Brad & Jen

- part I -

this was the beginning...

Photos from Sting´s Concert in New York

Brad, Jen and the famous diamond ring!

Article in "Hello!" magazine, December 7, 1999

 

Hollywood´s Golden Couple turn Sting´s New York concert into a guessing game as Brad shows off Jennifer´s diamond ring

Looking like a man in love, Brad Pitt brandished Jennifer Aniston's hand, which bore a diamond ring on the wedding finger, at concert-goers last week while Sting sang, "We're going to Vegas, we' re going to get wed", from a song called Fill ´er Up.

The New York hall which was the venue for the Sting concert buzzed with excitement as the obvious conclusion was drawn: the most desired man in Hollywood, 35-yearold Brad, and his Friends partner, 30year-old Jennifer, were engaged to marry.

After the concert finished, the couple joined Sting and his wife Trudie Styler at a New York restaurant where they were asked to confirm the news. The result was an ambiguous nod of Jennifer's head. Later, however, both Brad and Jennifer's agents claimed the couple were merely horsing around. It was, they said, a joke.

Maybe and maybe not. The pair, who have been dating for well over a year, have taken great pains to keep their relationship as far out of the spotlight as their careers permit. For the first few months, they denied they were an item at all, even after a photo of them cuddling at a Free Tibet-concert in Washington DC last spring was doing the press rounds.

 

As soon as that basic premise was established, however, they became Hollywood's golden couple, the romance of the moment. The only problem was, there was no information from them on how it was going. According to Brad, jealously guarding his relationship from the press "is the only way to maintain a bit of normality in my private life. It reduces coverage to a minimum and means neither of us has to worry about what we read because we know that neither of us has been talking."

This attitude is hardly surprising since Brad's last brush with matrimony ended in a frenzy of media speculation - "it was not exactly a fun time," he says of his separation from fiancee Gwyneth Paltrow.

What is surprising is that a publicity-shy pair such as Brad and Jennifer should now deliberately provoke a wave of media interest in the development of their relationship.

Which makes it seem not unlikely that they really are planning to wed. Jennifer has apparently never been happier. Her face lit up the day a mutual friend set up an introduction between her and Brad at the Seven star's request, and it hasn't stopped glowing since.

Brad too has declared this to be a great time in his life, a time when he can afford to be choosy professionally and wait for the right thing. And besides, the star who began his acting career with a brief appearance in Dallas is a great believer in the idea of sharing one's life with someone else. "It's fantastic!" he told Vanity Fair last year when asked his opinion of marriage. "What's a bigger high? Spending your life with another - I feel I'd be quite good at it."

And probably he would. For Brad Pitt is not your average movie star. He is an idealist and a listener, someone whose integral sense of decency has not been sacrificed on the Hollywood altar. He is also modest about his achievements and summarily dismissive of his extraordinary good looks, definitely two major bonuses in a showbiz marriage.

Jennifer is also renowned for being down-to-earth. She may not boast the ethereal beauty of Gwyneth Paltrow, but in manyways she seems much closer to the unpretentious jeans-and-t-shirt type one can imagine Brad getting domestic with. And she seems to thrive on stability. According to Friends' co-star Lisa Kudrow, "Jennifer's a lot more peaceful now, like a woman who's in a good relationship."

Brad Pitt refers to relationships as "experiments". He tries them out and if they don't work, chalks it up to experience. Like his films. You win some, you lose some. By general consensus, he lost with Seven Years In Tibet and The Devil's Own, but won a Golden Globe award for Twelve Monkeys.

His latest film Fight Club, based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, has been released into a storm of controversy fixat centres on the film's violence. Directed by Seven's David Fincher, it is a story about men defeated by the materialistic demands of capitalism who try to reassert themselves through bareknuckle fighting, a story that Brad believes in and which he defends m the hilt.

"I was drawn into things in the film, like the bit where the character says: 'Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working in jobs we hate, buying stuff we don't need,'" he explains. "For me these things seem to indicate, there's really something wrong, something leading us in a destructive direction. I actually find that more destructive than some of the complaints we have been hearing about violence."

