Why Weren't Brad & Angelina at the Oscars?

Pitt and Jolie went to a birthday party instead—doesn't that seem odd?

What happened to Brangelina at the Oscars? Where were they instead?
—Ashland, Ore., via the Answer B!tch inbox

Curiouser and curiouser, especially given that Inglourious Basterds—a movie in which Brad Pitt actually starred—was nominated for Best Picture.

So what happened? Well...

We've been hearing, for weeks now, every little detail about The Tourist, that flick that Angelina Jolie is shooting in Europe with Johnny Depp.

And according to Brangelina sources who spoke with our E! News team, that's the main factor in Brad and Angie not showing up at the Kodak: She's in the middle of shooting a movie.

We've also heard tell of a children's birthday party that four of Brangelina's kids attended while the Oscar festivities were going on.

Those are fine excuses, I guess. Right?

But then again, the couple has been AWOL at almost all of the major awards shows this season, including the Golden Globes, which happened in January, way before Angie's movie started rolling in February. (Basterds was nominated for four Globes, including best drama picture.)

Also, one other thing to consider:

We have jets. That fly really fast.

At the Oscars last night, Jake Gyllenhaal said he was leaving almost immediately after the show to head back to Canada, where he is currently working on a film. And that's typically how movie shoots operate during Oscar weekend; if the stars want to go to the big show, the director halts shooting for a day or two, and the stars go.

So—could there be some other reason why Brad stayed away from the so-called Super Bowl for Women? Could it simply be because he wasn't individually nominated for Best Actor?

Perhaps.

Neither Jolie nor Pitt was nominated for anything in 2008, and they didn't show to the Oscars that year. The couple also bailed in 2007, the year that Pitt's film Babel was up for Best Picture. Like this year, Pitt himself wasn't nominated for Best Actor.

But if the lack of individual nomination is the reason, come on.

The lead actors for A Serious Man, District 9 and Avatar all deigned to show last night—and none of them were nominated individually, either. This could just be a serious case of A-lister-ism: Brad and Angelina are so famous, they really don't need to show up on any red carpets, ever again, if they don't want to.

—Additional reporting by Ashley Fultz