Brangelina: Close Encounters of the "Ex-" Kind

Brad Pitt's purchase last week of the funky $1.1 million house next door to Brangelina's L.A. compound (pictured) helped fuel reports of an impending split: After all, the hunky actor would not be the first celebrity dad to hang tight for the sake of the kids.

Pitt pals Madonna and Guy Ritchie bought a $9 million adjacent townhouse in London when their relationship hit the skids, while Bruce Willis and Demi Moore snapped up facing estates in Hailey, Idaho for the sake of their three kids.

In New York, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow famously dwelled across Central Park from each other pre-and-post rupture. And Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman settled down on the same Manhattan street after their 2004 split, the better to co-parent their two kids.

Hawke told People magazine that the arrangement is uniquely suited for Manhattan, where the population density limits close encounters of the ex- kind.