A friend of mine in Smithville, Tex., spotted Brad Pitt at Wal-Mart the other day, taking a break from shooting his latest movie, The Tree of Life.
After I got over my seething jealousy, I remembered — didn’t Brad Pitt just vow to put his movie career on hold while he’s involved in an effort to rebuild homes in New Orleans?
Indeed he did. When the Today show’s Ann Curry interviewed him just before Christmas, she asked if this recovery effort were more important to him than being a movie star. He said:
“Right now, this is the focus, and we’re going to see this thing through.”
It made me a little gooey inside for a minute — humanitarianism is sexy. But like his marriage to Jennifer Aniston, his focus on the project didn’t last long.
IMDb reports that he’s attached to six upcoming movies in addition to The Tree of Life, while his charity’s website — MakeItRightNOLA.org — says so far they’ve raised enough to build only 79 houses, despite a massive media blitz in December.
You might be thinking “at least he tried,” but I ask you — which does New Orleans need more, his fulfillment of a promise to help the needy or a Being John Malkovich-esque vanity project?



But the problem was, this “news” was coming from 