It is, in fact, meant to be comedy albeit very black - which is not a realm Brad has ventured into before. Now that he has, however, he is game for another go. He and Jennifer, a veteran at the genre, are thinking of teaming up on screen in Waking Up In Reno, a film about two couples who travel together from the state of Arkansas to Nevada for a truck rally.

After such a project, a lot of things seem possible. Perhaps Brad Pitt on the set of celebrity-welcoming Friends. Or more likely still, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston walking up the aisle and saying "I do".

After the concert, Jennifer and Brad joined Sting and his wife Trudie Styler at a New York restaurant where they larked around, sticking bottle tops to their foreheads (above). The couple were perhaps polishing up their double act in readiness for the comedy they´re thinking of making together.


The writer of the italian Chi article speculates that Brad and Jen´s engagement was their secret til now since the ring must have been given to Jen when she and Brad were on vacation in Spain some time ago. Jen is quoted as saying that yes, this time they are engaged. Brad claims the ring / engagement talk was a joke, but the writer supposes that is meant to lessen fan's interest /frenzy.

(summary by Lisa)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photos above are scanned from Italian magazine "Chi" (contributed by Valentina) and United Kingdom´s magazine "Hello!". Both were releashed in early December, 1999.

OK! magazine - 28th January 2000

HOLLYWOOD STARS LOOK SET TO WED

BRAD PITT AND JENNIFER ANISTON

THE BEAUTIFUL COUPLE SIMPLY CAN'T HIDE THEIR FEELINGS ANY LONGER

 

Sporting a huge diamond-studded engagement ring at the People's Choice Awards in California, Jennifer Aniston lookes blissfully happy. And it seems she has every reason to be. Attending the ceremony to be honoured as a People's Favourite for her role as Rachel Green in the hit sitcom Friends, Jennifer's extravagant ring appeared to be confirmation of her engagement to Hollywood heart-throb Brad Pitt. As one of the world's most beautiful women with a glittering career and a movie star fiance, Jennifer seems to have everything pretty sussed.

But then her other half is not doing too badly either. With a string of bix office hits to his name, including Se7en, Fight Club and Meet Joe Black, Brad has proved conclusively to everyone that his success is down to more than just a pretty face and a bit of good fortune. In fact. with their combined impact, Jennifer and Brad appear to have the world at their feet. Like the king and queen of Prom Night, they are stunning, talented and extremely popular. Throw in the fact that they are totally and utterly in love with each other and you might even begin to hate them. However, they are also a very likeable, easy-going couple who are hard to ignore.

Brad admits it was Jennifer's down-to-earth nature that had him hooked. 'I knew there was something special about this girl right away. She wasn't a typical Hollywood brat who'd made it big,' he says adoringly. 'She doesn't act like a diva or a princess, she isn't stuck-up and she doesn't use her beauty as a weapon. Most Hollywood beauties have their heads so far up in the clouds, it's a wonder they don't get dizzy from the height. But that isn't Jennifer at all.'

Jennifer, despite exercising much restraint when it comes to talking about her relationships, can't help but bring over with excitement when discussing the nature of her romance with Brad. '1 love the feeling of being in love, the effect of having butterflies when you wake up in the morning. That's special,' she enthuses.

Brad, on the other hand is a little more open about things. Tile hunky actor has been more than happy to share his feelings about Jennifer on many occasions. 'Finding Jennifer is simply the best thing that has ever happened to me.' the 35-year-old declares. I'm totally 100 per cent in love with her. I thought I was in love in the past but it was nothing to the calm and serenity I feel with Jen. She's simply awesome. I've already decided that I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She's met my family, I've met hers, we've paved the way to be together for a long time.'

Marriage, it seems, was simply inevitable for the pair. Brad strongly hinted at the possibility that there would be wedding bells after they had been dating for less than a year, saying, 'At heart I'm a simple guy who believes in simple things like family and marriage.' He added, 'I just got thrown into this hyper Hollywood world and so did Jennifer. It's hard for people to believe that we'd want the simple things in life. But we do and, believe me, it's very sincere.'

