Half the magazines now are plastered with a large picture of a smiley Angelina Jolie and her perky pregnant stomach, while in the upper right corner rests a picture of Jennifer Aniston with a sad face. “Jen’s Reaction” and a small picture of Angelina wearing all black and sunglasses in the upper right corner dominated tabloids. It was a hard week for us all. Luckily, selecting a tabloid did not become a daunting decision, for since the beginning, I have been on Jen’s side.
We all knew what was going on from the start of this saga. Asking two attractive actors to film an intense sex scene is asking for trouble. Maybe the director of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman, predicted that a rumored romance between the stars of the film would increase ticket sales. But did Liman really think America would just sit down and passively let their post-Julia Roberts, pre-Rachel McAdams sweetheart be publicly humiliated? Aniston inspired millions of women to get that layered haircut in the mid-90’s! This was no Christina Applegate or Shannon Doherty. This was a Friend!
The hype around the entire situation is ridiculous, yet I find myself completely addicted to it nonetheless. First came the actual divorce and then came the picture of Brad with Angelina and little Maddox on a beach. A devastated Jennifer was seen taking long walks on the beach and doing yoga on her porch. Jennifer became the woman every woman who ever had a bad break-up could relate to – if they too were on the most popular sitcom of all time, commanded millions per picture, had the perfect body and had been married to the sexiest man on earth.
Then there was the pathetic Vanity Fair article that made Jen seem like she walked around crying all day, later publicly refuted. Then the press painted it as if had Jen had finally caught a break when she began to date her co-star Vince Vaughn. As if it was so generous of Vince to take pity on such a beautiful, successful woman who was very much on the rebound, and date her. Then of course Vaughnistan and Brangelina were born – because it really just does take to long to say the two names separately.
The media has portrayed Jen as the sad, abandoned women and yes, though she was probably miserable for some time I think she has handled the situation with grace even though she is constantly under scrutiny by the entire world. With the recent announcement of baby Brangelina we have learned that the due date is sometime in May which if you do the math means that the baby was conceived sometime before the official divorce of the couple. Even though this was another hard blow for Jennifer she was seen smiling. She may not represent the United Nations or adopt orphans as a hobby, but she will always have a special place in my heart. Jennifer Aniston shows women that even when down, you are never out.
Lepore can be reached atmlepore@campustimes.org.
