Jolie-Pitt Love

Liz and Dick, Spencer and Kate, Bogie and Bacall, Cruise and Kidman, Brad and Angelina. A look at why on-set fireworks are so common, so dangerous, and so damn hot.

By Sara Vilkomerson

In June of 2005, moviegoers aross the country left Mr. and Mrs. Smith and spilled out onto sidewalks, animatedly dissecting what they had just seen. They weren't focusing on the characters Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie portrayed, nor were they examining any of the plot's finer points. What captured much of their attention was the palpable heat between the two stars. The actors had been cast opposite their physical equal, the Hollywood golden boy with the chiseled jaw matched limb to sinewy limb with the dark-haired, dark-souled temptress, resulting in a particularly pretty pairing onscreen. But still, there was more: a crackle of intimacy that made their love scenes, however scripted and well choreographed, seem undeniably and indecently hot.

Rumors of the pair's real-life coupling had been swirling (and oft denied) for months and the tabloid media followed every move "Brangelina" made. Many who bought tickets for Mr. and Mrs. Smith were drawn by the hope of catching a glimpse of truth between them. For if going to the movies is a 120-minute escape from the grime of everyday life, what could be more exciting and fantasy-fulfilling than watching two supernaturally attractive people fall scandalously in love in front of your very eyes?

Even now, as Pitt and Jolie have settled into their own version of domesticity with kids in tow, multiple homes to decorate, and private planes to pilot, the couple is still the subject of fascination. It seems that in today's celebrity-obsessed culture, no ordinary act — from loading groceries into the car to carrying a Starbucks latte to picking one's nose — is too small to be both documented and fetishized. When it comes to stars, the public is insatiable, and as we become more savvy, our interest is piqued as soon as we even have a sliver of inside information. In other words, cast a hot leading man with a comely costar and let the guessing games begin.

"I remember when Angelina was cast," says E! Online columnist Marc Malkin, who has worked the gossip beat at New York, Us Weekly, and The New York Daily News. "I was having lunch with a friend, and he was reading Variety. It was the day her casting was announced. He looked right at me and said, 'If there is any person that is going to get in between Jennifer and Brad, it's Angelina.'"

"We have a full-time person who has sources on all the sets," admits a top editor at a weekly tabloid, "and we get a daily report. All the reporting, all the snooping, basically everything you do comes down to . . . are they fucking each other?"(more)

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