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Telegraph
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Brad Pitt is being accused of trying to airbrush his reputation. But isn't he innocent?
Gods must be gods, creatures without frailties. That's the message of the PR campaign for Brad Pitt 's new film, as tight a campaign as they come, run by the man who tried to save Johnny Depp's reputation, Matthew Hitzik. The film is F1, a motor racing tale, and that's a fair metaphor for film stars of Pitt's calibre too: hot and beautiful things that, without careful handling, blow up. It's part of the joy of watching them. And will the debacle of Brangelina – his marriage to Angelina Jolie, which formally ended in 2024 – damage the film? The children, presumably, can take care of themselves. There is a backlash to F1, and not because of its subject matter. It relates to the end of Pitt's marriage to Jolie. It ended with a fight on a private plane in 2016: Jolie alleged that Pitt shook her, poured beer and wine on her, and assaulted two of their children, which he denies. She filed for divorce days later. Now, as F1 opens, there are posts on Substack and Reddit insisting, 'He's hot. He's a good actor. But there are skeletons.' Or: 'Brad Pitt has shown us who he really is. Why do we refuse to see it?' A piece called Brad Pitt is Fooling You on the US site Vulture – Kremlinology for film stars – said, 'The cumulative effect of F1 and its press tour have been a carefully tuned charm offensive meant to obscure, if not outright bury, the alleged violent particulars of his behaviour toward ex-wife Angelina Jolie. Pitt has been so successful at this rehabilitation that most of the public don't even understand what he's trying to rehabilitate himself for.' Pitt is the closest we have to an old-fashioned film star, which is why Quentin Tarantino, who knows more about cinema than anyone, cast him as the heroic stuntman who saves Sharon Tate from the Manson Family in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Pitt won a Best Supporting Oscar for the part in 2020, and that's both a sucker punch and a joke: Pitt is the leading man of our times. It's a numbers game: Pitt is younger than Harrison Ford, the platonic ideal; thinner than Russell Crowe, the interesting, angry one; less odd than Tom Cruise, the one who loves machines, possibly because he is one; less generic than the 'Hot Chrises' (Evans, Hemsworth, Pratt and Pine); more mobile than Michael Caine, who is 92; he didn't punch Chris Rock at the Oscars (Will Smith) and – and this is the crucial thing – he is handsomer than all of them. Pitt – the name is also a joke; he is the antonym of his name – is a square-jawed homage to the Golden Age of American Masculinity: essentially, he is their Brexit. With the sexual charisma usually and righteously denied to WASPS, he looks to me, above all things, like a milkshake after a hike through Iran. If he didn't exist, he would have been dreamt up by Don Draper of Mad Men to sell cowboy hats, or anything. Every woman of my generation remembers his break-out role in Thelma and Louise (1991), though he was barely on-screen. After he makes love to Thelma (Geena Davis) she defenestrates, and Louise (Susan Sarandon) asks if she is crazy or on drugs. Neither: she spent the night with Brad Pitt, and, she concludes, a smiling augur, 'I finally understand what all the fuss is about'. The writer Michael Angeli said Pitt has, 'a smile that could set feminism back 25 years'. But there's a shadow on the moon. Pitt liked to date his co-stars, like a man with no imagination, the luckiest man in the world, or someone who has no idea where the line between reality and fantasy exists. (He is not alone). I can't decide which. It could be all three. In the 90s, reading about his romantic life, I felt I was watching a lumberjack climb a Christmas Tree. He dated Geena Davis after Thelma and Louise; Juliette Lewis after Kalifornia (1993); and Gwyneth Paltrow after Seven (1995): they got engaged, so there is a parallel universe in which he embodies male Goop. He married Jennifer Aniston, his female twin – they have matching jaw bones, their nepo baby would have been a jawbone – in 2000; then he left her for Angelina Jolie after they co-starred in Mr and Mrs Smith (2005). It's an irony that the film shares a name with a clearing house for hotels for adulterers. The tabloids named them Brangelina. It was, in the awful way of things – life is art, and art is life – their biggest role yet. Brangelina collapsed for the reason I imagine all film star marriages collapse: who is the fairest of them all? They bickered over a vineyard, which is typical here, and only here. The divorce was finalised last December, and he is now dating Ines de Ramon, who