Brad Pitt Maybe Not As Smart As He Looks
January 10th, 2007 by Evil Beet
Man, this is a gem. Thanks to Defamer for catching it. It comes via Variety on the Town, the new blog from Variety. The setting is the God Grew Tired of Us premiere, a Brad Pitt-produced film about children who walk for five years to escape a war-torn Sudan.
The reporter poses this simple question to Pitt: “Is civil war still going on in the Sudan?”
Brad Pitt looked at me with something between dismay and horror. “Oh, come on. You’re smarter than that. It’s worse than ever.”
Googling proved he was right – I am smarter than that. The second Sudanese civil war (north vs. south) began in January 1983 and ended with the signing of a peace agreement in January 2005. Now Sudan must contend with the genocide in Darfur, located in westernmost Sudan, as well as war with the neighboring state of Chad.
Oh, man. Stay very still and quiet for a minute. Listen carefully. That sound you hear? Is the precious, joyful laughter of Jennifer Aniston.
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UPDATE: You might want to read the original post at Variety and the comments made on it. I love a good Brad bashing as much as anybody, but the case for this one is pretty weak. I’m just sayin’.
Actually that sound you heard was the sound of the Variety reporter cringing in shame.
She quickly changed her tune after being slammed by her readers. The ignorant one was the reporter not Mr. Pitt.
This is what she wrote:
“From the (less-ignorant) Writer:
For all the flamers who said I was ignorant, you have me dead to rights. My face flushed when Pitt said “you’re smarter than that” because I knew I should have known the answer. And I didn’t.
However, my question was: Was the civil war, the one detailed in the movie we had just watched, that he executive produced, still going on? And, as it turns out, the answer is, No. That specific war has ended, with conflict diminished to the point that (I later discovered) some Lost Boys have been able to visit their homelands. That had been the original intent of my question to Pitt (although, at that moment, I was sufficiently embarassed to not ask him).
And the last sentence of my post, were it better written, would have communicated its intent: One war has ended only to have others take its place. I never believed (or suggested) that all war in Africa, or in the Sudan, had ended — or that the conflicts currently taking place were in any way less significant. Or that Pitt was, as one poster said, an “idiot.”
Maybe Pitt misunderstood me and thought I was asking the status of all Sudanese wars. Or maybe he didn’t realize the exact status of the North-South war. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter — he was still better informed than I.
Finally, a great article here about tensions surrounding the celebration of the peace accord’s second anniversary:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-01-10-voa47.cfm
Posted by: Dana Harris | January 10, 2007 at 08:50 PM”
weblogs.variety.com/variety_on_the_town/2007/01/history_channel.html#comment-27512552
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I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting!
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links: