How did Pitt and Jolie pull off a secret wedding?
If there's one topic stars love to collectively whine about, it's invasion of privacy. Between the onslaught of Twitter and Instagram, and the increasingly aggressive tactics of 24/7 paparazzi coverage, it's tough, say members of the A-list, to even go to Whole Foods or walk their dogs without winding up photographed and written about.
So how, then, did Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie — the world's most photographed and gabbed-about couple — manage to tie the knot, so clandestinely, without anyone the wiser?
After all, paparazzi seem to trail them nonstop.
The answer: by keeping their lives as insular as possible, say industry experts.
1. There were likely no glitzy invitations or mysterious save the dates shipped months before the I dos, thus subverting a leak.
Wedding planner Marcy Blum says the key to pulling off something like this is to not let the cat out of the bag, because once people know about it, the couple has to be defensive and put safeguards in place, such as bodyguards, decoy cars and huge balloons in the air to divert airborne paparazzi.
"Unless you get early intel, you won't have camera crews or helicopters. The rest of it fell into place. It's just the two of them and the kids who knew about it. No one is going to find out," she says.
In fact, the whole thing is quintessentially Pitt and Jolie. They manage the press, and their fame, with grace and finesse. And they're smart enough to know that stars who go for bigger and flashier shindigs wind up having information spread online. Once you have more than 50 people, says Blum, the jig is up.
"I did LeBron James' wedding and the save the date was on TMZ the day it went out. Clearly, one of the guests leaked it. Once you have 200 people, someone will say something. You have to keep it really small and intimate," says Blum.
2. The ceremony was held at Château Miraval, their French 35-room ultra-private estate, and not at a celebrity-favorite venue, such as California's San Ysidro Ranch, where Jessica Simpson got hitched.
Kent Moyer, the CEO of the World Protection Group, who has kept royal family members and A-list actors safe, says that an event this size probably required minimal security, perhaps 10-20 guards on the property to make sure no one simply wandered up and walked inside. The foreign locale enabled more secrecy.
"I'm sure they chartered a private jet and had a very small intimate group of people. You don't tell anyone what the event is. If it's inside, there's no issue with helicopters overhead," says Moyer.
3. There wasn't a massive guest list, which would have ensured that someone, somewhere, would spill the beans — the bigger the party, the greater the leak.
Unlike so many celebrities, with countless hangers-on and a retinue of interchangeable best friends, the Jolie-Pitts don't let a lot of people in, says celebrity photographer Sara Jaye Weiss. She spent time with the couple in Haiti in 2006, when Jolie showed off her pregnancy (with Shiloh). And she said very few can penetrate the world inhabited by the couple.
"What struck me about the two of them are that they are completely ego-free. I think this mentality goes hand-in-hand with keeping one's team tight. It's a very, very small circle in the Jolie-Pitt world; thus, much fewer opportunities exist for leaks. It's so simple, it's brilliant. ... It doesn't particularly surprise me that they aced out the media and kept their ceremony on their own terms," she says.
Celebrity party-planner Michael Russo speculates that they most likely had only a few key family members and friends attend. "They probably only told one or two people they really trust. I assume Brad and Angelina have a chef who could make them a wedding cake," says Russo. "Their life is so self-contained. They did it on their property. They're just extremely private people."
4. Neither actor — who have been together almost 10 years and have six children — participate in social media in any meaningful way, sharing very little of their personal lives with the public.
In contrast, think of the Kim Kardashian/Kanye West nuptials, with countless photos leading up to the big day, and afterward, announcements that were littered all over social media by guests. The Jolie-Pitt guest list was air tight.
Top planner Yifat Oren, who handled the weddings of Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway, says it speaks to the loyalty Pitt and Jolie command that no one divulged a single detail, even after the wedding.
"In this case, their insular team and friends and family are vested in safeguarding their privacy," says Oren. "Every detail was managed and handled by their internal staff."
Meaning, there's no temptation to reveal anything to anyone. "They kept the group small and the people involved knew them for years. These are people they trust," says Keija Minor, editor-in-chief of Brides magazine.
5. Neither actor had any major public appearances between the actual wedding on Saturday and the release of the information the following Thursday.
Jolie's Maleficent campaign was over, and that means there were no massive film premieres, no huge awards shows, where eagle-eyed photographers would spot a wedding band or where reporters would ask her directly whether she'd done the deed yet.
"It's usually on the red carpet somewhere, someone notices a ring, or afterwards, people feel OK to say that they just got back from France and 'I went to their wedding,' " says Oren.