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The gift of love

Actor Brad Pitt decided to surprise wifey dearest Jennifer Aniston with a lavish gift that was unusual too ? a cursed love boat!

Published on: Oct 28, 2004, 13:05:00 IST
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Actor Brad Pitt decided to surprise wifey dearest Jennifer Aniston with a lavish gift that was unusual too – a cursed love boat!

Lovestruck Brad Pitt has bought wife Jennifer Aniston the breath-taking gift of a $5.5million luxury yacht. But people are saying their love boat is cursed. The historic vessel was once owned by star-crossed Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. And it brought the legendary couple – and even some of their shipboard guests – nothing but bad luck.

HT Image
HT Image

Richard and Elizabeth divorced after buying the boat, remarried and divorced yet again. And guests Rachel Roberts and husband Rex Harrison fell out after her impromptu striptease aboard led to a flaming row.

Even after selling the yacht in 1976, Burton and Taylor never seemed to find happiness again He married twice more, before dying in August, 1984, aged 58. And Elizabeth, now 72, has racked up a total of eight marriages and eight divorces.

Brad, star of the crime caper movie Oceans Twelve, thought the fabulous 165-foot yacht, which is 98 years old, would be the perfect expression of his love for 35-year-old Jennifer.

Friends hint that the Kalizma, now moored off the island of Malta, could be the romantic setting the couple need for their first child to be conceived.

A pal explains: “Brad wanted Jennifer to know how much he thinks of her. This was the perfect way.” The Kalizma seemed to have been shrouded in bad karma ever since Richard bought it as a gift in 1967 to celebrate Elizabeth’s Oscar for the film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Richard paid $120,000 for the yacht. The couple were soon throwing wild parties with fellow stars, including Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and Richard Harris. It was at one of these parties that the curse struck.

Richard wrote in his diary that Rex Harrison’s wife, Rachel Roberts, became “stupendously drunk”. She launched into a raunchy striptease.

In June, 1974, Richard and Elizabeth divorced after 10 years of arguments. The couple, still desperately in love, married again in October, 1975. But their marriage hit the rocks just nine months later. They sold the ill-omened yacht in 1976.

Brad, aged 40, bought the yacht from an Indian brewing tycoon. The softly-lit bedroom is just made for romance, with a large double bed, smothered in pillows and draped with curtains.

Who knows what’s in store?

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