According to media reports, the comic book adaptation took in a solid $33 million in its first week in foreign release, opening day-and-date on 1,922 screens in 22 markets.
Given director Timur Bekmambetov's blockbuster pedigree, "Wanted" had its biggest international opening in Russia, where the James McAvoy/ Angelina Jolie vehicle made $11 million. "Wanted" added an additional $8 million in its United Kingdom opening.
In the United States, of course, "Wanted" finished behind the Pixar adventure "Wall-E," but that robot romance only opened in six foreign markets, on 400 screens in Latin America, making $3.1 million foreign. It will continue its international roll-out in weeks to come.
Second place overseas actually went to a different computer animated feature, "Kung Fu Panda," which did $21.5 million, bringing its foreign total to $98.5 million. Disney's "Prince Caspian" was third at $20.1 million for a total of $161.8 million foreign, followed by the $12.1 million for "The Incredible Hulk" and the $11.8 million for "Get Smart."
Rather than fly straight, these zig and zag, swerving and veering around corners to obliterate well-groomed unsuspecting targets.
Film-goers wandering into this exhilarating, exhausting mash-up of Fight Club and The Matrix may feel similarly blind-sided: Wanted is a little violent like Amy Winehouse has a little problem. You've been warned.
Far removed from the lush British melodrama of Atonement, James McAvoy taps into his inner dork as Wesley Gibson, an over-medicated office drone with an anonymous life and a girlfriend who's cheating on him with his backstabbing best friend.
Not pathetic enough for you?
Welsey even loans aforementioned pal cash for condoms (despite suspecting where said contraceptives might be destined for).
But like The Matrix's Keanu Reeves, he's about to be initiated into a conflict in which impossible feats of destruction super-charge his soul. (Unlike Reeves, who inhabited pre-and-post Neo with the same numbed inexpressiveness, McAvoy convincingly transforms from sad sack to urban savage without skipping a stride.)
Cue Angelina Jolie, ably vamping it up as the sensuously-smirking Fox, the vixen who snatches Wesley from the clutches of the renegade Cross (Thomas Kretschmann) and introduces him to The Fraternity.
The what? Don't ask. But if you must know, it's an ancient order of weavers-turned-assassins who take their orders from the Loom of Fate. Told you not to ask.
"Kill one person, save 1,000," explains Jolie between slinging herself out the window of a speeding red Viper and slinking naked out of a "recovery room" pool.
It's sheer spasmodic nonsense, of course, and audiences expecting logic in a thriller in which bullets can be "curved" are advised to seek out the nearest documentary instead.
Does the screenplay, adapted loosely from the cult comic book, exist primarily as a lattice for one ecstatic action set-piece after another?
Sure -- but for once, that's not a complaint.
And to be fair, the narrative, stuffed with acts of revenge and betrayal, is knottier than your average summertime popcorn head-banger.
Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov landed the Wanted gig on the strength of his stylish fantasies Night Watch and Day Watch, two of the highest-grossing movies in his homeland's history.
Making his Hollywood debut here, he outguns and outwits the industry's highest-paid perpetrators of monosyllabic pandemonium -- whether it's showcasing somersaulting motor vehicles or a staggering, cliff-side train derailment.
All the while he laces the breathtaking stunts with wonky, sadistic bursts of humour -- as when the collision between an ergonomic keyboard and a mouth full of teeth spell out an uproarious letter of resignation.
This spirit of speed-metal wickedness -- as opposed to the pothead pretentiousness of The Matrix sequels -- pervades even the casting.
Why else would you hire Mr. Driving Miss Daisy himself, Morgan Freeman, as the Fraternity's crueler-than-thou leader Sloan and arm him with snippets of Samuel L. Jackson's dialogue?
Crazier than Iron Man
Bekmambetov's nihilistic antics may be overload for some -- even I could have done without the booby-trapped rats -- but it's hipper than Indiana Jones, more complete than The Incredible Hulk and crazier than Iron Man.
This is the summer's most dangerous, delirious jolt to the system.
The Jolie-Pitt Foundation has given $500,000 to three groups in the war-torn country which will provide aid for some 5,700 children, said the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which is co-chaired by Jolie.
Money will pay for basic necessities, including books and supplies to help send Iraqi children to school. Aid will also go to refugee kids, and to school rehabilitation programs.
The foundation also gave $500,000 to help children in the United States who have a military parent killed in Iraq, or who are separated from a parent stationed in the country.
The donation for U.S. kids will go to the Armed Services YMCA Operation Hero Program, which will provide educational tutors and counseling to 2,500 kids.
Pitt, 44, and Jolie, 33, have donated millions of dollars to charity over the years. Jolie, star of action movie "Wanted," has long been an advocate for refugees and is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Pitt, who starred in critically acclaimed "Babel," has advocated for relief in the Darfur region of Sudan and has backed a program to help build homes for survivors of Hurricane Katrina in the United States.
The pair have four kids of their own, and Jolie is expecting twins.
But this kind of inadvertent humor is combined with an intentionally snarky attitude and dark comedy to make Wanted (* * 1/2 out of four) more enjoyable than it ought to be.
Much of the entertainment value comes from jaw-dropping stunts and explosive action sequences, which are high-octane fun.
Yes, bullets bend, blood spews, cars crash and bodies are punched, stabbed and shot up. But the look of the film, as directed by Russian-born filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov (Day Watch), is highly inventive, even though the plot is inane and some of the dialogue is decidedly awkward or clichιd.
Wanted, like the Matrix movies, has a stylized visual panache. Bullets from different directions move in slow motion and clash in midair, and a gunman leaps through a mirrored glass window, shattering it into brilliant shards while shooting relentlessly, suspended between building roofs.
Angelina Jolie is a sultry sight to behold, effortlessly pulling off outlandish and extreme maneuvers. In the scenic countryside of the Czech Republic, she jumps a boxy car into a moving train, where it lodges itself in one of the cabins, atop the seats.
She also pulls a variation of an Evel Knievel stunt and catapults the sports car she's driving over several police cruisers and a bus, firing off rounds at her target all the while.
The focus of the plot is on twentysomething accounting manager Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy, who projects an engaging anti-hero quality).
He spends most of his day in an office cubicle, quaking in fear of his obnoxious boss and popping pills to ease his panic attacks.
Although he is aware that his sleazy girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend, Wesley is such an emotional slacker that he doesn't bother to confront them.
But after being recruited by the weaver clan/assassination club, suddenly he finds he has the right stuff to shoot the wings off a fly.
Jolie and Morgan Freeman are key members of this weaving clan, toiling in a cloistered Chicago textile factory that looks like a Gothic castle.
Sure, their real trade is cloth, but they dabble in the killing business as well, carrying out the assignments designated by "Fate."
Freeman sermonizes about the Loom of Fate, another of those chortle-inducing features.
Apparently, when looked at under a microscope, weavings contain critical missed stitches that create a binary code spelling out the name of assassination targets. How refreshingly low-tech.
Wanted is silly and far-fetched. And if it didn't back up its ridiculous plot with spellbinding visceral energy, it would have been a dismal failure.
But the thrilling stunts and hyperkinetic action scenes are the undisputed stars of this surprisingly entertaining film. (Rating: R for strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language and some sexuality. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes. Opens tonight in select theaters and Friday nationwide.)
It is, in fact, a super-stylized, wildly outlandish action flick that will pick you up, throw you around, drop you back down on the ground and leave you begging for more. It's the ideal, mindless summer thrill ride one you can never take too seriously, even when it starts to take itself too seriously.
Based on the graphic novels by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, "Wanted" follows the unlikely transformation of Wesley Gibson (the increasingly versatile James McAvoy) from miserable cubicle dweller to master assassin. When we first meet him, he's being berated yet again by his obnoxious hag of a boss; if you know anything about anything, you know that in a fantasy world like this, she will surely get hers in the end.
Jolie, as the appropriately named Fox, yanks Wesley from his dreary life and introduces him to The Fraternity, a secret society of freakishly skilled, highly trained killers of whom his recently murdered father, the man he never knew, was the best of the best. They've been around for 1,000 years and, as their cover, they work in a textile mill. Because no one would ever suspect that.
Kazakhstan-born director Timur Bekmambetov clearly had a blast emptying his own clip of filmmaking tricks: sped-up sequences, slo-mo, curving bullets that defy the laws of physics. And he serves up one tremendous car chase that will make you apprehensive about driving through Chicago anytime soon.
When things finally reach their breathless conclusion, not a hair is out of place in Jolie's perfect, sexy twist. She's back in butt-kicking Mrs. Smith mode lethal but cheeky. The diminutive McAvoy, meanwhile, maintains much of the underdog likability we saw from him in the underappreciated coming-of-age comedy "Starter for 10," but it's obvious he's had a few visits with a personal trainer. (It seems the Scottish actor has also seen a dialect coach, and has come back with a solid American accent.)
Sure, you've seen plenty of this type of amped-up nonsense before in the "Matrix" series, or in last summer's ultraviolent "Shoot 'Em Up," which was just as elaborately choreographed and edited but felt like more of an onslaught. That doesn't make "Wanted" any less enjoyable.
And certainly you could have a philosophical debate about the merits of The Fraternity's purpose: to kill people who were fated to do evil deeds anyway. But that would needlessly tax your brain, and there's no room for that now. Just sit down, shut up and hold on.
"Wanted," a Universal Pictures release, is rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language and some sexuality. Running time: 110 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Yeah, way hot!
And now you can own one of the leather jackets that she wears in her new action flick, Wanted.
Bidding opened today at CharityFolks.com for Jolie's black leather number featuring a diagonal front zipper and tassels on the zipper pulls.
If you wanna actually wear it, ya better be teensy-weensy. It's an extra small.
Value is $1,000, and it's expected to fetch about $3,000.
Proceeds benefit Plan!t Now, an organization started by Jolie's Wanted costar Morgan Freeman that helps families and communities prepare for natural disasters before they occur.
Joile's latest leading man James McAvoy told PEOPLE he was most surprised to discover "her normality."
"She's just a very chilled-out person, and a good, fun person. And that shouldn't be surprising, because movie stars are normal people, but even actors get taken in by the hype," McAvoy said.
Costar Terrence Stamp was also impressed with the tranquility he saw in her on Wanted.
"I just think that in this last movie, she just seemed very happy," Stamp said. "I think it must be a wonderful moment in her life. And it's just something you don't fake. Either you're happy and that's the vibe you're giving out, or not, and so I felt it was a great, great moment for her, and I hope it lasts."
She is so "sharp," added actor Thomas Kretschmann.
"She knows what she's going for, and she's also very instinctive there are smart people and there are instinctive people, and it's very rare that it meets in the middle, and she's one of them," the German actor said.
Kretschman was stumped as to how Jolie balances the demands of her large family, her film career and her humanitarian efforts. "She's very busy, I guess!" he laughed. "She likes it she's a very passionate human being, and I think she just loves life."
"She's herself, all the time," agreed Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov. "She never lies, and it's her nature, and I love her because of that."
The debut American feature by successful Kazakhstan director Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch" and its record-smashing 2006 sequel, "Day Watch"), this over-the-top, ultraviolent, hyperkinetic action thriller pretty much has it all.
That would include engagingly offbeat source material in the form of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones' comic book series, a decent adaptation by Michel Brandt and Derek Haas (last year's "3:10 to Yuma" remake) and Chris Morgan ("Cellular"), a terrific cast and jaw-dropping stunt work.
Then there's the visually charged talents of Bekmambetov -- a man who has funneled the best of the Wachowski brothers, Quentin Tarantino and contemporary Hong Kong action movies through his own wry sensibility.
Capably establishing the anything-goes tone of the Los Angeles Film Festival in its capacity as Thursday's official curtain-raiser, the Universal guilty pleasure should make plenty of noise, especially with young males, when it opens nationally on June 27.
James McAvoy, sporting a swell American accent, is certain to build on his big-screen appeal as Wesley Gibson, a put-upon account executive who discovers that his long-absent father belonged to a centuries-old league of supersensory assassins known as the Fraternity.
It also turns out that Gibson is a chip off the old block in the killing department, but before he can avenge his father's death, he must get into fighting shape with a little help from the Fraternity's Zen master of a leader, Sloane (Morgan Freeman), and tough-cookie Fox (Angelina Jolie, in sinewy "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" mode).
The three of them prove to be colorful assets in a film where even the bullets seem to have a personality all their own.
Set in Chicago but shot in a cleverly disguised Prague (save for a noticeably Eastern European-accented rendition of "Happy Birthday" by Gibson's fellow office workers), "Wanted" effectively hits the ground running with a steady flow of wildly inventive, CG-infused action sequences.
Also cranking things up a couple of extra notches are resident Michael Bay cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen, Oliver Stone's longtime editor David Brenner and prolific composer Danny Elfman, who skillfully dispenses with anything that could be mistaken for subtlety.
Opens: Friday, June 27 (Universal). production: Universal, Spyglass Entertainment, Relativity Media, a Marc Platt/Kickstart production. Cast: Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Common. Director: Timur Bekmambetov. Screenwriters: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Chris Morgan. Story by: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas. Based on the comic books by: Mark Millar, J.G. Jones. Producers: Marc Platt, Jim Lemley, Jason Netter, Iain Smith. Executive producers: Adam Siegel, Marc Silvestri, Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber. Rated R, 110 minutes.
Director of photography: Mitchell Amundsen.
Production designer: John Myhre.
Music: Danny Elfman.
Costume designer: Varya Avdyushko.
Editor: David Brenner.
"I'm very lucky," she tells USA Today. "I'm with a man who makes me feel very sexy pregnant and loves children."
But Pitt isn't all talk. Jolie, 33, also tells the paper, "In the last few months it's hard for me to pick up the other kids, so he's there to help lift them up to me and things like that. He's an extremely hands-on dad with all the kids and really, really supportive."
Jolie, who stars in the upcoming assassin thriller Wanted, is taking a break before she gives birth. "We've made a point to, both of us, not be working," she says. "So we'll be home together with the kids."
And don't worry about Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh feeling left out when the twins arrive. "At the same time we're expecting two, we have four," Jolie says, "so my focus now is on the four we have. So every day is just about making sure that their schooling is going right and their manners are intact and we're disciplining properly and we're spending enough time with them individually, so they seem special."
She adds: "That's a lot of balance when you have a lot of children."
Angelina Jolie certainly earns the extra adjective.
Those lips simultaneously pout and snarl, those eyes smolder, and her body seems specifically designed for seduction or attack.
That added sense of danger is what separates Jolie from all the other leading ladies of Hollywood. She frightens even as she tempts.
