Subject:  Doug Pitt article |
Author:
Gina
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Date Posted: 10:28:41 11/06/14 Thu
Doug Pitt, businessman and founder of Care to Learn, is not an easy man to get to know.
"He is just not a real outgoing guy," says long-time friend Matt Miller. "His dad is that way. Doug can be seen as distant, disinterested, stand-offish. That is more of a personality thing. ... And then you couple that with his life experiences."
Those life experiences involve having Brad Pitt as an older brother. As a result, people give Doug screenplays for his brother to read. One man came to Doug's business to ask why Doug and Brad had placed a microchip in his head. Others simply want to hover near the glow of reflected fame.
It happened about 10 years ago. One of Pitt's daughters, 9 at the time, was home alone. (Doug and Lisa Pitt have three children who are now ages 17, 18 and 20.)
His daughter was frightened when she saw a man with a large telephoto lens outside her house in the Royal Oaks subdivision. He was rifling through the mailbox. The girl called her father.
He drove like a madman to the house.
"At that time I had nothing on my brain but my daughter," he says.
He spotted the photographer leaving the subdivision, dashed from his car and punched the man in the face, knocking him to the ground.
It was a one-punch confrontation. Police were called. No one was arrested.
"There are some things in the heat of the moment when you don't think things through as best as you can," he says. "I would like to think I am a more controlled person today."
Yet he recounts the fracas with a tinge of pride.
"What the paparazzi have to realize is that Brad has to play by the rules but I don't," he says. "I am not worried about bad press or good press. I am worried about protecting my family."
As a boy, Doug was the wilder child. He was the most adventurous of the three Pitt children, says Jane Pitt, their mother.
The family often skied in Colorado and Brad, three years older than Doug, would send Doug down the more challenging runs first — to see just how challenging they were, Jane recalls.
"Doug was not the least bit apprehensive," she says. "Doug often was the victim of his older brother. Brad knew exactly how far to push the buttons and when to stop. Doug did not know where to stop."
The family often skied in Colorado and Brad, three years older than Doug, would send Doug down the more challenging runs first — to see just how challenging they were, Jane recalls.
"Doug was not the least bit apprehensive," she says. "Doug often was the victim of his older brother. Brad knew exactly how far to push the buttons and when to stop. Doug did not know where to stop."
Craziness and concern
For several weeks, Pitt says, someone recently has been leaving bags hanging on the backdoor to his computer business.
The most recent one contained books on numerology and, as best as he can tell, a bloody tablecloth. It was left by an unknown woman for his famous brother, he says.
Pitt has called Springfield police.
"I have a file in my office marked 'stalker,'" he says. "I don't know too many people who have that."
For some 23 years, since Brad's star first rose with "Thelma and Louise," Doug and his family have lived with the unsavory aspect of Brad's fame.
Doug says he cannot operate a successful business with an unlisted number or a secret business address. So people who want to find the brother of Brad Pitt have little trouble doing so.
"In a way I am stuck. People know where I'm at," he says.
Surprisingly, it's mostly older men who either want to contact Brad or who carry the delusional thought they know the Pitt family, sometimes in bizarre and frightening ways.
Pitt recalls the time an older man came to the business. He looked normal and acted normal, Pitt says. Until he mentioned the microchip in his head.
"He was commenting that he had a chip in his head and that Brad and I had something to do with it," he says.
Family security is a main reason why Bill Pitt, the father, developed the 40-home gated Timberbrook subdivision in south Springfield about 10 years ago. It's where Doug and Lisa live; as well as sister Julie Neal and her husband Rob; and Bill and Jane Pitt.
Bill Pitt declined to be interviewed for this story. A reporter asked Doug for contact information for Brad. "That's not gonna happen," Doug responded.
Doug and Lisa live on Landon Court. Their son is named Landon. Many of the streets are named after Pitt family members.
According to Lisa, the media interest in Brad and Angelina is cyclical. It is usually tied to the release of a movie. Doug says things have been calm with the recent release of "Fury."
Another inconvenience, minor in comparison, is unsolicited screenplays.
"I get about 20 a year and they arrive in the mail," he says. "I can tell what they are by the weight. They go straight to the trash."
Of course, there are countless advantages to being related to Brad Pitt.
Such as going to the New York City premiere of "A River Runs Through It" in 1992, says Lisa.
"Robert Redford kissed my cheek and I did not want to wash it," she says.
Doug has met various actors, including Julia Roberts, and spent a week on the set of "Legends of the Fall" with his brother.
"I get to peer into another world that I would never get into," he says. "Then I have the option to leave. But he does not."
Doug and his mother and father attended Brad's Aug. 23 wedding to Angelina Jolie at Brad and Angelina's estate in France. There was no best man.
In 2000, Doug was his brother's best man when Brad married Jennifer Aniston. Brad was best man when Doug married Lisa Stancer 24 years ago in Springfield at the Cornerstone non-denominational church.
The three siblings are close, says their mother. They acknowledge each other's birthdays and try to connect on holidays — like any other family, she says.
"It's just that Brad makes a living as a movie actor," she says. "That's all it is."
No competition exists between the brothers.
"Brad casts a very big shadow," Doug says. "I made some decisions early on to just do what I do on my terms. I'm not sure you can even compete with where he is at.
"I am thrilled that I have had success in the business realm, the family realm and the humanitarian realm."
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Too funny, you can't own a successful business with an unlisted phone number....:-)
How weird about someone hanging crap on his back door. And a stalker file, I have those in my line of work too. the Clients I don't want end up in there. Also the weird comment about the man thinking Brad and Doug was responsible for the micro chip in his head. Welcome to dealing with the public, he wouldn't believe the strange things people say to their stylist. There are weirdo's everywhere, although it would be intense to have a famous brother and everyone trying to get to him thru Doug.
I too would have major issues with anyone frightening my children. Exactly the reason I could never understand why Brad allowed his children to be exploited to the media the way they do. Never in a million years would I think he would ever allow that. You just know that is all Jolie's doing, she wants to be remembered as a "earth mother" *rolls eyes*
So that is the reason for the gated community they live in. Wouldn't be for me, I would just adopt as many big dogs as I could and say, "take your chances pal" My dogs are always very protective in any situation. They should be, they know they got it good. :-)
Most interesting is when he says he gets to peek into a world he would never enter. He is a wise man, never ever a good idea to sell your soul for fame. Too bad he is drawn into it by association to Brad.
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