Nicholas Hunt/PatrickMcMullan.comTo quote those hilarious Chanel No. 5 ads he's been doing, Brad Pitt's social networking debut is "inevitable."
The Hollywood star on Monday officially joined China's version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, and has already racked up more than 140,000 followers.
"It is the truth. Yup, I'm coming…," wrote the 49-year-old Pitt in his first and so far only message posted at noon Beijing time.
The mysterious post garnered more than 14,000 comments and has since been forwarded 31,000 times—proving the actor's got quite a fanbase among the Chinese.
That's good news considering Pitt was banned by government officials from ever entering the communist nation—this after starring in Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet, in which he played the young Dalai Lama's Austrian tutor. The 1997 film was not looked upon kindly at the time by Chinese Foreign Ministry officials because it offers up a less-than-flattering portrayal of China's rule over the Tibetan people.
Speculation has surfaced that the thesp joined Weibo to promote Chanel No. 5, for which he recently starred in a series of oft-parodied ads. A slew of other celebs have joined the microblogging site for marketing purposes recently as well, including Tom Cruise.
No word whether Pitt will actually make a trek to the country, let alone be admitted.
But it's worth pointing out that Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a hit when it played there in 2005, grossing $7 million, so it's possible the government's stance may have softened since then.
Pitt's not the only Tinseltown veteran not welcomed in the Middle Kingdom. Richard Gere and Harrison Ford are among other big-name stars on the forbidden list thanks to their support of the Dalai Lama.