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Overall, a total of 1,450,281 mentions of celebs were tweeted out! Some of those definitely helped score each of our Live From the Red Carpet hosts Ryan, Giuliana Rancic, Kelly Osbourne and Ben Lyons their own worldwide trending topics throughout the night.
So who were the biggest social stars? Let's break it down:
Top 5 Female Celebs:
1. Meryl Streep: 133,815 mentions
2. Angelina Jolie: 99,722 mentions
3. Jennifer Lopez: 80,638 mentions
4. Emma Stone: 78,073 mentions
5. Viola Davis: 42,381 mentions
Top 5 Male Celebs:
1. George Clooney: 100,023 mentions
2. Brad Pitt: 59,308 mentions
3. Jean Dujardin: 55,986
4. Christopher Plummer: 51,621 mentions
5. Chris Rock: 39,033 mentions
Top 5 Best Pictures Nominees:
1. Hugo: 155,979 mentions
2. The Artist: 84,517 mentions
3. The Help: 37,267 mentions
4. Midnight in Paris: 14,031 mentions
5. The Descendants: 11,304 mentions
How Meryl Streep was able to out do Angelina's infamous leg, we'll never know but there you have it! What was your favorite moment from last night?!
The Twitter feed dubbed "Angie's Right Leg" has more than 12,000 followers by midday Monday.
Most of what Jolie's leg has to say is fairly simple-minded. Sample tweets include "I'm a leg!" and "Look at the leg!"
At the Oscars, Jolie's glamorous black dress featured a split by her right leg. She appeared to accentuate it while presenting the award for best adapted screenplay.
One of the winners of that category, "The Descendants" co-writer Jim Rash, mocked the pose while accepting his award.
Jolie struck the Barbie-esque posture, which showed off her leg to full effect thanks to a high slit in her voluminous gown, several times on the red carpet for photos. During the Oscars pre-show, "Angelina's leg" quickly became a trending topic on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
Perhaps aware of her leg's popularity, Jolie made a show of kicking her leg out and adopting the stance while presenting the award for Best Adapted Screenplay, almost as if she had practiced the lunging move for hours before the awards show.
As screenwriter Jim Rash ascended the stage to accept the award, along with fellow writers Nat Faxon and Alexander Payne, he took a moment to poke fun at Jolie's off-kilter stance. While Payne spoke at the microphone, Rash stood behind him and shimmied his leg out to the same angle as Jolie's, also placing his hand on his hip. The auditorium erupted in laughter.
After the ceremony, Rash -- a comedian who also plays Dean Pelton on "Community" -- explained the move.
"It was just an impulse. I was just standing there and I thought ..." he told the Washington Post, trailing off. "I hope it was okay. I hope she thought it was OK. It was a loving tribute."
A fan on Twitter also began a "loving tribute" to Jolie's stance, creating the user handle "AngiesRightLeg." So far, 11,475 Twitter users have followed the account, which has posted messages like, "You have to admit I'm one hell of a leg."
A new post from the handle this morning read, "Great meeting most of you for the first time last night at the Oscars!!"
Angelina Jolie knows how to strike a pose on the red carpet, but when she took the stage at Sunday's Oscars, the Best Adapted Screenplay presenter's posture raised eyebrows.
With a hand on her hip and her bare leg stretched out through the slit in her dress, the woman whom host Billy Crystal called "the original girl with the dragon tattoo" displayed over-the-top sass and sauciness.
The winners of the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars seemed to agree. Accepting for The Descendants, Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash emulated Jolie's paparazzi-worthy moment (and Jolie herself tucked her leg back in).
But because we're still not quite sure why Brad Pitt's date was working the camera from the stage, tell us:
What did you think of Angelina Jolie's Oscar moment?
So excited about what Jolie just told me on the Oscars red carpet...
The Academy Award alumna says she and her man (and her Mr. & Mrs. Smith costar) may be ready for another movie together.
"We're talking about it," she said. "We have an idea."
This being the year of Bridesmaids, I had to ask, a possible romantic comedy?
"We don't know how funny we are," she smiled. "And you you never know what you want to see an actual couple do. Sometimes it's better if they're not a couple."
Well, we'd watch the two of you read the telephone book together.
At least that's what the celebrity power couple told their six kids…
"We don't let them watch these things," the sexy actress told E! News on the red carpet before the show. "They don't really know about them actually."
In fact, on their way to the awards ceremony, the Moneyball Best Actor nominee and the hot mama told their children, "We say we have to go to work tonight—they said, 'Hurry home.'"
Shiloh & Co.'s paternal grandma and grandpa were also MIA: They walked the red carpet with Brangelina. "He's making sure his mom and dad have a good night," Angie gushed. "They're great parents and they're proud of him like all parents—no matter what he does."
With a family like this, who needs an Oscar?
When Jolie returns, the couple congratulate producer Grazer on the show, Pitt's arm around her waist. He holds out his hand for Jolie to grab, and the two walk arm in arm into the greenroom.
The megastars each practiced walking on stage and presenting their categories Friday, handing out prop Oscars to stand-ins pretending to be winners.
Jolie said she was jetlagged after traveling with her family from Sarajevo to Berlin to Paris to Los Angeles, but she still looked stunning in black jeans, heels and a blazer.
"You just blew the minds of two of our stand-ins who got a hug from you," stage manager Dency Nelson told the actress, who replied through a shy smile, saying, "Oh, you're so sweet."
Even telecast producer Brian Grazer was struck by Jolie's charm.
"You have to take a picture with me first!" he said as she walked onto the stage. "Well, you don't HAVE to," Grazer clarified.
Jolie obliged.
Cruise also posed for a photo with the producer, and likely made the days of the fake winners he presented prop Oscars to, beaming "Congratulations" to them with his leading-man smile.
The 84th Academy Awards will be presented Sunday and broadcast live on ABC.
Screenings attracted just a handful of viewers, local media said Friday, with one newspaper calling that "more than the movie deserves" and another deeming it a "fiasco."
Jolie's directorial debut — a love story in which a Serb soldier finds his ex-lover, a Muslim woman, among sex slaves in a camp — has triggered mixed emotions in the postwar Balkans, which are still grappling with historic ethnic tensions.
It received a standing ovation in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, but has sparked outrage among Serbs, who have blasted the movie as propaganda designed to portray them as the villains of the bloody 1992-95 Balkan wars.
Tens of thousands of people were killed in Bosnia's war, which pitted the country's ethnic Serbs against Muslims and Croats. Serbs have been widely blamed for most of the atrocities in the conflict, which is considered to be Europe's worst bloodshed since World War II.
Only 12 people attended the earliest screening in a movie theater in central Belgrade, some of whom left before the end, reports said.
"More police were there than viewers," a cinema employee, who identified himself only as Misha, said.
The right-leaning, mass-market Nationalist Press daily wrote that "the film is so bad that it warrants no reaction." It added that only five people have turned up for a "ghostly empty" screening in another cinema — "more than the movie deserves," it said.
Later Friday, 28 people attended an afternoon screening, among them retiree Dragan Pjevac, who said that "there should be a second half to this movie" about the crimes against Serbs.
"In fact, there should be seven or eight parts of any such film in our region," he added, referring to the history of violence among the Balkans many ethnic groups.
In stark contrast to Serbia, thousands have so far seen Jolie's movie in both Croatia and Bosnia. In both countries, Jolie attended red-carpet premieres along with top dignitaries. In Montenegro, hundreds attended the opening screenings on Thursday.
Well, according to Amazon's description, Thornton's book, The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts, will be "spinning colorful tales of his modest (to say the least) Southern upbringing, his bizarre phobias (komoda dragons?), his life, his loves (including his heartbreakingly brief marriage to fellow Oscar winner Angelina Jolie)," so she will definitely be included in the book (although we'd still like to see that wild romance portrayed on the big screen).
But we could have all guessed that right off that bat.
How else is she linked to the project?
A rep for the book's publisher, HarperCollins, confirms to E! News that Jolie agreed to write the foreword to her ex-husband's book.
How nice is that?!
There is no detail as to what Brad Pitt's lady said about her former love interest, but according to the publisher, Thornton turned in his manuscript yesterday and the memoir will be published May 15, so we can find out then.
We know, the anticipation is killing us, too.
"Most of the people here in the audience lived through the war," one attendee told PEOPLE, referring to the 1992 Bosnian War that provides the backdrop for the movie. "Seeing the film was so emotional."
The premiere in the Bosnian capital city, which was ravaged during the civil war, fulfills a promise the couple made last July. During an unannounced drop-in visit to the 17th annual Sarajevo Film Festival, where Jolie was honored for her part in promoting the nation's film industry, she told attendees, "We'll be back."
"To see you receiving it so well means the world to me,” a tearful Jolie, 36, told the audience of 6,000 Tuesday, following the screening at Zetra Olympic Hall. "I feel so deeply for all of you in this country," she said, adding a "Thank you" in Bosnian.
After the screening, Jolie and Pitt stayed to talk to the crowd, most of whom were there through the war.
At an afternoon press conference, Jolie discussed her film and the long controversial history it has in the Balkan country, saying she hoped the film would serve as a "wake-up call” for the international community.
"I'm satisfied with what we made, I feel very strongly about it and I believe that its core issue – which is the need for intervention and need for the world to care about atrocities when they are happening – is very, very timely and especially with things that are happening in Syria today,” Jolie told journalists from the Associated Foreign Press.
"I just felt that this subject was important and was really moved by it."
A report in the UK's Express said Jolie and some cast members had received violent threats during filming, but the film's distributor they did not extend to the premiere.
"Not at all," Ivona Lusic of Blitz Film told PEOPLE. "There were no threats [at the premiere]."
Jolie also announced her return to acting at a premiere in Berlin, revealing her next film project would be Maleficent, a retelling of Disney's Sleeping Beauty from the Evil Queen's point of view.
But she also hasn't ruled out returning to directing.
"If I can find something that means as much to me, I will try, but if this is the only thing I ever directed, I would be very happy," she told journalists in Sarajevo.
Jolie attended a lavish premiere of the film in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Tuesday. The star became overwhelmed with tears while receiving a standing ovation from the film's 5,000 attendees.
"It means so much to me -- and I can't tell you how much it means to be here with all of you and to share this film," a tearful Jolie told the crowd, according to Us Weekly.
She shared the next day in an interview, ''During the screening last night, Brad and I sat together. He held my hand and I just took a deep breath and cried."
But Jolie won't get the same moment of release in Serbia.
The film's distributor now says that the movie will open without fanfare in Belgrade, the country's largest city. The film won't have a red-carpet premiere there at all.
"The movie will be shown normally," the distributor tells the Huffington Post. "Whoever wants to see it will have a chance to do so."
"In the Land of Blood and Honey" is set during the Bosnian War, and tells the story of a Serbian soldier who discovers that his former lover, a Bosnian woman, is a slave at the military camp where he is posted. The film not only uses local actors, but was shot in the local languages.
Last night, Jolie and Pitt attended the film's premiere in Paris. Today, the film premieres in Croatia.
That's exactly what Angelina Jolie did when she hit the premiere of her flick In the Land of Blood and Honey in a drop-dead stunning ensemble—and an equally drop-dead stunning date in partner Brad Pitt.
The actress and first-time director looked amazing when she stepped out of her comfort zone of caftans and simple silhouettes and into a white-hot Ralph & Russo single-sleeve gown adorned with a dramatic grey rosette over one shoulder.
Angelina finished off the über-glamorous look with her curly locks swept over one shoulder, Jimmy Choo high heels, Lorraine Schwartz heels and that famous pout covered in va-va-voom red lipstick.
Oh, and let's not forget about her best accessory, arm candy Brad, natch who doesn't look too shabby either in a Gucci suit and matching spectacles.
What do you think of Angie's chic look?
While attending the Bosnian premiere of her hard-fought directing debut In the Land of Blood and Honey, Jolie became overcome with emotion and teared up with emotion while taking the stage at her cinematic homecoming.
While Angie was all business on the red carpet beforehand, when she took to the stage later on in the night, she seemed immediately overcome after receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.
"It means so much to all of us, it means so much to me and I can't tell you how much it means to be here with all of you and to share this film and that you're receiving it so warmly means the world to me," a clearly emotional and shaky-voiced Jolie told the crowd before the film.
"I care so deeply for all of you in this country."
(Video)
Rapturous and encouraging applause in the 5,000-strong auditorium in which the film screened, naturally followed.
Jolie was joined by Brad Pitt at the screening, but it was apparently a quick trip. The duo was spotted flying back out of the country yesterday.
Hard-core PDA on the red carpet, matching tattoos, vials of each other's blood around their necks (blech). This unhappily-ever-after love story has just been waiting to be made into a flick.
So did Billy Bob Thornton finally use his personal life has inspiration for his new project? Variety quotes a producer claiming that Billy Bob's script for And Then We Drove is partly inspired by his outrageous relationship with ex-wife Angelina Jolie.