On-screen, she can be fearsome (Tomb Raider, Mr. & Mrs. Smith), blazing guns and throwing punches in costumes that are part dominatrix, part commando. She can be sentimental, as in A Mighty Heart, TheGood Shepherd or the upcoming 1930s drama Changeling, but those aren't part of the mystique and have been less popular with audiences than her glamorous roles.
Off-screen, she can be shocking her candid talk of using and kicking drugs in her youth, wearing a necklace containing then-husband Billy Bob Thornton's blood, planting an on-the-lips kiss on brother James Haven at the Oscars. But she also comes off as the ultimate nurturer caring for her brood of four with partner Brad Pitt and drawing attention to suffering refugees as United Nations goodwill ambassador.
Apart from an out-of-control youth, which she says she has long outgrown, and a sincere interest in social issues, Jolie's public image is mainly a reflection of the bad girls she has played her Oscar-winning wild child from Girl, Interrupted, the succubus mother of the monster Grendel in last year's Beowulf, the punk carjacker of Gone in 60 Seconds.
Her real-life bad girl might be done, but she's not about to retire her on-screen. Consider this scene from the assassin thriller Wanted, opening June 27:
Jolie is sprawled across the sleek hood of a cherry-red Dodge Viper, clad in a silver cocktail dress and steering the wheel through a shattered windshield with one high-heeled shoe, while the other is pressed against the neck of the young man she's rescuing (Atonement's James McAvoy). As they race through a Chicago tunnel, she fires guns at a chasing assailant.
You don't have to be Freud to see the erotic overtones.
"All I was thinking was, 'God this is fun! Really fun,' " Jolie says, laughing.
Sitting cross-legged on a bed in a penthouse suite at the Hotel Carlton during the recent Cannes Film Festival, the soon-to-be mother of twins cradles her pregnant belly, hidden beneath a black frock. Lunch steak and vegetables sits in front of her.
Unlike her brooding screen presence, the 33-year-old seems cheerful and relaxed, showing a sometimes goofy sense of humor. She may be the daunting sex symbol of her time what Madonna was a generation before, and Sophia Loren before that.
Jolie widens her eyes and mumbles, "Thank you," through a mouthful of her lunch, covering her lips with her hand as she smiles. "I'm very much appreciative of that as I wolf down a steak."
She ranked No. 3 last week on Forbes magazine's Celebrity 100 behind only Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfrey in her cultural influence. Forbes writer Dorothy Pomerantz says Jolie combines the ferocity of a Madonna or Loren with something else.
"They're all really powerful women and project an intimidating aura. But the difference with Angelina Jolie is she manages to have the best of both worlds," Pomerantz says. "She projects that tough image on-screen, and for a long time in her regular life, but now she's also like Mother Teresa off-screen, with all her charity work and her kids. She's the ultimate mother and do-gooder. How many famous people can hold two images in their persona at once?"
In Wanted, Jolie is going bad again.
She plays the aptly named Fox, a world-class assassin whose job is to recruit and protect McAvoy's character, a wimpy office clerk who has the supernatural power to bend the trajectory of bullets, into her fraternity of vengeance seekers.
The movie, a loose adaptation of a cult comic book, mixes gruesome violence with tongue-in-cheek touches of humor. Exhibit A: the ridiculousness of the chase scene.
At first, Jolie denies the scene's sexual overtones, then acknowledges: "Well, I am in a dress with my legs spread. Honestly, I think it comes across that way because I wasn't thinking about that at all. I loved it because she was somebody who has no time for boyfriends or relationships or sexuality or flirtation. She's not like that at all. It's like being with a solider."
What makes femmes fatales so appealing, she says, is they "tend to not be throwing themselves at somebody, and are not thinking about that."
She says playing someone who resists attention makes them, paradoxically, irresistible.
Fox "is not easy to get along with," Jolie says. "Because of that, and how casual she is with her body she doesn't think twice about jumping across the hood of a car with a dress on maybe that's what comes across."
She pauses and adds, "I just had to try to keep a straight face."
But all that detachment takes work. Jolie did an unusual thing to make Fox seem more distant and unattainable: cut many of her own lines.
"There are a lot of scenes where James is talking, talking, talking, and I say nothing," she says. "Or something's happening, and I'm eating a cheeseburger while he's being attacked. She has a fun sense of distance."
She has a theory about her subconscious motivation. "Maybe it was my attempt at being Clint Eastwood (who directs her in Changeling). Maybe I was secretly trying to channel the coolest person who says nothing."
Though the film is fantasy, Jolie says Fox's back story her father was murdered by a criminal who had been marked for death but was allowed to go free reflects an exaggerated version of her own beliefs.
"I have strong opinions, which I don't want to get into now, about international justice, about the death penalty, about people who get away with murder. There's a little bit of that in this story, it's kind of an underlying point, but the story doesn't get too heavy into it," she says. "I don't like action movies that take themselves too seriously. Those action movies where everybody is acting very cool and it's all very serious and the world is going to end? I tend to just giggle."
There was another part of herself that she was able to include in Fox her many tattoos. "Instead of taking mine away, which we have to do in every film, we ended up leaving mine and adding more." Those temporary additions are on full display in one scene, where Fox emerges from a steaming bath and walks by stunned onlookers again, not caring what they see.
"We tried to focus (the fake tattoos) on themes that would be related to this sense of justice. I have 'Strength of Will' in one language, and we added it in four other languages on my arm." "Know Your Rights" is printed in English on the back of her neck, and again in Latin as well. "From Churchill's speech 'We have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,' I had 'Toil' and 'Tears' here and here," she says, pointing to the undersides of her upper arms.
Wanted, Jolie says, is her break from more earnest performances as the wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl in A Mighty Heart, an isolated housewife in the CIA drama The Good Shepherd and the mother of a missing boy in Changeling, which comes out Oct. 24 and could fuel Oscar talk.
She was happy to get back to an over-the-top action flick. As her manager, Geyer Kosinski, put it: "It's what people want to see her doing. She said, 'At some point, I have to get back to (sex) and killing.' "
Jolie says: "I've been so lucky in my career that I've been able to do a kind of Mr. & Mrs. Smith thing that's really cool, and I'm made up to be as pretty as I can be. But I can also do a film like Changeling or A Mighty Heart, where it's removed from that.
"There are those certain roles, like this role, where you joke with hair and makeup: 'All right, make me foxy,' " she says. "I think it's in every woman. It's the little girl in us. There's a side of us that likes to play dress-up and every once in a while get glammed up."
For now, Jolie says she's focusing on her role as doting mom.
She declined to confirm her due date, but she has very clear ideas about what the days and months leading up to the birth will be like.
"We've made a point to, both of us, not be working," she says. "So we'll be home together with the kids," Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, who just turned 2.
"At the same time we're expecting two, we have four, so my focus now is on the four we have. And these are some big times for them, big moments in their lives. So every day is just about making sure that their schooling is going right and their manners are intact and we're disciplining properly and we're spending enough time with them individually, so they seem special. That's a lot of balance when you have a lot of children."
As for how Pitt is handling it all, she says, "I'm very lucky I'm with a man who makes me feel very sexy pregnant and loves children. In the last few months it's hard for me to pick up the other kids, so he's there to help lift them up to me and things like that. He's an extremely hands-on dad with all the kids and really, really supportive. Any woman knows that when you're pregnant, if you have a partner who is embracing it with you and excited with you, it makes all the difference. I'm very lucky to have him."
Since Cannes, Jolie and Pitt have lately stayed out of sight on their new estate in the South of France, the vineyard castle Chateau Miraval.
But people haven't stopped talking about her. Reports, denied by her manager, earlier this month that she had given birth set off a media frenzy.
As she resists the attention, she becomes, paradoxically, irresistible.
As emotive scenes of refugees flash on the screen, Jolie who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency explains what life is like for millions around the world.
"They have survived war, they have survived displacement, they have survived rape, they have survived hunger and disease," say the actress (who is expecting twins with Brad Pitt this summer). "For those who have survived and for those who did not, we are thinking of you on this day."
The clip will begin airing on YouTube, Facebook and on the UNHCR home page Wednesday morning.
The actress and human rights activist is also planning to write an article for a major U.S. newspaper to coincide with Friday's day of action. (World Refugee Day will be marked by events worldwide: London's Trafalgar Square is being converted into a replica Darfur village, Rome's Colosseum will be lit with the refugee agency's logo, and, in Washington, D.C., Chicago Bulls basketball player Luol Deng will receive the Humanitarian of the Year award.)
Jolie, 33, first became attached to the work of the UN's refugee agency during a February 2001 visit to war-torn Sierra Leone in west Africa, prior to filming Beyond Borders with Clive Owen.
You will be treated to a free glass of pastis if you can get a particularly silly story published, mischievous residents said, declining to be named.
Pitt and Jolie, who is pregnant with twins, are staying at the sprawling Miraval domain, near Correns, where they enjoy nearly 1,000 acres of woods and vineyards, a gorgeous 17th-century villa, a swimming pool and helicopter pad.
News of their arrival with their four children has drawn paparazzi from all over the world who now engage in a daily game of cat-and-mouse with security guards under strict instructions to protect the family's privacy.
"They came here to find some peace, and instead there are paparazzi at the gate day and night. It's really unbearable. There are always five or six motorbikes and cars ready to launch into a chase," said Christine, a sympathetic local winemaker.
Rumor has it in the village that decoy limousines with black-tinted windows exit the property every so often to lure the photographers away, while the couple known as "Brangelina" travel only by helicopter.
For residents of Correns, the horde of reporters and other visitors keen to catch sight of the A-list Hollywood stars has provided entertainment -- and some extra business.
"It's bringing business because people are a little curious. For now there's a lot of hype, it's going to be good for the next few weeks and after that we'll see," said Onno Stijl, a chef at the Auberge du Parc hotel and restaurant.
Less impressed are the local hunting enthusiasts, who say the Miraval domain is prime territory for boar and who fear tense encounters with the Pitt-Jolie security guards when the season starts on August 15.
"We have the proper authorizations and everything," said a local hunter, pre-empting any possible objection to the annual shooting fest in the Miraval woods.
"It's a little intimidating, someone like her who is presented as a goddess. [But] it takes, like, 30 seconds and you figure out she's just a cool woman," Wanted actor Thomas Kretschmann said at the film's press day Monday.
The German actor, who plays an assassin in the action flick out June 27, also described Jolie as "a cool mommy."
Kretschmann's kids and the Jolie-Pitt youngsters "played together from time to time" on set, he said. "She knows exactly what she wants and she's extremely smart."
But Jolie isn't the only "cool" person in her household. Costar Common calls Brad Pitt "a good dude."
"We hung out and he was a cool cat," said the rapper-turned-actor.
And Jolie? "She's an incredible mother, a beautiful mother," Common said. "She has so much realness to her."
Jolie stars in Clint Eastwood's missing-child drama "Changeling" while Aniston is part of the ensemble cast in the romantic comedy "He's Just Not That Into You."
Aniston probably will win the dollar battle because her film debuts in nationwide release, while "Changeling" starts in just a few cities to build critical buzz before going wide Oct. 31.
But Jolie, an Academy Award winner for "Girl, Interrupted," likely will lead the acclaim game. Well received by critics in its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, "Changeling" has put Jolie in the running for a best-actress Oscar.
Set in the 1920s and '30s, "Changeling" is based on the true story of a single mom in a nightmare battle with corrupt Los Angeles police trying to cover their mistakes in the investigation surrounding her missing nine-year-old son.
The commercial prospects for "He's Just Not That Into You" are bolstered by an all-star cast including Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Connelly. Directed by Ken Kwapis ("The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"), the movie focuses on the mixed signals men and women send in relationships.
Pitt and Jolie - expecting twins, their fifth and sixth children - hooked up after co-starring in the 2005 hit "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" as his marriage to Aniston was unravelling.
Universal Pictures is releasing "Changeling" and Warner Bros. is distributing "He's Just Not That Into You."
"It's great for the sex life," she tells Entertainment Weekly magazine. "It just makes you a lot more creative. So you have fun, and as a woman you're just so round and full."
Jolie, who's expecting twins, has said the babies are due in August. She and partner Brad Pitt have four children: Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 2.
When asked how she and Pitt plan to handle six young children, the 33-year-old actress says: "We really don't know. His mom and dad are on standby to come out and help. And fortunately we can hire help if we need it, but we're going to try as we usually do to balance it as well as we can."
Jolie says the couple want to make sure their older children feel included after the babies are born.
"They're old enough to feel included to change diapers themselves, to feed bottles themselves, like if I pump into a bottle. We're trying to find ways where it can be a fun group thing," she says.
How do Jolie and Pitt, 44, define their relationship?
"We have that problem all the time," she says. "I say `partner' sometimes. `Father of my children' is too long. But half the time people refer to us as, `So, your wife this, your husband that.' We've stopped correcting everybody.'"
Jolie, who has two upcoming films, "Wanted" and "Changeling," continues to draw strong reactions from the public, which she sees as a good thing.
"That some people support me and some people really don't like me tells me that I'm making decisions and I'm standing strong for something I believe in. I'm making choices in life. And that's the right thing to do."
"We weren't expecting twins," Jolie, 33, tells Entertainment Weekly in a new interview. "So it did shock us, and we jumped to six [children] quickly. But we like a challenge."
With a house full of kids, Jolie says she needs help so it's a good thing there's family around to pitch in. "[Brad's] mom and dad are on standby to come out and help," she says.
But the real focus, Jolie says, is making sure their other children Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2 feel included when their new siblings are born. Says the actress: "They're old enough to feel included to change diapers themselves, to feed bottles themselves, like if I pump into a bottle. We're trying to find ways where it can be a fun group thing ... Everybody gets special time so we can make sure we know where they're at."
As for how she's handling being pregnant with twins, the actress tells EW she's taking it easy and letting Pitt handle all the heavy lifting literally. "We've worked out a system where Brad just lifts [the kids] to me every time they want to come up," she says. "I just don't bend down. I'll scream, 'Honey!' and he'll come running and lift them up."
And pregnancy has other benefits as well. "It's great for the sex life," she says. "It just makes you a lot more creative. So you have fun, and as a woman you're just so round and full."
In southern France, they have blue skies, vineyards and an estate with a moat. But their new digs come with another bonus - French law is tough on paparazzi, especially when they snap stars' children.
The laws might come in handy after the birth of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's twins, particularly if, as reports say, they hope to turn the tables on the paparazzi by selling rights to the first baby pictures for millions of dollars.
In France, where the Jolie-Pitts are believed to be setting up house to prepare for the births of children five and six, other celebrities have waged war on gossip magazines with relentless, precedent-setting lawsuits.
