Brangelina: Together at Last?

As far as celebrity tabloid scoops, news of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s upcoming nuptials takes the cake. After seven years together in jet-setting and serial adoption bliss, the Jolie-Pitt crew will finally be just the Pitts. Or Jolies. Actually, it probably depends which one of them is releasing a film next. First of all, do not think I’m being flip about adoption. I believe it is a beautiful thing and will in fact seek that route when I start a family. I also think that two people can raise lovely children while not being married. I guess what I don’t understand is why Brad and Angelina feel the need to look into holy matrimony now.

Pitt, who was engaged to Gwyneth Paltrow and married to Jennifer Aniston for five years, split from Aniston and hitched his wagon to Jolie after they collaborated on Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The couple seemed to receive much public backlash, Pitt for an alleged wandering eye during filming, and Angelina for being the subsequent homewrecker. After riding out the media firestorm, the couple grudgingly entered into public favor, earning them the one of the first couple combination monikers: “Brangelina.” They went on to adopt a child together and give birth to three; add in Angelina’s adopted son Maddox and daughter Zahara and the total brood comes to six. In January of 2006, a California judge allowed Angelina to change Maddox and daughter Zahara’s last names from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt. Later that year in May, Jolie gave birth to baby Shiloh, also a Jolie-Pitt. Jolie adopted son Pax in 2007 as a single parent since his native country of Vietnam doesn’t allow non-married couples to adopt; his last name was legally changed to Jolie-Pitt later that year, and Brad officially adopted him as well in January 2008. Jolie then gave birth to twins Knox and Vivienne later that year. The point of playing this “How did all the kids get here?” game is to illustrate the fact that Brad and Angelina have seemingly never expressed interest in getting married, even if it made it tons more difficult to legally adopt Pax or change all the kids’ surnames. Pitt has apparently been quoted saying as early as last year by Mail Online that “The kids ask about marriage. It's meaning more and more to them. So it's something we've got to look at.” Surprise aside, we wish them well. As one of the most globally conscious families in the media today, the Jolie-Pitt bunch can look forward to another adventure.