Hang on to your movie tickets, folks, because this rumor is...
So false!
Thornton's rep tells E! News, "This story is not true. It is neither based on nor inspired by his relationship with Angelina."
Well, there you have it.
But seriously, could someone get on that? It would really be an exciting film to watch, don't you think?
While thousands in Sarajevo, a mostly Bosnian Muslim city, were braving deep snow and freezing temperatures to attend the gala screening of "In the Land of Blood and Honey," distributors in the Serb region of Bosnia have decided not to show it.
"I am absolutely not anti-Serbian," Jolie said, answering a question during a news conference in Sarajevo, where she arrived with partner Brad Pitt to present the movie in the city where many of the most brutal events of the 1992-95 conflict occurred.
"I think it's sad that that question has to be asked today and I think that shows how divided this region still remains."
The film tells the story of the war through an ambiguous relationship between Danijel, a Bosnian Serb, and Ajla, a Bosnian Muslim woman, whose affection becomes hostage to their respective ethnic groups.
They attempt to maintain their relationship against a backdrop of war, killings and rapes, and pressure from their families, which proves impossible.
"I know this will bring back many painful memories because I know it's a difficult film to watch," Jolie, dressed in an elegant black dress, told the audience of 5,000 in a Sarajevo sports centre before the film screening.
"But I hope when you do, it doesn't just remind you of what you've suffered but it also reminds you of all that you've survived," she said with tears in her eyes.
Some of the wartime rape victims, whose protests against the details of the plot halted the shooting of the film in Bosnia, praised the film as difficult, true and brave after it was shown during a one-week screening in Sarajevo in December.
However, some Bosnian Serbs say that Jolie has failed to show balance in presenting all sides of the Bosnian atrocities.
"OFFENSIVE"
Vlado Ljevar, the private film distributer and owner of the main cinema in Banja Luka, the largest city in the Serb region of Bosnia, said he would not show film.
"I am 100 percent sure that nobody would want to see it in Republika Srpska. Another reason is political, because the audience here considers the content of the film as offensive for the Serb people," Ljevar told Reuters.
Jolie said she would cancel her planned visit to Belgrade to attend a premiere screening there.
"It's not just a simple threat, it's not my safety I'm concerned about," she said. "There is so much hostility in the press, there is so much hostility and aggression where I don't know if they are able to see the film clearly at this time."
And she dismissed the criticism of any perceived bias.
"The war was not balanced so ... when we say balance we mean that it is not black and white, it's not pure good and pure evil, that there are layers to each character that shows their humanity, and their own pain and their own history and they are complex," Jolie said.
"The response from the region all the more shows the importance of bringing films like this to the forefront, and because the debate is all right as long as people are talking and discussing the past and using this as a tool in some way how ever they do to move forward."
While the audience in Bosnia's Serb region will not see the film in movie theatres, an activist has organized a private screening in her home, with Jolie's blessing.
"I don't want that someone speaks in my name and claims that it is the stance of the whole nation," Ana Vidovic, a Bosnian Serb woman from the northwestern town of Prijedor, told Reuters.
Jolie, who arrived in Sarajevo with partner Brad Pitt to attend the screening, earned a standing ovation as the film began before a crowd of 5,000 people. She greeted the crowd in Bosnian, before acknowledging in English that it would bring back painful memories of the bloody 1992-95 war.
At an earlier press conference, Jolie said the movie was "heavy" but that she was happy with it because it shows what horrors can occur in the absence of a timely intervention.
She said she hoped the film could serve as a "wake-up call" for the international community to pay more attention to atrocities and act to prevent them — including in Syria.
"I am satisfied with what we made, I feel very strongly about it and I believe that its core issue — which is the need for intervention and need for the world to care about atrocities when they are happening — is very, very timely and especially with things that are happening in Syria today," she said.
The film, which has already been released in the U.S. follows what happens when the man becomes an army officer and the woman is held in a military prison camp where rape occurs. Some Serbs have accused the film of demonizing them.
"I think it is very important that this film is out at this time and ... if this film points the finger at anybody it is the international community," she said.
The distributor in the Serb part of Bosnia said he won't show it there because it portrays Serbs as the villains and they wouldn't put up with that.
"There is simply no interest for this movie here, so I can't sell any tickets," Vladimir Ljevar told The Associated Press. "The fact that the Serbs are the bad guys in it is the reason why there is no interest. The film is lousy. I watched it. It has had bad reviews. It is unprofitable."
But Jolie rejected the claim that her film was anti-Serb.
"I understand that it's sensitive," she said. "But I also know that the Serbian people are intelligent and open-minded people. They will know the difference between what's been forced upon them and what they feel in their own hearts."
She said that "although it's difficult, I hope that they see intention behind it."
Jolie noted she worked on the plot with people from both sides of the conflict.
"We were trying to find humanity on all sides and yet we were addressing the horrors of something that we felt we must show in a horrific way," Jolie said. "That is not an easy balance to find in such a sensitive subject matter, so we did our best; that was very hard, the politics of this region are very complicated."
Thousands of women were raped during Bosnia's war, which also included the notorious Srebrenica massacre in July 1995 and the 44-month siege of the capital, Sarajevo. Most of the rape victims were Muslim Bosniak women, often the target of mass rape used as a weapon of terror.
Many of the victims were raped repeatedly. Some were brought back to their homes and dumped in front of their husbands. Other women were violated in their husbands' presence as part of a shock campaign.
Defying the unofficial censorship in the Serb part of the country, Ana Vidovic, a Bosnian Serb woman from Prijedor organized a private screening in her home Saturday after she got approval from Jolie.
She told local media she was annoyed by claims there is no interest in the movie among Bosnian Serbs. "I am the public and as far as I remember, nobody asked me," she said.
Jolie said Vidovic's gesture meant very much to her team, so she wrote her a letter and approved the screening.
"We will do that for anyone who wants to have a private screening. And we hope that we encourage the people to see it somehow," Jolie said.
A group of Muslim Bosniaks who now have returned to their homes in the Serb part of the country say they are interested in seeing Jolie's movie and plan to organize private screenings.
Jolie said she made this film because "I just felt that this subject was important and I was really moved by it."
She said she may direct again.
"If I can find something that means as much to me, I will try, but if this is the only thing I ever directed, I would be very happy."
The film, which is showing at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday, is set to make its full debut in the Bosnian capital on Feb. 14, though it already has been shown to some groups there.
Already released in the U.S., Jolie's directorial debut is a drama about a Serb soldier who finds his ex-lover, a Muslim Bosnian woman, among sex slaves in a camp.
"I'm nervous and I'm excited," Jolie said of the Bosnian premiere. "I'll probably cry through the entire thing."
"I'll be very, very moved because, of course, a lot of the people coming are the victims of war so it's going to be heavy," she added.
Jolie, 36, said that "it didn't take much for me to be driven" while directing the film, noting that her cast lived through the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
Actress Vanesa Glodjo, she said, crossed Sarajevo's "Sniper Alley" — named after the heavy fire by sharpshooters that made it notoriously dangerous — daily to get to her theater school.
"Art meant that much to her that she risked her life every day," Jolie said. "The privilege you feel to have the opportunity to work with such a dedicated and such an extraordinary human being made it all ... just wonderful."
Glodjo said that Jolie "gave me the words and opportunity to express what I lived during the war."
Jolie's film is showing outside the main competition at the Berlin festival.
The film has triggered outrage among Serbs although it has yet to be premiered in Serbia and the Serb-controlled parts of Bosnia. Authorities rejected a request by some Serb war veterans' organizations to ban the film because of alleged anti-Serb bias.
Jolie stressed during a press conference at the festival Saturday that "this is not a documentary ... it's an artistic interpretation."
"I tried to bring as much as I could but there are many different sides to war, many different sides to this war," she said.
"This was this particular story, but there are many different stories to be told in this war and many different ways to tell the story of this war."
Mom and Maddox, Pax and Shiloh piled into a Mercedes van and headed to the indoor fun facility, where the kids played for about 90 minutes, before selecting some Lego toys from the gift shop. Pax had the hardest time deciding which package to choose, reports the German tabloid, B.Z..
Jolie seems to be a fan of Legoland, having visited the version in England with one of her kids last September. She also has donated generously to Merlin's Magic Wand, a worldwide charity created by the operator of Legoland to provide fun experiences for children who are seriously ill, disabled or disadvantaged.
After their visit Thursday, the Jolie-Pitts headed back to their hotel across from the landmark Brandenburg Gate to play, as Jolie prepares to show her film, In the Land of Blood and Honey, at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.
On Wednesday, reports the Bild newspaper, Jolie paid a quiet visit by herself to Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
Angelina Jolie was, once again, seen making her way to a different part of the planet with her children in tow.
On Tuesday night, the actress and her brood arrived at their hotel in Berlin, where the Oscar winner is preparing to screen her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, at the German city's annual film festival this weekend.
Earlier in the week, Jolie's significant other, Brad Pitt, addressed his family's globetrotting ways on CBS This Morning, saying the couple's six tykes are "quite used to a bit of jet lag and moving to a new location."
We're not sure where these tiny travelers will turn up next, but both mom and dad are due in Los Angeles at the Oscars on Feb. 26, with her presenting and him being a Best Actor contender.
"She's still a bad girl," a grinning Pitt, 48, said Monday on CBS This Morning. "Delightfully so. It's not for public consumption."
It might be one of the only private aspects of his and 36-year-old Jolie's family life, which is often in the spotlight as the couple travels around the world with their children in tow.
"They're quite used to a bit of jetlag and moving to a new location, as long as we're together," Pitt told co-host Charlie Rose of their brood. "So the home's always intact. They've got to pack their own bags, and they're responsible if they leave their chargers behind, and so on and so forth."
Of their children – Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, and Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 5, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 3 – Pitt told Rose of the sheer joy the family has "because we are together," and how the best actor Oscar nominee's work has even "gotten better because I worry less about it. I mean, it's not as important as family."
That's what could be expected, given Pitt's recent comments about the pressure to propose – but according to Jolie, 36, her longtime beau's comments were a bit overblown.
"I think anything said tends to be blown out of proportion," Jolie told PEOPLE on Sunday's red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in L.A., when asked about "a lot of ring-talk lately."
"Yeah, that was my fault," Pitt, 48, admitted, with a smile.
Speculation that wedding bells may be in the near future for the famous couple stem from Pitt's interview with CBS News in which he said he and Jolie are "getting a lot of pressure from the kids."
"It means something to them," he continued. "We will [get married] someday, we will. It's a great idea. 'Get mommy a ring.' 'OK, I will, I will.' "
And then last week, Pitt reiterated those same comments to The Hollywood Reporter.
"It seems to mean more and more to our kids," he said. "We made this declaration some time ago that we weren't going to [get married] till everyone can. But I don't think we'll be able to hold out … it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment."
Now, it seems, the couple may be playing with a new deck.
"We'd actually like to, and it seems to mean more and more to our kids," Pitt, 48, tells The Hollywood Reporter of the couple's current thoughts on matrimony. "We made this declaration some time ago that we weren't going to do it till everyone can. But I don't think we'll be able to hold out."
Does that mean he's asked Jolie, 36 – his partner of seven years – to marry him?
"I'm not going to go any further," says the actor, who has been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Moneyball. "[But] it means so much to my kids, and they ask a lot. And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment."
Jolie, too, has addressed the subject of marriage as it relates to the couple's six children: "They have asked, yeah, because ? people get married in the movies," Jolie told Nightline in an interview that aired last month.
But before finding happiness with Jolie and their brood, Pitt says he went through a much darker period.
"I used to deal with depression, but I don't now, not this decade – maybe last decade," says Pitt. "But that's also figuring out who you are. I see it as a great education, as one of the seasons or a semester. 'This semester I was majoring in depression.' "
Angelina Jolie swung by an L.A. farmers' market on Sunday with three of her kids in tow: Shiloh, Knox and Pax. The Earth mom looked chic and subdued in an all-black ensemble, but it was her kids who turned out to be her most adorable and eye-catching accessories.
Shiloh, in particular, sported a short new 'do, and her outfit complemented Mom's all-black getup. Matchy-matchy!
So what did the Jolie-Pitt mini-clan do at the market?
PopSugar reports that the kids had a blast snacking on goodies like chocolate-covered strawberries and Italian ices, and that Knox even got to hop a ride on a pony. Pax, on the other hand, showcased some martial-arts derring-do.
(Do we have a budding action star in the fam here? Hollywood agents, line up and take a number!)
Consider it a moment of calm for Jolie, who, along with beau Brad Pitt, is having a busy awards season. She's been making the rounds on behalf of her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, which snagged a Golden Globe nom and recently won her the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild.
Don't expect things to mellow down soon. This morning, Pitt scored an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his understated work in Moneyball. So, you can expect to see way more of the power couple on the red carpet.
