Brad Pitt is unlikely to quit his day job, especially with a houseful of Jolie-Pitt munchkins. And judging from the picture of partner Angelina’s much talked about “bump” during this past weekend’s Independent Spirit Awards, child number five may be on the way.
But even if Pitt could quit, he probably won’t return to the University of Missouri to finish the two credits he needs to get a journalism/marketing degree.
Pitt might, however, become an architect. After his divorce from the beautifully coiffed Friends star Jennifer Aniston, Pitt apprenticed at Frank Gehry’s firm.
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While married, Pitt and Aniston had asked the architect to build the cellar for their $5 million wine collection. As a Gehry apprentice, Pitt helped with the controversial seafront development in East Sussex, England, where buildings were designed to look like crumpled metallic Victorian dresses.
Pitt had designed Aniston’s engagement ring and their wedding bands for the Italian jeweller Damiani, whose diamond-studded cuff bracelet, coincidentally, was worn by Oscar Best Supporting Actress Tilda Swinton.
And in a cruel twist reminiscent of Pitt’s and George Clooney’s Ocean’s movies, the Milan store of Damiani was robbed of about $20-million worth of jewelry while the owners were at the Oscars partying with Sharon Stone and Paris Hilton.
Along with movie credits, numerous Pitt profiles include the fact that he loves architecture. Angelina celebrated Pitt’s 43rd birthday at Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s landmark Pennsylvania masterpiece. He is an admirer of Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin.
But Pitt is movie star first. Mildly stated, he is handsome. The British Guardian newspaper writes that he matters because “he combines the matinee idol looks of Gary Cooper with the sex symbol loveliness of Marilyn Monroe.”
While filming in New Orleans for the yet-to-be released The Strange Case of Benjamin Button, Pitt toured what had been the Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina.
Like many people around the U.S. and the world, Pitt was clearly touched by the devastation. Numerous celebrities have raised awareness and money for the Katrina efforts, among them Harry Connick Jr., Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Tim McGraw, Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres and Emeril Lagasse.
Pitt is using his celebrity in another way. He is raising money so that a team of architects can build 150 homes. It is not the Habitat for Humanity type of building he aims for. He wants homes that cost $150,000 apiece and will exemplify the Cradle to Cradle philosophy of using “ecologically intelligent design” that Pitt hopes can be replicated elsewhere in New Orleans.
Pitt announced his Make It Right project at the Clinton Global Initiative in early 2007. He will match contributions with $5 million of his own money. Friend Steve Bing, Democratic cash cow and millionaire playboy, will also contribute matching funds of $5 million.
Fourteen architects from as far away as Japan, Holland, Ghana, Germany, England, as well as neighboring Baton Rouge and New Orleans, California, Missouri and Pennsylvania have designed homes from which successful applicants can choose.
To date, 79 homes out of the targeted 150 have been “adopted,” which means enough money has been raised for these to be built. Pitt hopes to break ground in the spring so that the residents can move in by fall.
The homes were designed with safety, affordability, sustainability and aesthetics in mind. All are innovative — using solar panels, reinforced windows that are strategically placed to use natural light, and trellised walls to help with cooling. Many are designed to be built above ground or on stilts.
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