“It’s ironic, in a way, the things that drew Michael to the Asmat are the things that killed him,” explains author Carl Hoffman, who spent years researching the disappearance of the missing Rockefeller heir.

Arguably one of the most mysterious and perplexing missing person’s cases of the 20th century, 23-year-old Michael Rockefeller was the son of former vice-president Nelson Rockefeller and had a passion for exploring distant corners of the globe.

After working as a sound recordist for an ethnographic film Dead Birds, Rockefeller returned to Dutch New Guinea in November 1961, now West Papua, to learn more about the culture of the local Asmat people and collect pieces of their artwork.

Sadly, the adventure took a very dark turn.

Michael (top right) photographed with his family, which included New York Governor and former Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

It was during the expedition where Rockefeller and companion René Wassing would run into trouble after their canoe capsized.

Believing he could swim to safety, Rockefeller told Wassing: “I think I can make it,” before setting out to shore. He was never seen or heard from again.

Following extensive searches of the region by the powerful Rockefeller family, Michael was declared legally dead in 1964 and presumed to have drowned.

However, Hoffman thinks there is more to the story. In his 2014 book Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, And Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest, he argues that Rockefeller was killed and consumed by the Asmat people as a form of ritual headhunting.

Michael Rockefeller had travelled to the region in order to collect art created by the Asmat people (President and Fellows of Harvard University; Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology)

Michael Rockefeller: wrong place, wrong time?

Hoffman spent around three years researching the book – including several months spent living alongside the Asmat people – and believes that Rockefeller’s death was a consequence of both colonialism and local cosmology.

“The Asmat did not kill Michael Rockefeller because they felt murderous. And they didn’t kill him because they were hungry, and they needed a bite to eat,” Hoffman explained during an interview with LADbible.

“They killed him for these complex historical and cultural reasons.”

In the years prior to Rockefeller’s disappearance, Max Lapré, Dutch government controller in Southern Asmat, was involved in an incident which led to the deaths of five prominent members of the Otsjanep village.

Hoffman explained that the deaths caused by Lapré and his men had left an ‘unbalance’ in the village, which in Asmat cosmology was something that had to be fixed otherwise their village would be haunted by ‘spirits’.

It is through this understanding of the Asmat worldview which Hoffman believes led to the killing and consuming Rockefeller after he happened to make it ashore on 1961.

An example of a Bisj pole, a ritual artefact created by the Asmat people which Rockefeller had been interested in ( Francois Gohier / VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“[In Asmat cosmology] the world needs needed to be balanced and righted, and that balance came from the killing of Michael Rockefeller, yeah, it wasn’t some blood thirsty thing for them,” Hoffman explained. “It was just making the world whole, and that was going to reclaim their culture and their power.”

He continued: “I mean, these were people who had been living separate from the world on their own for, you know, 1000s of years, and they had a whole three-dimensional complex civilisation, so much so that, you know, that’s why Michael was there to collect their spectacular art, which today stands in the greatest museums of the world.

“This was a culture in which, you know, some in which head hunting was incredibly important, and cannibalism itself was just an is sort of an outgrowth of head hunting. And those things took place in a very sacred, ritualised context.”

Carl Hoffman’s book Savage Harvest is available to buy here.

In case you somehow missed it, a woman in France was scammed out of £700,000 by a fraudster posing as Brad Pitt and claiming he needed money for ‘cancer treatment’.

The 53-year-old woman, who has been named as Anne, believed she was talking to the Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood actor after being approached by his ‘mother’ on social media.

Anne would then receive a message from ‘Brad’ himself and the account soon began asking her for money for ‘cancer treatment’ and claiming the actor’s divorce from Angelina Jolie had left him short of funds.

The fraudster then created a series of questionable AI-generated images of Pitt in hospital to add, erm, legitimacy to scam. Take a look at them below:

The Brad Pitt images in question (TF1)

Unfortunately Anne ended up sending the account €830,000 (£697,000).

The viral story has now taken another bizarre turn, after news of the scam reached Mr Pitt himself. And he’s not impressed by the grifter using his image for financial gain.

“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of the strong bond between fans and celebrities,” a spokesperson said on behalf of Pitt, before sharing a general reminder about internet safety.

“This is an important reminder not to respond to unsolicited online messages, especially from actors who are not present on social networks.”

Unfortunately this message has come a little too late for Anne, who is now not only hundreds of thousands of Euros down but not about to marry a Hollywood actor.

The story has now made its way back to the actor (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

According to an interview Anne gave with French channel TF1 (via BFM TV) ‘Brad’ had lovebombed her with promises of luxury gifts and a marriage proposal.

“In fact, we’re talking about Brad Pitt, I’m falling from the clouds. At first, I tell myself it’s fake, but I don’t really understand what’s happening to me. After that, we will contact each other every day and we become friends,” she said via translated text.

“There are so few men who write you this kind of thing. I liked the man I was talking to. He knew how to talk to women, it was always very well done.”

Anne also explained that she’d been going through a difficult time following the divorce of her husband but became suspicious after spotting the actor out with his new girlfriend Ines de Ramon.