Let's hope Angie bought a whole bunch of fruit at that market: Sounds like it's time to make daddy a celebratory pie!
Well, she loves it so much that...
She could see herself giving up acting one day to go behind the camera fulltime.
"I still love acting–if I can find those roles that matter," Jolie told me at the Producers Guild Awards, where her writing and directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey was honored with the Stanley Kramer Award. "But if I don't, it's nice to be able to shine the spotlight on another actress your think is extremely talented and give her the spotlight."
Fortunately, Jolie is still finding roles that matter to her. Coming up is starring as Sleeping Beauty's nemesis in the live-action fairy-tale thriller Maleficent. "It's neat for my kids," Jolie said.
Asked how evil she'll be in the flick, she smiled, "She's got horns and all."
Perhaps a superhero movie could be in her and Brad Pitt's future? During the Producers Guild Awards, which took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the two were spotted chatting with comic book legend Stan Lee.
Speaking with Reuters at Saturday's Producers Guild Awards in Beverly Hills, Pitt said that he and Jolie, who are each busy on both sides of the camera as well as raising six children together, will talk shop at the end of a long day.
"Usually we argue shop every now and then," Pitt said, noting that they tend to differ in their approach. "She's much more decisive, she's much more quick. I've got to see everything. I've got to shop the entire eBay to know exactly what I want and what I need."
When he's stumped, Pitt said, "I'll always go to her and talk it out."
Jolie, who received the guild's Stanley Kramer Award for her directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," said Pitt's role as a producer calls for different skills. He produced and starred in "Moneyball," one of the 10 films nominated for the Producers Guild's top prize.
"I had to direct, I think it's different. I think he'd execute properly if he was the director," Jolie said. "But I do like to think of myself as decisive, so I'll take that."
Regarding her first work in the director's chair, a love story set amid the harrowing destruction of the Bosnian War, Jolie said her intention "wasn't to make a political statement against anybody. It was simply to say, 'We must talk about what happened, we must try to learn from what happened, we must try to see humanity on all sides,' and if we can, then we can start to move forward."
On the other hand, Jolie admitted that she was "fascinated" by a political matter somewhat closer to home: the Republican presidential race.
"There's that part of us that's wanting to learn about what's going on, and wanting to see who could possibly be the next president, and taking that very seriously, which it is. And then there's that other part of it that is this strange television ... these characters that we're watching. So you try to kind of separate that," Jolie said, adding that "it goes into the bizarre sometimes."
It's a story about physical and emotional survival. Written and directed by Angelina Jolie, In The Land Of Blood and Honey is a hard-hitting look at the realities of conflict, which most certainly cover rape, murder, pillage and all the other exigencies of war that have been so carefully withheld from public view for the last 30-odd years.
Jolie tells her tale through the specifics of a single relationship. It's 1992, the year Bosnia declares independence and the year that ethnic cleansing begins. An artist named Ajla (Zana Marjanovic) gets ready to go on a date with someone she has obviously just met. Danijel (Goran Kostic) takes her dancing. Their chemistry is obvious, but their evening is interrupted by violence, and after that the story jumps forward a few months.
(Trailer)
In that brief time, things have obviously changed for the worse. Ajla and her sister, who are Bosniak Muslims, are wakened by the sound of soldiers putting people out of their apartment block. The men are removed. Some of the women are selected to be taken away on buses. Ajla, who is one of those women, sees a man shot dead in the street. She ends up in a prison camp where it appears to be a given that women will be raped by the soldiers in charge. This all unfolds in a fashion just as surreal as it sounds.
And lo and behold, there at the camp is her friend Danijel, who is a Serbian officer. He removes her from immediate danger and speaks to her in a familiar way, happy to see her and a bit oblivious to her situation. Danijel confides to her that he isn't happy about having to shoot people he went to school with. Ajla is horrified, but is eventually drawn into a relationship of sorts with Danijel for her own survival. It's far more complicated than that, but let's just say that each has genuine emotion invested in being together. He can protect her in some ways. She can protect him in others.
Running parallel to Ajla's experiences in the camp are her sister's attempts to fend for herself and her infant son back at the apartment block. Her sister's existence plays out against a backdrop of complete urban ruin: the city where they live is a bombed-out shell, and anyone who ventures out into the street is likely to be shot by soldiers. The element of the surreal is emphasized again when a resistance fighter in the midst of chaos and bloodshed talks about getting food supplies and aid from Italy -- where, 40 minutes from Sarajevo, tourists are enjoying themselves and people are getting a bit of sun.
As history, as storytelling and as human drama, In The Land Of Blood and Honey is an impressive project. Jolie has a number of things on her side here, including a superb cast that is mostly unknown to western viewers -- always a boon to the willing suspension of disbelief.
And it doesn't hurt that her cinematographer, Dean Semler, brings a painterly beauty to the look of the film that quietly underlines the horror of its events. The film is visually stunning. This is an unusually intelligent and courageous, albeit deeply disturbing, project.
In The Land Of Blood and Honey is in Serbo-Croatian, with English subtitles.
And we're so relieved they've worked it all out, because who else better to spill some dish on all those cute kiddos…well, besides Brangelina themselves, of course!
So, does Grandpa Jon think any of the adorable tots have a future in H'wood?
Definitely!
When we asked Jon whether he saw a future in acting for his grandkids, he responded without any hesitation:
"I do actually," he spilled with a smirk at the G'Day USA Black Tie Gala Saturday night.
No surprise there! After all, acting definitely runs in the genes of this famous fam and we would love to see any of the adorable kiddos on the big screen.
So did Jon reveal which one of the brood is most likely to fill ma and pa's giant acting shoes?
"I don't want to say, but I have a feeling that they will," he admitted. "I have no doubt."
And even though he refused to dish any specifics on the kids, we had to ask G-pa if he has any fears for the young ones if they do decide to try their hand at entertainment—especially since Angelina has never been shy about her troubled time as a young actress.
But rest assured, Mr. Voight suggests just the opposite:
"Hollywood should be afraid of them," he gushed. "These guys are really something."
All together now: Awwww!
Voight continues: "I try to give them support as Brad and Angie do…they really let these kids be who they are."
Too friggin' cute, right?! If only we could fast forward to the days when adorable Shiloh and Zahara will strut the red carpet—here's hoping!
Individually, they oozed old-school, movie-star looks, but together, they were the buzz of the red carpet at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., setting a high bar for style.
"There is mystery there. We know so much about everybody else that this couple is so exciting, and you love to see them," said stylist Mary Alice Stephenson. "They are so elegant ... and she's immaculate head to toe. She's so beautiful and icy, you love to watch her and you can't take your eyes off her."
Jolie led the march of stylish, seasoned veterans, who are mothers, moguls and — on nights like these — the best models around.
Stephenson called out Elle Macpherson in a strapless, tiered Zac Posen gown in ivory, Kate Beckinsale in a blush-colored beaded Roberto Cavalli, Reese Witherspoon in a red, corsetlike Posen, Nicole Kidman in a studded Versace and Salma Hayek in a bold, metallic Gucci.
Charlize Theron wore a dusty-rose colored gown by Christian Dior Couture with a plunging neckline, high slit and big bow on the waist, and Heidi Klum was in a plunging-back, blush-tone gown by Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein. She accented her look with a huge turquoise necklace.
"It's good for real women to see women who have a little age and maybe motherhood who can get their glam on in a very sexy way," Stephenson said.
Hal Rubenstein, fashion director for InStyle, noted the prevailing sophistication and elegance. "It's a very pretty night," he said. "Everybody wanted to look pretty and grown up. There wasn't a slashed skirt. There was an understanding that fashion isn't about being outrageous."
Among his favorites were Julianna Margulies in a purple caviar-beaded gown by Naeem Khan that showed off an open back.
Khan is one of Michelle Obama's go-to designers for formal occasions, and with open back and long sleeves from the designer's spring collection at the Golden Globe Awards. One of her other favorites, Jason Wu, made the leap to the West Coast, dressing Michelle Williams in a blue velvet gown.
Williams' biggest style statement, however, was her diamond garland headband by Fred Leighton for Forevermark.
The blue gown that surely turned some heads was the Vera Wang worn by Sofia Vergara. It was the mermaid silhouette that's becoming her signature, but the knife-pleated bodice and swirling sheared bias flange skirt were a little more fashion forward than the styles she's worn before.
Vergara said she so often wears Wang because of her gowns' fit: "She's like a genius now with my body."
There were some new names making bold fashion statements at the Globes, reassuring the next generation of style watchers. Jessica Chastain was at the ceremony for the first time wearing a high-neck, pearl-covered Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci. The details, down to her thin gold belt and pearl-and-diamond earrings, were just right.
Mila Kunis wore a one-shouldered black Dior. Her makeup artist Tracey Levy said she looked a bit like Elizabeth Taylor, but even more like "a brunette Grace Kelly."
"She looked classic Hollywood, but youthful ... with an innocence but also a grown woman who is confident," said Levy, who stuck to peach and coral Dior shades.
Zooey Deschanel wore a unique Prada dark-green halter gown with black and emerald glass pearls on the bodice and ivory pearls at the neck, and Rooney Mara, in a deep V-neck black gown with a bare, harness-style bodice. "It's a Nina Ricci and it was the first one I tried on," Mara said. "It was very comfortable."
Rubenstein thought Mara is playing her cards right in introducing herself to a broader audience. "She's doing a very savvy bridge between personal style and the character she plays in 'Dragon Tattoo.'"
First-timer Octavia Spencer wore a lavender, draped gown by Tadashi with a V neck and jeweled details. "We wanted to create something Grecian that highlighted her curves and vibrant personality," said Shoji in a statement.
Rubenstein noted how many women went the purple route, including Emma Stone in Lanvin, Jessica Alba in Gucci and Shailene Woodley in an embroidered illusion column dress by Marchesa.
Lea Michele wore one of the beaded, under-the-sea fantasy frocks from Marchesa's spring runway.
Madonna, whose style has been all over the map in her long career, went back to her rock 'n' roll roots for this event wearing a dark green embroidered gown with cap sleeves by Reem Acra and a diamond-and-pearl cross by Neil Lane.
"I love it because I feel like I'm wearing chain mail and I'm ready to go to battle," said Madonna.
Claire Danes took a very modern turn in a graphic black-and-white J. Mendel gown with an open back, and Kate Winslet did the opposites-attract thing in a Jenny Packham gown with a black hammered silk satin bodice and ivory silk crepe skirt.
"There was not a real miss, definitely nothing cataclysmic," said Rubenstein. "Those days of big goofs are few and far between now. People are too smart, their stylists are too smart — and they all have good relationships with designers."
As if there was any doubt!
But were the superstar couple, both of them nominees for a change, in a chatty move? Jolie's icy white Versace gown with red accents almost made her look too majestic to be human, and Pitt is still nursing that nagging MCL injury that requires him to tote a cane around...
But of course they stopped to do their sacred duty on the red carpet—or else risk being the object of much what's-with-them derision.
A Salvatore Farragamo-tuxedoed Pitt pulled up lame to E!'s Ryan Seacrest first, explaining that his partner in criminal hotness got "stuck in the barrage of cameras."
But Jolie wasn't gone for long, and then Seacrest was able to congratulate both on their achievements in one fell swoop.
"It's certainly nice [to both be nominated]," Pitt, who had journalists' hearts aflutter when he was spotted opening the car door for Jolie upon their arrival.
"I know how hard she worked ont his film...I certainly know how hard I worked. It's nice when everything comes together, nad people work so hard on these films and for them to be understood and accepted this way, it's a golden night for us."
Jolie, as the director of In the Land of Blood and Honey, maintained a rather serious demeanor, saying she was more concerned about the people of Bosnia's reaction to her film than American audiences.
"I was nervous about people in Bosnia seeing it who survived war and rape," she said, rather intensely for a typical red-carpet convo.
But, you could sense how proud she was of her achievement—and why shouldn't she be?!
"It's a very difficult subject matter, it's done in a foreign language, and with people nobody knows," she explained. "These are difficult times and people don't often want to watch difficult movies in difficult times, but it's important to revisit this history no matter, so we pushed forward and made it."
And by jove, she and Pitt looked great tonight.
The two were among attendees at the annual Golden Globes foreign-language seminar on Saturday at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, where directors nominated in the category discussed this year's competition.
The entries include Jolie's "In the Land of Blood and Honey," about family strife and abuse of women in Bosnia, and Almodovar's psycho-thriller "The Skin I Live In."
Unlike other celebrities at the event, Jolie surprised reporters by showing up early, relaxed and gracious as she posed for photographers and talked about what inspired her to move behind the camera for "Blood and Honey."
At one point, Jolie half-joked to a Spanish reporter that she was angry with Almodovar because he'd yet to hire her for a role. When Almodovar was given that news by an Associated Press reporter — within earshot of Jolie — the actress jumped into the fray.