is notably not an actress, but works with jewellery: beautiful things that cannot talk. The romantic trajectory makes sense: there is no actress more famous than Angelina Jolie. Pitt has completed actresses. He was never charged, let alone convicted, and, old fashioned that I am, I must consider him innocent. I'm not saying he didn't do it. I am saying he is innocent, and that is why his career endures. For an actor, Pitt is as functional as the parts he plays: a phlegmatic, topless Everyman, a role he plays so well it's easy to forget that most younger film stars – the hot Chrises in particular – mimic his shtick, but less well. They come off less like Tarantino dreamt-up stuntmen from the silver age of Hollywood than short-haul airline pilots. Even Pitt's alcoholism – there is usually alcoholism, or sex addiction, or drug addiction – is downbeat. He went to Alcoholics Anonymous and has apparently stopped drinking. That's well short of Richard Pryor's story. It's so common, it even happened to me. In truth, Pitt is barely mad enough to even be a film star. I understand his publicists' desire to protect him for money. Consider Johnny Depp 's profile as self-harm for Rolling Stone in 2018 – he essentially lay down in a mansion in north London and talked nonsense – or, notoriously, F Scott Fitzgerald's 40 th birthday interview in the New York Times, which had quotes from the nurse treating him for alcoholism (Fitzgerald was a film star in spirit). Compared to almost any true film star – Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Errol Flynn? – Pitt is a jam sandwich. Watch his early appearance in Dallas as the respectful boyfriend of Ray's daughter: that's who he is on screen, and who he has remained. I even wonder if the pieces about his 'edginess' – reanimating the Brangelina catastrophe – were actually planted by his publicists. That kind of cynicism exists in Hollywood, and only in Hollywood. On Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd, who he met at AA in 2016, Shepherd asked him: 'Have you ever heard this Cary Grant quote, 'Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.' You relate to that at all?' Cary Grant – born Archie Leach in Bristol, the motherless boy who ran off with the circus – was talking about the great cliché specific to actors: the mask eats the face. Pitt replied, 'Maybe in the early years. I don't know. I don't think much about perception anymore.' His answer is no, then. Pitt was trying to say, though delicately: I am not mad. As I said – one of a kind.
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Peppa Pig's PR guru revealed: The woman behind amazing viral sensation that saw story of cartoon porker giving birth go global
When it was announced live on Good Morning Britain yesterday that national icon Peppa Pig had welcomed a new baby sister, fans across the world could hardly contain their excitement. It was the latest step in a masterful PR campaign which has seen the loveable cartoon character and her family - Mummy, Daddy and brother George - go viral in recent months as excitement built for the big announcement. From live interviews with the family on Good Morning Britain to a gender reveal party at Battersea Power Station, the brand has kept audiences hooked and made headlines across the world. Now, MailOnline can reveal how the company behind the campaign engineered its publicity Masterclass - and the woman behind it. Peppa Pig's PR team lies in PrettyGreen, an agency with years of experience handling clients that are some of the world's largest brands - including Amazon Music, Disney and Pizza Express. Headed up by Managing Director Sarah Henderson, who has been at the firm for 14 years, staff at PrettyGreen worked hard behind the scenes to turn the cartoon into global news, reaching some 1.4 billion people around the world. Ms Henderson, who has some two decades of experience in PR, has previously handled publicity for major brands including Nando's, Nintendo, Snapchat, Three Mobile, Cadbury, Audible and, of course, Hasbro - the firm behind Peppa Pig. After joining the firm in 2011, Ms Henderson worked her way to the top of the business, becoming Group Managing Director in 2021. The brand took inspiration from celebrity pregnancy announcements that take millions by storm - such as Rihanna's recent baby bump reveal at the 2025 Met Gala - to create a moment that 'broke the internet' with a 'playful, relatable moment'. Following a similar strategy, Henderson and her team were able to harness the media and create a unique TV moment that saw a live announcement which went viral on social media - with 57 million views on GMB's TikTok post alone. It all began with an exclusive 'live' interview with Mummy Pig on GMB with showbiz correspondent Richard Arnold. Appearing from her house in 'Peppatown' Mummy Pig was about to spill her major news before being interrupted by her eldest Peppa, who excitedly told her 'mummy, mummy they're showing you on TV, come and see!' After the brief interlude, Mummy Pig was ready with her news. 