Scoop: Brangelina Ignores Breakup Rumors

Power couple skips red carpet at Director's Guild Awards

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie weren’t trying to send any message about their relationship when they attended the Director’s Guild Awards on Saturday.

“They aren’t paying any attention to the rumors about them (breaking up),” said a source who knows the couple. “They were always planning on attending.”

The couple skipped the red carpet and weren’t photographed together, but according to reports from People magazine, Jolie and Pitt were affectionate and stayed close to each other throughout the entire four-hour ceremony.

So should any of the Brangelina breakup rumors be taken seriously? The source didn’t exactly shoot down recent talk of trouble in paradise.

“I never say this, but it seems like something’s up,” the source said. “But they do have a big family, they both have projects they’re working on — any couple would be stressed. But, they’re a private couple, and when they’re ready, or if they feel the need to say something, they’ll do it themselves.”

Early Oscar prediction
I predicted a best director Golden Globe for Kathryn Bigelow, director of “The Hurt Locker.” I was a couple of shows early. Although the Globe went to her ex-husband, James Cameron, for “Avatar,” Bigelow took home the big prize at the Director’s Guild Awards Saturday night. So it seems like a good time to go on the record with my prediction that Bigelow will take home an Oscar for her directing on March 7. 

If you haven’t seen “Hurt Locker” yet, I implore you to do so. If not for the directing, do it for the performance from Jeremy Renner, who plays bomb-disposal expert William James.

I caught up with him at the pre-Globes BAFTA tea, and complimented him on so deftly playing the role of a member of our armed forces — an act made all the more impressive when you learn he had no experience with the military before taking the role of an Army-trained bomb detonator.

“I never served, I really didn’t know that much about it,” said Renner, who was soft-spoken and totally humble. “Just spent lots of time on (military) bases before filming.” 


‘Avatar.’ Yes, again
So yeah, “Avatar,” again. How to make this interesting around the water cooler: The $30 million take over the weekend isn’t so much the point. What’s impressive is that the weekend-over-weekend attendance was down only 14 percent. As a point of comparison, “The Tooth Fairy” saw a drop of almost 30 percent, and it’s been out only two weeks, as opposed to “Avatar’s” seven. At this rate, “Avatar” will soon surpass “Titanic’s” domestic gross.

Other notes from the weekend: We’ve apparently forgiven Mel Gibson for everything controversial that’s taken place since his last acting turn. “Edge of Darkness” came in No. 2 with a $14.1 million take, and that topped “When in Rome,” but not by much. “Rome,” a rom-com, took in $12 million, slightly better than expected.

Courtney Hazlett delivers the Scoop Monday through Friday on msnbc.com. Follow Scoop on Twitter @courtneyatmsnbc.

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