How Brad Pitt has become a real-life Benjamin Button! The star turns 60 today but seems to be ageing in reverse

It is a universal truth when it is grudgingly acknowledged that there is a certain type of man who, like a fine wine, only gets better with age.

It's amazing to think that Brad Pitt, who was the first to make women and probably many men sit straighter in their cinema seats as the amoral cowboy in the feminist road movie Thelma & Louise, is 60 today. As his (almost) astral twin, I have to say that the Oscar-winning father of six wears his years extremely lightly.

Of course, it helps that he's kept his hair and hasn't 'let things go' in the tummy department. This may be due to the fact that he has stopped drinking and has apparently been following a vegan diet for the past six years. But his existence is not entirely joyless, as there is a new woman in his life who is only 32. Maybe she keeps him young.

There may even have been a few adjustments; but if so, they are of the discreet variety: not for Pitt the waxy glow of Putin, Simon Cowell or Nicole Kidman – the last time I saw Pitt on screen in Babylon, all his facial muscles seemed to move.

I suspect the secret to Pitt's box-fresh status at age 60 is down to good genes. I met him once on a movie set when he was in his 30s and dating Gwyneth Paltrow. Unlike many movie stars, who turn out to be small in real life, Pitt looks much the same off-screen as he does on-screen. He is tall, 6 feet tall, and unlike many actors who look awkward when they are out of character, he seemed very comfortable in his own skin.

Pitt once played Benjamin Button, a character who ages backwards after being born an old man and grows younger as the years pass, and his role now seems quite prescient.

Now that I look back on his performance in Thelma & Louise, I think I'd actually rather have him at 60 than at 30. In that movie he looked like an angel who had drifted away, but now the baby face is happily weathered and he looks wonderfully human. He has also graduated from the unfortunate sucker period and left the bucket hat behind him.

Unlike Tom Cruise, who looks like a teenager in his sixties, Brad Pitt has matured from boyish to manly.

Perhaps one of the reasons Pitt still looks so good is that he is no longer dating an actress. His first marriage to American sweetheart Jennifer Aniston ended when Pitt fell in love with his co-star Angelina Jolie in Mr & Mrs Smith. They had three biological children together and adopted two more (she adopted one child before their relationship, which Brad later adopted). Their marriage famously ended in acrimony – and it seems likely that the marriage's breakup was hastened by Pitt's drinking.

He has spoken publicly about his move to AA, and how he found common ground with his Legends Of The Fall co-star Anthony Hopkins over their mutual addiction issues. But all this turmoil doesn't seem to have left a mark on Pitt's face. If a man has the face he deserves at sixty, then Pitt must have been exceptionally good in a previous life.

Pitt's newcomer Ines de Ramon is, apart from being 29 years her junior, a jewelry designer, which sounds fairly non-neurotic. The world loves movie stars like Brangelina, but the double dose of attention puts enormous strain on the relationship unless half of the duo is willing to accept a lower bill.

When Jolie and Pitt met, they had pretty much equal billing as stars who could “open” a movie, but while Pitt has done some of his best work since their split, winning an Academy Award for his hilarious turn as a stuntman in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Jolie's last blockbuster was the Disney prequel to Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent in 2014.

If you're married to someone as famous, handsome, and ambitious as you, things probably won't end well.

Unlike Tom Cruise, who looks like a teenager in his sixties, Brad Pitt has matured from boyish to manly

Perhaps one of the reasons Pitt still looks so good is that he is no longer involved with an actress (Photo: Brad Pitt and actress Jennifer Aniston)

His first marriage to American sweetheart Jennifer Aniston ended when Pitt fell in love with his co-star Angelina Jolie (pictured) in Mr & Mrs Smith

Pitt once played Benjamin Button, a character who ages backwards after being born an old man and grows younger as the years pass, and his role now seems quite prescient.

Unlike many movie stars, who turn out to be small in real life, Pitt looks much the same off-screen as he does on-screen

Pitt is tall, 6 feet 4 inches, and unlike many actors who look awkward when they are out of character, he seemed very comfortable in his own skin

If a man has the face he deserves at sixty, then Pitt must have been exceptionally good in a previous life

One of the few showbiz marriages that lasted so long was that between Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, because Woodward wasn't jealous of her husband's fame, and perhaps because he knew he wouldn't do better than her. As he famously said, “Why eat out when you can eat steak at home?”

I wonder if Pitt still considers himself a sex symbol at 60? For my generation of women, he will always be in the top ten and he has aged much better than my other major crush, Russell Crowe.

I realize I would be the first to cry in outrage if I read an article by a man ranking female stars based on how well they age.

Talking about Pitt in terms of his looks is demeaning and doesn't take into account his acting skills, business acumen and formidable philanthropic influence, but I suspect Pitt doesn't care. If you were born a male with that level of genetic advantage, you're probably not too worried.

I've met very few beautiful women who aren't on some level insecure about their attractiveness – as Rita Hayworth, the famous red-haired Hollywood star who played a vamp in Gilda, said: 'They go to bed with Gilda, but they wake up. with me.'

Beautiful men don't worry about being objectified in the same way because they know in their hearts that they deserve their good looks. It's a man thing.

So happy birthday, Brad. Stick to the kale and enjoy your big day, safe in the knowledge that you still have it. Maybe you make a lot of middle-aged men insecure, but somehow I doubt that.