It’s understood that she is now receiving inpatient treatment for severe depression while an investigation into the fraud case is reportedly underway. TF1 has since removed the interview from their channel following the response online.

LADbible Group has previously contacted Brad Pitt’s representatives for comment.

A woman who fell victim to a cruel fraudster claiming to be Brad Pitt was nearly scammed again in a brutal twist.

Yesterday, French news channel TF1 broke the story that a 53-year-old woman named Anne had been been conned out of €830,000 (£697,000) by a fraudster claiming to be Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.

The scammer had used AI generated images of Pitt lying in a hospital bed and claimed that he was unable to afford cancer treatment due to his high-profile divorce from Angelina Jolie.

Anne has been left devastated by the scam (TF1)

After showering Anne with love declarations, a marriage proposal and promises of luxurious gifts she was smitten.

However there was only problem… this wasn’t the real Brad Pitt.

The story has since gone viral as people around the world were left scratching their heads and wondering if their new glasses prescription was too good after seeing the photos – prompting the Fight Club actor to even issue a statement via his representatives condemning the actions of the fraudster.

Unfortunately for Anne, the heartbreaking misery didn’t end there either, with The Sun reporting that an opportunist attempted to capitalise on her misery by posing as an FBI agent offering to ‘rescue’ her from the scam for another £4,200.

Brad Pitt himself has issued a statement on the scam, proving firmly it wasn’t him in the images sent to Anne (X)

The BBC has since added that Anne had contacted the police after being approached by the second fraudster, who introduced themselves as ‘Special FBI Agent John Smith’.

According to The Guardian, Anne was previously married to a wealthy entrepreneur and had joined social media to share snaps of their lifestyle. An account claiming to be Pitt’s mother then reached out to her in February 2023, with messagings from ‘Brad’ following.

The interior designer would go on to exchange messages with the fraudster until she spotted images of him with his new girlfriend Ines de Ramon and realised something wasn’t right about the situation.

“I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this,” she said of the scammer (via TF1).

The AI generated images of Brad Pitt (TF1)

“I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell. We need to find those scammers, I beg you – please help me find them.”

The interview has since been widely mocked online (largely due to the AI images of Pitt shown) leading to TF1 making the decision to pull the interview from their website altogether .

“For the protection of victims, we have decided to withdraw [the segment] from our platforms,” French journalist Harry Roselmack said of the decision on his social media.

LADbible Group has previously contacted Brad Pitt’s representatives for comment.

Fans are calling out Brad Pitt’s ‘absurd’ accent in a resurfaced movie clip which divides opinion online.

Now, we’re all aware that actors will use different accents to portray a role as accurately as possible.

It took years for Americans to realise that Batman star Christian Bale is in fact British or that Peaky Blinders‘ Cillian Murphy isn’t actually a Brummy.

But with some performances, viewers can sometimes leave scratching their heads wondering if that accent was truly necessary – and that’s exactly what they’re thinking about Brad Pitt.

Universal Pictures

This comes after a scene from a 1998 romantic mystery film that’s been doing the rounds on social media.

Meet Joe Black follows businessman Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins), who is about to celebrate his 65th birthday.

But before he reaches that landmark, he is quite literally visited by Death (Brad Pitt), who has taken human form as Joe Black, a young man who recently died. Joe and Bill then meet each other to make a deal – Bill will be given a few extra days of his life, and Joe will spend the same time getting to know what it’s like to be human.

It seems like a perfect arrangement, until Joe falls in love with Bill’s daughter.

However, in one scene, which has been re-shared on social media, Pitt’s character randomly talks in Jamaican patois to a patient in the hospital.

Watch below:

k-von

@never_oppressed

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Watched Meet Joe Black the other night and absolutely lost it when Brad Pitt starts speaking patois. Truly one of the funniest, most absurd things I’ve ever seen in a movie

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12:36 PM · Feb 18, 2024

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“Watched Meet Joe Black the other night and absolutely lost it when Brad Pitt starts speaking patois,” one user tweeted, alongside the clip that’s been viewed over 4.8 million times.

“Truly one of the funniest, most absurd things I’ve ever seen in a movie.”

“I was going to start a ‘well out of context’ sentence but then realised there is no context where this is not ridiculous/hilarious,” a second said.

While a third commented: “The first time my brother and I watched it, we had to pause cuz we were laughing so hard.

“My brother still quotes his absurd lines at me.”

Others explained how the accent was possibly quite deliberate, as one user thought: “From a writers standpoint, it’s to showcase how he is Death. He speaks all tongues as he is barred by nothing on Earth.

“Part of his character development. It’s also a foreshadow mark that leads up to the woman finding out who he really is.”

Universal Pictures

“In fairness he’s the Angel of Death speaking to her in a way that makes him more familiar and less scary. Not saying it works or not but I get the basic point,” another penned.

“He was coached by the actress playing opposite him, as well as a professional language instructor,” someone else said.

“I’ve seen video reviews by two different Jamaica natives who say he nails the accent in a few places, and screws up pronunciation in a few more.

“They gave him props for trying.”