'I'm excited to share that our family is getting even bigger because we're having another baby!' she told a delighted Richard, before the camera panned back to reveal her baby bump. Mummy Pig also showed off her ultrasound as she revealed she was due in the summer. It was confirmed her pregnancy would also be announced in the perfect cliffhanger - the final episode of the latest series of Peppa Pig, which aired on March 30. The news quickly went around the world, with news outlets covering the story with just as much enthusiasm as any other major pregnancy. And PrettyGreen was quick to take advantage of Peppa's renewed fame by hosting a gender reveal party at one of the UK's most iconic landmarks. The huge party was held at London's Battersea Power Station on April 25, at which Mummy and Daddy Pig dropped a curtain to unveil that they were expecting to welcome a baby girl to add to the family this summer. The global smash hit cartoon also celebrated the gender reveal news with a VIP party at the world's first-ever permanent Peppa Pig store at Battersea on Friday, featuring fundraising in support of NCT, the UK's leading charity for pregnancy and parents. And now, just a month later, Ms Henderson lead PrettyGreen to break the internet again with the announcement of the birth of the new family member - little Evie. Returning to GMB, it was revealed live on air that Mummy Pig welcomed a girl named Evie at 5:34AM on Tuesday. This time Peppa Pig really went the whole hog - appearing at the Lindo Wing in London, the same location where Kate Middleton gave birth to all three of her children, and even employing a town crier. The birth was announced with a royal-inspired twist on the classic royal birth announcement, complete with a town crier, a scroll-style proclamation, and the unveiling of an official Peppa Pig birth certificate. Addressing the public from outside the hospital the crier declared: 'Lend me your ears for news of the birth of a daughter to Mummy and Daddy Pig. Peppa and George have a baby sister and her name is Evie. Long live Evie Pig!' A mock birth bulletin in the style of the royals' announcement was also made and displayed outside. And the excitement doesn't stop here, as fans can join the family on the big screen with Peppa Meets the Baby, a brand-new cinema experience launching May 30 in over 2,600 cinemas across 19 countries. The hour-long, song-filled screening features 10 brand-new episodes, as Peppa and George prepare for the arrival of their baby sister. And next week, GMB has promised to bring viewers Daddy Pig's first 'live' interview after the birth of Evie. Speaking about the success of the campaign online, a PrettyGreen spokesperson said: 'Leaning into internet culture and humour, we transformed this animated milestone into a viral moment, by recreating iconic celebrity pregnancy announcements alongside family photos and a sonogram. 'It provided media, influencers, and earned outlets alike with a rich content library to amplify the story, culminating into a highly shareable global, cross-channel campaign.' They added: 'Mummy Pig Pregnancy broke the internet, trending across Google, X, and TikTok. 'The buzz led to an 88% surge in Peppa Pig UK Google searches and a massive 57M views on Good Morning Britain's TikTok alone. 'The story injected light-hearted positivity into the news cycle, cementing Peppa Pig at the heart of pop culture - sparking conversation on Reddit, Mumsnet, and even earning nods from brands like John Lewis and Grind Coffee.' Peppa Pig first aired in 2004 and has since been broadcast in 180 territories and translated into 40 languages. It's spawned books, toys and even two theme parks, with the global Peppa empire now worth over £1 billion. Creators Neville Astley and Mark Baker admitted they were worried the idea would never get off the ground, and that people were initially bored of the idea. People in the pub would ask us, 'What are you drawing?' We'd say, 'A pig, called Peppa, it's going to be big.' They'd lose interest and wander off', explained Astley. The pair created Peppa and her family working in each other's houses or at the local pub. The creators explained that the secret to Peppa's long-lasting appeal is the show's simplicity, as well as ensuring the piglet is never the butt of the jokes. 'We put a lot of work into making everything look as effortless as possible, said Baker. 'We can laugh at the adults, but children don't like it if we laugh at the children in the show.'
