Do the Math.

Did anybody notice the way The Oprah Winfrey Show rewrote history yesterday?

Brad Pitt was the guest, along with Cate Blanchett, in Chicago to promote their new David Fincher project, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, out Christmas.

At one point, a pre-produced package talked about Brad’s career, beginning with his arrival in Hollywood, and his breakthrough roles in Thelma & Louise and Interview with the Vampire, before moving on to George Clooney, Brad’s life with Angelina Jolie, their kids, etc. It was brief, compact, fast-moving, and entertaining.

It was also untrue. Completely absent from the piece was any mention, whatsoever, of Jennifer Aniston, the actor with whom Pitt was a couple for seven years and married to for five years; 2000-2005.

What made Aniston’s erasure from the space-time continuum even more spooky, however, was the fact that she’d been on Oprah’s show less than a week earlier, promoting her flick with Owen Wilson, Marley & Me.

In fact, on that very stage she’d talked a little bit about Brad, even joking about hoping her movie would beat his at the box office. She became notably tight-lipped when Oprah brought up the specific comments Aniston had made to VOGUE, right, about Jolie’s intrusion on her marriage. These statements had become international news, and we’ve since learned, that had “totally thrown” the pouty-lipped, common-law couple.

Let’s make an intelligent guess, then, that, in some part, on the basis of Aniston’s Oprah comments—and certainly her VOGUE ones—Pitt made it a pre-condition of his appearance that Aniston would not even be mentioned when he appeared.

Of course, Oprah played ball. Pitt’s as big a star as she is, if not bigger, and, as Oprah herself noted yesterday, it had been four years since he’d last been on the show. Bet she didn’t want to wait four more.