Brad & Jen: Dare We Hope?

The former couple’s recent displays of affection have sent the Hollywood rumour mill into overdrive

- Lindsay De Freitas

In the annals of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston there have been many photos.

There’s the first picture from 1998, the original hard evidence they were dating, a slightly blurry image of the pair cosying up to each other on a balcony at a concert, impossibly young and goofily ’90s-looking.

There’s the iconic wedding shot of the beaming and beautiful newly weds at their California nuptials in 2000. And then there’s the one of the two of them walking down a beach in 2005, arms wrapped around each other days before their separation announcement – a picture so achingly poignant because, well, the body language, guys! Just look at them – they clearly still have feelings for each other!

Then came the Angelina Jolie years and Jen instantly became “poor Jen”, pitied for her childless singlehood while Brad and Angie became Brangelina – the world’s most famous celebrity couple who kept collecting kids.

Not even landing sexy actor and screenwriter Justin Theroux (48) helped Jen much because they didn’t last long, did they?

But something has been happening, people. Big things. There are pictures to prove it – and we all know pictures don’t lie, right?

It’s been brewing for a while. Brad (56) was invited to Jen’s 50th birthday party last year. And over the holiday season he apparently went to her house for “an intimate dinner party”.

And then the Golden Globes rolled around in January and there was Brad, winning a best-supporting actor gong for playing washed-up stuntman CliffBooth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and being his delightfully self-deprecating self.

“I wanted to bring my mom,” he said. “But I couldn’t because anyone I stand next to they say I’m dating. And that would just be awkward.”