Brad Pitt is Banned from China, But That’s Hasn’t Stopped Him Joining Sina Weibo Today

All the ladies who make up Sina Weibo’s 400 million registered users take note: Brad Pitt has just joined Weibo. The movie star’s verified account (here) saw its first post at noon today:

It is the truth. Yup, I’m coming…

In the space of just two hours since that post, Pitt’s first missive has had 8,000 comments and 20,000 reposts on Weibo. The front half of Brangelina has a whopping 73,000 fans already.

Although lots of celebrities from around the globe have joined Sina Weibo – mostly for social marketing purposes, Brad Pitt is perhaps the most controversial of all these. No, not because of his very awkward and stagey new ad for Chanel, but due to the fact that Brad Pitt is supposedly banned from ever entering China after his starring role in the 1997 movie Seven Years in Tibet, which was deemed by authorities in Beijing to have been too sympathetic to the exiled Dalai Lama.

It’s not clear why Pitt has joined Weibo at this specific time. It’s most likely driven by marketing concerns, either for an upcoming movie (IMDB indicates that Pitt has four movies in post-production at this time), or for a brand that he represents. Perhaps Chanel.

In the past we’ve seen Tom Cruise join Sina Weibo, followed a while later by the Harry Potter actress Emma Watson.

(Hat-tip to @MissXQ on Twitter for spotting this)