Another tabloid, another Brangelina split story. This one centers on a trip Brad Pitt took to France last week. Brad flew to Marseilles alone, leaving Angelina and the kids in New York. In Touch Weekly even has a quote from an airport employee, “What could he be doing in France that’s so important that he couldn’t be with his kids?” Thank you, humble airport employee, for chiming in. Now I’m wondering if every airport employee thinks it’s somehow sketchy when someone is flying alone. Like, “Why is that man carrying a briefcase and flying to Chicago? Doesn’t he have children?”

So, why was Brad flying alone? According to In Touch, the formal reason was to check on renovations to their castle. Of course. That’s the excuse I always use. Nevermind that they’re only renting the French castle, so Brad doesn’t really have the right to make renovations. Why ruin a good cover story?

But of course, Brad really left town because he “needed time away” from Angelina. You see, things haven’t been great between Angelina and Brad. The tabloids know this because “the couple hasn’t been seen together publicly since February 25”. Because that’s how it works in tabloid-ville. If you haven’t been photographed together for a few weeks, then you’re splitting up.

After having a heated argument with Angelina Jolie shortly before Easter, Brad flew thousands of miles away to Marseilles – alone.

“What could he be doing in France that’s so important that he couldn’t be with his kids?” airport employee Marie LeGrand, who spotted Brad on April 9, tells In Touch.

According to a friends, Brad’s excuse to Angelina was that he needed to check on renovations being done at Chateau Miraval, their $70 million mansion near Aix-en-Provence. But privately, Brad confided to the friend that he needed space “and time away from her.”

As In Touch has reports, Brad, 45, and Angelina, 33, are fighting so much that they aren’t even sleeping in the same bed. And the couple hasn’t been seen together publicly since February 25, when they took their kids to see The Lion King in New York City. “That must be very confusing for the children,” Dr. Gilda Carle, author of the new e-book 99 Prescriptions for Fidelity tells In Touch. “All of this instability is unhealthy. They need to see their parents together.”

Brad is becoming more disconnected from Angie every day. She’s been busy filming Salt in New York, but in the rare moments she is home, “She scream nonstop at him,” a pal reveals.

Brad resents her because he’s been playing Mr. Mom to Maddox, 7, Pax, 5, Zahara, 4, Shiloh, 2, and twins Vivenne and Knox, 9 months, for the last six weeks. “He’s absolutely burned out,” his close friend explains. “And he’s tired of picking up the slack for Angelina.” But Dr. Gilda says that running away is never the answer: “They have to communicate their feelings” before it’s too late.

[From In Touch Weekly print edition, April 27 2009]

One of my biggest peeves about tabloid reporting, and for that matter, the “medical” community, is the habit of bringing in a “doctor” to chime in about what’s wrong with a celebrity they haven‘t treated. It’s unethical for the doctor, and perverse and cheap for the tabloid. And did anyone else pick out the flaw in this good doctor’s logic? Dr. Gilda Carle says about Angelina and Brad not being photographed together, “That must be very confusing for the children… All of this instability is unhealthy. They need to see their parents together.” So, if Brad and Angelina aren’t photographed together by paparazzi, their kids must not be seeing them together anywhere. A-plus, Dr. Gilda, you moron.

Obviously, this isn’t the first time the tabloids have all joined together to declare an end to Brangelina. The biggest pile-on was the summer of 2007, when every tabloid was declaring the couple were splitsville. As it turned out, they were fine. Is the split actually the case this time? My opinion is no, but I’m sure a lot of people will buy into it hook, line and stinker.

Here’s Brad Pitt at JFK airport on April 8th on his way to catch an Air France flight. Images thanks to BauerGriffinOnline.