Brad Pitt carries off fatherhood in high style
By Beth Teitell
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
In case you were feeling weak from lack of Brangelina factoids, here’s one: Brad Pitt, I’ve just learned, carries a ‘‘daddy bag.” At first I found this really really annoying. More grating even than watching Team Jolie-Pitt globetrot effortlessly, defying jet lag and frenzy, with enough ease to bundle the youngest in a bunny outfit for a ‘‘look at us deplane” photo-op.
This ‘‘daddy bag” of his, a $585 Italian number by a fancy company called Wake, seemed to be just one more thumb in the eye of every schlumpy civilian parent who has difficulty taking his or her kids to the local mall, not to mention Paris.
Not only is Brad exposing his kids to the world, but he’s doing it in style. No hideous plaid tote for him, but rather the ‘‘David,” made of soft black calf-leather and water-resistant British canvas and Italian cotton corduroy lining. If that were me, I’d worry about spilling formula on it, or having the bunny baby upchuck into it, but then again, I’ve never had a bag, or a dress, that expensive, so I wouldn’t really know.
You know it won’t be long now until Ben Affleck and Chris Martin have daddy bags of their own. Just imagining the inevitable US Weekly spread on the latest ‘‘It” bag for daddies bugs me no end - ‘‘Moses’ dad’s got a bag of his own!”
I was spiraling into a celebrity-induced depression, until I talked with a young mother who pointed out that Brad’s daddy bag could actually be a good thing - for moms, that is.
It’s not that she doesn’t find Mr. Jolie an irritant. ‘‘He’s less likable than ever,” she began. ‘‘With this whole insta-dad thing it’s almost as if he’s preparing for the role of a suburban dad, he’s getting into character. He’s holding kids, going to carnivals.”
He happens to be getting the role wrong, she mentioned. ‘‘If he was really playing the role of daddy, he’d be sitting on the couch watching Red Sox Opening Day while I change 17 diapers.”
‘‘But in a way, this could be good for me.” She’s hoping Brad’s big dad act - complete with accessories - will ratchet up male insecurity, to the point where magazine features on celebrity fathering make men feel as bad as women do when Catherine Zeta-Jones looks spotlight-ready with tots in tow.
She imagines a day when she and her husband can share their inferiority complexes. ‘‘If my husband and I could get into my Bugaboo envy” she said, her voice trailing off.
OK, Brad, I take it back. Go for it with the bag. And if you wouldn’t mind changing a few diapers in public, perhaps on the floor of the airport, that would be nice, too.
