People Magazine (November 29, 2001)
Truly Madly Deeply
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston share dog-walking chores, a sense of
humor, a new seaside getaway -- and, after 16 months of marriage, the
look of love.
You'd think the 50,000 flowers, four bands, a fireworks display and the
platinum-and-diamond ring it took her husband seven months to design
would have driven home the point. But shortly after marrying Brad Pitt
in an estimated $1 million ceremony in Malibu in July 2000, Jennifer
Aniston felt the need to seal their promise with one more detail: new
note cards. "I asked what name she wanted on the top," says Los Angeles
letterpress artist Claudia Laub. " 'Jennifer Aniston,' 'Jennifer
Aniston Pitt,' 'Jennifer Aniston-Pitt' or 'Jennifer Pitt.'" Talk about
no-brainers. Running across the 5-in.-by-7-in. off-white cards Aniston
now sends to friends are the letters JENNIFER PITT, 12-point Egmont
font, all caps. "They marked a rite of passage," says Laub. "Most
people start with 100 cards. I think the fact that she ordered 250 says
she's not letting this one go. This person is totally planning to stay
married."
In a town where even the most solid-seeming partnerships -- from Tom
and Nicole to Meg and Dennis -- are just an irreconcilable difference
away from divorce court, Aniston's plan is an ambitious one. Sixteen
months after Pitt swore to love, honor and "split the difference on the
thermostat" with her till death do them part, friends figure Mrs. Pitt
could have upped her stationery order tenfold. "If anyone's going to
make it," says their singer pal Melissa Etheridge, "they are." What
makes the Pitts, in the context of showbiz couples, extraordinary?
According to Aniston's friend Kathy Najimy, their ability to be simply
ordinary. "There's no insecurity going on," says Najimy. "They're
themselves. They do the things you and I do: go to restaurants, play
games, go to work, go on trips. They really, truly are in love with
each other." "They are soulmates," says his sister Julie Neal. "It's
amazing."
That was clear to everyone on the set of Friends when Pitt, 37, filmed
his much publicized appearance alongside Aniston, 32, in the
Thanksgiving episode. While offscreen the couple spent the holiday at
the L.A. wedding of Aniston's manager Marc Gurvitz, onscreen they gave
NBC's hit show -- watched by 13 million households -- its No. 1
ranking. Perhaps most tickled by the episode were the mister and missus
themselves. Rehearsing the show for four days before taping on Nov. 2,
they had "a blast," says a source. Adds producer Douglas Wick, who
worked with Pitt on the just released Spy Game: "The chemistry between
him and Jennifer is adorable."
And it's the simple gestures that have come to matter most. Witness the
way Pitt kept his arm around Aniston's waist, clutching the back of her
black leather skirt at the L.A. premiere of Spy Game Nov. 19 -- and
responding immediately when, several hours later, his wife tugged at
his sleeve in a silent bid to go home. Little wonder Aniston makes sure
to find time on a girls' night out to check in with her husband on her
cell phone. "She's very affectionate with him," says Najimy. "He makes
her feel grounded and whole and smart." And she makes him feel like
Fred Astaire -- which is no small feat. At a Jane's Addiction concert
at the Hollywood Bowl on a recent Saturday night, Pitt took to the
aisles and wowed onlookers with his, well, unusual moves. Says one: "He
dances very herky-jerky."
Aniston could not have cared less. "It's very cool when you have your
best friend at your side," she says of her life with Pitt, whom she met
on a date set up by their reps in 1998. The feeling is mutual. "If you
can find someone who can stand you for 24 hours a day," Pitt said of
his contentment playing husband, "I highly recommend it." Nor does he
pass up a moment to show it: During the Friends rehearsal and shoot,
Pitt got to share the dressing room where Aniston has their wedding
photo propped up -- the same room he filled with roses last Valentine's
Day, spelling out "I Love My Wife" in petals on the wall. And during
filming of Ocean's Eleven this past spring, "he flew home every time he
had off, even for 24 hours, to see her," says producer Jerry Weintraub.
When they're together, "they don't take their eyes off each other. They
touch and kiss each other."
But it's not, like, you know, gross or anything. "They're not like two
14-year-olds learning to kiss," says their friend, Manhattan-based
stylist John Sahag, adding that he is taken by the "mature, intelligent
affection" the two show each other -- whether working, doing art
projects together (Pitt was hands-on in the design and renovation of
their Hollywood Hills studio; Aniston draws and sculpts) or just
cracking each other up. "They're both funny," says one friend. "They're
very, very much alike. They have the same appreciation for aesthetics,
a shared love of antiques. They are like the same person, only he's a
guy and she's a girl."
Not that things between them are always camera-ready. Pitt, for
example, has confided that among matrimony's better privileges is being
able to "(pass wind) and eat ice cream in bed." But it seems life for
Hollywood's reigning couple (she makes $750,000 per Friends episode; he
makes $20 million a film) is a fine blend -- one part premieres and
Prada, one part "Honey, can you walk the six dogs?"
On a typical day the two wake up and take care ofher Corgi mix Norman
and Pitt's five mixed-breeds. Then comes the one meal they actually
know how to prepare: "I pour a mean bowl of cereal," boasts Pitt. "She
makes a mean milk shake." Later in the day Aniston pops into one of her
two vehicles -- a 1999 Land Rover or a 2000 Jaguar sedan -- and drives
to the Warner lot, where she spends at least five hours rehearsing and
filming Friends. Occasionally Pitt drops by just to eat pizza, watch
his wife work and hang with the boys. Says a source on the set: "He'll
play video games in David Schwimmer's room or talk cars with Matt
LeBlanc."
The work day done, the couple's dinners together also tend to be
low-key affairs. A favorite restaurant is the casual Hollywood eatery
Marix Tex Mex Cafe. But better yet is the living room couch. As Aniston
told Jay Leno in February, "I don't cook. I thaw. And I microwave. And
I order in real well." Indeed, the perfect evening chez Pitt is
order-in pizza for him, Mexican for her, red wine and an old movie.
There will be plenty of space for such cozy get-togethers in the $14
million, six-bedroom French Provincial-style Beverly Hills estate they
bought in June. But if they plan to spend a night on the $4 million,
11.5-acre beachfront property they bought last year near Santa Barbara,
they might have to skip the movie. There are only three structures on
the land, all, in the words of neighbor Leslie Pinkerton, "broken-down
surf shacks." Not that Pitt plans to hang 10 anytime soon; says Kerry
Mormann, a Realtor who showed the Pitts some land in the area: "He
doesn't like sharks."
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