# Talk me down -- Brad Pitt hypocrisy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 24, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500 "2009-08-24T14:23:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/21 "2009-08-24T20:47:01Z")
> [@Snickers](#): > > It’s just a joke between friends, and I’m 100% certain that Clooney would take it that way. Oh, I’m sure. It’s the underlying idea that bugs me. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/22 "2009-08-24T20:57:43Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I guess I’m not mad, but seventh graders also call things they are deriding “gay”. Would that be OK? Not really. It can still be hilarious in the right circumstances. It’s like watching 24 and Jack Bauer has a tender love scene. That’s so… gay! ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/23 "2009-08-24T21:10:54Z")
The comment wasn’t intended to ridicule Clooney because of the possibility that he might be gay. It was a comment on the broader media view that there’s only one reason someone as (a) good looking\*, (b) charming\*, and © old\*\* as Clooney is still unmarried- because he’s not allowed to marry. Clooney isn’t typically linked to any one woman, and doesn’t have a long-term relationship with anyone (or if he does, they’re pretty circumspect about it). I think if you find offense with Pitt’s comment, you’re trying too hard to find offense. \*Not necessarily my judgment; it’s the general public perception. \*\* OK, he’s not old, but he’s at an age when most other handsome, charming actors have already found a mate of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/24 "2009-08-24T21:26:19Z")
Personally, I think Pitt’s hypocrisy is that he’s implying his motives are so pure and good…yet he VERY publically ditched his wife for Jolie. (After insisting he wasn’t attracted to her, IIRC) As for the joke – chill people. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/25 "2009-08-24T21:41:42Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > It’s also a big part of the classic _ **we’re-just-guys-aren’t-we** _ complex, whereby men who are really insecure about their sexuality–who seem to number a lot–think that if they make jokes about homosexuality regarding their friends that that “proves” their own heterosexual masculinity. Usually the sole component of “humor” in these “jokes” is the proposition that one of their friends is gay–nothing more than that. (E.g., “Hey Tommy! I saw you last night.” “Oh yeah? Where?” “Down on Castro Street! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”) I make jokes like this with my friends all the time. Although I’ll own up to having a juvenile sense of humor, I’m pretty sure it’s got nothing to do with me being insecure in my sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/26 "2009-08-24T22:01:30Z")
Well as a gay man I’m not insulted because frankly it has nothing to do with us. Pitt is using weasle words to avoid an answer. If Pitt actually cared about gay rights he’d \*\*\*DO SOMETHING \*\*\* about it rather than just make a psuedo-symbolic stand. It’s easy to be generous when it doesn’t cost you anything. I’ve never really heard much about Clooney being gay, and even Damon being gay the “rumours” never really are about him being gay as much as Damon and Affleck being lovers. Clooney seems to be well regarded in Hollywood as a womanizer. If Clooney were gay he’s sure going through a heck of a lot of women to put that rumour to rest. Most gay men would rather use a single “beard” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/27 "2009-08-24T22:04:09Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > If Pitt actually cared about gay rights he’d \*\*\*DO SOMETHING \*\*\* about it rather than just make a psuedo-symbolic stand. Especially since he’s already been married once. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/28 "2009-08-24T22:56:39Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > This isn’t the first time he and Matt Damon and Clooney, all ostensibly straight men, :dubious: > [@](#): > > have joked about each other’s sexuality. Matt Damon & George Clooney both seem gay to me. Though Clooney may the other kind of confirmed bachelor, the one that just likes variety & hates commitment. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/29 "2009-08-25T06:54:19Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > :dubious:Matt Damon & George Clooney both seem gay to me. Though Clooney may the other kind of confirmed bachelor, the one that just likes variety & hates commitment. I have never met a single person who is right more often than not about guessing someone’s sexuality, unless that someone is, for lack of a better term, “flaming.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/30 "2009-08-25T07:03:31Z")
Apparently some people don’t realize that gay people have a sense of humor. Hell, we joke about it ourselves, why shouldn’t other people? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/31 "2009-08-25T10:07:50Z")
You know, I look forward to the day when gay and racist jokes can be told and received the same way blonde jokes are today – that is, everyone involved understands it’s just a tease in good fun, laughs, and walks away no worse for the wear. When people TRULY believe that sexual orientation and race are as trivial (but nonetheless amusing) as hair color… THAT would be equality. Not this bullshit politically-correct facade that’s too afraid to offend anyone to their face but instead politically and socially manipulates against them behind the scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/32 "2009-08-25T11:16:36Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > :dubious:Matt Damon & George Clooney both seem gay to me. Though Clooney may the other kind of confirmed bachelor, the one that just likes variety & hates commitment. Just to be clear… we are all aware that Clooney has been married before (and to a woman, no less), right? I mention this because the phrase “confirmed bachelor” is being thrown around with gay abandon, but as a divorcé he really doesn’t meet the basic definition: a man who has never married. