Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell And Brad Pitt: Unlikely But Enduring Pals

Pitt and Cornell at "Moneyball" premiere. (Photo: Eric Charbonneau)

Anyone remember that classic moment in the 1993 movie True Romance, where Brad Pitt uses a honey bear for a smoking utensil while Soundgarden's now-vintage grunge standard "Outshined" blares in the background?

While that famous film scene may be eternally good for a laugh, what fans may not know is that actor Pitt and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell actually are buddies in real life. Given pop culture's current adoration of "bromances," the Pitt-Cornell alliance is a friendship that's managed to float relatively under the wire, and has apparently held solid up to Soundgarden's 2010 reunion and subsequent first album release in 16 years.

The two entertainers, who appear unlikely comrades on the surface, actually have quite a bit in common. They're both 48 years old, have settled down from their respective fast-paced lifestyles to become doting dads (Cornell has three kids from two marriages; Pitt six with partner Angelina Jolie), and are fans of each other's work. Let's take a look at a few well-publicized examples:

Pitt's been a longtime follower of Cornell's music, and has shown up at his gigs, including a much-reported 2009 solo show in which Pitt hung out and gabbed with Courteney Cox--apparently, Cornell's music smoothed out any differences in opinion between Pitt and Cox, one of Pitt's ex-wife Jennifer Aniston's best friends.

Meanwhile, Cornell--whose career includes dalliances in film--has supported Pitt in kind, most recently at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of the critically acclaimed release Moneyball, in which Pitt portrays the true story of a statistics-minded baseball manager. Cornell was there on business himself, having composed the theme song to biopic Machine Gun Preacher, which was also premiering at the fest that weekend. However, Cornell took the time to show up at Pitt's event, posing for photos with his wife and smiling for the fans.

But wait, there's more. The pair's alliance gets even more personal--even to the point where the two grown men played with dolls together. In 2010, headlines teased Pitt and Cornell's "scheduled playdate" at Los Angeles's bastion of all-things-feminine American Girl Place--which turned out (phew) to be a birthday party for Cornell's little girl Toni. Pitt joined in the fun by bringing daughter Zahara, who's a year younger than Toni.

Pitt and daughter Zahara leave Toni Cornell's birthday party (Photo: Jean Baptiste Lacroix)

While the two friends seem to have enjoyed a pleasant comradeship over the years, it's doubtful that either one has much time these days for hanging out. Cornell is currently busy with the release of Soundgarden's King Animal, which hits stores on Tuesday and marks the first studio album for the band since 1996's Down On The Upside. Meanwhile, Pitt is preparing for the June release of World War Z, a futuristic thriller in which he plays a U.N. official fighting a deadly Zombie pandemic.

Related:

Soundgarden on Yahoo! Music

World War Z on Yahoo! Movies