"I am right here," Jolie noted. "Yes, because you have never given me a job."
"Oh my God," said a flustered Almodovar. "No, no don't worry, you are joining now. Absolutely."
"So one day," Jolie responded, "when all these cameras are gone, we find a film together."
As she fielded questions from fans last night during a live online chat about her directorial debut, the Oscar winner admitted that the project definitely took its toll during production.
"I had a complete emotional breakdown in the shower and Brad [Pitt] found me crying," revealed Jolie. "I felt this huge responsibility and I felt very small. I thought, 'Who am I to take this on?'...I had a complete meltdown."
The actress says such trepidation stemmed from the fact that she "didn't plan to become a director" when she wrote the movie's screenplay.
"I still have trouble saying I'm a director," she admitted. "I just wanted to tell this story and I ended up, by default, being the director."
Well, as far as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is concerned, Jolie wound up doing a pretty good job behind the camera. In the Land of Blood and Honey has been nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Foreign Language Film category. We'll find out Sunday if it takes home the gold.
But this time, she got some facetime with the president!
The Oscar winner and her man Brad Pitt scored a meeting with President Barack Obama today at the White House, the commander in chief penciling them in before he was set to leave for Chicago.
You have one guess as to what they talked about. No, not the New Hampshire primary...
Jolie and Obama discussed the plight of women caught up in war zones—such as the one depicted in her film The Land of Blood and Honey—and how the United States can get involved combating mass violence against civilians in troubled areas.
And surely Pitt, who consulted with Obama a couple of years ago regarding his plans for the redevelopment of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward, was able to contribute to the dialogue as well. (No word on whether Secret Service confiscated his cane before he was granted a private audience with the president.)
The do-gooding couple were in town for a screening of Jolie's film at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
After his glammier-than-usual meeting, Obama jetted to Chicago for a surprise visit to his reelection-campaign headquarters to thank staffers for their diligence.
The couple – joined by 12 others, including President Obama's senior advisor Valerie Jarrett – opted for Palmer's $35.12 prix fixe Restaurant Week menu, and started with chopped salads of romaine, endive, goat cheese, bacon, cranberry and red wine vinegar. For entrées, Pitt chose the coulotte steak with sweet potato purée and braised greens, while Jolie savored the roasted chicken breast with buttered new potatoes and marjoram jus. Pitt, who was recently injured during a fall, indulged in the dark chocolate pavé with milk chocolate ice cream for dessert, while Jolie passed on the sweets.
According to an onlooker, the party of 14 stayed at the restaurant for two hours, and was "extremely pleasant and gracious to both fans and the staff."
"I'm not one of those moms who kind of lectures [my kids]," Jolie, 36, told reporters on Saturday at the 23rd Annual Palm Springs Film Festival. "But I do tell them, whenever I go on a trip, where I'm going and why. And on some occasions, they've come with me to different refugee camps. And they also go to their home countries a lot."
The actress, who wore an Elie Saab gown to the festival's awards gala, has faith her little ones will make decisions based on what they see in their day-to-day lives.
"Hopefully they live in the world, and they see the world really as it is, outside of Hollywood," she says. "If they really live in the world and spend time with friends around the world from all different types of backgrounds, they [will] just see things as they are."
Even though Jolie doesn't expect her children to take up the same causes, she does look for opportunities – such as daughter Zahara's birthday on Sunday – to remind them about who they are and where they come from.
"We make sure we're very aware of her culture and her heritage," Jolie says of Zahara, who turned 7 on Sunday. "She's an African-American girl, so we make that a part of anything she does. So that'll be a part of her [birthday]."
But being injured is worth it if it means his children are OK...
Pitt told reporters at last night's Palm Springs International Film Festival gala that he hurt himself when he took a fall while carrying daughter Vivienne.
Angelina Jolie said it's not the first injury of its kind at the Jolie-Pitt household.
"When [Maddox] was younger, I took a fall and cracked my elbow because I wanted to make sure he didn't have the fall," Jolie said. "Every parent has injured themselves. Every parent will stand in the line of fire for their kids so it's a normal thing."
Jolie said Pitt isn't milking the injury at home. "He's not that kind of guy," she said. "He does everything still."
"I'm proud of him every single day," Jolie said of her hubby, who last night was presented the Desert Palm Achievement Award by his Moneyball costar Jonah Hill.
Jolie told me she's likely to direct again after making her debut earlier this year with In The Land of Blood and Honey.
"It's such a weird thing. I sat down to try to write something and I can't even believe it's become a film," she said. "I do have a pile of things I haven't shown anybody, including one on Afghanistan."
The fantasy movie is told from the viewpoint of Beauty's apple-bearing fairy godmother, played by Angelina Jolie. It is being touted as a post-modern take on the classic fairy tale.
It will mark Stromberg's directing debut.
"Maleficent" is written by Linda Woolverton, who also wrote the script for Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" and co-wrote the script for "The Lion King." Don Hahn, Joe Roth and Richard D. Zanuck produce.
The "Maleficent" news comes following the announcement that Disney had tapped another first-time director, Brian Beletic, for a Matterhorn-ride-inspired movie referred to as the "Untitled Explorers Project."
Angelina Jolie makes her directorial debut with this elegantly shot, deliberately paced and unflinching look at the Bosnian War of the early 1990s. Jolie also wrote this absorbing tale and appears to have done extensive research. (She has been goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for a decade and founded an organization that provides free legal aid to asylum-seeking children.)
Though the film drags in the final third, it also powerfully captures the chaos of war and includes moments of tightly coiled suspense.
Jolie wisely illuminates the harrowing nature of the war without being didactic.
The conflict is seen through the eyes of two Bosnians, Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), a Muslim artist, and Danijel (Goran Kostic), a Serbian police officer. Before the fighting began, they had just begun a romance, but they end up on opposing sides of the ethnic conflict.
The film opens with Ajla preparing for a night out. She has a carefree time with Danijel at a Sarajevo nightclub until a bomb rips through the place, and the tone of the film changes abruptly. Scenes of brutal massacres provide a powerful window into a period in which the Balkan region was torn apart.
A few months after their date, Ajla is taken from the apartment she shares with her sister, Lejla (Vanesa Glodjo), and is housed in an encampment of women. The prisoners are systematically raped and beaten.
Meanwhile, Danijel is serving in the military under his father, Gen. Vukojevich (Rade Serbedzija), a commander hellbent on ethnic cleansing. As it turns out, Danijel is one of the soldiers in charge where Ajla is being held. When he realizes she is there, he makes an effort to protect her.
Later, he sequesters her in separate quarters, and the two share an erotic connection. But does Ajla have ulterior motives? Where she was once genuinely attracted to Danijel, now Ajla must be concerned with mere survival.
As Danijel arranges clandestine trysts, her motives and his allegiances become intriguingly ambiguous.
Jolie made wise casting choices throughout. The two lead actors display a range of complex emotions. Kostic is coldly reserved in one scene, then warmly emotional, even volatile, in the next, keeping the audience uneasy about his character's next move. Marjanovic is able to convey a great deal, even in the silence forced upon her character.
Jolie shows a gift for storytelling and doesn't shy away from gritty scenes of wartime atrocities.
With its compelling, assured narrative, which blends the harrowing and the poignant, In the Land of Blood and Honey feels like it was made by a far more seasoned filmmaker.
In the Land of Blood and Honey * * * out of four
Stars: Goran Kostic, Zana Marjanovic, Rade Serbedzija, Vanessa Glodjo
Director: Angelina Jolie
Distributor: Film District
Rating: R for war violence and atrocities, including rape, sexuality, nudity and language
Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes
In select cities
Sources say that the gift, given for the holidays as well as for Pitt's 48th birthday, was meant to invoke Frank Lloyd Wright's classic house, Fallingwater. Pitt and Jolie visited the 1935 home, built over a waterfall, in 2006. Pitt allegedly had been itching to see it ever since reading about it in an architectural history class in college.
"Brad has always loved Fallingwater and his first trip there was unforgettable," a source told The Daily Mail. "Angelina wanted to get him something incredibly special and, because she knows how much he loves architecture, she thought this would be perfect."
According to the source, the idea is for Pitt to design a home to sit on the property.
"Brad has dreamed of a home with the sound of a waterfall cascading under the house ... Brad has always wanted to design his own house," the source explains. "He wants to pull all aspects of nature, light, glass and varying levels into the concept."
Pitt has shown a keen interest in architecture before. In 2007, he initiated the Make It Right project, commissioning 13 architecture firms to help rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, which was heavily hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A year later, Pitt also consulted on an environmentally-friendly hotel in Dubai.
"While acting is my career, architecture is my passion," Pitt said at the time.
“I am speechless, I feel sick,” Rukija Vrckalo, who survived 43 months of the siege of Sarajevo under constant bombardment, said as she left a cinema in the city where Jolie’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey” was shown one day before its U.S. premiere.
“When grenades were exploding in the film, I felt as if the war were still going on,” she added.
Others left the cinema in silence, refusing to comment because they were overwhelmed with emotions after the film reminded them of the horrors of the bloodiest conflict in post- World War Two Europe.
“The film is realistic, well done,” said a woman who gave only her first name, Mirha. “We, who have been through the war, are feeling very bad now, it’s just as if we are going through all that again.”
Jolie has allowed the Bosnian capital to screen the film, her directorial debut, for a week before it officially opens in cinemas in Bosnia and the wider region in February 2012, when she plans to visit Bosnia again.
“The upcoming ... premiere ... means more to me than any premiere I have been associated with. My family and I look forward to flying to Bosnia in February and sharing this moment with the film’s extraordinary cast,” she said in a statement.
Jolie has said she didn’t plan on directing a movie. But the more she learned about the 1990s Bosnia war, the more she felt responsible for bringing it home to her generation.
The movie sparked controversy even before it was filmed, and objections from a group of Bosnian female war victims to elements of the plot last year forced the Oscar-winning actress to shoot most of the film in nearby Hungary instead of Bosnia.
The film tells the story of the war through an ambiguous relationship between a man and a woman, whose affection becomes hostage to their respective ethnic groups.
Danijel, a Bosnian Serb, and Ajla, a Bosnian Muslim, meet in Sarajevo before the war, where they live normal lives. When they meet later, she is in a Bosnian Serb detention camp where Danijel serves as a senior officer.
They attempt to maintain their special relationship against a backdrop of war, killings and rapes, and pressures from families, which proves impossible.
“Why were you not born as a Serb?” Danijel cries after they have made love. He is under pressure from his father, a Serb general, to end the embarrassing relationship.
“Get rid of her, that’s an evil blood,” his father says.
Most of the Sarajevo audience were Bosnian Muslims, who were the biggest victims of the war in which more than 100,000 were killed. Some Bosnian Serbs have called for the film to be banned, saying it portrays them as villains.
But other Serbs said they want the film to be shown.
“I am against any bans of art acts,” said Nedeljko Zelenovic, the director of the cultural center in the Serb-held section of Sarajevo. “The time and audience will give the final judgment.”
Kevin Sullivan, who worked as a foreign correspondent in Bosnia during the war, said Jolie’s movie made an important contribution to understanding the conflict.
“I thought it was a very powerful and successful drama, it explored issues in a very authentic way and avoided many of the cliches that one may have expected,” Sullivan said.
The film has been honoured by the Producers Guild of America for its portrayal of social issues and will be given the 2012 Stanley Kramer Award. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has nominated it for a Golden Globe for best foreign-language film.
Jolie threw her energy into "In the Land of Blood and Honey", writing, co-producing and directing the complex love story set against the horror of the 1992-95 conflict in which more than 100,000 people are believed to have died.
The movie, which initially stoked controversy in Bosnia, opens in U.S. theaters on Friday and has been nominated for a Golden Globe award for foreign language film.
"I didn't go into this wanting to be a director, I went into this film because I was moved by the themes," Jolie, 36, told Reuters.
"It wasn't a normal film experience for me, it was an education everyday in humanity and in unity, and also getting to know a culture," she said.
The Oscar-winning "Girl, Interrupted" actress was just 17-years-old and working to establish herself in Hollywood when the conflict in Bosnia erupted on the other side of the world.
But it wasn't until years later, when she became a United Nations Goodwill ambassador and visited Bosnia, that she learned about the war and its victims.
"As I looked into Bosnia -- because this was (when) I was a teenager -- I felt responsible to pay more attention because I didn't at the time ... I was too young and living my life," said Jolie.
"This is my generation that went through this in Europe. So I read more and I learned more and I was just so taken by how little I knew, how little the world speaks about it, and I felt compelled to put this story together," she said.
"Blood and Honey" is the tale of a Serbian man and a Bosnian woman on the eve of the ethnic conflict, who later meet when he is an army officer and she is his detainee.
Jolie cast unknown Bosnian actors Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic as the leads and filmed in both English and Serbo-Croat.
