Uh-oh.
Brad Pitt had a great movie publicist for years, Cindi Guagenti never let him get in trouble.
But Brad’s on his own these days and the result is pretty harrowing. For his new cover profile in Esquire, Brad served written Ryan D’Agostino wine and admitted he’s off the wagon.
Esquire.com will have traffic today like the Cross Bronx Expressway at rush hour.
Is this for visitors, the writer wonders?
Brad answers:
“No, I got—I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon.” Little laugh. He raises his famous opposing-diacritic eyebrows and holds a finger up: “In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, Yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities.”
D’Agostino — who must have been beside himself when this happened — suggests, “You can have a glass of wine.”
Pitt responds: “Yeah. Well . . . I can have a few. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it.” The star tells D’Agostino, who writes that ‘he likes mornings now anyway, and you can miss a lovely morning when you drink too much the night before, and it’s just not as interesting. Mornings are interesting, and he doesn’t want any more of them to go by unseen. Even on a day like today. His place affords travel-magazine views of the city, but today clouds blot out the blue from horizon to horizon, like pulled cotton. It’s typical for this time of year, but most hosts would have apologized for the sky not being blue on the day of my visit. Not Pitt. He surveys the sky, smiles, and says, “June gloom. I love June gloom. It’s just so much more contemplative and introspective.”
The Esquire story is otherwise very illuminating, and has lots of other good bits. But this news — considering Pitt’s terrible relationship to his six children — is pretty alarming. It’s too bad. But it just shows you why publicists sit in or nearby on these interviews. Good grief!
Brad’s new movie, “Heart of the Beast,” opens at the end of September.
