Did Angelina accept a big diamond from Brad? Given her involvement in African causes I’d be surprised if she did. Whatever Brad did in the past is in the past. If I’ve thoughtlessly and unwillingly enabled a cruel and exploitive process in the past am I a hypocrite if I no longer do so in the future? Anything Brad gave Jen and Gwyneth are now the property of those two women. It’s up to them what they do with their rings.
Normally I don’t have much use for Hollywood types and phony charity, but Angelina Jolie seems like she really is trying to do some good in the world. If she drags Brad Pitt along–who, from every interview I’ve seen, is dumb as a post–so much the better.
Somehow, I suspect that Angelina Jolie isn’t crying herself to sleep because she can’t get Brad Pitt to marry her. I admire their resourcefulness in turning their decision not to get married into a plea for social justice, but somehow I suspect that it may have something to do with the three divorces they already have between them.
Carnac, Africa isn’t the world’s only source of diamonds. Lots of people make a point of purchasing conflict-free diamonds.
Yeah, like her first-hand knowledge of what a great union her parents had… Charlize’s dad was an abusive drunken maniac, and her mom ended up blowing him away with a shotgun.
It doesn’t necessarily seem that he’s trying any sort of social activism. It sound to me like someone asked “Why aren’t you getting married?” and he answered “It doesn’t seem fair when others aren’t allowed.” I don’t think he called a press conference to announce it or anything like that.
And I know a few couples who are waiting until same sex marriage is legalized before they get married. Coincidentally, they’re all same sex couples.
Ohhhh, them’s fighting words. :mad: I have a journalism degree. Did you attend the University of Missouri School of Journalism? If not, how do you know whether it is a brain-taxing curriculum?
The mean score on the SAT for journalism and mass communications graduates in 1997 was 1,083, while the 1994 college-bound seniors had an average of 1,003 on the test.
L.B. Becker, G.M. Kosicki, L. Porter, D. Watson, “1997 Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates”
I don’t see it as necessarily an attempt to change anything but maybe an unwillingness to accept a privilege denied to others. It’s kind of like refusing to eat at restaurant that won’t serve blacks. It’s not that you think you’re going to change the restaurant, it’s just that it’s not a place you want to go to.
I’m not one to much care about celebrities’ private lives or their activism but I also don’t think it’s necessary to always have to piss all over them any time they try to say or do something expressing an ideological point of view or assume that they can’t actually feel sincere about anything. I likewise don’t get why Jolie has been so mocked and ridiculed for adopting babies. There are worse things a person could do.
Me and my current wife had this exact condition on marriage.
Then I got sick, and I didn’t have health insurance. So much for conviction! The irony was that my wife’s employer DID offer health coverage to gay couples that had domestic partner liscences (which she and I already had). So it was either marriage or a quick sex change.
I would note that this is EXACTLY what conservative pro-gay marriage advocate Jon Rauch predicted: keeping gays from marrying without good cause would contribute to the feeling that marriage is a parochial institution, not for everyone, quaint and particular. It is this more than anything else that is the real threat to marriage. It is those opposing gay marriage that will ultimately do the most to destroy it.
As a fellow J-school grad (University of Florida, class of 1997), I have to agree with Walloon. Journalism is a tough major in any school. I worked hard for my degree. I would imagine that journalism students at the University of Missouri, which has one of the best programs in the country, would have to work just as hard.
As for the OP, I don’t know if Brad Pitt’s statement will do anything to help supporters of gay marriage, but I don’t think it will do any harm. Even if he was just dodging a reporter’s question, he may end up promoting discussion. Not such a bad thing, IMHO.
Hard work, definitely. Intellectually demanding on par with the physical sciences, mathematics, computer science, biochemistry, finance, operations research, accounting, Russian, Chinese, etc., probably not. That said, there are certainly some brilliant journalists.