But before reading the script, female victims of the war raised objections, and Jolie was forced to shoot many of the scenes in Hungary, rather than Bosnia as she had planned. The movie has since received an enthusiastic reception in Bosnia and Jolie was given an honorary award in July by the Sarajevo film festival.
"This film belongs to this country and these people, it's their story and their film," Jolie said. "They're the most talented actors and nobody could have done these roles better."
Responsibility also weighed heavily on the two lead actors.
"You try very hard to do the best job you can and represent that conflict and your people as best as you can," said Marjanovic, who plays Ajla.
Kostic, who plays Serbian character Danijel, said the movie was very personal. "It's very close to our hearts, and of course, coming from the region, it's easy to tap into that emotional landscape," he added.
Jolie, who was last seen on screen in the 2010 action romance "The Tourist", is yet to schedule her next project.
"I still can't believe somehow I ended up doing this, but I was so compelled by this particular story and I have such a unique crew and cast," she said.
"In the Land of Blood and Honey," Jolie's writing-directing debut, hurls two lovers — a Bosnian Muslim woman and a Bosnian-Serbian man — from their tender relationship before the war into the horrors of work and rape camps, where brutality, betrayal and degradation are daily matters.
"The closest relationship in my life is Brad," Jolie said in an interview for the film, which opens in limited release Friday and expands in January. "It's the man-woman relationship. So for me to put myself in a position to be able to write from, it would be, well, what if it was me, and what would it be like? And what would it take? Could I ever turn on him? Would this ever happen? Would he ever turn on me? So you try to put yourself inside, and that's how that relationship started."
The result is worlds away from the vanity projects some superstars end up with when they play at directing. Jolie holds nothing back in depicting the savagery of the war that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, as ancient ethnic rivalries reignited after decades of communist rule.
As a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, Jolie, 36, had visited Bosnia and felt a growing compulsion to help dramatize a conflict about which the world at large had been misinformed or even indifferent.
When the war broke out, Jolie herself was a teenager with other things on her mind than conflict in a distant land.
"I was being a 17-year-old. I knew only a little bit about it," Jolie said. "It just felt very far away, and until America got involved, I don't even remember any headlines in our papers."
As the years passed, Jolie remained busy with other preoccupations — Hollywood party girl, Academy Award winner for "Girl, Interrupted," marriages to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, the latter a wild love affair that was a gold mine for gossip tabloids.
Then came the action comedy "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," in which Jolie and Pitt starred as married assassins gunning for each other. Home-wrecker headlines followed as Jolie took up with co-star Pitt, who ended his marriage to Jennifer Aniston.
Jolie already had begun her humanitarian makeover, adopting a child from Cambodia and using her celebrity to shine light on children in peril, the plight of refugees and other causes around the world.
As she and Pitt's family has grown — they now have three adopted and three biological children — Jolie's image has transformed from sinner to saint.
"I've always tried to step outside my comfort zone. Sometimes that can be good and useful for hopeful things like this," Jolie said, referring to her film. "And sometimes, when you're younger, it can be very destructive and a bad thing."
Visiting war zones changed her perspective, but it was the home front — taking on children — that made the big difference.
"That was what changed me completely, and then I knew that once you decide to become a parent, you can no longer be in any way self-destructive or selfish. You live for someone else, and it's over. It's all over," Jolie said, laughing.
"But in the greatest way, because the chaos — no wild days as a punk are ever as interesting or as chaotic as my life with my children is now. They can out-punk anybody you know."
Jolie said she wrote the screenplay for "In the Land of Blood and Honey" as a private exercise, but once Pitt read it, he told her to put it into circulation and get some feedback.
Without her name attached, she sent the script to people on all sides of the Bosnian conflict. The response was favorable, and before long, Jolie was casting actors, mostly people who lived through the war or had close relatives and friends in the thick of it.
Cast as Muslim artist Ajla, Zana Marjanovic was 8 years old when the war broke out. She and her mother fled to Slovenia while her father stayed behind in Sarajevo. Goran Kostic, who was 20 and living in London when the war started, was cast as Ajla's lover, Danijel, torn between love and duty as a leader at the camp where she is interned.
With graphic scenes of rape, sniper slayings, civilian massacres and soldiers using women as human shields, the film was a balancing act as Jolie sought to tells a story representing all sides.
Jolie's reputation as a humanitarian envoy reassured the locals that the film would be a fair and honest depiction, said Marjanovic, who recalled the stir created by Jolie's visit back to Sarajevo last summer for a film festival.
"We're just too cool to be concerned about various superstars walking around our city," Marjanovic said. "But when it was Angelina — that was just the one superstar we're not immune to. It wasn't only because of everything she's done as an actress — it was that and the fact that she's doing this film about Bosnia. I think everyone had really high hopes, and I believe they'll feel that it came from the right place, that she will portray us truthfully and do a great job."
At U.S. theaters, the film mostly will play in a Bosnian-language version with English subtitles. But Jolie and her actors shot a second version in English that's available for domestic and overseas markets where subtitled films might be a hard sell for audiences.
She prefers that viewers see the native-language version, but the English one is "there for whoever wants it, because we want to reach as many people as we can," Jolie said.
Jolie eventually wants her children to see "In the Land of Blood and Honey" — though for now, she's keeping them on a cinema diet that includes her "Kung Fu Panda" animated tales.
Of her own movies, "I think the most fun one for them will be 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith,' because who doesn't want to see their parents try to kill each other?" Jolie said. "'Wow, mom and dad are going crazy.'"
So how does Angelina Jolie do with "In the Land of Blood and Honey," which marks her feature directing-screenwriting debut and landed her on the cover of Newsweek? It's a respectable first effort, longer on earnestness than art, though much of that is due to her choice of topic material.
"Blood and Honey" is a drama set in Bosnia during and amidst the Bosnian War (1992-95). Jolie is well known for her involvement in global humanitarian causes, and here she takes on the notorious human-rights violations that occurred during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, including ethnic cleansing, genocide and mass rapes.
She does so through the prism of a complicated love story, one that begins in pre-war Sarajevo. That's where Danijel (Goran Kostic), a Serbian policeman, and Ajla (Zana Marjonovic), a Bosnian artist, strike sparks while on a first date at a nightclub. As they dance cheek to cheek, their budding romance is interrupted by a bombing, a harbinger of the carnage to come. (The film is in Bosnian, with English subtitles, though Jolie also shot an English-language version.)
Soon, war has broken out and Ajla is among a group of Bosnian women taken prisoner and moved to a military barracks where Danijel is a commander. The women have been brought there to serve as both servants and forced sexual partners for the men.
Danijel takes Ajla under his protection, making clear to his men that she's off limits to them. The resulting relationship between the two is a fraught mixture of passion and distrust, with neither ever quite sure where the other stands emotionally. It would be impossible, given the brutality and senseless violence going on all around them and their own conflicted loyalties, for it to be otherwise.
More power to Jolie, both for taking on such a demanding subject and for not trying to pretty it up or poeticize it. But the central conceit, a wartime Romeo and Juliet story, around which she has built the movie often seems an awkwardly manufactured device, one that is at odds with the film's almost documentary-like aspirations.
As a director, Jolie avoids showy angles or camera movements and instead concentrates on telling a story. She displays a solid sense of how to build narrative momentum, though she occasionally lets a scene stretch on too long to allow an actor an extended moment (a fault shared by many other actors turned first-time directors).
Overall, Jolie has nothing to be embarrassed about and much of which to be proud with this movie. Even in moments where the film doesn't quite work, she shows ample evidence of ambition and a discerning director's eye.
Throughout the film, Jolie puts politics ahead of story and character, blatantly imposing a message — an altruist message, but a message nonetheless — on the film. And the result is a movie whose narrative feels like a fictionalized United Nations presentation.
Certainly, Jolie's bluntness is justifiable. The film, in Bosnian with subtitles, is about the Bosnian War of the early 1990s and the atrocities of genocide that came with it, conducted by the Bosnian Serb Army in an ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims.
"In the Land of Blood and Honey" exists as a caution to international inaction, to highlight the horror that transpired in the years before NATO airstrikes and international pressure brought an end to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Much of it is horrifying to watch. What Jolie depicts on camera (random murder, abysmal rape) is scarcely any less ugly than what transpires just off-screen (mass murder, a slaughtered baby).
In the midst of this is the story of a hesitant, uncertain love between a Bosnian Muslim artist, Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), and a Serbian police officer turned military captain, Danijel (Goran Kostic). They are on opposite sides of the conflict, but the coincidences of Ajla's imprisonment keep her in Danijel's orbit.
Danijel objects to the war, and his protection of Ajla compromises his stature among his men. But the ravages of war also push him toward less nuanced sympathies.
Jolie, who also wrote the screenplay, doesn't really expand the movie beyond the lovers and it suffers as a result. There is Ajla's sister (Vanesa Glodjo), who lives underground, and Danijel's cruel father, Gen. Nebojsa Vukojevich (Rade Serbedzija, in the film's best performance), who expresses the historical prejudices underlying the war.
It's easy to criticize Jolie for her showy humanitarianism or to be skeptical of such a glamorous actress trying to direct. Already, she has been something of a lightning rod, accused of plagiarizing the film's story, exploiting the rape victims of the war, vilifying the Serbs and taking advantage of her position as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency.
But Jolie deserves plenty of credit here. There are far worse things than using one's celebrity to bring attention to the dangers of pacifism in the face of war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
With the exception of a handful of visual missteps (a shot of shadows dancing on the wall, long fades to black), the film is nicely shot (Dean Semler is director of photography) and atmospheric. It particularly benefits from its largely Budapest locales. (Only second unit material was shot in Sarajevo after protests erupted over the movie's portrayal of Serbs.) The cast, mostly Bosnian actors, is largely solid, even when the film's direction is lacking.
But the storytelling is more problematic. There isn't enough context given to the overall conflict, and the love story feels increasingly myopic as the war drags on and the film's ambitions broaden.
Instead of finding a way to dramatize international inaction or pursing answers that might help explain genocide, "In the Land of Blood and Honey" makes its case only in the illustration of extreme, intolerable violence. Yes, there is power in simply showing these acts, but they eventually have a ring of calculation.
They pass without contemplation, with merely a deadening point-making that cuts off dialogue, rather than facilitates it.
"In the Land of Blood and Honey," a FilmDistrict release, is rated R for war violence and atrocities including rape, sexuality nudity and language. In Bosnian with subtitles. Running time: 127 minutes. Two stars out of four.
Jolie sat down for an interview on "Anderson" yesterday, and spoke extensively about her plans for the future when Anderson Cooper brought up an interview Brad Pitt gave recently in which he voiced wanting to retire at age 50.
"We're both racing to see which one of us gets to retire first," said Jolie, seeming skeptical of Pitt's plan. "We both, like most people, we like being home. Whoever is the one who is home tends to be the happier one because we get to play with the kids and the other one is out earning the money."
Pitt and Jolie alternate taking care of their six kids, so only one of them works at a time. But Jolie says that, while she was shooting her directorial debut "In the Land of Blood and Honey," she did put Pitt to work on set.
"He was with the kids taking them to school in the morning," she said. "Then he'd come to the set in the afternoon and do stills photography."
Cooper then asked about Jolie and Pitt's "nomadic lifestyle" and whether they worry about their children eventually wanting to settle down.
"I will listen, as my mother would have, to them and if they start to complain about it ... Right now they love it," she said. "If they're in one place for two months they want to know why we're not getting on an airplane ... They're such a big traveling pack it's not one child moving around the world and missing friends. Because we have traveled a lot, we're kind of lucky in that we have friends around the world, so if we end up in Budapest or Germany or Africa or Vietnam, they actually call their friends."
Jolie gets wistful about the idea that her kids may someday want more of a homebase.
"I don't want to settle," she said. "They'll probably all end up living all around the world. My old age will be Brad and I traveling around the world to try to visit our children in random countries."
In fact, the world-traveling actress doesn't even want to think about not living that way.
"I don't want to talk about it," she said wistfully when asked about eventually settling down by Anderson Cooper during an interview set to air on his talk show Monday. She added with emotion, "I don't want to settle. I love traveling."
The actress, 36, who won't rule out a seventh child, also told host Anderson Cooper her children are all on the same page when it comes to moving around – at least for now.
"I will listen, as my mother would have, to them," she says. "And if they start to complain about it ... [But] right now they love it. Right now if they're in one place for two months they want to know why we're not getting on an airplane."
Jolie, who recently made her directorial debut with In the Land of Blood and Honey, says the kids have roots even with their jet-setting lives.
"They really love to travel, and we have certain things that are comforts of home," she says. "And also, because they're such a big traveling pack it's not one child moving around the world and missing friends. There are so many of them they have constant play dates and they're always together."
She added, "Because we have traveled a lot, we're kind of lucky in that we have friends around the world, so if we end up in Budapest or Germany or Africa or Vietnam, they actually call their friends."
