Angelina Jolie is not trying to use a decades-old “indecent exposure” charge against Brad Pitt in their ongoing custody battle, despite reports. Gossip Cop can bust the stories. The claims are nonsensical.
Sister outlets RadarOnline and the National Enquirer are both featuring articles this week that contend Jolie may have a smoking gun that will score her full custody of their six children. “Pitt was once accused of ‘flashing his genitals’ and Jolie intends to drop the bomb in their nasty custody case,” the publications claim. The site and the tabloid describe how the actor was shooting a film in 1988 when he and a pal allegedly “started mooning cars on PCH” out of on-set boredom.
It’s claimed a mother-daughter pair witnessed the alleged act, and contacted police about “guys showing off their genitals on the street.” Cops supposedly visited the set, and though Pitt wasn’t arrested, it’s said he and his friend were “still hit with indecent exposure charges,” which were later reduced to counts of disturbing the peace. Even though it amounted to a minor, and even insignificant, issue, the blog and the magazine maintain Jolie “could use the sleazy incident to kill Brad’s custody chances.” A family law attorney, who has no connection to their dispute, is even quoted as saying, “If she wants to embarrass him, she can dredge it up as part of a legal filing.”
Sure, maybe the anecdote is embarrassing, but it isn’t grounds for stripping Pitt of custody. At the time, the rising star was barely 25 years old and had no children. He’s never been arrested either before or since becoming a father, and Pitt was even cleared in a child abuse investigation in 2016. To date, a judge has not objected to him spending time with his children, and it makes no sense for Jolie to suddenly bring up this purported incident now.
How could Jolie and her camp possibly argue Pitt’s alleged mooning from three decades ago means he is an unfit father today, when for years she happily co-parented with him regardless of his past? And, of course, the actress herself has her own sordid past. Last year, for example, it was revealed that Jolie had to undergo drug tests during the making of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider because producers were concerned about rumors she “dabbled in drugs.”
Digging into Pitt’s pre-parent history wouldn’t be a sound legal strategy because he could do the same with her. Gossip Cop also pointed this out when the outlets wanted readers to believe Jolie planned to use a “dirt diary” against Pitt. But if she really had such game-changing evidence that would prove he is unworthy of shared custody, wouldn’t she have used it already?
It was similarly illogical when these same publications tried to claim Pitt was going to connect Jolie to a “pervert pal” in court, someone whom she crossed paths with once who was charged with child sex crimes years later. It was preposterous to suggest Jolie could be held responsible and lose custody for the unrelated wrongdoings of someone else. In this case, of course, it’s Pitt who is being accused of misdeeds. But there are still no grounds for the described behavior from 30 years ago affecting custody, and there is no evidence Jolie actually plans to bring this matter up.
Unfortunately, this “indecent exposure” storyline has already been picked by a number of places that often don’t fact-check, including Canoe, International Business Times and New Idea. It’s a shame none of them bothered to look at the claims logically, or consider RadarOnline and the Enquirer‘s track record before baselessly regurgitating such nonsense.