Brad Pitt Seeks Adoption

By: Shannon Gossage

Although there has been no official word on the status of Pitt and Jolie’s relationship, Pitt wants to be the adoptive father to her kids. Anyone else fined that weird? Pitt’s mouthpiece, Cindy Guagenti, said in a written statement that Pitt filed a legal petition in a Los Angeles court on Friday seeking to change the names of the children to Maddox Jolie-Pitt and Zahara Jolie-Pitt. Said Guagenti, "We are confirming that Brad Pitt is in the process of becoming the adoptive father of both children. No further comment is being made."

Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002. At the time she was married to second husband Billy Bob Thornton and they referred to the boy as "our son." That lasted for a full 11 days after Maddox arrived in the United States before Thornton moved out of their home. Jolie asked for sole custody in the divorce papers and Maddox took her surname. In July, Jolie adopted Zahara from Ethiopia. Pitt accompanied on her trip, but at the time they denied that the adoption had anything to do with their relationship. Jolie’s publicist made it clear that Jolie was adopting as a "single mother."

Tongues began wagging about Jolie and Pitt’s "friendship" since they started filming their movie Mr. And Mrs. Smith. The affair rumors ran out of control after it was announced in January that Pitt and then-wife Jennifer Aniston were separating. The press had a field day calling Jolie a "homewrecker" and blaming the split on the fact that Pitt had fallen for Jolie and that Aniston put her career before a family (a rumor that she denies). Shortly after their split, pictures of Pitt and Jolie spending more and more time together began popping up everywhere, but both camps remain mum on the subject. After his divorce was finalized in October it was widely speculated that Pitt and Jolie secretly tied the knot, of course his camp vehemently denies that a marriage has taken place.