Angelina Jolie Is Doing Damage Control After Rumored Brad Pitt Smear Campaign?

Angelina Jolie is reportedly attempting to salvage her career after alleging launching a smear campaign against her soon-to-be-ex-husband, Brad Pitt.

According to a new report, Angelina Jolie, who is currently living in Malibu, California, is scrambling to do damage control after her custody battle and divorce from Pitt, the father of her six children, turned ugly.

Three years ago, Angelina Jolie claimed she didn’t like the idea of having a publicist, but on February 13, Page Six revealed that the 41-year-old actress had allegedly experienced a change of heart and discreetly reached out to powerful Hollywood professionals.

“I had [a publicist] once, years ago… I didn’t like it,” Angelina Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter.

As Page Six explained, Angelina Jolie’s team has not included a traditional celebrity publicist in recent years, despite her high-profile career and past family life with Brad Pitt. Instead, her team reportedly consisted of Washington, D.C. crisis specialist Judy Smith and former manager Geyer Kosinski, as well as Lady Arminka Helic, a former adviser to Britain’s ex-Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Although the reason behind Angelina Jolie’s alleged desire to hire a publicist has not been confirmed, one insider told the outlet that her decision was made for the sake of her new film, First They Killed My Father, which premieres later this year on Netflix.

“She’s got a film coming out on Cambodia and will be doing promotion around that,” a source said of Angelina Jolie’s reported decision to seek a publicist.

On the other hand, claimed the outlet, other sources suggested that Angelina Jolie’s inner circle had been quietly making calls in hopes of finding the actress “a showbiz spin doctor.” Whatever the case, Angelina Jolie has not yet officially hired anyone, nor has she publicly confirmed that she is on the hunt.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt parted ways in September of last year and when Jolie filed for divorce, she requested she be given full physical custody of their six children, Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 8.

While Angelina Jolie was given temporary full custody of their kids due to child abuse claims against Brad Pitt, which have since been thrown out, he reportedly scored a major win in court last month. Although Jolie and Pitt have been staying mum on their custody proceedings since last month, when they released a joint statement claiming they would be putting up a united front for the sake of their family, Page Six said that Jolie was accused of leaking “sensitive information” about their temporary agreement in her court filings prior to their claim.

“The parties and their counsel have signed agreements to preserve the privacy rights of their children and family by keeping all court documents confidential and engaging a private judge to make any necessary legal decisions and to facilitate the expeditious resolution of any remaining issues,” Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s statement to People Magazine explained last month.

“The parents are committed to act as a united front to effectuate recovery and reunification,” the statement concluded.

Just one day before the statement was released, Brad Pitt received a very warm welcome from the audience at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards. As he prepared to present at the event, Brad Pitt took to the stage and was forced to take a long pause as the audience continued to clap.

Angelina Jolie is currently living in Malibu, California with her and Pitt’s six children while he remains at their former marital home in Los Feliz. While Pitt has not yet been seen publicly with his children, he is hoping to ultimately agree to a joint custody agreement with Jolie.

[Featured Image by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images]