The eccentrically accessorized Angelina Jolie has confirmed in an interview with Us Weekly that she and hubby Billy Bob Thornton have been living apart for four months.
Reps for the couple, who finalized the adoption of a Cambodian orphan in May, did not respond to calls for comment. In the interview, released Wednesday, Thornton's flack says the couple "remains very married."
But that's not how Jolie describes the state of their union.
"I'm angry. I'm sad," the Girl, Interrupted Oscar winner tells Us Weekly. "It's a very difficult and sad time."
Jolie, 27, says she hasn't even seen Thornton, 46, since June 3. And while that factoid could be chalked up to lifestyles of the rich and très Hollywood, according to Jolie, it's worse than that--the two now live in separate hotels.
In the interview, Jolie says not "one thing caused the problems."
"[But] it's clear to me that our priorities shifted overnight," she says.
By all accounts, priorities shifted last year when Jolie began embarking on refugee camp tours on behalf of the United Nations.
Last November, Jolie, with Thornton, visited a Cambodian orphanage and "met a little boy we felt a connection to and that we wanted to be our son," the couple announced in March. The boy, since named Maddox, came to live in his new home in the States in June--around the time Jolie and Thornton joint sightings became scarce.
The supermarket tabs have been hot with stories of impending doom in the marriage for weeks. While both stars previously refused to confirm or deny a split, even casual soundbites from Jolie indicated that all was not normal--even by their standards.
"I think he's on tour," Jolie said of Thornton, who moonlights as a singer-songwriter, to Entertainment Tonight last month. "I haven't talked to him in a while."
The Jolie-Thornton marriage has stood accused of being many things: Being odd, being whacked out, being tattooed. But "being distant" wasn't one of them.
Jolie, soon to suit up as Lara Croft for a Tomb Raider sequel due next year, married Thornton in May 2000. It was her second marriage; his fifth. The two met on the set of the 1999 air-traffic controller comedy, Pushing Tin. After their Sin City nuptials, the fun couple made a point of telling--and showing--media outlets how deeply, deeply in love they were.
There were the complementary tattoos (hers says "Billy Bob," his, "Angelina"). There were the lingering kisses on the red carpet. There were the vials of blood they wore around their necks (hers contains his droplets, his contains hers).
Then there were the interviews. In 2000, Thornton, an Oscar-winner himself for penning the screenplay for Sling Blade, told Us, "I was looking at her sleep, and I had to restrain myself from literally squeezing her to death. Sex for us is almost too much."
For her part, Jolie once said she broke down on a set "screaming about how much I wanted him."
To hear Jolie talk about the relationship to Us, the primal scream wasn't an act.
"It was a real deep connection, a deep marriage."
Was?