Warning: Hooking up with Brad Pitt can be hazardous to your career.
The two-time People Magazine “Sexiest Man Alive” winner had a toxic effect on lovers past and present over the weekend.
Current flame Angelina Jolie’s bizarre leg-baring stance during the Oscar ceremony prompted Best Adapted Screenplay winner Jim Rash to ape her sexually provocative pose while accepting his award.
It also inspired a Twitter feed @AngiesRightLeg that has 18,000 followers and counting.
Sample tweet: “Left leg and I talked — everything's cool. Next Oscars, she gets the slit.”
Also read: Oscars 2012: 5 Things That Should Have Been Cut
It was also a rough Academy Awards for Gwyneth Paltrow, who was briefly engaged to Pitt in the 1990s.
The actor’s “Seven” co-star stumbled through some painfully unfunny banter with Robert Downey Jr. and a faux documentary crew before presenting the Feature Documentary award.
When the bit finally ended, Atlantic’s Richard Lawson quipped, “Will America ever lose its insatiable appetite for the comedy stylings of Gwyneth Paltrow?”
The only bright spot was the GOOP editor’s quirky Tom Ford cape, which managed to charm red carpet commentators, earning Paltrow a spot on many best dressed lists.
Even former Pitt flames who steered well clear of the Oscar broadcast on Sunday were not immune to the “Brad curse” last weekend.
Ex-wife Jennifer Aniston’s latest comedy “Wanderlust” bombed at the box office last weekend, earning an anemic $6.5 million in 2,002 theaters.
And pity poor Juliette Lewis. The “Cape Fear” actress dated Pitt in the early 1990s, but the long-gone romance continued to sting over the weekend.
Banished to Saturday nights, Lewis’ NBC drama “The Firm” rated a dismal 0.4 rating/1 share in the key adults 18-49 demographic, with a pathetic 2.4 million total viewers. That was good enough for last place among the big four networks and tied with the repeat of “Smash” that proceeded it.
Of course, most ladies and some men would be willing to endure bad reviews, a nasty Twitter handle and a dollop of Oscar night embarrassment for a little Brad time.