Brad Pitt made a big-time boo-boo.
He's garnering Oscar buzz for his role in "Moneyball," but Angelina Jolie's man sparked a public relations catastrophe last week — all for a Parade interview in which he casually slammed his five-year marriage to Jennifer Aniston, which ended in 2005.
(In the interview released Sept. 15, Pitt, 47, sniffed that he "wasn't living an interesting life" before Jolie, and that he was "trying to pretend my marriage was something that it wasn't.")
And, yes, his 42-year-old ex-wife got wind of the catty comment. "She was annoyed," a pal close to the "Horrible Bosses" actress tells the new Us Weekly, out now. "She thought it was rude and inappropriate."
Team Aniston — her agent and publicists — "went ballistic," a Pitt insider reveals, and angrily reached out to Pitt's camp.
"They got his team involved and Brad was read the riot act — the only way you can read the riot act to Brad Pitt," the source says.
Within 24 hours, Pitt had surprisingly released a statement lamenting that his words were misinterpreted, and that his former love "is an incredibly giving, loving and hilarious woman."
Still, the Pitt source says, "no one believes his words were taken out of context — he said what he said. I do hear that he's remorseful."
And although Pitt is clearly blissed out with Jolie, 36, and their six kids, "We think he's jealous she's in love," the source says.
Indeed, Aniston hasn't let her ex's harsh words get in the way of her hot romance withJustin Theroux, with whom she's now spending time with in NYC. "Justin's The One!" an Aniston pal says.