French TV  series pulled after woman  falls in love with Brad Pitt
Anne, 53, faces online  ridicule for believing she was in  a relationship with  the actor and  paid £780,000 to a scammer.
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A French woman who believed she was in a long-term relationship with Brad Pitt and was  tricked into paying €830,000 (£700,000) to help  pay for medical treatment  has faced such a wave of online  ridicule that a TV programme about  it has been  removed. . .
The interior designer, named Anne, 53,  was targeted on social media and even  in a satirical  skit on France's biggest breakfast show after giving an interview about the case on the TF1 channel on  Sunday.
Speaking about what she  believes was an online relationship with Pitt  that lasted more than a year, Anne said she thought they were in love. When she told  him the actor needed financial help for cancer treatment because his accounts  were frozen during  his divorce  from Angelina Jolie, she transferred the  money. It wasn't until the Hollywood star was  photographed in the media this summer with his partner, Inés de Ramon, that she  realized she had fallen for an elaborate scam, Anne  said. "I wonder why they chose me to do such  damage," she told TF1.  "I never  hurt anyone." These people deserve hell." The  show went viral and  sparked a wave of  jokes about the  witticism online, prompting the network to  remove the  show from its  rerun services on its websites on Tuesday.
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TF1  had indicated at the time of its broadcast that Anne had  been struggling with mental health  issues, had also  suffered from severe depression and  had been  hospitalized for treatment. TF1 presenter Harry Roselmack wrote on social media on Tuesday:  "To protect the victims, we have decided to  remove [the segment] from our platforms."
Among the social  networks that mocked  Ana's loyalty, Toulouse Football  Club wrote  about X: "Brad told us he would be at the stadium on Wednesday," for the team's next match, before  deleting the message and  apologizing. Netflix France also posted on social media promoting "four  movies to  watch with Brad Pitt (really) for  free."
The scam  dates back to February 2023, when Anne, who  was married to a wealthy  businessman, took to Instagram to share  photos from a skiing holiday in the French  Alps.
Upon her return, she was contacted on social  media by someone  claiming to be Jane Pitt, the actor's mother, who began chatting  with her and  told her she would be a good  fit for her son. Then another account  was contacted claiming to be the actor himself. His mother had told  her all about  him, the person said.  "I want to know more about you," one message  read to Anne. "But I'd like to know  if you work in the  media, because I'm  very protective of my private  life." »
Anne, who said she  didn't really understand social media, spent a year and a half communicating with the person she thought was Pitt.  The person used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence  image-making technology, to send her what appeared to be selfies and other messages, including poems and songs and an apparent copy of Pitt's passport. She said he was  genuinely interested in her work and they communicated every day. "I was in love with the man I was  talking to," she said.  "He knew how to  talk to a  woman." »
Anne argued in particular with the person  who claimed to be Pitt  about the large sum he had to pay for her  divorce. He then received AI-generated  photos of the actor apparently in hospital, with  demands for payment for his kidney treatment.  He transferred hundreds of thousands of euros for  alleged medical  expenses.
The creators of the TF1  show said  that Anne had filed a  complaint with the police  about this fraud.
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A New Year's resolution you can actually  keep
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