Mr & Mrs Smith
28 June 2005: A Mr & Mrs Smith Special – An exclusive interview of Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt from Kabuki-za (Ginza, Tokyo)Meet Jo, Brad
The minute hand of a Casio clock on the tower of Kabuki-za, Ginza’s famed theatre strikes twelve, bringing the time to seven o’clock. Restless journalists from the region ceased their senseless small talk, as bits of casual chatter trailed off into the icy cold air of the room in which every one was scheduled to meet Jo, Brad.
There was an unspoken tension left lingering in the cool atmosphere of the luxurious pad as a handful of entertainment news seekers shifted uncomfortably in their lounge couches and cleared dry throats. Others reverted to down a few shots of martini as they tried to anchor their fleeting minds. If anxiety were a noose, it would have taken the last breaths of many.
At the tick of the eighth second after seven, a stray pilot pen rolled nervously down a clear, marble-plated table, acutely breaking the unbearable silence. Some writers looked around nervously, half expecting a bomb to be detonated and the room to be ripped apart by the blast. But there was no such fanfare, and the second hand clock of sophisticated Japanese engineering continued to tick on unfalteringly, bring the time to 7.01pm.
The Smiths are late, I thought. Why, I had assumed that when Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie) told her hubby, John (Brad Pitt) that dinner will be served at seven sharp in the movie Mr & Mrs Smith, they would have kept the promise to turn up for our meal appointment on time, too. I was disappointed that the pair has kept us all waiting on our first date.
Then, the clock struck 7.02pm. A couple, smartly attired in black leather Armani suits strutted in through the walkway. Swaggering in her knee-high boots, an arm coiled casually round an incredulously suave Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie could almost kill with a sheer pout of her full, rosebud lips.
The good-looking duo continued to saunter to their posh velvet settees as they flirted causally with picture-starved photographers, who snapped away in a delirious frenzy. The room exploded with blinding white light, having almost robbed the vision of this reporter.
Unfazed by the unforgiving flashes, Angelina broke the ice, “Hi, sorry to keep you. Have you watched the movie? Do you like it?”
“They have not, Jo. The premiere starts later,” Brad said nonchalantly.
Oblivious to her co-star the actress added, in her monologue, “If you don’t like it, we can correct your view.”
“Well, I don’t like it,” replied Brad, clearly getting a kick out of taking a jibe at his onscreen wife in public.
Not to be outwitted, Angelina simply smirked and told the press coolly, “You’ll get used to him.”
Flashback to a scene in the action-comedy movie in which Jane asked John for his opinion of the curtains she has replaced. Now wasn’t that the same words the couple had curtly exchanged while secretly checking out each other’s identity? Very déjà vu. And talk about warp chemistry.
What happened after that went past in a flash as numerous journalists began to bombard the sizzling couple with relentless questions pertaining to the recent Jolie-Pitt-Aniston saga, only to be told off by the celebrities’ minders that such inquiries were unfounded and irrelevant.
Journo 1: “Are you responsible for breaking up…?”
Minder: “Next question please.”
Journo 2 “Was that you in the picture with…?”
Minder: “Next.”
Journo 3 “Is it true that Jennifer fell out…?”
Minder: “Last question!”
Meanwhile, both megastars seem content to maintain their self-possessed composure and zone out in the comfort of their sofa. At times, a broody Brad would gaze into Ginza’s spectacular city view from his 64th floor window when he was not plucking dried skin from the tip of his thumb. Angelina, on the other hand, did a slightly better job at entertaining the press, maintaining a coy leer for the cameras all throughout the session.
Said Angelina, “Well, if you have caught the movie, Jane Smith said ‘the space between us fills up with all the things we don’t say to one another’. We sing the same tune. John and Jane are husband and wife. Brad and Angelina are unrelated. Last question, please.”
“On a scale of five, how would you rate this movie?” someone queried.
Deadpanned Brad, “Five.”
“Six,” Angelina interjected, while maintaining her ever-so-alluring smile as her minders escorted her hurriedly to the exit; with Brad following suit.
All in all, the press conference lasted only five minutes. No, six, really.
7.08pm – time to proceed for the movie review in the Kabuki Theatre. Mr & Mrs Smith (M18) opens in all cinemas from 28 June. Read about the movie review below.
Pg 3/Sidebar:
About the movie...
Mr and Mrs Smith (song adapted from "Me & Mrs Jones" by Billy Paul)
Mr and Mrs Smith
They’ve got a fling goin'on
They both feel that it's wrong
But it's much too strong
To let it go since their rendezvous at a dingy bar in Bogotá
Five (he says) or six (she corrects) years ago
They meet every day at the same place they call home
At seven o'clock sharp, where dinner's waiting
While taking arms and making all kinds of plans in the day
As the Assassin’s Tango plays on from the jukebox
They’ve gotta be extra careful
That they don't build their hopes up too high
Because she's got her own obligations
And so, and so, does Mr Smith
Well, it's time for them to be leaving
The bullet wounds hurt so much, it hurts so much inside, too
Now she'll go her way and he’ll go his
Back to the place they call home
Taking arms and making all kinds of plans in the day
As the Assassin’s Tango plays on from the jukebox
But tomorrow they'll meet
At the same place, same time
At seven o'clock sharp, where dinner's waiting
Where husband and wife will make up for lost times
Since 5 (he claims) or 6 (she counters) years ago…
*This article is purely fictitious; do not alarm the legal counsels of its subjects, film distributor, or all other related parties.
