and beautiful and desperately in love and with matching haircuts for a time…

And now they’ve reunited for goop, because Brad has launched his own line of cashmere and of course he’s engaged Gwyneth to help him sell on goop, as part of her Father’s Day gift guide, which ironic AF considering, well, you know.And there’s an interview too.

Nothing here is particularly gossipy, and there isn’t even a photo of the two of them together, but they do address the fact that they used to be engaged, and they reminisce about her father, how much Bruce Paltrow adored Brad, how close they were, and then it’s a lot of talk about the actual products.

Still, it’s a headline. And Angelica Jade Bastien says it best:

Angelica is an amazing writer, so “cunning” is the perfect word here – and it speaks to how Brad engages with and leverages his own celebrity. And he’s checking off so many boxes: promoting his new business, obviously, using gossip nostalgia to generate sales, but also the subtext here is that he’s so embraced by these women in Hollywood, including his ex-fiancée. Which is something, ahem, Johnny Depp capitalised on – his relationship with his exes, as if to say one woman must be lying if other women didn’t have the same experience as her. For Brad Pitt, one of the takeaways here, then, will be that Angelina must not be telling the truth about Brad if Gwyneth still loves him so much.

One more note about Brad’s cashmere line – his business partner is Sat Hari Khalsa, the holistic healer who wasrumoured to have been his girlfrienda few years ago.