Brangelina: The Untold Story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie [Hardcover]

Ian Halperin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2009

Ian Halperin, New York Times bestselling author of Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, explores the relationship of the world's most famous celebrity couple with exclusive revelations and personal anecdotes. This Supercouple, unlike any other, consistently turns heads, rolls cameras, and delivers action. The rugged, yet debonair, actor Brad Pitt (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Inglorious Basterds) and the always sexy and illustrious actress Angelina Jolie (Girl Interrupted, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Changeling) have made a lasting impression through their movies and their magic . . .. Find out the truth behind Angelina's notorious French kiss with her brother James at the 2000 Oscars. Learn about her childhood and estrangement from her father Jon Voight. Discover the truth of Brad's marriage to everybody's friend, Jennifer Aniston, and of her readiness to have children. Read about the true circumstances of the affair between Brad and Angelina along with their stormy & unstable relationship

Editorial Reviews

Review

Starting in 2005, Brad Pitt's relationship with Angelina Jolie became one of the most reported celebrity stories worldwide.

When Jolie was pregnant in early 2006, it became "the most anticipated baby since Jesus Christ"

Jolie's ongoing publicity as Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, plus her high-profile foreign adoptions, family life and films

Audience:- The general public interested in the exciting and glamorous life of famous celebrities, including their philanthropic activities (UN refugees

- Fans of the successful film careers of Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, especially those in their 20s, 30s and 40s wanting the inside story

About the Author

Based in New York City, Ian Halperin is a journalist, filmmaker and author of ten books. A specialist in undercover investigations, he contributes to FoxNews.com, E! Channel and Court TV. Ian is the author of the New York Times Bestseller published in 2009: Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson

Product Details

• Hardcover: 271 pages
• Publisher: Transit Publishing, Inc.; 1 edition (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981239668
• ISBN-13: 978-0981239668
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( P ) > Pitt, Brad
  • #8 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Jolie, Angelina

More About the Author

Ian Halperin is also a former winner of the Rolling Stone magazine Award for Investigative Journalism. He is the author or coauthor of five books, including the bestsellers Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story, and Celine Dion: Behind the Fairytale, as well as a number of exposes on the modeling industry. He coauthored Who Killed Kurt Cobain? with Max Wallace. Ian is a regular correspondent for Court TV and has contributed to 60 Minutes 2.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "HYPOCRITICAL AUTHOR", December 7, 2009

By 

Rick Shaq Goldstein "*SHAQ*" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brangelina: The Untold Story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Hardcover)

I would like to state for the record that I am not a fanatical Hollywood star chaser. I don't read gossip magazines or watch "Entertainment Tonight" or their clones. So when some reviewers say the information in this book has already been in the gossip magazines over the last few years... that doesn't apply to me and probably doesn't apply to a large portion of the potential audience for this book. I am simply an average guy who like everybody else enjoys movies. Why did I buy this book? Because I figured that it probably condensed what was in hundreds if not thousands of the aforementioned gossip magazines. So instead of buying and reading thousands of magazines I could "hopefully" save time and read one book.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are obviously household names... but the big question that potential readers should have... is... is this an honest and fully documented book? Before I give my opinion on that all important question... let me first state that there are tons of titillating information regarding not only Brad and Angelina... but also Billy Bob Thornton... Angelina's brother James Haven (incestual partner??)... Father Jon Voight... and of course Jennifer Aniston... though much less than you would expect on Brad's ex-wife. There is also much less than a potential reader would expect about Brad. Three-quarters of the book is pure Angelina... with tidbits thrown in from all directions... ranging from the fact that at thirteen-years-old her life goal was to be a *FUNERAL DIRECTOR... before she was sixteen she had a live-in boyfriend in her Mother's house... which not only included sex... but included her fetish of cutting herself and her partner with all types of knives... admitted heavy drug use: "I HAVE DONE JUST ABOUT EVERY DRUG POSSIBLE, SHE REVEALED. COCAINE, ECSTASY, LSD, AND, MY FAVORITE, HEROIN." "SHE EVEN CONFIDED, ON ANOTHER OCCASION, THAT HEROIN MEANT A LOT TO HER."... and her lesbian experiences.

The problem with the author is that some claims are attributed to a named individual... but many others are claims not verified with an actual person. The author also goes off on tangents so far away from Brad and Angelina that at times you think he's on a "trip" of his own. While discussing the famous sister/brother "incestual?" kiss at the 2000 Academy Awards... he winds up going under cover into the world of incestual relations and dissects the legal as well as the inherent medical problems. He even discusses incest cases from all over the world. You find yourself asking yourself... what happened to the Brangelina story I was reading? The same thing happens when he starts discussing homosexuality in more depth than is necessary... including going to homosexual poker games... and then winds up quoting sources that alleged "THAT SOME OF HOLLYWOOD'S MOST FAMOUS ACTORS HAD COME UNDER THE SWAY OF THE (SCIENTOLOGY) CHURCH BECAUSE THEY WERE AFRAID THEIR SECRETS WOULD BE REVEALED. THE MOST SHOCKING PASSAGE CONCERNED JOHN TRAVOLTA." ... again the author seems to drift away from the main story.

Throughout the book through a combination of named quotes and innuendo the reader is told Pitt is a pothead... and you'd better think twice before thinking highly of "BRANGELINA'S" worldwide charity work... let alone the above/below board legitimacy of some of their child adoptions.