She also admitted, however, that they day may come when the children are ready to live in one place.
"I'm sure they're gonna say, 'Mom, let me stay home,' " she said. "It's going to happen and I'm going to cry. We'll see what happens. They'll probably all end up living all around the world. My old age will be Brad and I traveling around the world to try to visit our children in random countries."
She's only one movie in, and she's already being compared to...
"She is an actor's director," In the Land of Blood and Honey costar Rade Šerbedžija told me at the movie's Hollywood premiere. "She reminds me very much of Clint Eastwood. I told her that.
"Both of them are great actors and only greats actors have this kind of experience, so they know how to help and how to work with actors," he continued. "They know how to give them freedom and how it's important to do this."
Jolie said it "feels amazing" to hear such a comparison. Eastwood directed Jolie to critical acclaim and mucho award nominations, including an Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA, for her work in 2008's The Changeling.
"He is such a great leader," Jolie said. "He works with people that are talented people but also good people. There are no egos on set. It's really like a family."
Actress Vanessa Glodjo echoed Šerbedžija's praise. "I think every actor will be jealous of my experience," she told me. "She's a beautiful and brilliant actress, so she knew exactly how to help us get through this."
It certainly wasn't easy material. The movie, which Jolie also wrote, takes place during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. "It was such a horribly brutal conflict and people don't know enough about it and don't speak about it," Jolie said. "And the themes are universal and it could be any war and it's also representative of things happening today."
She was particularly awestruck by the artists who continued to work during the war. "They are a people that during a siege they started a film festival," she said. "They made art in order to survive and keep their heads up and keep their sanity. I feel that in this region particularly, art is a way of opening up discussion to toward healing."
Branislav Djukic of the Bosnian Serb Association of Camp Prisoners told the Associated Press on Tuesday that although he has seen only the trailer, he can already say the movie "is showing lies" and portraying Serbs as the only ones who raped women during the war.
Jolie's movie will be released in the U.S. on Dec. 23 and is a heavy drama about a Serb soldier who finds his ex-lover, a Muslim Bosnian woman, among sex slaves in a camp.
The movie was praised by a selected audience of 11 non-Serb war victim groups who saw it in Sarajevo earlier this month.
Angelina Jolie says that, while she's thrilled with her family life as it is, she and partner Brad Pitt haven't ruled out having more children entirely.
"Nothing planned at the moment, but we just don't know. I could end up pregnant," Jolie, 36, tells Marie Claire in its January issue.
According to the Oscar winner, who recently made her directorial debut with In the Land of Blood and Honey, the home life she's built with Pitt, 47, has taught her invaluable lessons of selflessness.
"I suppose what I've learned from Brad is to be able to have the kind of family whose happiness and well-being comes before your own," she says in the interview. "I'm very, very grateful to have such a loving family, and I wouldn't have that without him."
And though the couple won't be getting married anytime soon, Jolie says they already have the strongest bond possible.
"[Brad] has expanded my life in ways I never imagined," she tells Marie Claire. "We built a family. He is not just the love my life, he is my family. I hold that very dear."
Luc Besson, who wrote and directed "The Fifth Element," wrote the script and is producing and directing.
Universal declined to provide any details on the plot, except to say that the movie is a thriller.
Production is scheduled to begin in April 2012 at Les studio de Paris, the EuropaCorp's new production facility in France. Virginia Besson Silla is overseeing the project for Europa.
Jolie wrote, directed and produced "In the Land of Blood and Honey," which FilmDistrict is releasing December 23.
The "In the Land of Blood and Honey" director admits in the upcoming issue of Marie Claire that she doesn't have tight circle of female friends. In fact, Jolie says that she doesn't have many friends at all and, instead, relies heavily on partner Brad Pitt.
"It was nice for me to play with other girls; I don't really have girlfriends in movies, if you've noticed," Jolie told the magazine. "Well, I have a few girlfriends. I just... I stay at home a lot. I don't do a lot with them, and I'm very homebound ... I talk to Brad. But I don't know, I don't have a lot of friends I talk to. He really is the only person I talk to."
One of the few famous females faces that Jolie is consistently social with is fellow mom Gwen Stefani. Jolie has been friends with the rocker since 1998.
"Somehow Gwen and I keep ending up pregnant at the exact same time," Jolie has said. They gave birth to children Kingston Rossdale and Shiloh Jolie-Pitt a day apart.
Speaking of pregnancy, Jolie says that more biological kids could be in her and Pitt's future.
"Nothing planned at the moment, but we just don't know," she said. "I could end up pregnant."
In the interview, Jolie talks about each of her children's personalities. She says that daughter Vivienne is often the most surprising because she is very girly.
"Vivi will pick flowers from the garden and put them in her hair. She likes to get her nails done and collects stuffed animals," says Jolie. "It’s funny for me to have to buy all things pink and watch princess movies."
Editors at MensHealth.com polled members of the general public to determine the most desirable female - dead or alive - and the former Friends star has topped the list.
One Million Years B.C. beauty Raquel Welch was named second best, while blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe landed at three. Pop stars Madonna and Britney Spears round out the top five.
But Aniston insists she doesn't deserve the title and has instead offered up her own preferred picks.
She says, "It's a tie between (actress/model) Brigitte Bardot and (feminism activist) Gloria Steinem. But if I had to choose one, I'd say Gloria because, well, she's the full package. That's sexy."
Also making the cut were Angelina Jolie (10), Scarlett Johansson (12), Megan Fox (13), Colombian singer Shakira (18), supermodel Heidi Klum (20), Salma Hayek (22), Cameron Diaz (24) and Victoria's Secret beauty Gisele Bundchen (25).
Despite Jolie's seemingly endless travels around the globe, she actually does find time to get ready for the holidays...
"I can't wait for the holidays," she exclusively told me last night at the Hollywood premiere of her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey. "I've been shopping. I've been getting the stockings together."
She and Brad Pitt hit toy store FAO Schwartz in New York City earlier this week with the kids. "I love Christmas shopping and preparing for the holidays," Jolie cooed. "I'm so very excited."
But the big focus was on work last night. Toasting Jolie at the ArcLight in Hollywood was Pitt, her ex-husband Johnny Lee Miller, dad Jon Voight, brother James Haven and Gwen Stefani.
Stars from film included Bosnian actors Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Šerbedžija and Vanesa Goldjo.
Jolie and Pitt had dinner across the street at Magnolia during the screening before hitting the afterparty at Boulevard3.
Objections to filming Jolie's tale of love between a Serb man and a Muslim woman in Bosnia last year forced the Hollywood star to shoot most of the film in nearby Hungary. Only some of the exterior scenes were shot in Bosnia.
But the Thursday night screening of the film in Sarajevo to representatives of victims' associations elicited positive reactions from some of Jolie's toughest local critics.
"She has made a fantastic film for Bosnia and Herzegovina, I can really say that from the angle of a victim," Murat Tahirovic, the president of Bosnia's association of (wartime) detainees, told the Federal Television in Sarajevo.
Tahirovic was among a dozen representatives of wartime victims invited to the closed screening of Jolie's directorial debut "In The Land of Blood and Honey".
"Everybody should see this film," Tahirovic said.
In October 2010, a Bosnian minister cancelled Jolie's filming permits citing incomplete paperwork, after female victims of the Bosnian war objected to details of the plot, alleging it was about love between a rapist and his victim.
The film tells a tale of love between a Serb man and a Muslim woman before the Bosnian war, who later meet in different circumstances - he is an army officer and she is his detainee.
Victims of sexual violence in Bosnia wrote to the United Nations refugee agency, saying Jolie did not deserve her role as a UNHCR Good Will Ambassador, and did not know enough about the Bosnian conflict.
Jolie first came to Bosnia last year as an UNHCR ambassador.
She filmed most of the feature in Budapest but asked war victims voicing their objections to the movie to reserve judgment until they had seen the finished product.
One of the loudest opponents to Jolie filming in Bosnia said she was now satisfied by the film's portrayal of the war.
"Two hours of film is not enough time to show all (the horrors of the war), but I think Angelina managed to do it," said Sadzida Hadzic of the Women-Victims of War association.
However, Hatidza Mehmedovic, who lost her husband and two teenage sons in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, said she was disappointed the film was shot elsewhere, even though she congratulated Jolie.
"The film is so strong, so difficult, it would be stronger if it was shot in Bosnia," she told Reuters.
The closed screening was organised by the Center for post-conflict research, and was not open to media.
In the Land of Blood and Honey, opening Dec. 23, rarely flinches when it comes to depicting the horror of the Bosnian War in the '90s when a campaign of ethnic cleansing left up to 100,000 people dead.
And, as is so gut-wrenchingly depicted in the film, Bosnian Muslim women who were forced out of their homes and into prison camps were routinely raped by the soldiers who kept them captive -- up to 50,000 cases. The conflict marked the first time that such sexual abuse was treated as a war crime.
While Jolie confirms there are only two depictions of rape onscreen, the most explicit instance happens early in the film. And the aftermath of such violence is also discussed by some characters, such as one battered woman who wishes she never had to see her husband again.
Still, many male viewers and a few women have mentioned after screenings that they are surprised that there is so much rape in the movie.
"If you really watch one instance, we only show feet and a shaky paint can," Jolie says. "But this is a film about many issue,s and violence against women is only one of them and so is rape. It is also about the lack of intervention. It is also about the loss of children and family members. It's becoming somebody who is very sweet and loving, and turning into someone who is capable of violence. That all was touched on. But because people have a visceral reaction to that, it is what they remember."
But today, Angelina Jolie's public and private worlds collide as one of the most famous women on the planet performs an admirable balancing act on the 18th floor of the Waldorf Astoria.
She's able to keep a semi-watchful eye on her children — adoptees Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, and Zahara, 6, plus her biological progeny fathered by Brad Pitt, Shiloh, 5, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 2 — as squeals of joyful play pour forth from the conference room turned day care center.
Jolie would be very glad to join in their games, especially when mop-topped Maddox asks imploringly, "Is your interview over yet?"
Instead, she sits across the way behind a closed door, speaking of such heavy subjects as genocide and sex crimes while relating what it was like to give birth to her latest arrival, a pet project titled In the Land of Blood and Honey, which opens Dec. 23.
Her $13 million directing debut, based on her own screenplay and shot on location in Sarajevo and Budapest, is a somber and often harrowing depiction of the Bosnian War that tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the early '90s.
At its center is a complex love story between Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), a Bosnian Muslim artist held captive at a female prison (known as rape camps for the regularity of violent acts against women) and Danijel (Goran Kostic), a Serbian army officer in charge of the facility who knew Ajla briefly before the conflict began.
"I've always been drawn to war films," says Jolie, 36, dressed for the part of a serious filmmaker in a simple black dress, loose hair, no jewelry, light eye makeup and nude lip gloss. "I've always been moved by them. But I never wanted to direct."
A bout with the flu and boredom led her to try her hand at a script, informed by her experiences visiting global trouble spots as a U.N. goodwill ambassador while providing support and aid for refugees since 2001.
"I was going through a period where I was thinking a lot about my 10 years traveling into these situations and all the people I met who had gone through conflict and how their lives were affected," she says. "I chose Bosnia because I had been through the area and was very drawn to the region. I just felt I should know more and there should be a discussion."
Getting the language right
When it came time to pick a director, however, Jolie found she couldn't let go of her new baby.
For once, the woman who has been front and center in such big-budget vehicles as Salt and The Tourist and won a supporting Oscar as a mental patient in 1999's Girl, Interrupted stayed behind the camera.
"I was very lucky," she says when it is noted that not even George Clooney gets away with not appearing in the films he directs. "That is a credit to our producers, who were willing to put the money in, and it was a big discussion because they knew it would be harder to sell. But it had to be."
Instead, Jolie hired actors from Bosnia, many directly affected by the war. She encouraged her cast to make suggestions about details that might be off and also about the language, since In the Land of Blood and Honey was shot both in English and in Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (a subtitled version will be shown in U.S. theaters).
When Marjanovic, 28, and Vanesa Glodjo, 37, who plays her sister Lajla, were called to audition, they were told only that a major talent was directing. But the script took them aback.
"The dialogue was so authentic," says Marjanovic. "When I spoke to Angelina on the phone, the first thing I asked was whether she did it. I said, 'No matter what happens after this, I want to say congratulations and thank you as a Bosnian for the script. I think it's wonderful, and I need to tell you that.' "
Still, Glodjo and others felt free to nitpick to make sure all felt right culturally. "We have a different mentality than Americans," she says. "We are quite closed and dark. That's why I love coming here."
Marjanovic also gives Jolie more than a few points for her leadership skills. "She united a whole crew of ex-Yugoslavians, all different countries, together with one same idea. We all trusted her, that she would make something that we would stand behind strongly. It made me feel safe."
