Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/729537
8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2016 News IN ALL LEADING BOOK SHOPS HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY IN MALTA Did Brad and Angelina's split begin in Malta? It seemed like just yesterday that they were 'honeymooning' in Malta. Now, the news that Hollywood's hottest couple are to divorce has shocked the world of showbusiness THE news that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are to divorce has shocked the world of showbusiness. According to the website TMZ.com, which first reported the story, the actor and director cited irreconcilable differences as the cause for the split. The couple have been together since 2004 and married in 2014. That same year, Hollywood's hottest cou- ple arrived in Malta on a 'working honey- moon' to film By the Sea. But looking back at interviews with Ange- lina at the time, the film - a searing portrait a marital breakdown - might just have been the beginning of the end. "There were a few days when we thought [a working honeymoon] wasn't the best idea," said Jolie, who wrote, directed, produced and co-starred with Pitt in the low-budget domestic drama – a longtime 'labour of love' for Jolie. "Filming was hard, but we came out of it thinking, 'Whatever you go through, weather the storm and stick together," she said. Inspired by European art films of the Sixties and Seventies like Jules et Jim and Breathless, By the Sea tells the story of Jol- ie's Vanessa, a depressed former dancer and her heavy drinking novelist husband (Pitt) who arrive in a seaside town in Seventies France with their marriage in crisis. Instead of France though, Jolie and hus- band Brad Pitt had chosen Gozo's Mgarr ix- Xini as the primary location for their film. As they meet fellow travellers and local residents they begin to examine their prob- lems and begin to come to terms with unre- solved issues in their lives. It seemed like a good idea at first: the newly married Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt thought they would combine filming By the Sea on location in Malta with their honey- moon. But it didn't work out quite as they had planned. "When we first worked together it was very different because we didn't really know each other and we were young and, it was really a fun film, so we thought, maybe By the Sea was going to be that kind of fun, but realised very quickly that it wasn't. Then we joked that this is what happens after 10 years of marriage," said Jolie in an interview with the Daily Telegraph at the time. However, Jolie insisted the story was in no way autobiographical – for years, tab- loid newspapers and magazines ran reports claiming the couple were on the verge of splitting up, right up until the point they tied the knot at their château in the south of France. "Brad and I have our issues, but if the characters were even remotely close to our problems we couldn't have made the film," she said. "To be clear: we have fights and problems like any other couple. We have days when we drive each other absolutely mad and want space, but the problems in the movie aren't our specific problems." Jolie, 41, has reportedly asked for physical custody of their six children, with Pitt al- lowed visitation rights. She is not asking for spousal support. The date of separation is listed as 15 September. A source close to the couple told TMZ. com that Jolie, made the decision to file be- cause of the way "Brad was parenting the children," adding that Jolie was extremely upset with his methods. That same source claims Jolie became "fed up" with Pitt's consumption of "weed and possibly alcohol" mixed with his "anger problem". However other showbiz magazines claim that Jolie made the decision to split from the actor after learning through a private eye that Pitt was cheating on her with Marion Cotillard on the set of their new film Allied. In a statement issued yesterday, Pitt said "I am very saddened by this, but what mat- ters most now is the well being of our kids. I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time." Pitt and Jolie originally met on the set of the action comedy Mr and Mrs Smith and were also seen on screen together in 2015's By the Sea, a drama about an ailing mar- riage, written and directed by Jolie. While Mr and Mrs Smith was warmly received by critics and a commercial hit, making $478m worldwide, By the Sea belly-flopped and on- ly made $3.3m at the box office. Their six children, Maddox, 14, Pax, 11, Zahara, 10, Shiloh, nine, and seven-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox, were with them in Malta while they were filming By the Sea and three of them, Maddox, Pax and Shiloh, are currently working with her on her next project, the Cambodia-set First they Killed my Father: a Daughter of Cambodia Re- members. "Brad and I drive each other mad" – Angelina Jolie Ronnie Pellegrini Their marriage now on the rocks – Pitt and Jolie A break away from the film set in Gozo for Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their children