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The saga of Brad and Jennifer and Angelina has held the public’s attention for close to 20 years, with every new coupling, child, divorce, vacation, and movie generating more headlines about all three of them and their now decades-in-the-past love triangle. Now the Brangelina franchise of entertainment has grown to include one more series: Netflix’s Styling Hollywood.
Surprised, right? You expect a lot of Hollywood moments from the show, as it’s right there in the name. You get lots of time with Taraji P. Henson, Ava DuVernay, Gabrielle Union, Eve, and many many others, but you don’t expect a Jolie/Aniston/Pitt bombshell. That’s what you get, though, in Episode 7, “All About Eve.”
In the episode, celeb stylist Jason Bolden’s quest for the perfect Grammy look for his new client Eve takes him to Irene Albright’s fashion library and design showroom. Albright’s collection includes plenty of iconic, archival looks from legendary designers, and it has what the curator calls… “The Affair Dress.”
Say whaaat?! Albright holds up a dress and tells Bolden, “This is what caused the breakup of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt… Angelina Jolie, the W Magazine. Do you remember that spread?… That was the beginning of their affair.” A stunned Bolden then tells Albright to keep that bad luck dress away from him and his happy marriage. And to everyone wondering WTF Albright was talking about, Bolden has three words for you:
We did! We did Google it!
The photo shoot Albright’s talking about is still up on W’s website, titled “Domestic Bliss: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at Home.” Published in July 2005, the photoshoot casts Jolie and Pitt (then co-stars in the spy comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith) as a couple living the ups and downs of midcentury married life in an immaculately decorated retro Palm Springs abode. And right there, halfway through the page, is the dress Albright’s talking about: a Giambattista Valli ostrich feather and silk velvet and tulle dress.
Now, whether or not this exact dress was responsible for breaking Aniston’s heart and Pitt and Jolie forming the supercouple Brangelina? That we can’t prove with a photo shoot. All we have is the timeline of events.
Mr. & Mrs Smith filmed in early 2004, which is where Jolie has later said that she and Pitt–who married Jennifer Aniston in 2000–fell in love (although she denies anything physical happened). 2004 was filled with rumors of their affair and set photos of them seeming close. Aniston and Pitt announced they were separating in January 2005, a year after Mr. & Mrs. Smith began production, and filed for divorce in March. Trivia: the oldest photo of Jolie and Pitt together on Getty Images (below) is from a week before Aniston officially filed for divorce.
It was around this time that Pitt and Jolie were doing reshoots for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and they started vacationing together in April 2005. The W photoshoot happened around this time. Then Mr. & Mrs. Smith opened on June 10, 2005 and the issue of W hit newsstands (remember those?) not long after.
What you have to remember, though, is that Jolie and Pitt remained cagey about their relationship until January 2006, a full six months after that W photoshoot, when she announced she was pregnant with Pitt’s child. So while the photoshoot wasn’t directly involved with the literal break-up (Aniston had already filed for divorce and Jolie and Pitt were already jaunting around the world together by this point), the “domestic bliss” shots of the two superstars was at the time a cheeky nod to the most confirmed unconfirmed relationship of the 2000s. Jolie and Pitt wouldn’t say they were dating, but they would sure do a whole photo spread about it.
Now you know another piece of Brad/Angelina/Jennifer history, all courtesy of Styling Hollywood. Oh–and it should go without saying that Jason did not pick The Affair Dress for Eve. All that drama is best kept in the closet.
Styling Hollywood Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