Since the summer of 1998, when they were first photographed hugging each other at the Tibetan Freedom concert in New York, there has never been any doubt that the couple were a serious item. It didn't take long for the marriage rumours to begin circulating about the glamorous couple. Hollywood gossips couldn't resist speculating and, when Brad threw a party for Jennifer's 30th birthday in February 1999, some began claiming the bash was really a celebration of their engagement. Throughout their relationship other reports have claimed that Jennifer is pregnant, while some have suggested that the pair went away and wed in secret.

But it now seems that when the ring was first spotted at a Sting concert late last year, the rumours doing the rounds at the time - that the couple were now officially engaged - were true. Initially Jennifer dismissed suggestions that it was an engagement ring, claiming that she had worn it on her ring finger as 'a joke'. Six weeks later and Jennifer is still wearing the same dazzling ring and a beaming smile to match. It is now suspected that she is slowly letting her guard down, telling the world that she has made a firm commitment to her man and that the inevitable is about to happen.

Brad and Jennifer's initial reluctance to disclose their marriage plans might have something to do with their respective past, high-profile romances. When the pair first met, both were recovering from relationships that had only just ended. Jennifer had recently spilt from her long-term boyfriend, actor Tate Donovan, and Brad was recuperating from his very public break-up with Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Brad in particular - whose relationship with Gwyneth had been scrutinised in great detail from start to finish by the media - admits it was very hard for him to be open about his romance with Jennifer for fear of the same thing happening all over again.

Getting over his heartbreak after splitting from Gwyneth was especially hard for Brad as the break-up, which stunned Hollywood, had apparently been instigated by her. The couple met on the set of the thriller se7en, in which they played husband and wife, and it was widely anticipated that they would eventually get married for real. The repercussions of their sensational separation clearly hit Brad very hard, and he took a while to recover from what was obviously a devastating blow to his confidence.\par 'It took me longer to let my guard down because I've been burned before and I'm still getting over the ghosts of past loves,' he explains. 'But there's no girlfriend before Jennifer that has reached me in the places that she has. None. Jennifer is a one and only.'

To their credit, both Brad and Jennifer refuse to disparage their former partners or allay blame with anyone for the failure of their previous relationships. Brad simply explains that 'things didn't click with Gwyn like I wanted them to', while Jennifer insists that she and Tate are still very much friends. 'He's a great guy and a very talented actor,' she says of Tate. 'We are very good friends. That's the way it should be.' But she does confess that the couple ended up wanting different things out of their relationship. 'Like any woman in love, I desperately wanted to start a family but Tate urged me to wait,' she explains.

The timing of Jennifer and Brad's introduction might have seemed bad back then, but in retrospect they might now agree that things couldn't have worked out any better for them. Like Jennifer, Brad wanted to settle down and start a family, but couldn't pursue this with Gwyneth. According to reports, Gwyneth repeatedly turned down his marriage proposals before they eventually became engaged, albeit briefly. However, with common objectives in life, it seems that Brad and Jennifer didn't have to be cautious for long.

Soon after beginning their relationship both Brad and Jennifer were happily conforming reports that they were in love and, again, it was the infatuated actor who couldn't resist dropping hints about marriage. 'She has the same ideas about life and I think that's why we get along so well,' he said earnestly of Jennifer. 'I feel that marriage is the end result of the love and commitment and we're going to take all the time it takes to be secure and totally trusting.'

Jennifer gives a more coy response when it comes to talk of weddings. 'I'll just say this is the happiest time of my life,' she gushes. She doesn't really need to say much more. Looking at pictures of the young couple, their intimate body language and locked eyes speak volumes to everyone.

And if there's any doubt that the two are soulmates, Brad, as ever, is happy to clarify yet again his feelings for Jennifer. 'She's my angel, my life. I feel goofy as soon as I'm within ten feet of her,' he says.

FEATURE BY ZEENA MOOLLA PHOTOS BY ALPHA, BIG, CAMERAPRESS, REX

Good Housekeeping - February 2000

Hearts on Fire

HOW DID BRAD AND JENNIFER FIND THE MAGIC-AND WHAT DRAWS OTHER STAR COUPLES TOGETHER? HERE, THE QUIRKY CHEMISTRY BEHIND HOLLYWOOD'S HOTTEST ROMANCES-AND THE SURPRISING WAYS CELEBS FUEL THEIR LOVE.

