Billy Bob Thornton gave an apology (of sorts) to Dern in 2001 in an interview with the Guardian, saying, "Others may say that you left our girl and married someone else. But it made me happy and somebody else happy. I'm sorry it caused pain."

While Jolie and Dern weren't in the same circles as actors, they did have prior history. As it turns out, Dern had babysat Jolie due to their father's being some of Hollywood's biggest actors. "Jon Voight's a friend of mine, so I remember Laura babysat Angelina when Angelina was two and Laura was about eight," Dern's father Bruce said at the Motion Picture Academy's Governors Awards (via Yahoo Movies).

After only two years of a highly publicized marriage (remember the blood vial necklaces?), Jolie and Thornton parted ways in 2002. "We just had different lifestyles," Thornton explained to the HFPA in Conversation podcast (via E! Online). "Hers is a global lifestyle, and mine is an agoraphobic lifestyle. So, that's really — that's the only reason we're probably not still together, maybe, because of a different path in life we wanted to take."