So, where may you ask... do I come up with my review title that emphasizes "HYPOCRISY"? After two-hundred-fifty-seven pages of named... and just as many... unnamed sources... the author has the audacity to state:

"MY CHALLENGES NOW, AS I SAW IT, WAS TO SEPARATE FACT FROM FICTION. I WANTED TO DISCERN WHAT MIGHT ACTUALLY BE GOING ON WITH THE COUPLE, ESPECIALLY THE STATE OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP, WITHOUT BEING TAKEN IN BY THE NEVER-ENDING STREAM OF FALSE STORIES, INNUENDO AND GOSSIP. I DIDN'T WANT TO FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP THAT OTHERS HAD FALLEN INTO."

Huh??? Excuse me... isn't that what you just did for most of the prior two-hundred-fifty-plus-pages?

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What happened to legitimate journalistic standards with this book?, January 3, 2010

By 

Deborah Verlen "Deborah" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Brangelina: The Untold Story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Hardcover)

To be honest, I am totally appalled by this book's lax journalistic standards. I see that one reviewer insisted we should review the book and not the author, but I think when a person chooses to write a biography then the author's credentials should be scrutinized. Mr. Halperin from a quick Internet search operates a blog that is even worse when it comes to fact checking than this book. I can truly say it is an absolutely spurious blog--he makes sweeping statements like "Angie House Hunting in Portugal" and then throws in the proverbial a "close friend said..." and ends the spiel with "story developing" and then never gets back to the story.

So it was with interest that I started this book. First like many other reviewers I did note that the book focused heavily on Angelina Jolie with very few pages focused on Brad Pitt or the children. So calling the book Brangelina, the Untold Story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is really a misnomer.

Secondly, the book was filled with extraneous information that Mr. Halperin used as background so you would understand where he was coming from. There was almost a complete chapter devoted to Hollywood and gays in order to shed light on Jolie and Jenny Shimizu's relationship, but in reality it really had nothing to do with Jolie. There was a long blurb about incest in order to provide background on Jolie's Oscar kiss with her brother.

Thirdly, Halperin like with his blog has a hit and run approach in the book. He proclaims proudly that he went undercover by entering the mental hospital that Jolie checked herself into in 2000. Unfortunately, Halperin presents absolutely no indisputable facts that indicate she was ever there. He also states that her high school counselor said she was "inclined towards anti-social psychopathy." Again there are no facts involved, just statements by Halperin. I googled both events from multiple angles with multiple words and nothing came up that would indicate that a legitimate source confirms either story. Jolie mentions it in a Larry King interview and says UCLA. She later denied it and said she was joking. Are these two stories true? They may be or they may not be, but I don't know even after reading the book.

Halperin writes a biography yet there are no foot notes, no index. Nothing to allow the reader to double check his facts. He states he had 900 sources. It would be interesting to see who and what those sources are. If you take out his side trips on being gay in Hollywood, on incest and several other little asides from the 271 page biography--you are left with a fairly thin volume indeed. Much of the book is quotes directly from the mouth of Jolie. Other parts of the book are a rehash of tabloid and entertainment magazines. One does have to question exactly why not one of those 900 sources could provide fresh facts and information. There is no inside information presented that hasn't been rehashed in blogs, tabs and other media.

At the end of the book Halperin writes "My challenge now, as I saw it, was to separate fact from fiction. I wanted to discern what might actually be going on with the couple, especially the state of their relationship, without being taken in by the never-ending stream of false stories, innuendo and gossip. I didn't want to fall into the same trap that others had fallen into." How ironic of him to state this as his blog is full of gosiip, false stories, innundo and gossip. With 900 sources or resources, why is Halperin having such a hard time telling the truth from rumor, false hoods from reality?

The book does not trash Jolie, Pitt or Aniston, but unlike a good biography or expose neither does it give you additional insight into what makes these folks A Listers, Superstars, or human. For instance, Halperin states that Jolie has three great passions--her films, her children, and her charity work. The book provides no depth as to what motivates her to act, what motivates her to raise her children (they are barely mentioned in the book), or what motivates her to give of herself to one of the poorest populations on earth--the refugees. It is possible to write a good biography based on other sources and provide documentation and insight into the person being written about--even Hollywood types. Nicole Kidman (Vintage) by David Thomson is one such book as is the recent John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman. Both books name sources and index the material. With Halperin's book very few sources are named, statements are made that should be backed up with solid fact, and there is no index. You are unable to, without a great deal of trouble, check his "facts."

Does Jolie manipulate the media and change stories to fit her goals? Most likely. But there is still a person behind the image and unfortunately Halperin fails to deliver an understanding of who and why Angelina is who she is. And Brad Pitt? Forget it. He is hardly mentioned in any relevant way in the book.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars should be retitled: Angelina Jolie Biography, December 4, 2009

By 

Hang Nancy Dodo "LilJesyKil" (randolph, ma United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brangelina: The Untold Story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Hardcover)

This book should really be retitled: Angelina Jolie: Rise to Stardom, or whatever. I bought it, thinking that it was an "undercover" story into the story of Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, and Angelina Jolie and the affair, the divorce, and the cheating, and how things happened...I expected to hear things that were never reported in People Magazine or any of those celebrity gossip magazines. But instead the book spent 5 pages talking about Brad Pitt's youth, the other 190 pages talking about Angelina Jolie since she was 7 years old, and only the last 70 pages talked about what the book was supposed to talk about "Brangelina". Ian Halperin NEVER even talked about Jolie and Pitt and how they got together until after page 190.

so if you want to learn about Jolie's childhood and her rise to stardom, read this book ,if you want to hear the "undercover" story of what happened between the Jolie-Pitt-Aniston affair, find another book.