End game

Like the song goes, breaking up is hard to do. But it must be even harder when the first person you have to inform about this momentous decision is not your family or friends, but your press agent. Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are the latest celebrity couple to have gone through this sombre and faintly humiliating ritual. The usual clichés are there in the press release: "remain caring friends", "thoughtful consideration", etc. But at least they resisted the temptation to issue a statement saying their marriage was "fine" when the relationship ran into trouble - that's when the bookies know the divorce is in sight. In celebrity break-ups, as so often in life, the less information, the better.