When an actor ties their rehabilitation to their blockbuster film, it becomes difficult to extricate the art from the artist. The onscreen performance feeds the off-screen persona. The off-screen persona is a performance, too, one that sells ideals and sometimes cashmere sweaters or cell-phone plans. Pitt has always sold a particular vision of American white masculinity, one predicated on charisma, unflappability, and seamless confidence. His deftness in removing the specter of violence from his own narrative is a reminder of the ways violence against women is normalized. It isn’t that people don’t believe in what happened to Jolie on that plane — they just don’t care. {read}