The anti-Obama letter that Brad Pitt's mother wrote to her local newspaper

In early July 2012, the Springfield News-Leader — the local newspaper of Springfield, Missouri — published a letter to the editor that quickly went national. Its author was Jane Pitt, the mother of Brad Pitt.

The letter endorsed Mitt Romney for president and criticized President Obama, arguing from socially conservative positions: it opposed Obama's support for abortion rights and gay marriage and framed the election as a choice between moral visions. It was, in tone, a letter from a conservative mother in the Ozarks — except that her son happened to be one of the most famous actors in the world.

Some readers doubted the letter was genuine. The paper then published an editor's note confirming the author was indeed Jane Pitt, Brad Pitt's mother.

Brad Pitt, who had publicly supported same-sex marriage, responded through a spokesperson — distancing himself from the letter's views while defending his mother personally, describing her as a loving parent with whom he disagreed on the issues.

The episode drew a wave of backlash toward Jane Pitt online, and later reports said she felt shaken by the reaction. The companion dynamic — a celebrity child of progressive views, a conservative parent — made the letter a minor emblem of the 2012 election's cultural divisions.

Note: the URL slug of this post retains an older, harsher characterization of the letter; the article itself describes it as a socially conservative anti-Obama letter, which is what it was.