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/33 "2009-08-26T14:03:20Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > 🙂 My desire to write a strongly-worded letter to Brad Pitt has subsided. I am leaning toward the “seventh-grade humor” interpretation. He gets the self-righteousness from Angie but his true colors linger. Don’t worry, Brad Pitt wouldn’t have read it anyway. His assistant’s assistant (who is gay) would have stuck it in the pile with the rest of the fan mail to which they send an automated “Thank you for writing” reply. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/34 "2009-08-26T15:49:16Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > The comment wasn’t intended to ridicule Clooney because of the possibility that he might be gay. It was a comment on the broader media view that there’s only one reason someone as (a) good looking\*, (b) charming\*, and (c) old\*\* as Clooney is still unmarried- because he’s not allowed to marry. Clooney isn’t typically linked to any one woman, and doesn’t have a long-term relationship with anyone (or if he does, they’re pretty circumspect about it). If it was just the media! Every time that my mother hangs on an unmarried woman over 30 the lesbian label, I thank her very much. She says “why?,” I answer “well, either for knowing my sexuality better than I do, or for trusting me to tell you if I happened to be one, you tell me which.” I’m 41, unmarried, and there was a period in my life where Mom and her friends kept trying to hook me up with nice, unmarried girls my age, apparently under the belief that you can’t be over 30, unmarried and straight. Two of them were straightforward enough to actually ask me, for which I thanked them sincerely. ---
**Author:** ![Pearson\_Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pearson_flyer/32/7241_2.png) [@Pearson\_Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pearson_Flyer)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/35 "2009-08-26T16:06:07Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > If Pitt actually cared about gay rights he’d \*\*\*DO SOMETHING \*\*\* about it rather than just make a psuedo-symbolic stand Perhaps something like donating $100,000 to gay rights groups in California? [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/17/brad-pitt-donates-100000\_n\_127263.html](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/17/brad-pitt-donates-100000_n_127263.html) Does that meet your requirements for action? ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/36 "2009-08-26T16:16:27Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > You know, I look forward to the day when gay and racist jokes can be told and received the same way blonde jokes are today – that is, everyone involved understands it’s just a tease in good fun, laughs, and walks away no worse for the wear. Agreed. I live in the Castro but sometimes I feel like that’s the only place I _don’t_ have to tiptoe around oversensitive gay men (or, more often, oversensitive straight people eager to get offended on queer people’s behalf). _Lesbians_, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/37 "2009-08-28T09:39:12Z")
And we should note that this comment from Brad Pitt also suggests that he would choose the ‘gay’ Clooney over the ‘straight’ Damon to babysit his kids. A quite clear rejection of the old ‘gays molest children’ myth. Along with the big contribution to fight California’s Prop 8, it makes me think Brad is pretty much a real supporter of equality for fays. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/38 "2009-08-28T10:54:32Z")
> [@](#): > > **Guinistasia** : Personally, I think Pitt’s hypocrisy is that he’s implying his motives are so pure and good…yet he VERY publically ditched his wife for Jolie. (After insisting he wasn’t attracted to her, IIRC) Isn’t it possible that at the time he was unwilling to admit even to himself that he was attracted to her? Is it possible that his motives about getting married really are what he says they are even though he left Jennifer for Angelina? What does one thing have to do with the other? Did he claim that he has been perfect? Wouldn’t it have been a little difficult to have _privately_ left Jennifer and taken up with Angelina? What did he do that was hypocritical? I see nothing that was particularly contradictory about his behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/39 "2009-08-29T01:35:35Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Personally, I think Pitt’s hypocrisy is that he’s implying his motives are so pure and good…yet he VERY publically ditched his wife for Jolie. (After insisting he wasn’t attracted to her, IIRC) and IF (if) the tabloid I saw today is correct (hmm??) that he told Angie that “love isn’t forever”, I will almost not be able to watch him again. I understand that there’s infidelity around and so on, and somehow his divorce wasn’t something that really hit me, but to have that attitude while adopting her adopted kids (3) and then having more natural kids with her (3) just makes me want to pound something. With him in it. ETA: I say “to have this attitude whle…” because I understand that he told Jennifer something similar, and has been quoted that monogamy isn’t permanent. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500/40 "2009-08-29T01:42:49Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > and IF (if) the tabloid I saw today is correct (hmm??) that he told Angie that “love isn’t forever”, I will almost not be able to watch him again. I understand that there’s infidelity around and so on, and somehow his divorce wasn’t something that really hit me, but to have that attitude while adopting her adopted kids (3) and then having more natural kids with her (3) just makes me want to pound something. With him in it. > > ETA: I say “to have this attitude whle…” because I understand that he told Jennifer something similar, and has been quoted that **monogamy isn’t permanent**. Well…it’s not, really. Only the best or most stubborn of marriages last til death do them part. And if he told Jolie that and she still wanted to let him adopt her kids and have kids with them? I fail to see what business it is of ours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talk-me-down-brad-pitt-hypocrisy/507500.md?page=3)