Not that Jolie herself is safe from being a target. There was a fuss made early on by Bosnian activists over the nature of the romance — that Ajla would fall for her rapist — but that was cleared up once the script was actually read. Now, she is being sued by a Croatian journalist who claims the film's story borrows from his 2007 novel. "It's par for the course," she has said in response while dismissing the charge.
The artist and humanitarian of today is a far cry from the Angelina of a decade ago, whose wild behavior — the vial of ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton's blood around her neck, the admitted drug use, a seeming flirtation with brother James — had more in common with the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo than Mother Teresa.
The daughter of actor Jon Voight and the late Marcheline Bertrand (who died in 2007 at age 56 from ovarian cancer) says she struggled with self-destructive tendencies.
"I was just being a young girl who was experimental, bold and a bit nutty," she says. "I was absolutely self-destructive. I think a lot of young people in this business lose their way. You don't know what is of value. You don't know where you are. And you know something's wrong, because it isn't life as it actually is. It's like living in some warped reality."
Jolie switched to a more stable path, she says, "once I started to learn about the world and I became grateful for everything that I certainly have. Since going through my first war zone, never have I woken up and not been simply grateful."
Becoming a mother for the first time when she adopted Cambodian orphan Maddox in 2002 made the biggest difference. "I knew once I committed to Maddox, I would never be self-destructive again. Now I have five more," she says with that famous smile. "So I have to behave."
Jolie discovered she loved calling the shots on set. Did coordinating the routines of six kids prepare her for the challenge? She laughs. "Only a mother would ask that. I didn't have to manage anybody. We were all just a big family, and they all took care of me."
Directors were role models
Yet there had to be times when she was not getting what she wanted and had to take a stand. "Like when all six kids are asking you questions at once?" She laughs again. "Yes. I had to tell them, 'This is what we are doing now. Time out.' "
The first-time director found her perfect role models in the directors who oversaw some of her most acclaimed performances. That includes Michael Winterbottom, the British director of 2007's A Mighty Heart, in which she played the widow of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was slain in Pakistan. "He taught me a lot about how to deal with heavy things and how to handle them in a way that kept things moving and retained a raw energy."
And, of course, there is the ultimate actor/director, Clint Eastwood, who guided her second Oscar-nominated performance in 2008's Changeling. "He is so fast and so economical. I had to be because we had such a small budget. I had to try to channel him."
Eastwood, who chatted with Jolie about In the Land of Blood and Honey for the current Interview magazine, gave the film a thumbs-up: "I think it's a tough movie and that it's extremely well made, and tough movies that are extremely well made are very hard to do."
The question is, will Jolie even feel like acting again if her film succeeds? "I did love directing. If I'm allowed, if I'm accepted, I will do it again. I am still very shy about it."
For now, Jolie has been concentrating on getting ready for the holidays.
"I always Christmas shop early in case we have to travel somewhere," she says.
Do they shop online?
"Brad and I were on Amazon.com for the first time a week ago. But we got lost. After an hour, we just shut it off. My brain is too scattered and the wires go in different directions. I'll stick to catalogs."
"He has expanded my life in ways I never imagined," the actress and director of In the Land of Blood and Honey says in the January issue of Marie Claire.
"We built a family. He is not just the love of my life, he is my family. I hold that very dear. I suppose what I've learned from Brad is to be able to have the kind of family whose happiness and well-being comes before your own. I'm very, very grateful to have such a loving family, and I wouldn't have that without him."
With that in mind, does Jolie think that she and Pitt could end up having even more loving family together?
"Nothing planned at the moment, but we just don't know," she says. "I could end up pregnant."
Oddly enough, it sounds as if the six kids they already have are all for giving them plenty of, er, private time.
"If they see Mommy and Daddy in need of some private time 'cause they're going to kiss and whatever, the kids get all giggly and happy—because it gives them some security," Jolie helpfully explains.
Her latest baby, however, is her feature directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, about a Croatian woman locked up in a brutal Bosnian prison camp in the early 1990s.
She wrote the script, she says, "as an excuse to get out some of my frustrations [with] the international community and justice issues. I just assumed nobody would ever see or read it."
But wouldn't you know? Pitt read it, and then friends read it...and the rest is filmmaking history.
And perhaps, one day, she'll go behind the camera and stay there.
"That doesn't mean I'm stopping [acting] tomorrow," Jolie says when asked about the idea of pulling a Pitt and quitting the profession one day. "But I woke up one day realizing, God, I'm an actor. I don't think I intended to be an actor. I think my mother wanted it for me. I loved telling stories, and I enjoyed the profession, but it is too late to be something else?"
Obviously not.
The Oscar winner also talks about each child's distinctive likes and dislikes, from her eldest, Maddox ("He really does take care of me") to the wild but warm-hearted Pax, who she predicts is "going to get in some kind of trouble."
But hey, so did his mom once upon a time, and she appears to be doing just fine.
"What's funny is I probably was more sensitive to the situation," says Jolie of several sequences involving Bosnian actors Zana Marjanovic and Goran Kostic as a POW in a women's prison camp and her military captor. "I believe it was Zana's first love scene and Goran is a family man with wife and kids. You kind of suddenly feel this strange thing of asking people to participate in anything like that. Because they're not a real couple. And you find out how strange this is to ask anybody to get naked together and put a camera on them."
Not that the actors felt much embarrassment. "They actually made me more comfortable. I was being a lot more prudish. I would have allowed them to be more prudish and they told me it was all right and important for the story. They wanted to do what they wanted to do and were comfortable. Early on, I told them -- especially her -- that I've been through it and felt misrepresented when it comes to that stuff."
How so? "You do love scenes and you feel, 'Why did they hold on to that and why did they feel they needed to do that?' "
She did appreciate Marjanovic's softer, more womanly and less Hollywood look. "I felt very protective, especially of her body. But being exposed in a way was part of the story. She has a very beautiful body that is very organic in that European sense. She is a real woman and a beautiful woman."
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie took their little ones – Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, Zahara, 6, Shiloh, 5 (not pictured) and twins Knox and Vivienne, 3 – on a field trip to FAO Schwartz in NYC Wednesday.
Pax managed to not only stay dry, but also conceal his face from the paparazzi with his zip-up shark sweatshirt that he's been photographed wearing in the past.
As for mommy Jolie, she didn't let the downpour stop her from entering the children's toy superstore all smiles.
Accompanied by a personal shopper, the group split up once inside, with Jolie taking the girls to look at Barbies and Hello Kitty items, while Pitt and the boys checked out remote control airplanes.
"It was hard to get a good look at them because they were surrounded by security and fans," an onlooker tells PEOPLE. "People started following them everywhere! It was crazy."
This family outing follows the brood's trip to see The Muppets just a few days prior.
Just a couple of days ago, Angelina Jolie's artistic integrity was called into question when a Croatian journalist filed suit against the movie star, claiming she plagiarized his book when crafting her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey.
And now, the actress has spoken out against the claims. So, what does she have to say?
Turns out, the best defense is…well, simply being above the fray to begin with.
During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jolie expertly brushed off the lawsuit and its claims of plot pilfering.
"It's par for the course," she said. "It happens on almost every film."
And while the star is quick to acknowledge that she used a wide range of source material for the film, despite his allegations to the contrary, James Braddock's The Subject Work was not one of them.
"There are many books and documentaries that I did pull from," she told the paper. "It's a combination of many people's stories. But that particular book I've never seen."
Forget staying above the fray. The best defense is knowing you're not in the wrong to begin with.
Well, someone thinks so.
A journalist has sued the Oscar winner, claiming that the plot of her already controversial directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, is based on his book The Subject Work—and that Jolie knew it and made the film without giving him any credit.
In his lawsuit, filed in federal court in Illinois, James J. Braddock (yup, that's also the exact name of the real-life boxer Russell Crowe played in Cinderella Man) of Zagreb, Croatia, states that he met several times in 2008 with producer Edin Sarkic to discuss a proposed feature based on his book about a Croatian woman locked up in a Bosnian prison camp.
Braddock says that in August 2009, he contacted Jolie's Make It Right foundation to discuss a home-building collaboration—not knowing, he claims, that Sarkic had been in touch with Jolie about the film that would become In the Land of Blood and Honey.
And now that the movie's release is just around the corner, Braddock states that there are numerous "obvious" similarities between his book and the film's tortuous-sounding plot, which centers on a love affair between the aforementioned Croatian woman and a high-ranking camp commander.
A rep for Jolie has not yet returned a request for comment.
Braddock is seeking an injunction to block the film's just-in-time-for-Oscar-consideration release on Dec. 23, and wants unspecified damages for alleged copyright infringement, as well.
Sarkic, Illinois-based FilmDistrict and Scout Film are named as Jolie's codefendants.
"It means everything," Jolie, 36, said of having Brad Pitt and his parents, Bill and Jane Pitt, by her side. "I couldn't be standing here without them."
Matching their son and Jolie in all-black ensembles, the elder Pitts happily spoke to reporters, saying they were "very proud" of her work and that they admired her knack for doing everything well – including being a "really good mom."
So how did she juggle duties of directing, as well as writing and producing the film, with tending to her six children – Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, Zahara, 6, Shiloh, 5, and 2-year-old Knox and Vivienne?
"I have a wonderful partner in Brad and we take turns working always," said Jolie, who was led onto the carpet holding Pitt's hand. "So I was with the kids when he shot Moneyball, and when he finished he took a few months off while I was shooting this."
And with the kids on the set almost every day, that help proved to be even more valuable given the violent context of the movie: a story about the intertwined lives of a Serbian man and a Bosnian woman during the horrors of the 1992 Bosnian War.
"It was helpful [to have them there], but the kids had to be kept away from most of the set," said Jolie. "So they would be outside playing with the fake snow and I would be inside working on something else."
While reports have claimed that the Pitts are not fond of Jolie, they appeared highly chummy with their son's longtime partner on the red carpet. The foursome posed for pictures and, soon, Pitt stepped out of the way so Jolie could be snapped alone with his parents, their arms linked around each other. Jolie stunned in a long black silk dress, that glided over her thin frame, and a chunky golden necklace.
As they were photographed together, Jolie and Jane Pitt shared a hearty laugh, gazing at each other affectionately. Earlier in the day, the two walked through the streets of Manhattan, Jane Pitt's arm linked in Jolie's.
While promoting her new film, a Bosnian war love story, Jolie has been asked multiple times if she and Pitt intend to marry. In the past, they have said they do not, Pitt citing the fact that gay marriage isn't legal as the reason. Both have been married before, Pitt to Jennifer Aniston and Jolie to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.
Jolie confessed in a "Nightline" interview that she does feel pressure to walk down the aisle with Pitt, with whom she has six children -- three adopted and three biological.
"[The kids] have asked, yeah, because ... people get married in the movies," Jolie explained to Christiane Amanpour last night. "Shrek and Fiona are married, you know? We've explained to them that our commitment, when we decided to start a family, was the greatest commitment you could possibly have. Once you have six children, you're committed."
Jolie has a theory on why her kids are subtly pushing for marriage. She said, "The kids asked me the other day and I asked them if it was just because they wanted to have a big cake."
Jolie's "In the Land of Blood and Honey" opens in theaters on Dec. 23.
That's the question Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's children have started asking, according to the actress, whose stance on marriage is the subject of intense interest outside the household as well.
"They have asked, yeah, because ... people get married in the movies," Jolie, 36, tells Nightline in an interview airing Monday. "Shrek and Fiona are married, you know?"
So, how does she respond? By explaining that you don't have to be married to be committed to a partner or your family.
"We've explained to them that our commitment, when we decided to start a family, was the greatest commitment you could possibly have," she says. "Once you have six children, you're committed."
When the kids asked about marriage one day recently, Jolie joked about their possible motives. She says: "I asked them if it was just because they wanted to have a big cake."
Their flick of choice? The family holiday hit The Muppets.
One witness at the Clearview Cinemas on East 62nd Street told PEOPLE that the concession-stand snacks of choice were five orders of popcorn, five cups of Sprite and one box of Twizzlers. (Another adult woman accompanied the group to the show.)
An observer inside the mulitiplex added that the quintet sat right in the middle of the auditorium and that Jolie, 36, was "really down to earth. When they came out [afterwards] she was talking to the kids about the movie and asking them what they thought of different characters. She seemed really cool."
"It sounds like this very strange, eccentric, dark thing to do but in fact I lost my grandfather and was very upset with his funeral," she said during an interview on 60 Minutes Sunday night. "How somebody passes and how family deals with this passing and what death is should be addressed in a different way. If this whole acting thing didn't work out that was going to be my path."
But it did work out, and now the Oscar winner is promoting her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, which is set to be released in the U.S. on Dec. 23.
In her interview with CBS's Bob Simon on 60 Minutes, Jolie, 36, spoke about various topics, including her dark past. Here are the previously unseen highlights:
• Always in Tabloids: Simon asked Jolie what people who only know her from tabloid covers are missing. "Me," she said. "I don't see those things. I don't know who they are but I assume they're not me. They're not who I am. They're not what I spend my day caring about. I find them quite shallow and often quite wrong."
