As he talks, Pitt occasionally breaks eye contact to stare out the window. He seems to be gazing toward the Kodak Theatre down the street, where in years past both he and Jolie have walked the red carpet at the Academy Awards, and where they may find themselves again soon, if Oscar buzz for their respective performances in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Changeling results in his-and-hers nominations. (Each received a Golden Globe nod from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.) It turns out that he may also be looking elsewhere: The view affords a glimpse of his house in the Hollywood Hills, one of the “base camps” the brood inhabits in their gypsy travels between L.A., New Orleans and France.
As he gets up to leave, Pitt says that the family is awaiting him at home, where they’ll all have dinner together with Pitt’s parents, who are visiting from Missouri. All he must do is evade the paparazzi to get there—and he’s confident he knows how. “This is my anonymity,” he says, brandishing the motorcycle helmet in an upraised hand before he breezes out the door. “With it, I’m just another a--hole on the streets.”