BY JEANE MACINTOSH

In Hollywood, relationships often seem to spark and fizzle in the time it takes to watch a movie. For celebrity couples, juggling romance with shooting schedules and relentless public scrunity may be harder than it looks. "Those who are successful," says Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist and counselor to the stars, "work out their priorities. They realize that fulfillment in their relationship is better than fulfilment before the cameras."

Too often, it's a lesson learned the hard way in the wake of a failed marriage or two. Still, star couples can go the distance. Think Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, Rhea Perlman and Danny DeVito, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks. Actress Jill Eikenberry swears that joining forces is the secret; married to her former L.A. Law costar Michael Tucker for 26 years, she has battled breast cancer with his support. "A relationship is not a competitive sport," she observes. "You play together, you win together - and if one loses, you both lose." Now that they know this, Eikenberry adds, she and Tucker are "becoming more and more commited to each other's happiness."

Wise words, especially for Hollywood\'92s brightest new twosomes - Brad and Jennifer, Richard and Carey, Matt and Winona, Michael and Catherine. Here, real-life Hollywood love stories featuring couples who may just stroll into the sunset together.

BRAD PITT AND JENNIFER ANISTON

Friends and Lovers

As she walked down the red carpet at last year's Emmy Awards, Jennifer Aniston looked radiant -but it wasn't only her jewelry and designer gown that made her glow. On her arm was superstar boyfriend Brad Pitt, her steady date for the past two years. Things didn't always look so rosy for America's favorite friend: In 1998, she was still reeling from a breakup with actor Tate Donovan and reluctant to start another relationship. Pitt had his own battle scars: Engaged in 1997 to Gwyneth Paltrow, he endured a painful split that left him determined, friends say, to steer clear of young actresses. That resolve quickly faded when he found Aniston. Much has been made of Aniston's newly sleek figure, but those who know her say that's only part of the transformation she's undergone since pairing up with Pitt. "Her level of self-confidence has really increased," says her good friend, makeup artist Collier Strong. "She's\par come to realize what she needs in her life and what really doesn't serve her anymore."

Only in Hollywood: After Pitt and Aniston began noticing each other at celebrity functions, it was their respective agents who brokered the first date -a quiet dinner for two. The couple really got to know each other in Austin, TX, where Aniston was filming the comedy Office Space in May 1998. Pitt flew to the set to be with her, and the couple spent much of their time at her hotel, ordering room service and working out in the gym.

At first glance, Aniston, raised in New York City, would seem to have little in common with Pitt, a country boy from Missouri. But Aniston, who once lived in an inner-city housing project, had an unpampered working-class upbringing. Partly as a result, "she doesn't like fancy, overly elegant things," says one pal. "She likes to be laid-back and low-key,'which is exactly how Brad is." Pitt and Aniston place a priority on spending quiet time together, reading books or having barbecues with friends. For her thirtieth birthday last year, Pitt rented a house in Acapulco for the couple and a large group of friends; the men spent their days playing football in the sand, while the women sat around and talked.

Last November, Aniston and Pitt attended a concert given by friend Sting in New York City. Called onstage by the rock star, they joined in on a song that included the lyrics, "We're going to Vegas/We're going to get wed/...Don't be staring/That's a real diamond she be wearing." With that, Pitt held up Aniston's hand for the audience to see, revealing a dazzling diamond ring. But press reps for both Aniston and Pitt refuse to say whether the two are now officially engaged. Aniston has made the important pilgrimage to Pitt's hometown of Springfield, MO, where she met the other women in her man's life: his mother, Jane, and grandmother Clara Hillhouse, who's now 88 years old. Pitt has also met Aniston's family, including her father, soap-opera actor John Aniston. "They're a lovely couple, and they're very happy together," says Papa Aniston. But Dad's keeping mum on any future nuptials: "I'll know about a wedding when I get an invitation."

 

MORE PHOTOS of Brad&Jen (updated on 11th March)

Created by Alexandra Haviara - Online since 22nd October, 1999

Page last updated: 11th March 2000