• Working Mom: "We never work at the same time," Jolie said of how she and Brad Pitt raise their six children. She also said she prefers "when I'm home with the kids" and that shooting movies full time "would be easier."
• Looking Up to Mom: "My mother was a full-time mother. She didn't have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences ... everything was for her children," Jolie said of her mom, Marcheline Bertrand, as she choked up. "I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she's better than me."
• Becoming a Director: "I still think it's crazy ... I think I'd be terrible with a comedy," she says of tackling the tough topics in her film, a love story set during the Bosnian War in 1992. "Everything was something to be careful about and sensitive."
"I am nervous that people are not going to understand it," she said, though she's not worried about being involved with a film that has someone else as the star. "I prefer directing. I love having the spotlight on someone else ... It's nice for all of that not to matter."
"I went through heavy, darker times and I survived them. I didn't die young, so I'm very lucky," says Jolie. When pressed for details, she remains vague.
"Nothing I want to go into a lot of detail about. But people can imagine I did the most dangerous and I did the worst and for many reasons, I shouldn't be here ...too many dangerous things, too many chances taken, too far," she says.
But she does make assurances that she hasn't completely lost her bad girl side.
"I'm still a bad girl. I still have that side of me, it's just in its place now. It belongs to Brad, or it belongs to our adventures," says Jolie.
As for the constant tabloid fodder that is her relationship with Brad Pitt and their six children, she says, "I don't see those [magazines], but I assume they're not me ... I find them quite shallow and often very wrong."
And what's their secret to their successful family? Complimentary work schedules and a great example to draw from in her late mother.
"We never work at the same time," says Jolie, of herself and Pitt. "My mother was a full-time mother. She didn't have much of her own life, everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate, the most generous, loving [gets choked up] She's better than me."
Angelina's directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," opens Dec. 23.
"I think people that really know me weren't surprised, but I think they all thought it was a bit crazy ... I still think it's crazy," says Jolie, about the movie's heavy subject matter. But she adds, "I think I'd be terrible with a comedy."
"Blood and Honey" is about the 1990s Bosnian war and a fictional romance between a female Muslim prisoner and a Serbian commandant at the prison where the woman is held. Jolie says the actors, all Yugoslavian, were great sources of input for the film.
"We all spoke about every speech, every scene and made sure that it was right and true. Everybody helped to educate me and we all adjusted the script together."
And of course, due to the sensitive subject matter, Jolie says she's nervous.
"I'm nervous that people are going to not understand it," she says. But she definitely prefers directing to acting.
"I prefer directing. I loved having the spotlight on somebody else," says Jolie. "It's nice for [her looks] not to matter. I think what's risky is living your life and never trying for anything and never doing something brave."
"In the Land of Blood and Honey" opens Dec. 23.
"I went through heavier, darker times and I survived them. I didn't die young," she tells Simon. "So I am very lucky to be here."
What exactly? "People can imagine I did them most dangerous things, I did the worst - and for many reasons, I shouldn't be here. ... too many dangerous things, too many chances taken too far."
She also says, despite settling down with six kids, she still has some of that edginess to her. "I'm still a bad girl," she tells Simon. "I still have that side of me…it's just in its place now… it belongs to Brad. Or … our adventures."
Simon and the CBS crew visited Jolie in Budapest, where she filmed some of the central scenes in her upcoming film, In the Land of Blood and Honey.
Angelina Jolie and her son Pax, 7, who was born in the country, were photographed Friday in Ho Chi Minh City.
On Wednesday, Jolie, 36, was snapped at a security checkpoint before leaving the Con Dao islands (off Vietnam's southern coast) with Pax and eldest son Maddox, 10.
Not pictured: The actress's partner, Brad Pitt, 47, and their other children Zahara, 6, Shiloh, 5, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 3.
And you thought getting your family through the airport security was tricky.
That's exactly what parents Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got on Sunday in the Con Dau Islands, Vietnam, where they toured the notorious Con Son "tiger cages," a prison first built by the colonial French to imprison political prisoners and was later used to house communists during the Vietnam War. (The grim history of the place, as well as some of the lifelike statues at the site, is likely another reason they left the kids back at the hotel.)
So what else have Brad, Angie and their brood been doing during their stay in Vietnam?
The couple brought their six children to the country as it's son Pax's native country and his first visit since they adopted him four years ago. On Friday, the family was spotted out and about Ho Chi Minh City and they went out for lunch on Saturday before exploring.
The family arrived in Vietnam on Thursday after attending the Tokyo premiere of Pitt's new film Moneyball, where Jolie rocked a stunning red Atelier Versace dress.
Her latest destination: Vietnam, where she was photographed with her son Pax, 7.
"We owe Vietnam a visit, because Pax is due," Jolie, 36, told the Financial Times in July, adding of her six children with Brad Pitt: "They are all learning about each other's cultures as well as being proud of their own. They all have their flags over their beds and their individual pride."
According to the photographer, the actress and Pax went out for lunch together in Ho Chi Minh City, and the rest of the Jolie-Pitt brood is along for the trip as well.
Pitt, 47, and Jolie adopted eldest son Maddox, 10, from Cambodia, Zahara, 6, from Ethiopia. Their daughter Shiloh, 5, was born in Namibia, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 3, in France.
As you can see, he is not alone: with him and partner Angelina Jolie is their entourage – their children (from left in the photo): Zahara, Knox, Maddox, Shiloh, Pax and Vivienne.
The movie, a critical and commercial hit stateside that has generated Oscar buzz for Brad, is a real-life drama about American baseball – specifically, Oakland Athletics manager Billy Beane – who's determine to have a winning season in 2002 despite his lack of a budget.
Of course, with just another tiny addition to their brood, the Jolie-Pitts could have a ball team all their own.
The 13 mainly elderly tenants were the last in their refugee camp, an old rundown school for people displaced by the fighting in Bosnia that ended 16 years ago. Some cried as they walked over the thresholds of their small flats.
For years, authorities in Rogatica tried to find a permanent solution for them, but it wasn't until after Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt visited last year that the U.S. agreed to donate $500,000 for housing.
Jolie is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency. The refugees in Rogatica are convinced that her lobbying aided their cause.
The new tenants could hardly wait for the speeches to be over to receive the keys to the fully furnished small apartments in the bright yellow downtown building. Villa Angelina is the only building built in Rogatica after the 1992-95 Bosnia war that killed 100,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
Surrounded by low, grim houses and apartment buildings, the yellow building stands out for its beauty — one more reason to name it after the Hollywood star, people in Rogatica say.
After years of sharing a room with her sister and a bathroom with the rest of the refugees, Lena Babic, 79, finally held a set of keys in one hand and a photo of herself, her 73-year-old sister Mara, and Jolie in the other.
Even after she unlocked the door and sat on a sofa she and her sister now can call their own, Lena never put the photo down.
"Angelina saw everything," she remembered, recounting the star's visit to her old tiny room with the broken sofa next to the bathroom everybody used for washing clothes and dishes.
"She said, if I can do anything, you will have your own bathroom. She could not have done it on her own, others also helped, but she is the one who is in my heart," Babic said, pressing the photo against her chest.
Babic opened drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, then returned to the living room and sat down, only to get back up again and check the closets — everything was so perfect, she gloated.
The apartments belong to the municipality but the former refugees will be able to stay in them as long as they live.
"It's a real pleasure to be here, to see these people, how happy they are to establish their new homes in Villa Angelina," said Patrick Moon, the U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, who opened the two-story building.
That's exactly what Angelina Jolie did on Sunday in Budapest, Hungary, when she took some of her kids to a local ice rink for a day of fun.
The Salt actress took Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh for an ice skating session.
While Zahara and Maddox hung out with their mother, Shiloh and Pax donned helmets and laced up their skates to hit the ice.
Looks like it was just the thing for some family fun.
That's what Angelina Jolie's children enjoyed this weekend, as the actress took the kids for an outing in Budapest, Hungary, with Brad Pitt's parents, Jane and Bill Pitt.
Jolie and the elder Pitts took Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne to the Ujbuda Center, a shopping and entertainment complex, where they visited the Elevenpark play center.
The Jolie-Pitts have been spending lots of time in Hungary since Jolie directed her first feature there last year. That film, In the Land of Blood and Honey, opens in the U.S. on Dec. 23.
In August, Jolie and Pitt's older kids spent some quality time with their maternal grandfather, Jon Voight, in London.
The two-and-a-half minute clip depicts a love affair between a Serbian man and a Bosnian woman, set against the gritty backdrop of the 1992 Bosnian War.
Filming in Bosnia and Hungary, first-time director Jolie, 36, opted to cast local actors Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic in the leading roles, rather than Hollywood A-listers. She also wrote and produced the movie, which was shot both in English and the local Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian language, BHS.
In the Land of Blood and Honey will be released in the U.S. on Dec. 23.
Will you go see the film?
In fact...
"It came really natural to her," Graham King, Blood and Honey's Oscar-winning producer, told us at last night's premiere of his latest flick, The Rum Diary.
"For her first time on set, she'd go on that set, she knew how to act to the crew, she knew the shots she wanted, she got rehearsals out of the actors. She did a really, really great job."
Angie's flick, a love story set during the Bosnian War, is "extremely real," King said. "That's what Angelina wanted to portray."
No surprise, but King is confident that Jolie is well on her way of becoming the next big acting-directing double threat.
"I honestly think she's fantastic at both," he said. "Ben Affleck did it in The Town, right? He acted and directed and stuff. So who knows?"
Jolie's famous family was in tow.
"The kids were around," he said. "Brad [Pitt] was around...It was a real kind of independent movie which means a family atmosphere."
Others at The Rum Diary premiere, which also served as the launch of the Film Independent at LACMA Film Series, included the movie's stars Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart and Amber Heard along with guests like Hugh Hefner.
When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie put their Malibu home on the market in August, all anybody really got a glimpse of was the exterior. Mind you, that alone is pretty impressive. But if you're going to plop down nearly $14 million for a place, you obviously want to see the inside too, right?
Well, now you're in luck because brand new shots of the interior have just been released. So get your first look here. Assuming, of course, you're not Reese Witherspoon.
As we reported earlier, the Mid-Century home is more than 4,000 square feet and has four bedrooms, fourth bathrooms, bamboo flooring and several glass walls.
In other words, plenty of space to live like a rock star. Or, in this case, a movie star!
The actress and humanitarian made a two-day trip to Libya on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
"I have come to Libya for a variety of reasons, to see a country in transition at every level," Jolie, 36, said in a statement. "I will be meeting with officials from all sides but above all, listening to the local people in the street. I am here to express solidarity with them."
The actress, who is an ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR planned to meet with representatives from several organizations delivering assistance to Libyans in Misrata and Tripoli.
"It is the work of rebuilding and recovery that will determine Libya's future," she said.
Jolie and Brad Pitt have also donated $340,000 to the Somali aid group Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid to help it expand its services.
"I have come to Libya for a variety of reasons, to see a country in transition at every level and to witness efforts to fully realize the promise of the Arab Spring," Jolie said.
"The country faces a host of challenges, including internally displaced people, refugees, rule of law, security, sanitation, education, health and other humanitarian needs. All of these pieces must be delivered and coordinated properly in an environment of reconciliation and justice."
The two-day trip was Jolie's first to Libya, but she previously visited Libyan refugees in Malta and on the Italian island of Lampedusa in June, and went to Tunisia in April to appeal for international support for people fleeing the revolution there.
Jolie is an ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and is expected to announce an expanded role soon.
On her Libya trip, she met representatives from UNHCR, Medecins Sans Frontieres and local non-governmental organizations delivering assistance to Libyans in Misrata and Tripoli.
"I will be meeting with officials from all sides but above all, listening to the local people in the street. I am here to express solidarity with them. It is the work of rebuilding and recovery that will determine Libya's future."
The actress, who was recently recognized for her work as an U.N. Goodwill Ambassador, and Brad Pitt have donated $340,000 to the Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid, which which goes toward healthcare for homeless children in war-torn Somalia, according to reports.
The country is experiencing its worst famine in 60 years, which has taken the lives of 29,000 children under the age of five. Jolie recently spoke about the profound impact the Somali refugees have had on her personal life.
On Oct. 3, Jolie honored a Yemeni aid group and the U.N. Refugee Agency Awards in Switzerland, where she got emotional while speaking about her ten years of experience with the refugees. (Jolie has been a part of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees staff since 2001.)
"Most of all I'm so grateful—I don't want to cry—to the refugee families that I have the honor and privilege to spend the last years with," she said, "From them I've learned so much. I've learned to be a better person, a better mother. They've inspired me by showing me the unbreakable strength of the human spirit."
For more information about the aid group, go here.
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