Often, the tactic pays. Monaco's royal family grossed more than $680,000 through lawsuits in France in 2006, the newspaper Le Figaro has reported. On top of fines, magazines are regularly ordered to slap huge "mea culpa" notices across their covers.
"This country is medieval in terms of its legislation about printing information about celebrities," fumed Loic Sellin, editor of glossy Voici magazine. "It's shameful. Absolutely everything can be considered an attack on someone's private life."
Case in point - former presidential candidate Segolene Royal won the equivalent of more than $12,000 from Paris Match magazine after it ran photos of her praying in an Italian church.
The lines are blurry and debatable but there's general agreement on the need to shield children from the media glare. To avoid lawsuits, magazines regularly blur out the faces of celebrities' children or simply pull the photos.
The four Jolie-Pitt children - six-year-old Maddox, four-year-old Pax and three-year-old Zahara, who are adopted, and two-year-old Shiloh - are an exception, simply because they have been seen out in public so often.
But if any magazines were to obtain snapshots of Jolie and her as-yet-unborn twins, two French lawyers say they would counsel them to blur the babies' faces in most cases. Jolie has said in the past that the babies are due in August but there has been no further word.
"Let's say she went to the French Open with her children, I would say, 'she's out in public and knows she'll be seen, there's no reason to ban the photo,' " said lawyer Daphne Juster, who regularly defends photographers.
"But if she's strolling in the park in sunglasses, minding her own business, she could say, 'I tried to be discreet, this is not part of my public life,' and can sue."
Emmanuel Pierrat, who defends both gossip magazines and celebrities, said he might urge magazines to run photos of the babies snuggling up against their mother, or turned from the camera, so their faces do not show. Of course, he says, "some would take the risk anyway."
In which case, he said, there would be an added incentive for Jolie and Pitt to sue. The bidding war for exclusive photos of the twins has reached $15 million, according to an unconfirmed report on TMZ.com, the celebrity-gossip website. For the birth of Shiloh, the couple sold exclusive photos to People magazine for a reported $4 million and donated the money to charity.
There is no indication that paparazzi laws played a role in the actors' decision to settle in the village of Correns in Provence, in a sprawling stone villa with a tile roof and blue shutters.
The town's mayor says they have moved in already and a helicopter has been spotted taking off and landing at the site, but it is unclear if the couple is actually there. Though Pitt has been glimpsed nearby in Italy and Switzerland, Jolie has remained out of sight since the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Gossip magazines have resorted to running archive photos of the couple's brood. For now, Brangelina has kept the paparazzi on the chase.
Brangelina is said to have spent well over six figures to adorn their pending arrivals' room with a number of pricey items, including Versailles-style cribs ($3,200) with matching changing tables ($2,800) as well as $4,500 armoires.
But who's doing the blabbing about the babies' room?
It should be noted that the L.A. boutique claiming the couple made these purchases is Petit Tresor.
Last month, the store's owner received a cease-and-desist threat from Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' attorney for allegedly passing along false information to the media about the couple's spending habits for the sake of publicity.
Whatever the case may be, we suggest celebs start buying anonymously online. It's more discreet, and since you're dropping a bundle on your bundles of joy, it'll probably come with free shipping!
DreamWorks Animation's Jack Black comedy about a panda who dreams of martial arts glory handily beat forecasts by earning an estimated $60 million during its first three days, distributor Paramount Pictures said on Sunday.
But it was not a complete knockout. Columbia Pictures' Adam Sandler comedy "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," in which the comedian plays an Israeli commando-turned-New York hairdresser, opened at No. 2 with $40 million, also beating forecasts.
Going into the weekend, the championship could have gone either way. In one corner, "Kung Fu Panda" was powered by rave reviews and an underserved family audience; in the other, Sandler could count on young male fans unlikely to be swayed by negative notices from puzzled critics.
Last weekend's champ, New Line Cinema's romantic comedy "Sex and the City," fell to No. 4 with $21.3 million, a massive 63 percent drop from its surprisingly strong opening weekend. Sales to date stand at $99.3 million for the big-screen adaptation of HBO's fashion-and-relationship series.
Just ahead of it was "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" with $22.8 million, down one place. The total for the Paramount-distributed adventure rose to $253 million after three weekends.
Viacom Inc-owned Paramount distributes DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc productions. Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. New Line is a division of Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. Pictures.
And then there is Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda, swaddled in layers of black and white computer-generated fur and delivering a performance that rates among his most persuasive and appealing.
As Po, the pot-bellied panda at the centre of this energetic all-ages dazzler, Black crafts a character that is all awkward-limbed, plush-bodied charm -- a roly-poly reinvigoration for the actor who hasn't been this winning (CG-rendered or not) since School of Rock.
Grousers may gripe about a threadbare plot recycled from multitudes of other Hollywood epics about underdogs who achieve greatness under the watch of a sage but cranky teacher.
But even within those formulaic confines, Kung Fu Panda is hugely rewarding. As directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, it's visually lavish (the renderings of China's landscape are an eye-popping blast) and gratifyingly arch. Moreover, it never devolves into the smart-ass pop-culture referencing that has become commonplace in our post-Shrek age despite some genuinely sly vocal work from its assembled A-listers.
Chief among them is Dustin Hoffman, cast as Shifu, the red panda and martial-arts master who comes to train Po to transcend his portly frame and meagre origins as a waiter at his father's (James Wong) noodle shop. (Despite the fact his dad is a goose, Po has apparently never clued in that they might not be biologically simpatico.)
All his life Po has dreamed of one day joining the "Furious Five" -- Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Snake (Lucy Liu), Crane (David Cross) and Monkey (Jackie Chan) -- even though he's a burly, bumbling bear.
When wise -- or merely borderline senile -- turtle Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) prophesizes that evil warrior Tai Lung (Deadwood's Ian McShane) is destined to return to the Valley of Peace, it's decided a new "dragon warrior" should be chosen to inherit a scroll of limitless power in the hope of defeating the imminent threat.
Rather than one of the Five, however, Oogway names Po -- following a slapstick series of mishaps too complicated to explain here -- as the land's saviour.
Predictably the warriors, as well as Shifu, are outraged. How could this pudgy panda defeat their deadliest enemy? Can Po prove them wrong? Does he have a hope against the lethal, vengeful Tai Lung?
If you're familiar with one Mr. Miyagi or, for that matter, Yoda, then the outcome will come as no surprise -- nor will little else from a script that travels the wide and well-trodden path.
Still, there is plenty to admire -- chiefly Black and Hoffman, an endearing comic duo. "We don't wash our pits in the Pool of Eternal Tears," Shifu advises Po.
Maybe not. But it sure helps scrub away memories of Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny.
The celebrity newsmagazine denied Wednesday that it knew about an impostor before the broadcast. The identity of the impostor remained unknown.
On Friday morning, the show posted a story on its Web site and sent an e-mail alert to media outlets saying it had confirmed the birth of Jolie's twins. The Associated Press picked up the report.
"Entertainment Tonight" did not name its source at the time. It later revealed that the report was based on e-mails from someone it thought was Jolie assistant Holly Goline.
Shortly after the story was posted but several hours before the broadcast aired, Goline told "Entertainment Tonight" that she was not the person with whom they had been corresponding, a person with direct knowledge of the conversation told The Associated Press. That account was confirmed by another person close to Jolie.
"'Entertainment Tonight' was told before the broadcast that their information came from an impostor," said the second person. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The people said there were several conversations Friday, by e-mail, text message and telephone, between Goline and "Entertainment Tonight." Meanwhile, the story was quickly challenged by several other celebrity news outlets.
The TV show stood by its story Friday night, with host Mary Hart saying on the air, "Just this morning, a source who says she was inside the delivery room tells us yes, the babies were born and yes, mother and babies are fine."
Later that night, the manager of Jolie's partner, Brad Pitt, told AP that the babies had not been born.
The show said in a statement Wednesday that it first learned of an impostor from a letter from Jolie's attorney Monday three days after the broadcast.
"'Entertainment Tonight' takes this very seriously and is, of course, concerned that the show may have been victimized by someone allegedly posing as a member of Ms. Jolie's team," the statement said. "We are actively investigating the matter and are reaching out to law enforcement agencies."
The show has not mentioned the story on the air since the initial report, and the story has been deleted from its Web site.
The 27-year-old program is the top-rated entertainment newsmagazine on television, with an average nightly audience of 6.6 million viewers, more than double any competitors. The twins, who Jolie says are due in August, are one of the biggest stories of the year in celebrity journalism, with their first photographs expected to fetch at least $10 million. (The first pictures of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt reportedly fetched a $4 million donation to charity from People magazine.)
The mystery of who was sending the e-mail fit perfectly into the world of celebrity gossip, in which rumor and thirdhand sources coalesce into "facts" at the speed of the Internet. Even before the "Entertainment Tonight" report, there were international rumors of the twins' birth, possibly started by an OK! magazine story that did not report the babies were born, but speculated on possible names.
According to an "ET" executive, the report of the twins' birth began with Sharlette Hambrick, an "ET" producer. Hambrick told the show that she had obtained a BlackBerry e-mail address for Goline from a contact at CNN, according to the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to release the information
According to e-mails provided to AP by the show, Hambrick sent a message to the BlackBerry address asking for confirmation of "reports swirling" that Jolie had given birth.
The reply came back: "Yes she did. I was actually in the room with her. They are doing fine and so is mom."
Goline has never had a BlackBerry e-mail account, one of the people with knowledge of the exchange said. Hambrick referred a call from The Associated Press to the show's public relations representative.
Shortly after "Entertainment Tonight" posted the story, Hambrick called the real Goline seeking more details, and Goline told her verbally and through text messages that Hambrick had been dealing with an impostor, the people with knowledge of the exchange said.
E-mails obtained by AP show that Hambrick sent a message to Goline's real e-mail address showing the exchange with the impostor, asking "Are you saying this is now not your e-mail address? That you did not send me these e-mails?"
Goline responded: "This is not my e-mail."
There's no cuter member of the animal kingdom, so why has he taken so long to land a starring role in Hollywood? The truth is, we like our cartoons to be the less attractive eccentrics: mice, rats, whatever Gonzo is.
But in "Kung Fu Panda," Jack Black's panda isn't cuddly; he's an overweight dreamer who has more in common with Nacho Libre than Hsing-Hsing. He puts the giant in giant panda.
The adaptation of such a delicate creature to the summer blockbuster habitat a zoo if ever there was one could have resulted in a bloated bore of a film. But "Kung Fu Panda" is surprisingly fun and light. It's also easily the best DreamWorks computer animation yet, far surpassing the look of "Madagascar" or even "Shrek" not quite on Pixar's level, but close.
"Kung Fu Panda" begins with a stylish, brilliantly colored dream in which Po (Black) imagines he's part of the Furious Five, a group of elite kung fu fighters. They are like a Noah's Ark of warriors: Angelina Jolie is Tigress (who looks a bit like Tony the Tiger's sister); Seth Rogen is Mantis, an insect whose skills exceed his size; David Cross is the bird Crane; Lucy Liu is the snake Viper; and Jackie Chan is Monkey, whose species you can guess.
When Po wakes up, though, he's far from their ranks and can't even conquer a flight of stairs. He's the son of a noodle shop owner, a goose voiced by James Hong. How a bird fathered a panda is a genealogy jokingly alluded to in "Kung Fu Panda," but never resolved.
"I don't dream about noodles, Dad," Po says. "I love kung fu."
The Furious Five are led by the Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) whose own guru, the turtle Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), fears their nemesis Tai Lung (Ian McShane) will return and destroy their Chinese valley. All Oogway wants, like Loretta Lynn, is peace in the valley.
Their Chinese town is populated by pigs and geese and no humans, which might sound like an updated "Animal Farm." But the closest thing here to Big Brother is an old turtle.
To defend them, Oogway must find the "Dragon Warrior" to fulfill an ancient prophecy. As you might guess, Po is unexpectedly thrust into this role despite any evidence of talent, and the movie is essentially about whether he can live up to this destiny.
The plot is standard martial arts stuff, but at every turn, the serious gravity of the kung fu archetype is contrasted by the extreme oafishness of Po. Take, for example, this lesson bestowed on Po by Shifu: "Panda, we do not wash our pits in the Sea of Forgotten Tears."
He's plucky, but it's not Po's grit that's endearing; it's his casual good-naturedness. The Furious Five resent his undeserved opportunity, but when they crush him in training, Po, ever the fan, collects the rubble as a souvenir.
Though most around him have no sense of humor, Po disarms them with his lack of intensity. His name, after all, means the soul, materialized. The fool in over his head is far from a new story, but "Kung Fu Panda" finds life in the old gag.
The elaborate fight sequences (a memorable one is with chop sticks) are as inventive as anything in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." But the comedy of "Kung Fu Panda" lies in the deadpan looks and perfect pauses.
Co-directors Josh Stevenson and Mark Osborne, both animation vets helming a major film for the first time, ensure that the comic timing is exact and that their cartoon creations have well-animated eyes. The right eye-roll (and there are many) always trumps a punchline.
The voice work is good all around, particularly from Black, McShane and Hoffman, whose part as tiny guru a red panda takes on a shade of Obi-Wan Kenobi with an attitude. Jolie is entirely forgettable, but it's surely a sign of success that the A-listers recede as the movie rolls.
The most enjoyable character, though, is a small supporting role voiced by Dan Fogler ("Balls of Fury"). As the palace envoy Zeng, he's a Muppet-like bird so jittery that no flap of his wings is without hazard.
As summer movies get bigger and bigger, they often make us, the audience, feel smaller and smaller. The bright "Kung Fu Panda" is a simple and lighthearted exception.
"Kung Fu Panda," a DreamWorks Animation SKG and Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG for sequences of martial arts action. Running time: 91 minutes. Three stars out of four.
"It was my wife's fault ... She said, like it was common knowledge, 'Angelina's having twins' because my wife is a triplet, and she was interested in that," Black, 38, told Today host Meredith Vieira on Wednesday's show.
As for Jolie's reaction: "She was relieved. She wanted to spill the beans, but didn't know how to and I did it for her," Black said.
The Kung Fu Panda star also has his own baby news to spill, and Vieira admitted to Black that she misspoke earlier claiming his newborn son has been named Jack.
"Not true," Black said. "It's Thomas. I said we named the baby after me, but I didn't say that my actual name is Thomas." Thomas's big brother Samuel turns 2 this month.
The hands-on dad also said that he was in the delivery room for the birth. "I'd like to think that I helped," he added.
The executive producer for "Entertainment Tonight" said Monday that she wanted to "see how this story plays out" before retracting a report that the twins had been born, despite a denial from Pitt's manager and a claim that someone might be posing as Jolie's personal assistant to fool reporters.
The TV show reported Friday that twin girls had been born, identifying its source as a person in the delivery room, and quoted another website giving the babies' alleged names.
Rival news organizations quickly shot the story down. The Associated Press, which had picked up the "Entertainment Tonight" report after talking to executives at the show about their source, later quoted Pitt's manager saying the "ET" story was not true.
In the world of celebrity journalism, it may be the biggest story of the year.
"This is an absolutely huge, huge story for us," said Sarah Ivens, editor in chief of OK! magazine. "Essentially you have two of the most beautiful, famous people in the world. We've all seen they've had one baby, Shiloh, and it is the coolest, most adorable baby on the planet. And this time they're having two? It can't get any better."
It was "pandemonium" at the offices of Us Weekly when the "Entertainment Tonight" report was posted, said Dina Sansing, the magazine's entertainment director.
People magazine was first to report that the story was not true. Us Weekly checked its own sources and concluded the same, Sansing said.
On Monday, Jolie's lawyers advised news organizations that someone was posing as Holly Goline, Jolie's personal assistant, and had sent out false information about the movie star. The source for the "Entertainment Tonight" report was an e-mail supposedly from Goline, said an executive at the show who did not want to be identified for competitive reasons.
Was "Entertainment Tonight" punk'd? Perhaps not, the executive said.
The show initiated its own contact with Goline after hearing rumours the babies had been born in France, said the executive. The person who made the contact was an "ET" producer who had worked with Goline while at CNN and kept Goline's e-mail address, the executive said. The executive forwarded an e-mail exchange that appeared to support this version of events.
In the e-mails, Goline - or the impostor - said she was there for the deliveries and everyone was doing well. Pressed by "ET" for more information, the person said she could say no more.
"Entertainment Tonight" had removed its story from its website after the questions were raised. No mention was made of the story on Monday's show.
"Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are friends of 'Entertainment Tonight.' We have spent years cultivating that friendship, working with them side by side on many of their projects," Linda Bell Blue, executive producer for "Entertainment Tonight" and its sister broadcast, "The Insider," said in a statement Monday. "We wish them and their children well. We are waiting to see how this story plays out."
Millions of dollars could be at stake. After Shiloh was born, Pitt and Jolie were at the forefront of a growing movement by celebrities to auction off exclusive rights to first public pictures of their babies (Pitt and Jolie donated the money to charity). Sometimes exclusive details on the birth come with these rights.
Ivens said OK! would be interested in exclusive pictures of the babies, but would not discuss whether there were any negotiations to obtain them.
Jolie has said the babies are due in August. Ivens said OK! grew more comfortable over the weekend that the "Entertainment Tonight" story was wrong because of other clues. There were no reports of flowers being delivered to hospitals, or grandparents flying in, she said, and Pitt was seen attending a sporting event over the weekend - an unlikely spot for a new father of premature twins.
This pastoral sliver of the south of France has been abuzz ever since reports emerged last week that the Brangelina clan was moving in confirmed by the mayor of the village in question, Correns.
A helicopter swing Saturday over the vast yet reclusive Chateau Miraval, where the couple and their four children are said to be settling, turned up only stepped vineyards, empty chairs at a table on a pockmarked stone patio and a helicopter parked on a finely groomed lawn in front of a farmhouse and accompanying buildings.
A handful of parked cars and two men were seen from up above one planted next to the chopper, another peering skyward through binoculars from an estate driveway. Other than that, there was no sign of human life outdoors or in. Several shutters were pulled on the main stone house.
The apparent calm did not stop the buzz.
"Entertainment Tonight" first reported on its Web site Friday that the actress had given birth in France. Show host Mary Hart cited an unidentified source who claimed to be in the delivery room, saying the twins were born and that "yes, mother and babies are fine."
Pitt's manager, Cynthia Pett-Dante, told The Associated Press: "We have no comment except the story is not true," and several celebrity news outlets also reported the story was false.
Despite the denial, the Web site of Britain's Now magazine on Saturday cited "sources in France" saying Jolie's doctor had flown in from California, and that the couple named the twin girls Isla Marcheline and Amelie Jane Jolie-Pitt.
With no concrete proof, reporters and photographers staked out the entrance to the estate, nestled between rolling, wooded hills on the fringe of Correns, population 800, and invisible from any public roadway.
Jolie has said previously that her twins are due in August. She and Pitt already have four children: 6-year-old Maddox, 4-year-old Pax and 3-year-old Zahara, who are adopted, and 2-year-old Shiloh.
Hospital officials in maternity clinics and hospitals in the region said they weren't aware that Jolie had come in and would not say if she were scheduled. France strictly respects privacy rules governing health matters.
On Saturday, shopkeepers in the nearby town of Brignoles murmured about a sighting last week of the family strolling through town and stopping at a women's clothing boutique before the media hordes breezed in.
Some locals were blase about the incoming stars.
"She's a woman like any other," a Correns villager who gave his name only as Leon told Associated Press Television News, referring to Jolie. "I've never ever seen her. You know, as far as pretty women go, there are others on Earth."
Others were tickled about the new neighbors.
"My son is delighted that Angelina Jolie is here," said Nadia Caetano, of her 16-year-old. "He said, 'I'm going to be an orphan, and she'll adopt me. Mom, say that you've abandoned me, and she'll adopt me.'"
Traditionally, the region has lured tourists mostly for rock-climbing excursions on the rolling hills of the verdant region and leisurely strolls in its medieval villages.
Security guards and local gendarmes were blocking the gates to the estate Saturday, where only a trickle of vehicles were allowed in.
According to its Web site, the Miraval estate is located on a site first inhabited in pre-Roman times. Today, it features fountains, ancient aqueducts, a moat, a pond and vineyards that produce a highly esteemed organic wine.
Locals know Miraval most for receiving rock stars over the years. The estate includes a studio that's hosted the likes of Sting, the Cranberries and Pink Floyd, who recorded tracks for "The Wall" album there.
One was the adult drama, Clint Eastwood's Changeling (or The Exchange) -- and Jolie is already in the running for a possible Oscar nomination for her serious role. Earning accolades, she plays a distraught yet determined mother whose child has gone missing. It is a true story with a probable fall release.
The other movie was the animated comedy, Kung Fu Panda -- and no one expects this romp to be generating Oscar noms except in the specialized best animated feature category. But it could be a big summer hit, if there are any theatres left over that are not showing Indiana Jones in his hit revival.
Of her two latest movies, Kung Fu Panda is the one that Jolie can bring home to the Brangelina brood. While she said she did not make it only because she is a doting mom, that factor doesn't hurt, she told the media at Cannes.
"Our eldest three have seen the film and they loved it, which is a huge relief because they are my biggest critics," Jolie said. "The truth is, I would have done this film even if I didn't have children because I think the message is great and I had so much fun doing it. But it is a real pleasure as a mom to be able to bring your kids to a film you also feel is a good film."
An added bonus is that the story is set in China and two of her adopted children are from Asia, Jolie said, emphasizing that she is teaching all her children about cultural diversity and their own general history.
For Jolie, Kung Fu Panda also "gets back to the classic animated films" of her own childhood, when most of the animated features on screen and on televison were fairytales. Her own favourite was the Disney classic Dumbo, and she still loves the message -- that the big ears that earned him ridicule turned out to be the feature that made him special. Kung Fu Panda has a similar theme about celebrating that which makes one unique, Jolie said.
Kung Fu Panda comes from DreamWorks Animation, which is run by Jeffrey Katzenberg. He was instrumental in reviving the moribund Disney animation studios when he was there, especially by exploring the world of fairytales with successful films such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.
At DreamWorks, under Katzenberg, the fairytale has morphed into the satirical Shrek series and spun into fare such as the less successful Shark Tale. Kung Fu Panda is a bit of a throwback, given that it creates its own Chinese fairytale world where a roly poly panda bear (voiced by Jack Black) accidentally becomes the chosen one who must save the people from an evil tyrant.
Jolie voices a hero character, a tigress who is one of the Furious Five, all of whom are upset to have a novice panda chosen over them after their years of training in the kung fu arts. The Chinese setting is vivid, lush and beautiful. The characters are all stylized animals, including Dustin Hoffman's kung fu master Shifu, an endangered red panda.
"As much as Jeffrey is terrific doing the modern references where things are hip and cool," Jolie said of Katzenberg's contributions to animation, "this is a real classic tale, and it is beautiful, and it's got a lot of nice words and messages to it. So, as a parent, I can sit back and say: 'Good!' I can relax.
"And, of course, it's always that much more exciting to do it when you have kids."
Jolie is not the only one who is wild about Kung Fu Panda. Jack Black was on his best buffoonish behaviour at Cannes, joining Jolie to interact with a stuntman in a panda suit. With Katzenberg stage managing it to perfection, the stunt earned the movie free publicity and gave it a fun image -- not always easy to do in the middle of the Cannes Film Festival.
Black sat with Jolie for the interviews -- grinning. "As Angelina says, it is always a joy to go out and promote a movie that you're proud of and I'm as proud of this as any movie I have ever done," Black said. "I think it is some of my best work, personally, and I can't wait to unleash it!"
"It's not true. It's a rumor," Pitt's Los Angeles-based talent manager, Cynthia Pett-Dante, told Reuters in a statement issued by her office. She declined further comment.
However, "Entertainment Tonight" said it stood by its report earlier in the day that Jolie had given birth to twin daughters in France, attributing the story to an unidentified person close to the actress.
"The source says she was inside the delivery room, tells 'ET' yes, the babies were born, and yes, mother and daughters are fine," the syndicated program said in its broadcast.
The story was disputed almost from the start by various other celebrity news outlets, with People magazine quoting an unnamed representative for Jolie on its Web site as saying: "Angelina has not given birth. She is fine, enjoying her home and her family in France."
Meanwhile, another celebrity publication, Britain's NOW magazine, reported the latest additions to the Jolie-Pitt clan had already been named Isla Marcheline and Amelie Jane.
There was no immediate comment from Jolie's Los Angeles-based manager.
The only maternity clinic in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence, the region where Jolie and Pitt were believed to be staying, said it had no information. Town hall officials there said they were aware of the media reports but did not know if they were true.
Just two weeks ago Jolie, 32, publicly acknowledged she was pregnant with twins during an interview at the Cannes film festival, where she was promoting the animated film "Kung Fu Panda" and the latest Clint Eastwood drama, "The Exchange."
In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine due to hit newsstands next week and excerpted on its Web site on Friday, Jolie said Pitt found her to be very appealing when pregnant.
"I'm fortunate," she told the magazine. "I think some women have a different experience depending on their partner. ... I happen to be with somebody who finds pregnancy very sexy. So that makes me feel very sexy."
In Touch magazine reported this week that Jolie had been ordered to bed for the remainder of her pregnancy and was due to give birth via a Caesarean section around mid-July.
Jolie and Pitt, 44, whose romance became public after they co-starred in the 2005 film "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," already have one biological daughter together, Shiloh, who was delivered by Caesarean section a year ago in the southern African nation of Namibia.
The Hollywood couple also are the parents of three adopted children -- daughter Zahara, 3, from Ethiopia, son Pax, 4, from Vietnam and son Maddox, 6, from Cambodia.
Jolie, who turns 33 next week, won an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her role in the 1999 film "Girl, Interrupted."
"It makes me feel that all the things about my body are suddenly there for a reason," she says in the July issue of Vanity Fair. "It makes you feel round and supple, and to have a little life inside you is amazing."
Plus, the actress says that her partner, Brad Pitt, "finds pregnancy very sexy. So that makes me feel very sexy."
The 32-year-old already mom to Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 2, also says she is awed by what the human body can do. When giving birth to daughter Shiloh, "I had a C-section and I found it fascinating. I didn't find it a sacrifice and I didn't find it a painful experience," she tells the magazine. "I found it a fascinating miracle of what a body can do."
As for her child-rearing philosophy, she says that as artists she and Pitt emphasize communication and play at home. "We communicate to the point where we probably annoy our children," she says. "We have art around the house, we have books, we go to plays, we talk. Our focus is art and painting and dress-up and singing. Its what we love."
"She looks very happy now," Voight, 69, told PEOPLE Thursday night. And "very heavy!" he added when asked what he thought of Jolie's pregnant pictures from the Cannes Film Festival. "She looks like she's having a couple of babies."
Jolie appeared with partner Brad Pitt, promoting her movies Kung Fu Panda and Changeling and looking radiant.
Jolie, 32, revealed in a recent interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that she and Voight have started to mend their longstanding rift.
"We are going to try to get to know each other and maybe try not to be this daddy and daughter, but to be there for each other as friends in the coming years," she said.
When asked if he and Jolie will speak this summer, Voight said, "I'm sure we will, yeah."
Voight spoke at a DVD release event for Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry film franchise, in West Hollywood. Eastwood directs Jolie in his next movie, Changeling.
"She's a great performer," Eastwood told PEOPLE of Jolie. "Unfortunately because of the media flurry that's around her, sometimes people take her for granted. But she's a fabulous talent."
The U.S. celebrity television program "Entertainment Tonight" said the Oscar-winning actress had given birth to the twins in France, attributing its report to an unidentified person close to Jolie.
A short time later, however, People magazine disputed the "Entertainment Tonight" story, quoting an unnamed representative for the actress on its Web site as saying: "Angelina has not given birth. She is fine, enjoying her home and her family in France."
Another celebrity publication, Britain's NOW magazine, then reported the latest additions to the Jolie-Pitt clan had already been named Isla Marcheline and Amelie Jane.
A spokeswoman for Pitt, the father of the twins and Jolie's companion, said "I have no idea."
There was no immediate comment from Jolie's Los Angeles-based manager.
The only maternity clinic in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence, the region where Jolie and Pitt were believed to be staying, said it had no information. Town hall officials there said they were aware of the media reports but did not know if they were true.
Just two weeks ago Jolie publicly acknowledged she was pregnant with twins during an interview at the Cannes film festival, where she was promoting the animated film "Kung Fu Panda" and the latest Clint Eastwood drama, "The Exchange."
In Touch magazine reported this week that Jolie had been ordered to bed for the remainder of her pregnancy and was due to give birth via a Caesarean section around mid-July.
Jolie and Pitt, 44, have adopted 3-year-old daughter Zahara, 6-year-old son Maddox and 4-year-old son Pax. They also have a biological daughter, 22-month-old Shiloh.
Jolie, who turns 33 next month, won an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her role in the 1999 film "Girl, Interrupted."
No other details about the birth were immediately available. The television show reported the news on its web site, citing a source close to Jolie that it did not name. Representatives for Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, did not immediately return calls for comment.
The twins are the fifth and sixth children for the couple known as Brangelina. Their other children are 6-year-old Maddox, 4-year-old Pax, 3-year-old Zahara and 2-year-old Shiloh.
The couple, who have four children and two more on the way, signed a three year lease on the 880-acre estate called Chateau Miraval, where neighbors will include Johnny Depp and David and Victoria Beckham, according to the French newspaper Nice Matin.
The estate, reportedly valued at $70 million, comes with its own vineyard, olive groves, lake, moat, 20 fountains and even a forest to help ensure privacy.
"They'll have total privacy, which is exactly what they're after," a source told E! Online. "No one will ever be able to get pictures of them relaxing at home, it's just impossible."
At the Cannes International Film Festival, Jolie, 32, who is expecting twins this summer, told reporters that she was thinking of giving birth in France, and that French is the "second language" in the family's home.
A rep for Pitt and Jolie had no comment on the estate.
Expectant parents Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have plunked down a cool $60 million on a sprawling 1,000-acre estate in the south of France. With 35 bedrooms, plus a vineyard, lake, forest and moat, Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and the soon-to-be-born twins are going to be playing house in high style.
"It's called Chateau Miraval in a village called Brignol, which is near from Aix-en-Provence," a source tells E! News. "And it's absolutely unbelievable.
"Brad and Angelina are thrilled, they love the place and have already been furniture shopping to fill the place as it's massive," the insider added. "They've already spent almost another million on furniture and the whole family can't wait to move in."
But where to begin?
The pre-Roman estate also boasts a swimming pool, billiards room, indoor pool, his-and-hers gyms, sauna and jacuzzi and a huge banquet hall.
Magnificent cascading stone-walled terraces have been replanted with 13 different varieties of olives, and water is everywhere on the sprawling estate20 fountains, aqueducts and a stream that runs through hidden tunnels, passes through the moat and fills the lake.
Except for the ponies and goats grazing in the nearby fields, "the house is surrounded by a forest so they'll have total privacy, which is exactly what they're after," the source tells E! "No one will ever be able to get pictures of them relaxing at home, it's just impossible."
The Jolie-Pitts hope to be completely moved in within the next three months, if not sooner. For the past year, Brad and Angelina had been house-hunting in the area, where residents include Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis and U2 frontman Bono.
Since arriving in France at the end of April, Pitt, Jolie and the kids have been shacking up at Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Jolie befriended the tech titan while filming Dreamworks' Shark Tale in 2004.
After a whirlwind week, the 32-year-old star of Changeling and Kung Fu Panda, which both premiered at the film festival, is back at Paul Allen's seaside villa with Brad Pitt, 44, and their growing brood. The couple is laying low to enjoy family time, and were spotted doing some shopping in Nice.
Jolie and director Clint Eastwood, 77, won glowing reviews for Changeling, which got standing ovations Tuesday and predictions of major awards for both the direction and what Variety" called Jolie's "top-notch" performance.
Reviewer Todd McCarthy wrote, "Impressive as she may have been as the wife of Danny Pearl, her performance here hits home more directly."
The Los Angeles Times" agreed. "Based on this powerful and searing performance, it would be a good bet she will again be in the hunt for the Best Actress nomination that eluded her for A Mighty Heart last year," reviewer Pete Hammond wrote.
The newspaper also called Eastwood's direction "flawless" and the response to the movie "rapturous."
PEOPLE caught up with Eastwood after the world premiere screening of You Must Remember This,, a documentary on the Golden Age of Warner Bros., which he narrates.
"Angelina is fantastic in Changeling. She is an amazing actress," he said, and when asked about the Oscar buzz added, "I don't want to think that far ahead."
As for the film's sensitive subject matter of a missing child, Eastwood said: "It was fun making it, but I am a little nervous for parents going to see it."
Jolie had previously debuted Kung Fu Panda with costar Jack Black, which garnered a different kind of attention.
Early word from festival-goers was that the animated Dreamworks flick is a pleasing, kid-friendly romp, but what really made news was Jolie's bountiful belly it was confirmed during an early interview that she is carrying twins.
Like Hilary Swank's boxer in "Million Dollar Baby," Angelina Jolie's single mother, Christine Collins, takes every punch thrown at her in "Changeling," and comes back fighting. Her combat is not in a boxing ring -- where fighting is supposed to take place -- but rather in a corrupt police department, psychiatric ward and the court of justice where she demands to know one thing: What happened to her son?
A true story that is as incredible as it is compelling, Eastwood's competition entry brushes away the romantic notion of a more innocent time to reveal a Los Angeles circa 1928 awash in corruption and steeped in a culture that treats women as hysterical and unreliable beings when they challenge male wisdom.
Jolie puts on a powerful emotional display as a tenacious woman who gathers strength from the forces that oppose her. She reminds us that there is nothing so fierce as a mother protecting her cub.
The combination of Jolie and Eastwood ordinarily would mean strong box office for Universal Pictures, but "Changeling" is a tricky movie to market as it touches on every parent's greatest fear -- the disappearance of a child -- and is a period film that deals with a situation unimaginable in contemporary American society. Universal's challenge is to make the film's concerns connect with an audience more interested in the kind of police corruption usually found in Scorsese films.
In March 1928, Christine Collins' 9-year-old son Walter vanishes. Five months later, the LAPD, already under the gun for other unsolved crimes, calls out the press and delivers to Christine a boy who claims to be her son but is not. To avoid embarrassment, Capt. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) demands she take the boy home on a "trial basis." When she continues to insist that the LAPD needs to find her real son, Jones does what the department always does with troublesome citizens: He locks her up in a psycho ward.
A radio minister, Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), takes up her cause and challenges the police version of events. Meanwhile, another officer, Detective Ybarra (Michael Kelly), launches an investigation into a potential serial killer (Jason Butler Harner) that not only proves Christine's contention but exposes the force, its chief and the mayor to the wrath of a citizenry fed up with living in a police state.
This story, uncovered by screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski in the city's records and newspapers, adds a forgotten chapter to the Los Angeles noir of "Chinatown" and "L.A. Confidential." Christine's utter intransigence and truth-seeking in the face of absolute corruption does what no newspaper in that city is willing to do: challenge the official stories of City Hall.
Sticking fairly closely to the facts, the movie necessarily drags us through a couple of courtrooms that cause the drama to sag momentarily. But Straczynski and Eastwood are good at cutting to the chase. Seldom does a 141-minute movie feel this short.
Jolie completely shuns her movie-star image to play a woman whose confidence in everything she thinks she knows is shaken to its very core. She can appear vulnerable and steadfast in the same moment. This woman has a depth she herself has never explored.
Save for another incarcerated police victim played by the fabulous Amy Ryan, most other roles tend toward righteousness or badness without too many shades in between.
The movie draws considerable strength from Eastwood's own melodic score that evokes not only a period but also the mood of a city and even a country nervously undergoing galvanic changes. The small-town feel to the street and sets, seeming oh-so-quaint to modern eyes, captures a society resistant to seeing what is really going on.
So in "Changeling," Eastwood continues to probe uncomfortable subjects to depict the individual and even existential struggle to do what is right. Christine sees no other option. And in pursuing the truth, she forces a city to take a stand and demand accountably from its politicians and police. Her boy has been changed under her horror-stricken nose. But then again, so has she.
(The two have been omnipresent since the film festival began, in part because two of Angie's movies are being shown, but mainly because of the media's obsession with that twins-carrying belly of hers.)
While Brangelina brought plenty of star power to the premiere, there was also a slew of celebrities on hand generating additional wattage, including the movie's director, Clint Eastwood, as well as Tim Robbins, Sharon Stone, Nick Nolte, Dita Von Teese and Sean "Diddy" Combs.
But just in case there were any questions about where to shine the spotlight, Angie sealed the deal by smooching Eastwood's wife, Dina, that night. Nice touch.
Here last year for A Mighty Heart and last week for Kung Fu Panda, Jolie came back for Clint Eastwood's Changeling, about a single mom in L.A. in 1928 whose 9-year-old son is abducted. Later, the police return the wrong child. When she points this out, the cops, badly in need of a public relations victory, have Jolie's character locked up in a mental ward.
Paltrow, by contrast, stars as a far weaker female in James Gray's Two Lovers. She's a flighty legal assistant cooped up by her married lover, a smooth Manhattan lawyer, in a Brighton Beach love nest, where she captivates Joaquin Phoenix, a 30-something Jewish neighbor who lives at home, works in his parents' dry cleaning business and starts the action rolling by throwing himself into the bay in an attempt to drown himself.
Jolie's Christine Collins wreaks havoc with the L.A. city government, while Paltrow's Michelle blows away like a feather, taking Phoenix's heart with her.
"It's in the Jewish tradition that the woman is responsible for the energy that comes into the house, and if a woman is obsessive and small-minded, then (the man) will go down that path," observed Paltrow.
Eastwood, who has won the Golden Palm and been head of the jury in past years, said he was glad to be back in the competition. "It seems to me that if you're going to come to a film festival that has a competition, you might as well be in the competition."
Eastwood noted that he has won prizes here before (Bird, Mystic River), as well as been president of a jury that picked a film he didn't want for the Golden Palm (Pulp Fiction in 1994). "I just want to be part of it," said Eastwood, who turns 78 at the end of this month. "Playing out of competition is playing it kind of safe," he said, adding, "I'm not above it."
He got a big round of applause on that.
He denied the buzz that he'd make another Dirty Harry (the 1973 original will be shown Thursday night here on the beach), saying, "The rumor is incorrect."
"I am," piped up Jolie.
Eastwood looked at Jolie. "Dirty Harriet," he joked.
"I have to be realistic, I wouldn't be in a police department at my age," he added. "But it was fun to point a .44 Magnum and ask, 'You feel lucky?' "
Jolie noted the similarities between Changeling and A Mighty Heart, both being about women who wait for abducted loved ones to return. "As a mother, it's a very different thing. A woman in 1928 wouldn't have had the right to speak up, as Mariane Pearl did," she said. "I can't imagine anything worse than to lose a child."
"I lost my mother a few months before the film began," Jolie said, adding, "To me (Christine Collins) is very much like my mother. She was very passive in many ways and very sweet, but when it came to her children, she was a lion."
A reporter asked if the title Changeling been changed to The Exchange, which is the translation of the French title L'echange.
"That's news to us," Jolie said.
Told it was in writing, Eastwood smiled back, "It might be in writing. But is it the truth?"
There was confusion on Tuesday over the name of the movie, one of 22 entries in the main competition at the Cannes film festival this year. It was originally titled "The Changeling" but production notes re-named it "The Exchange."
Based on archives from Los Angeles City Hall that were about to be destroyed until screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski rescued them after a tip off, the story is about working class mother Christine Collins whose nine-year-old son goes missing.
A police force in desperate need of positive publicity says they have found the boy, but when Collins insists the child is not hers she is subjected to a smear campaign and sent to a psychiatric ward for five days.
With the help of a charismatic pastor, played by John Malkovich, Collins goes in search of the truth, exposing corruption and incompetence in the police force along the way.
Separately, a serial child killer is caught, and the two storylines begin to emerge.
"This woman, through her tenacious attitude, brought down the whole police department and the whole political structure -- the mayor was not re-elected," Eastwood said after a press screening, where "The Exchange" was applauded loudly.
"It's a great study on human characteristics, this one mother fighting against the whole city," added the 77-year-old.
Jolie, a mother who is also pregnant with twins, said it was a difficult role to play. The actress, 32, started working with Eastwood shortly after making "A Mighty Heart" in which she portrayed the pregnant wife of slain reporter Daniel Pearl.
"Certainly so much of it is being a mother and imagining, if this was happening to me, my pain and my frustration," she said.
"I lost my mother a few months before the film and to me she (Collins) is very much like my mother. My mother was very passive in many ways and very, very sweet but when it came to her children she was a lion."
MYSTIC RIVER, DIRTY HARRY
Comparisons were drawn during the press conference between "The Exchange" and Eastwood's "Mystic River," which stars Sean Penn who is also president of the jury deciding the awards in Cannes this year.
Eastwood even saw parallels with his role as a tough cop in "Dirty Harry," released 37 years ago.
"It also showed a tenacious police officer who wanted to fight against political bureaucracy all for the defense of the victim," he said.
Asked why he did not have an acting role in his latest movie, Eastwood replied:
"I'm too young to play one of the boys. There was just no role for me and I'm gradually, as you've probably noticed, working my way around to spending more time behind the camera than in front. That's something that is an inevitability."
Early critical reaction suggests Eastwood could be a strong contender for the coveted Palme d'Or for best film in Cannes.
"If you are going to come to a film festival that has a competition, you might as well be in the competition," he said.
"Whether you win something or not is not the point of it. A lot of good films have won and a lot of not-so-good films have won. That's the same with any awards ...like the Academy Award ... and what happens happens."
Jolie stars in Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," the true story of a Los Angeles woman who endured horrors at the hands of corrupt police in her crusade to find out what happened to her son after he vanished in 1928.
"To lose a child: I can't imagine anything worse, especially not knowing the fate of that child," Jolie told reporters after a press screening. "Changeling" makes its formal Cannes Film Festival premiere later Tuesday night.
Due in theaters this fall, "Changeling" could be the latest Academy Awards entry for Eastwood, 77, who has reinvigorated himself with a rush of acclaimed films, including "Mystic River," "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "Million Dollar Baby," the latter earning the second best-picture and directing Oscars of Eastwood's career.
Jolie, 32, delivers a heartbreaking performance as Christine Collins, a single mom who works hard so she can take good care of her 9-year-old boy, Walter. The child disappears, and five months later, the distraught Christine is overjoyed when police tell her Walter has been found, alive and well.
But when the boy claiming to be Walter Collins is returned to her, Christine insists that he isn't her son.
She winds up in a nightmare battle with bureaucrats trying to cover up their own mistakes as thugs in the police department brand her an unfit mother who wants to shirk her responsibilities as a parent. Christine eventually is tossed into a psychiatric ward by police seeking to silence her.
"I was so astonished by the extent to which she suffered by asking one simple, clear question: What happened to my child," said J. Michael Straczynski, who researched Christine Collins' ordeal and wrote the screenplay for "Changeling." "She did all the heavy lifting. I just wrote it down."
Meantime, an unrelated case provides a clue to Walter's fate and that of other missing children as a detective tracks a serial killer suspected of abducting boys and savagely slaughtering them.
"Changeling" co-stars John Malkovich, who appeared in Eastwood's "In the Line of Fire," as a minister who comes to Christine's aid; and Amy Ryan, an Oscar nominee for last year's "Gone Baby Gone," as a prostitute who befriends her in the psych ward.
The film touches on themes familiar to Eastwood, who dealt with child abduction and abuse in "A Perfect World" and "Mystic River."
"Children in danger, of course, is about the highest form of drama you can have," Eastwood said. "Crimes against children are to me the most heinous. ... When one comes along quite as big as this one, you question humanity. It never ceases to surprise me how cruel humanity can be."
Jolie was in Cannes for both "Changeling" and her animated comedy "Kung Fu Panda," which premiered near the beginning of the festival last week. News broke then that Jolie and partner Brad Pitt, who already have four children, are expecting twins.
Though Jolie said she could imagine the pain and frustration if she were in Christine's situation, she had to look beyond her own children and position as a "very modern and very outspoken woman" to play the character.
Christine fought her battle at a time when women did not have the same power to speak their minds as today, Jolie said. So Jolie found inspiration in her own mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, who died in January 2007.
"To me, she's very much like my mother," Jolie said. "My mother was very passive in many ways and very, very sweet, but when it came to her children, she was a lion. But as a woman, very shy with her own voice. So in many ways, Christine reminded me of my mom, and it was a way to kind of revisit my mother after her passing and spend time with her."
Brad Pitt, 44, and Angelina Jolie, 32, joined their celebrity pals and about eight other guests including Rush Hour director Brett Ratner for an evening of bouillabaisse, grilled langouste (warm-water lobster) and white wine.
The group arrived at Restaurant Tetou in Golfe-Juan about three miles from Cannes at around 8:30 p.m. Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, 64, was the first to leave, and the whole party broke up around midnight.
"Angelina and Brad are adorable," a waitress tells PEOPLE. "They are so in love. The whole table was super nice."
Film legend Eastwood, 77, directed Jolie in Changeling, which premieres at the Cannes Film Festival Tuesday. (Jolie and Pitt are expected to walk the red carpet.)
Earlier in the day, the couple who are expecting twins nipped out for some baby clothes shopping.
May 14, morning
She appears with co-star Jack Black on NBC's Today show to promote Panda, and Black's casual mention of twins launches a thousand headlines that she and partner Brad Pitt will be adding two to their brood of four (Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, who turns 2 on May 27).
May 14, afternoon
Jolie and Black bump bellies and talk about kids during a USA TODAY interview and photo shoot.
May 15, morning
Jolie and Black bump bellies again as they arrive at the photo call for Kung Fu Panda.
May 15, afternoon
At a news conference with the Panda stars, Jolie responds with mellowness and charm to journalists' questions, answering each politely, even when she was being obviously baited.
On attending the festival when there are crises elsewhere in the world: "This is my job, and I'm very fortunate to be an artist, and I don't look down on people who are fortunate to have a lot in life. At the same time, I expect them, as I would expect with myself, to be as generous as possible with all that we've been fortunate enough to be blessed with."
She also notes her work as a goodwill ambassador with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and says she hopes the governments of Burma and China will permit the international group to deliver aid to the suffering.
She signs autographs for fans as she leaves the conference.
May 15, evening
She wears a forest-green empire-waist gown with Cole Haan shoes with a Nike sole for the red carpet-walk with Pitt, who otherwise stayed out of the public eye during the trip. Jolie says he has been busy watching the kids.
May 15, post-premiere
At the Panda party, she spends much of the evening charming George Lucas, who brought Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to the festival. The topic of discussion: "We both have adopted children," says Jolie. "He is somebody who is very strong on paternal rights, as well as maternal rights. He is an extraordinary father. He's kind of led the way for adoption for men."
Pitt joined them and asked advice on parenting teens. "We spent half an hour talking basically about what's the best way to handle them when they get to this stage or that stage," Jolie says.
May 16
Jolie and her family retreat to their temporary house in the south of France to relax before her next Cannes appearance Tuesday for Clint Eastwood's Changeling. Paparazzi photograph her topless on the balcony.
May 17
Jolie, Pitt, Shiloh and Maddox are spotted shopping for the soon-to-be-born twins at the Bonpoint children's clothing boutique in Cannes, leaving with several all-white outfits, People reports.
May 19
Jolie and Pitt are snapped all dressed up and hand-in-hand leaving their hotel no kids. Dinner date?
Angelina Jolie has been the belle of the Cannes International Film Festival, endearing the crowds as she promotes two new films while displaying a prodigious belly of twins.
First came Kung Fu Panda's premiere last week, and tonight is Changeling, a Clint Eastwood-directed drama opening Nov. 7 about a mother in 1928 Los Angeles whose child disappears, but the boy returned to her is not her son.
She says she's responding to the crush of attention with calm: "It has been lovely. I did my first day, then got to get home for dinner and got to hang out and play Barbies and things" with Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 1.
The key, she says, is to enjoy the festival's circus-like atmosphere instead of fighting it. "It has been really nice. With a film like Kung Fu Panda, it's so easy and fun. Even doing the red carpet people can tend to get very serious about that, with competition but we got to go up with a (costumed) panda," she says with a laugh. "It all remained fun and in the spirit of kids' movies."
Another important part of being a festival star: comfortable shoes. She recommends a low heel with a Nike sole.
Even with the mountains of attention directed at Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Jolie has been the standout star. After finishing an interview at the Hotel Carlton, she wandered into the hall and caused a stir among Crystal Skull's George Lucas, Karen Allen and Harrison Ford, who flashed his wry smile and enveloped her with a hug and kiss on the cheek.
Jolie says the attention has not been overwhelming. "It's not such hard work. I'm sitting and talking a lot, and people are being very nice to me. If I was feeling too pregnant, everybody said I didn't have to come. So I was feeling all right," she says. "The photography and all that can be something that is not fun to live with, (but) when you come here and you're proud of something then it's a positive thing."
Jolie doesn't want to announce the gender of her twins, and she says she and partner Brad Pitt haven't decided where she'll give birth.
"Because we have twins, we have to get to know a doctor wherever we're based, just in case they come early," she says.
The secrecy is partly about avoiding the paparazzi, the actress adds. "It's not as much focused on the whole celebrity side of it. It's about wanting the experience of birth, and also spending time with the other children. It just should be a very beautiful time, for any woman."
Before daughter Shiloh was born, the family set up in a remote town in Namibia. "We spent our days with the children on safari, or in the dunes, or painting, or just having a beautiful time. When she was born, we were the only people in this tiny little clinic where there was only one anesthesiologist in the town, only one pediatrician in the town," she says.
"It was just very intimate. It wasn't about avoiding the outside world. It was just making it as beautiful an experience as we could. This time we are limited because we can't be as adventurous in where we go because when there's two, you have to be more careful."
While in Cannes, she also is doing interviews for the action-thriller Wanted (June 27), in which she plays a Dodge Viper-driving, gun-blazing assassin.
She points out that she's not doing anything all that extraordinary; it's what many women do up until they give birth. "I just have to do my job."
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made an unscheduled appearance in the French Riviera town of Cannes for a shopping spree at one of their favorite baby boutiques, Bonpoint, on MOnday. In 45 minutes, the couple looked at dresses for daughters Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, who turns 2 next week, and, according to store spokesperson bought "only white, white, white" for their soon-to-be-born twins in "sizes 1 to 3 mos."
What are they having? According the spokesperson, when an employee asked whether she was expecting boys or girls, the star of Wanted and Kung Fu Panda replied "I don't know yet we don't want to know."
The couple ruled the red carpet Thursday night at the premiere of her animated film, Kung Fu Panda as Jolie showed off her ever-growing baby bump in a green, Grecian-style gown by Max Azria Atelier.
"This is my second time here with a Dreamworks movie, and they're always fun [because] they're not as heavy," Jolie who recently confirmed that she's expecting told PEOPLE. "It's always a good time and there's something silly that goes on. Cannes is fun."
Jack Black certainly seemed to catch the silly mood as he described his costar to PEOPLE: "Glamorous. Pregnant. And Green because her dress is green."
Inside the movie's after-party at the Carlton Beach, Jolie and Pitt who are currently living in France at Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's historic Villa Maryland chatted with George Lucas and other lucky guests in the VIP area overlooking the ocean.
Given all the chatter surrounding the famous couple and the twins theyre expecting this summer the local paper, Nice-Matin, announced Friday morning: "The real stars of the festival are Angelina's babies."
Jolie was at the festival Thursday to promote DreamWorks' animated "Kung Fu Panda." She'll be busy at Cannes, as she also stars in Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," which is also been shown.
But the mother of four soon to be six swears she's not working too hard.
"I'm sitting and talking a lot, and everybody's being very nice to me," Jolie told reporters. "If I was feeling too pregnant everybody said I didn't have to come."
The 32-year-old actress also confirmed that she's thinking about giving birth in France.
"I actually haven't completely decided, but we are certainly thinking of France," Jolie said. "It's a second language in our house. I'm still learning so I'm not going to attempt it here today, my rusty French. But our children are starting to speak French, so being here is very good for them for their language."
She also revealed a red carpet beauty tip.
"I'm going to do a shoe ad right now Cole Haan makes a shoe with a Nike sole, so I have a low heel with a Nike sole," she said.
While Jolie was being swarmed by photographers, Pitt was taking care of their children. He was joining her later for the "Kung Fu Panda" premiere.
"He's with our kids right now, but he'll get his suit on at the last minute, I'm sure," she said.
Jolie is the voice of an assertive tigress and martial arts maestro in "Kung Fu Panda," which also features the voices of Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman. The actress says she's not a fierce feline at home.
"I think I have a very even partner right now, and I think we're very balanced at home with our power-sharing," she said. "But I think every woman in some way is a tigress or would like to be."
"I actually haven't completely decided, but we are thinking of France," the expectant mom, 32, said at the official press conference for Kung Fu Panda, the animated martial-arts movie, in which she lends her voice alongside Dustin Hoffman and Jack Black.
France would be a wise choice, she added. "It is the second language in our house." (Cambodian and Vietnamese are also spoken in the Jolie-Pitt household.)
Black revealed Wednesday that Jolie was expecting twins with partner Brad Pitt, who's looking after their four children during her media rounds in Cannes. Jolie, who's also due in August, told reporters she and Pitt try to split up the duties. "I think I have a very even partner right now, and we are very balanced at home with our power-sharing."
The actress also revealed that her children don't hold back on comments when they see Mom onscreen. "Our eldest three have seen the film and love it," she told reporters. "They are my biggest critics."
Jolie also hinted strongly that more children are on the way. Asked by a Swedish reporter if her twins would be born in Scandinavia, she said: "Not this time, but there's more babies. You know me."
Despite Angelina and Brad's growing family, that didn't stop Dustin Hoffman from jokingly wondering "what if"? Said Hoffman: "There was a point in time where Angelina could have chosen between me and Brad."
DreamWorks Animation, whose past Cannes entries include the first two "Shrek" flicks and "Over the Hedge," put its adorable martial-arts hero alongside the festival's highbrow cinema entries Thursday with the premiere of the action comedy whose voice cast includes Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman.
"Being an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival is the Good Housekeeping seal of approval," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks' animation mastermind. "And it's particularly unique when it's a broad commercial movie as opposed to an art film. There's tremendous, tremendous value to that."
DreamWorks uses Cannes as a launch-point for its movies, through screenings and clever stunts to catch the fancy of hordes of reporters, photographers and camera crews.
Black, who joined "Shark Tale" co-stars Jolie and Will Smith for a ride in the Mediterranean aboard an inflatable shark at the 2004 festival, this time paraded on a pier among 40 people in giant panda suits the day before the movie's Cannes premiere.
While Black hammed it up with some kung fu poses, he wisecracked that the incessant camera flashes could go a long way to solving the energy crunch.
"If you harnessed all that electricity, it would probably be enough to take a small unmanned ship to the moon and back," Black said. "It's got to be 1.21 gigawatts of light flashes. It's just going to be sick. Do we really need that many pictures? Where are all those photos going?"
Black provides the voice of Po, a panda in ancient China who idolizes his country's martial-arts heroes but is too slow and clumsy to emulate their moves, stuck instead toiling in his family's noodle shop. A twist of fate lands Po under the tutelage of a revered kung fu master (Hoffman), who must train the klutzy panda to battle an evil snow leopard (Ian McShane) intent on marauding and vengeance.
Po's allies include a tiger (Jolie), a viper (Lucy Liu) and a monkey (Jackie Chan), whose graceful martial-arts skills put the lumbering panda to shame.
"There's a concept which everybody responds to, the idea of this sort of soft, cuddly thing having to do this extremely active, athletic thing," said John Stevenson, who co-directed "Kung Fu Panda" with Mark Osborne.
"We saw the potential of this being the archetypal hero's journey that has been done millions of times, but we could actually do the most extreme hero's journey," Osborne said. "Take the most unlikely guy and bring him all the way to being a hero."
As cartoon heroes go, Katzenberg thinks Po can go toe-to-toe with the animation world's box-office heavyweight, the irritable ogre Shrek.
"I do think that Po the panda is going to give Shrek a run for his money, because I think that Po in a very different way is without question the most lovable character we've ever created," Katzenberg said. "Shrek's an anti-hero hero. Po is an unlikely hero. He is more in tune with what we are ourselves. He actually has to find the hero within, and I think we all have a hero within us.
"So it's just very relatable to find this kind of average guy who's working in his dad's noodle restaurant suddenly have an ambitious fantasy to be something great, only to learn that being the best version of yourself is greatness."
"Kung Fu Panda" debuts in U.S. theaters June 6.
The computerized movie from DreamWorks Animation, the studio that gave audiences the hit "Shrek" films, stole the media spotlight at the Cannes film festival on Thursday with a message that anyone can be a hero if they believe they can.
"The superhero is only there in culture because people feel a deficiency inside them," Hoffman told reporters at a news conference here. "You don't need a superhero. The superhero is inside you."
In a summer movie season where "Iron Man" already is nearing $200 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices, and other comic book characters like Batman and the Incredible Hulk are due to hit theatres in coming weeks, it's obvious that moviegoers love their superheroes.
But animated movie "Kung Fu Panda," which debuts around the world starting in June, is an unconventional screen idol built more for laughs than for beating up the bad guys.
Po (voiced by Black) is fat, lazy and serves noodles at his dad's cafe. Yet he dreams of being like the kung fu fighters taught by Master Shifu (Hoffman).
When Po is mistaken for a mighty warrior who will save the valley in which he and all his animal friends live, Po must learn to be the tough-minded panda of his wild imagination.
Problem is, Po is far better at eating than fighting -- unless he has food for motivation. Then, he is pretty tough.
"I think of myself as kind of a bear. I'm very furry and soft and squishy and lazy, and sometimes fierce and crazy. There was little acting involved. "I am Po; Po is I," said Black -- no svelte movie star, himself.
In fact, he said, "It is some of the best work I've done."
Jolie, who voices a fighter called Tigress, said "Kung Fu Panda" with its theme of discovering one's true self inside and out, is perfect for kids.
She said three of her growing pack of children -- she is pregnant with twins -- have already seen and liked the animated film. "And they are my biggest critics," Jolie said with a smile.
Angelina Jolie, carrying twins, sticks out her round midriff and presses it against the basketball-size stomach of Jack Black. "I came as a panda," she says, a reference to the chubby black-and-white bear Black plays in their animated comedy Kung Fu Panda.
"To compete?" Black asks.
Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu, who also supply voices for the film, are watching, so Black pushes out his gut to maximum effect, determined to best Jolie as they go bellybutton to bellybutton. "That'll make the front pages," Hoffman says.
The stomach standoff took place Wednesday in a penthouse at the Hotel Carlton, overlooking the bustling start of the Cannes Film Festival along the waterfront below.
Kung Fu Panda, one of the featured films, premieres tonight and opens Stateside on June 6.
When Jolie entered the room, she immediately congratulated Black, who also is expecting. His wife, Tanya Haden, is pregnant with their second. Jolie mentions twins casually, as though it were already common knowledge and not the subject of intense speculation about whether she and companion Brad Pitt are adding one or two more children to their brood of four.
When talk turns to Black's son, Sam, who is almost 2, Jolie asks, "Terrible 2's?"
The actor shakes his head. "I don't see it as terrible. He does act out, but I have to not smile sometimes when he's naughty because I don't want him to know I'm enjoying it. But I am, inside."
Jolie, being interviewed at the Cannes film festival alongside comic actor Jack Black for the syndicated entertainment program "Access Hollywood," acknowledged that she was having twins after Black made reference to them.
"Yeah, yeah, we've confirmed that already," Jolie, 32, said, according to a transcript provided by the show. "Well, Jack's just confirmed it actually."
Excerpts of the interview, conducted by a reporter for NBC's "Today" show to promote the animated film "Kung Fu Panda," featuring characters voiced by Jolie and Black, was set to air on "Access Hollywood" on Wednesday night.
The full interview will air on Thursday on "Today."
Jolie and Pitt, 44, together have adopted 3-year-old daughter Zahara, 6-year-old son Maddox and 4-year-old son Pax. They also have a biological daughter, 22-month-old Shiloh.
Jolie won an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her role in the 1999 film "Girl, Interrupted."
The expectant mom, accompanied by Brad Pitt and sons Maddox and Pax, checked out the inner workings of her womb and its current denizens via sonogram at a hospital in Grasse, France.
"Angie was due for a scan and they thought it would be cool to do it on Mother's Day and take Maddox and Pax along to see the twins for themselves on the sonogram machine," a source close to the couple tells E! News.
"Brad and Angelina are very big on explaining things in a very simple way to their kids and they want the kids to feel included in the process of her pregnancy. Having them see the babies for themselves was a really exciting day out for them all."
After the Sunday trip to the hospital, la Clinique du Palais, about an hour's drive from their current headquarters on the French Riviera, the family swept by the local McDonald's drive- through and picked up two Chicken McNugget Happy Meals for Maddox and Pax plus two Quarter Pounders with cheese for Jolie and Pitt.
The foursome then headed back to their digs at Paul Allen's Villa Maryland in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, where they regrouped with daughters Shiloh and Zahara for an impromptu poolside party complete with cupcakes and balloons.
This morning, Pitt headed out for a boys' day out with Maddox and Pax, along with the family's lawyer. The group took a helicopter from Monaco heliport.
Last year, during Cannes film festival, Jolie took the boys to see dolphins and killer whales at a local attraction called Marineland and she's now talking about taking the girls to do that in the next few weeks.
It was an eventful weekend the Brangelina Bunch.
On Friday, Pitt dropped in to celebrate new buddy Bono's 48th birthday at Sass' Cafι in Monaco.
The dozen revelers also included Bono's wife Ali Hewson, Monaco's Prince Albert II and The Edge, who dined on Italian specialties including fettuccine with seafood and a strawberry and cream birthday cake with champagne. The party didn't shut down until after midnight.
"Brad was chatting away to Bono, The Edge and Prince Albert," reports a restaurant source, "and they were laughing and joking and had a great time."
"Stars do get surprisingly rattled," she told PEOPLE Wednesday night, during the magazine's Most Alluring Bodies silent auction in New York City. And even though they didn't all appear in Allure, nude portraits of Angelina Jolie, Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss and Scarlett Johansson were donated by photographers to benefit Skin Cancer Research.
"We've had some of the most gorgeous people with the most gorgeous bodies really have a moment of crisis when they have to drop the robe," said Wells.
So have there been any major surprises during the nude photoshoots? "Some people haven't discovered the bikini wax," she said. "That was a shock. And that is a very expensive bikini wax when you're [forced to fake it] with a lot of retouching."
They also count on photoshop to keep the pictures strictly PG-13. "Because we want to be on the newsstand, we have to be careful about the raciness," Wells explained. "So we've removed nipples. Mariska Hargitay was rather surprised when she suddenly had no nipples."
In this year's portfolio, Allure also used strategically placed foliage to hide the naughty bits.
"Jennifer Hudson was really great," Wells said. "But she had a moment where she was a little taken aback and she had to wrap her mind around it. And Angie Harmon was surprisingly nervous, but then she pulled it together. They know that we want a beautiful picture. But they still have to take that robe off they're still naked."
A source close to the couple tells E! News that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have started importing the little thingsclothes, toys, the Ducatiacross the Atlantic after apparently opting to stay put at Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's villa in Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera.
While the couple have been house-hunting in nearby Monte Carlo and logged time this weekend in Nice visiting Bono and The Edge, they're "more than content to just stay put," at least until the birth of their second biological child and fifth overall, the insider said.
"Everything feels right. The kids are happy with the seaside being just down the road and having a pool in the garden, and Brad's dying to get out and explore the French countryside on his bike like he did last summer when they were vacationing in the West of France."
"They've just had one of the happiest weeks that they've had together as a family for ages," the source added.
And whatever the Jolie-Pitt clan think they might need for the next few months that couldn't fit on the private jet, they've had shipped to Allen's estate, including Pitt's Ducati motorbike.
"Taking the kids over for Sunday lunch and having a playdate with Bono's kids was so nice for them," our source says.
"So many other celebrities have homes down there, too, so they fit right in. There's a whole cool, English-speaking community down there, so they have a balance of it being French and cultured, but also they can take the kids to a doctor and explain what's up with them in English if needs be.
"They've even been able to buy the kids favorite snacks in from a shop there that delivers American food and drinks to your home."
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and their Benetton-friendly family made nice in Nice Sunday, spending an hour soaking up the surf.
The gang was all there for the fun in the sun, with Maddox, Pax, Zahara and even the increasingly hermetic Shiloh present and accounted for. The fam logged sand time with U2 guitarist The Edge and later visited Bonoboth rockers have homesteads in the area.
Jolie and Pitt are shacked up in France awaiting the Cannes Film Festival and a new stork delivery, staying at a home owned by billionaire Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen.
"The Edge knows Paul Allen really well and invited the family down for lunch," a source told E! News. "It was a lovely sunny day and so they all went and hung out on the beach like regular people."
"Pax was obsessed with catching crabs and that's what Pax, Brad and some local kids did while Angie spoke to The Edge."
The beach excursion capped off an otherwise busy weekend. Earlier, Pitt, Jolie and Zahara took to the skies for a house-hunting helicopter ride, spending several hours in Monte Carlo Saturday viewing a large property.
"They have heard that in Monaco they don't really allow paparazzi and that the Monegasque police arrest them [photographers] if they bother celebrities," the insider told E! News. "So they've started looking over there.
"Brad loves it therehe went to the Grand Prix in Monaco four years ago, and has told Maddox and Pax how great it was, but Angie seems to prefer Provence...the idea of being able to vacation in peace like any other family really appeals to them."
Jolie is considering delivering at Monaco's Princess Grace Hospital.
"The hospital is one of the best in the world, and she can fly there by helicopter. It's safe and no paps will be able to trail them there."
The couple who are hunkering down in St Jean Cap Ferrat at the historic villa owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen appeared to be house hunting, sources say, exploring four possible properties.
The next day, the expectant parents and their entire brood (daughters Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 1, and sons Maddox, 6, and Pax, 4) stayed closer to home, visiting Bono's waterfront home at Eze, France, about 15 minutes from Allen's luxury compound.
While their weekend may sound glamorous, one local source insists that, when it comes to daily life inside the villa, they're just like any other family on vacation.
"They're doing everything you and I might be doing," said the source. "Eating, taking naps and swimming in the pool."
Later this month, the pregnant Jolie is scheduled to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival for two films, Kung Fu Panda and The Changeling.
Since hunkering down at the Riviera estate of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen last week, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their existing brood have been living a life of leisurepain au chocolat in the morning, sunning poolside all day, high tea in the afternoon, CNN at night
A source on that side of the Atlantic exclusively tells E! News that the Jolie-Pitt clan spent Thursdaya public holiday in France marking the country's Labor Day, known as Fκte du Travailrelaxing by the pool while they wait for the usual jetlag to wear off.
"They've been getting up early and have pain au chocolate and croissant and muffins for breakfast, the kids have been watching cartoons and then late morning they've been going in the pool, which is heated so the kids love it," the Brangie insider said.
"[Maddox] is a really good little swimmer but the rest all need arm bands and Brad's been getting in the pool with the kids and throwing them up in the air and giving them rides on his back, while Angie has been laughing and watching from a sun-lounger."
The kids have been enjoying a "high tea" at around 5 p.m.their dinnertimeof homemade chicken fingers, veggies and fruit smoothies, according to E!'s source. After which comes a little more cartoon watching, a bath and story-time with mom and dad. Then, it's lights out at 7 p.m.
"Brad and Angelina are then exhausted and have been watching CNN News and then catching a film on cable, and then they've been going to bed by 9 p.m. themselves," the source said.
"They're really serious about getting some quality family time together and having some fun like a normal family."
Pitt, Jolie, Maddox and Pax are also said to be having regular French lessons with a tutor who comes to the house. Whether the family is there long enough to start schooling little Shiloh and Zahara in the native tongue, as well, remains to be seen, but we know that the Jolie-Pitts are going to be in the neighborhood at least until they welcome their newest addition this summer.
In the meantime, Jolie's got a pair of films opening at Cannes and Pitt's going to go villa-hunting.
Naturellement!
The couple, their four children, two nannies and three bodyguards arrived in a private Gulfstream jet at Nice and drove to nearby St Jean Cap Ferrat. According to local sources, they're staying at Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's historic Villa Maryland.
The Florentine-styled villa with pool overlooks the peninsula's small yacht harbor and commands an unparalleled view of the Mediterranean. The couple previously borrowed the villa for a one-week stay during their 2006 French break preceding the birth of daughter Shiloh.
The villa has year-round staffing of 12 and is often used by Allen for celebrity-packed dinners during the Cannes Film Festival and Monaco Grand Prix weekend.
Pitt and Jolie are expected to remain in St Jean Cap Ferrat through the Cannes Film Festival, May 14-25. Pregnancy permitting, Jolie is scheduled to walk the red carpet for two films, Kung Fu Panda on May 15 and Clint Eastwood's The Changeling on May 20.
Sporting a bright yellow dress and black flats, the mom-to-be came and left through the kitchen ΰ la Goodfellas.
And, as if to trick us into forgetting she's preggers, Angie did her best to shield her ever-growing baby bump with a large white purse.
Too bad the crazy cleavage gives her away. Maybe try a pocket protector next time?
The Transformers co-star tops FHMs annual 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll of FHM readers. The 21-year-old model-actress beat out the likes of Angelina Jolie (No. 12), Rihanna (No. 14), Kim Kardashian (No. 17), Paris Hilton (No. 77) and last years champion, Jessica Alba (No. 3).
Fox debuted on the annual list in 2006 at No. 68 and ranked at No. 65 in 2007. Joining her in the top 10 this year are in descending order Jessica Biel, Alba, Elisha Cuthbert, Scarlett Johansson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Hilary Duff, Tricia Helfer, Blake Lively and Kate Beckinsale. Britney Spears came in last place at No. 100.
The women from MTVs The Hills duke it out on the list with Heidi Montag (No. 44) beating out Audrina Patridge (No. 80) and Lauren Conrad (No. 95). Current Dancing with the Stars contestant Shannon Elizabeth (No. 46) returned to the ranking after being absent last year, joining professional dancers Cheryl Burke (No. 40) and Karina Smirnoff (No. 78).
FHM said nearly nine million votes were cast for the 14th edition of the annual poll.
And though it was "in the middle of the event," the expectant mother of four didn't miss a beat as she talked about her two visits to Iraq and her new initiative, Education Partnership for Children of Conflict.
Jolie, 32, says EPCC will be "a center that helps raise awareness and coordinate all the various efforts of people working towards education for children of conflict."
Even after an exhausting couple days in the nation's capital, Jolie, who brought sons Maddox, 6, and Pax, 4, with her, shows no signs of slowing down. She'll continue her work in D.C. all week before re-joining Brad Pitt and their daughters Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 1.
Most of all, Jolie says, she's savoring this period unexpected kicks and all adding, "It is a very special time in our lives."
Jolie, who played Pearl in the film version of her book A Mighty Heart, spoke of Pearl's special gift as a mother and called her an example of "courage, hope and tolerance," reports the Washington Post.
Pearl, the wife of slain reporter Daniel Pearl, called Jolie "a sister" during her acceptance speech, and the two spent the day together, as their kids Maddox, Pax and Adam played.
On Tuesday, Jolie participated in a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington D.C. The event was to help launch Jolie's new venture, the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which will focus on the work of prominent charity organizations as well as tell the stories of the children in need.
"The best way to heal children of conflict from trauma is to have them focus on their future," Jolie told the Council on Foreign Relations.
Jolie, who visited Iraq in August, and other humanitarian workers discussed how to help displaced Iraqi children regain some sense of normalcy and stability through education.
The schooling of refugee children is a frequent casualty of violence and political unrest, said Gene Sperling, an economic adviser to former President Bill Clinton who co-chairs the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict with Jolie.
"Every child has a right to education and conflict is not a reason to ignore that," Jolie said.
The Hollywood actress has visited more than 20 humanitarian hot spots, including Iraq and Sudan's Darfur region, since becoming a good will U.N. ambassador in 2001.
The Iraq war has produced 4.5 million refugees and internally displaced people. Of those who have fled the country, about 1.5 million are now in neighboring Syria, while hundreds of thousands have relocated to Jordan and Lebanon.
Speakers at the event recommended building more schools and providing textbooks inside Iraq and urged more support for governments hosting Iraqi refugees.
Syria and Jordan have stretched their limited budgets to educate some Iraqi children, but they need help to accommodate the massive influx of students, said George Rupp, president and chief executive officer of the International Rescue Committee.
Accompanied by security guards and sporting a navy blue hoodie, 6-year-old Maddox and 4-year-old Pax, in an olive green jacket, reportedly asked a barrage of questions as they gazed upon Space Hall, Skylab and the WWI and WWII aerial exhibits.
Their mom, however, also had more earth-bound issues on her mind during her visit to the nation's capital, says The Post. Monday night she attended a Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards gala, where she presented Mariane Pearl with an award, and Tuesday she was headed for the Council on Foreign Relations to discuss a new worldwide education initiative.
The family spent a weekend in New Orleans two weeks ago as Pitt broke ground on his Make It Right project to help rebuild the city's Lower Ninth Ward but they have recently been in the Austin, Texas, area while Pitt films Tree of Life with Sean Penn.
Jolie, who stars in the action film Wanted, opening in June, is pregnant and due later this year.
After paying Christina Aguilera a reported $1.5 million in February for shots of her newborn, Max, People shelled out a whopping $6 million to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony for the first photos of new twins, Max and Emme.
One magazine editor who asked to remain anonymous said, "It's at the point now where some stars might decide to have more kids just to collect the money from their photos."
Pregnant stars are now "treating this like a game," said National Enquirer Executive Editor Barry Levine.
"It's become big business now," Levine said. "It's outrageous, they've gotten very sophisticated. The rights are bought up now even before the celeb enters the hospital. They hire extra security so it's impossible to obtain a photo illegally."
Levine said stars now realize that having a child is "akin to getting a role in a movie." And the glossies don't mind paying because they recoup the money over time with magazine sales, Web hits, and by re-selling the photos overseas.
Angelina Jolie, rumored to be carrying twins, could nab up to $10 million for selling the first exclusive photos of the babies, Levine estimates.
"That's where the market is right now," he said. "When I was the editor of Star in LA, we bought photos of Lisa Marie Presley's baby back in 1989 for $100,000, and at the time I thought it was outrageous. Now it's chump change." He added, "I'd like to see more people like Sarah Jessica Parker standing outside the hospital and giving the shot away for free."
American Media Editorial Director Bonnie Fuller said the payouts just keep escalating. "If J.Lo really did get $6 million, then I think Angelina can now command $8 million," Fuller said. "The magazines must look at it as a long-term investment, but I think it'll cap out at a certain point."
Halle Berry, who just gave birth to a baby girl, falls below Jolie in terms of interest. "I can't think at this point who could command more money than Brangelina," said Fuller.
Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society have discovered that Jolie is distantly related to Hillary Clinton, while Pitt is a cousin of Barack Obama.
Jolie and Clinton are ninth cousins, twice removed, while Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, according to a genealogical study conducted over the last three years.
In addition to her kinship with Jolie, Clinton is also related to Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette, researchers found. Other cousins include Camilla Parker Bowles and Jack Kerouac.
Obama, on the other hand, shares his ancestry with six U.S. presidents, including current commander in chief, George W. Bush, and his father, George H.W. Bush.
Other far-reaching Obama relations include Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison, as well as Vice President Dick Cheney and Sir Winston Churchill.
Republican candidate John McCain's family tree proved tougher to trace, as records on his relatives were not as extensive as either Obama or Clinton's, researchers said. He was, however, found to be a sixth cousin to first lady Laura Bush.
All told, they gave more than $8 million in donations in 2006, with Pitt putting in $4,402,317, and Jolie donating $4,123,613, the Huffington Post reports, citing newly released federal tax filings. (These latest figures don't include 2007 in which, among other charitable efforts, Brad's Make It Right Foundation raised $5 million.)
In terms of dispensing their funds, according to records for 2006, the foundation handed out $2,367,935, including $1 million to both Doctors Without Borders (International Division) and to the Global AIDS Alliance.
Additional gifts included $137,935 to the Namibia Red Cross Action Program (their daughter Shiloh was born in the African country); $100,000 to the Daniel Pearl Foundation (the late journalist's widow, Marianne Pearl, was played by Jolie in A Mighty Heart); $100,000 to Global Green U.S.A. and to the Epidermolysis Bulloma Medical Research Foundation.
In addition, $20,000 went to an art park in Los Angeles, as did separate $5,000 donations to two orphanages that Jolie had visited.
More Good Works
In terms of Pitt's work in Louisiana, Jolie's costar in the movie Wanted, Morgan Freeman, told PEOPLE Thursday at the Pathfinders to Peace Forum and Gala, "We were in contact with Brad about the situation in New Orleans" and he called Jolie "such a wonderful woman."
Said Freeman: "Aside from all that physical beauty, she's a real person."
Two weeks after debuting an apparent baby bump on the red carpet of the Spirit Awards, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are working on a top-secret birth plan.
The couple, who famously decamped to Namibia in 2006 for the birth of their first biological baby, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, are now plotting to escape to the French Riviera for their next stork delivery, E! News has learned.
A source close the couple tells E! News that the Brangelina brood will hunker down in the south of France, the native country of her late mother Marcheline Bertrand, where Jolie plans to give birth and spend her initial postpartum months.
"They want to be in France by the summer," says the source. (It's uncertain whether they will make their move permanent.)
Both Pitt and Jolie have been working to "clear their schedules" so they can focus on the pregnancy, the source added.
Pitt's publicist, Cindy Guagenti, said she was unaware of such plans and declined to comment.
Jolie and Pitt moved into Africa for the birth of Shiloh, setting up shop at Namibia's luxury Burning Shore Beach Lodge, where bodyguards and local officials helped keep paparazzi at bay.
The couple has yet to officially announce the latest prengancy. The Jolie-Pitt brood currently numbers four: Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, who turns 2 in May.
Jolie, 32, and Brad Pitt, 44, were at home in Los Angeles with the kids and enjoyed the relative peace and quiet, a source tells PEOPLE.
Though neither was at the Oscar ceremony, their absence didn't stop the show's host, Jon Stewart, from including Jolie in a joke about pregnant actresses, saying, "Obviously, Angelina Jolie couldn't be here it's hard to find 17 babysitters on Oscar night."
The growing Jolie-Pitt brood currently includes Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, and Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 1. A source close to the couple says they are "thrilled to be adding to their brood."
A source close to the couple tells PEOPLE that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are "thrilled to be adding to their brood."
Jolie's baby bump was the buzz on the blue carpet Saturday as she stepped out in a curve-hugging black dress at the Film Independent's Spirit Awards with Pitt.
The Jolie-Pitt family currently consists of Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 1. Last week the couple's adoption of Pax was made official.
Adds a source close to the couple, "They are very, very happy."
A Los Angeles County Children's Court judge formally approved the camera-ready couple's adoption of four-year-old Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt on Wednesday.
Pax is now a legally recognized member of the ever-expanding clan, which in addition to the superstar parents includes fellow siblings Maddox, 6; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, who turns 2 in May.
TMZ, which first reported the news, said the family held a mini celebration after the judge signed off on the paperwork at a courthouse in the Monterey Park area of L.A. Jolie reportedly left the facility with a teddy bear in hand. (The couple was later spotted, sans kids or stuffed creatures, dining with Clint Eastwood in Brentwood, according to Us Weekly.)
Pax first came into Brangelina's collective life back in November 2006, when the do-good couple spotted the tot during a visit to an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. A solo Jolie returned to Vietnam in March 2007 to adopt the boy.
She initially filed as a single mother, in accordance with a Vietnamese policy prohibiting unmarried couples from adopting.
Just three months after his stateside arrival, Pax's surname was officially changed to Jolie-Pitt; his older siblings' were similarly changed back in January 2006.
While an official adoption ceremony did take place in Vietnam's Department of Justice in March 2007, the U.S. had not, until now, formalized the addition.
Hollywood's globe-trotting leading lady swooped into Baghdad on Thursday to highlight the plight of Iraqi refugees, gaining an audience with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the American Embassy said.
O her mission as a U.N. goodwill ambassador, Jolie also met with Iraqi migration officials to stress that there needs to be a coherent plan for the more than 2 million internally displaced Iraqis who are beginning to trickle back to their homes amid a recent lull in violence.
"There's lots of goodwill and lots of discussion, but there seems to be just a lot of talk at the moment," Jolie said in excerpts of an interview aired on CNN.
Jolie mingled with American troops during lunch at a dining facility in the heavily guarded Green Zone, which houses the embassy and Iraqi government offices. She grabbed a red plastic tray at the mess hall, collected her lunch and sat at a long banquet table to eat her fork tines down, of course as flashbulbs from soldiers' digital cameras lit up the wall behind her.
During the CNN interview, Jolie said the fate of Iraq will have an impact on the Middle East for years to come.
"And a big part of what it's going to affect," she said, "is how these people are returned and settled into their homes and their community and brought back together and whether they can live together and what their communities look like."
The Oscar-winning thesp has touched down in Baghdad as part of her most recent globetrotting mission as a UN Goodwill Ambassador, speaking with soldiers, local government, displaced citizens and, of course, the media.
The 32-year-old do-gooder traveled to the war-torn city with Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky to learn more about the 4 million Iraqis who have been displaced by the war, 58 percent of whom are children under the age of 12. That statistic particularly haunts Jolie, who traveled abroad sans her famous brood (hypothetical buns in the oven, notwithstanding).
"I always hate speculation on the news, so I don't want to be someone who speculates," Jolie said in an interview with CNN. "But I think it's clear, I think a displaced, unstable population...what happens in Iraq and how Iraq settles in years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East. It does have broad implications."
Six months ago, Jolie made her first investigative trip as an ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to Syria. She called this follow-up trip, dangerous though it may be, a no-brainer.
"The global community always has a responsibility to any humanitarian crisis," she said. "It was an easy choice to make. I felt I had to come here because it is very difficult to get answers. Even UNHCR, who I traditionally work with, they're not able to be inside at the moment. I was very frustrated, getting papers but not really knowing what's going on."
This excursion, during which Jolie has already lunched with troops, met with the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, as well as with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other migration officials, is an attempt by Jolie to ease her own and the public's frustration and hopefully spur global communities into action.
"There doesn't seem to be a real coherent plan to help them," Jolie said. "There's lots of goodwill and lots of discussion, but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment, and a lot of pieces need to be put together. I'm trying to figure out what they are."
Still, Jolie cautions that her involvement and concern don't make her an expert or someone who has the key to peace in the Middle East.
"I'm not good at policy and fixing all this and saying what's wrong, but I do know that, for example, UNHCR needs to be more active inside Iraq. In order for that to happen, they feel strongly about having better protection, better security. I don't have the answers, but I know this is one thing that needs to be addressed and that needs to be resolved."
"Many different people can be cynical, and I will ask them...is there something we need to understand more, is there anything we can do?"
Most important, Jolie, who is expected to return to the U.S. Thursday night after her brief stint in Baghdad's Green Zone, said her main message in returning from the region is to convince people of the broader implications of instability in Iraq, particularly the instability caused by displaced residents who have been unable to return to their homes.
"If it is not stable, it could affect the entire Middle East, and that could affect the entire world. I don't see borders, I see lives and I see children, and this is an environment where there's a war, but there's also a humanitarian crisis. We can't wait for one to end to finally address the other."
She then took to the stage to discuss her career and reveal a few candid nuggets from her off-screen life.
Among Angelina's revelations:
She retains fond memories of sharing a single acting scene in Tomb Raider with her father Jon Voight, from whom she's currently estranged. "Strangely enough, the scene was about a daughter and her father who had not spent their lives together and had a lot of questions for each other ...[It was] kind of therapeutic for us to get some things out and talk. We spent that time as two artists, and it was a special time. It was an important time."
When her ex-husband and Pushing Tin costar Billy Bob Thornton was mentioned, she said, "I thought he was an amazing artist, and still is."
Prior to screening the famous tango scene clip from Mr. & Mrs. Smith, she was asked if she or Pitt was the better dancer: "I think we're about equal," she replied. "Equally not so good."
Despite starring in several high-tech productions, she's technologically challenged in real life: "As Brad knows, I don't really how to turn on a computer."
After back-to-back clips featuring romantic scenes with Brad in Mr. & Mrs. Smith and her and Matt Damon in The Good Shepherd, Jolie said she looked like she was "out on one date and went out on another." Given the choice between former [Pitt] and current [Damon] holders of PEOPLE's "Sexiest Man Alive" title, she said, "I'm going with the first one."
Both she and Pitt were initially reluctant to take on their roles in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but "obviously I'm very glad I did it It changed my life."
Asked if her humanitarian efforts were an even greater passion than acting, she chose a third alternative: "I love being a mom, and I think that's my big passion: being with my family."
The 32-year-old actress was honored Saturday for her portrayal of Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, in the film "A Mighty Heart." It's one of numerous awards Jolie has received for the role, but among the few she's personally collected.
"To be honest, I just heard that it was a beautiful festival, and one to take seriously," Jolie told Associated Press Television News.
The award was presented by Clint Eastwood, director of Jolie's upcoming drama "The Changeling."
"Clint Eastwood? Ahttp://wwww! Don't get me started," Jolie said. "I could talk forever about him. I could turn the whole evening into a Clint Eastwood evening. ... I think he's just a genuinely great guy. He's nice to everybody on set."
Jolie arrived with her partner, Brad Pitt, who did not speak to the media but briefly posed with Jolie for photos.
She said dealing with the insanity of Hollywood is much easier with Pitt and their children at her side. "I think it's the only way to juggle it," she said.
Besides her film career, Jolie, who won an Oscar for her part in the 1999 film "Girl, Interrupted," keeps busy with humanitarian efforts at home and abroad, including work with the United Nations as a goodwill ambassador.
Her friend George Clooney was recently named U.N. messenger of peace, but Jolie said she didn't have a clue what he should expect from the gig.
"I'm not sure exactly what his position is and what he's gonna do," she said. "But I know his heart is in the right place, and he's truly committed."
Jolie, who wore a black blouse and loose-fitting floor-length skirt, looked lean and not obviously pregnant. Publicists asked the media not to question her about reports that she may be with child again.
Jolie and Pitt have been tabloid staples since they began shooting "Mr. And Mrs. Smith" in 2004, when Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston but a romance with Jolie was blooming on the set.
What does Jolie think it will take for the press to move beyond their off-screen life and onto more significant things?
"I think it's going to take, partly, people wanting to learn those things," she said. "I mean, I know, that's what I look for when I wake up in the morning when I go online or when I get the paper. And you can find it if you're looking for it. And you can avoid silliness if you want to. So it's a personal choice of each individual."
A man claiming to be a freelance reporter was arrested outside Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Hollywood Hills abode Wednesday afternoon, Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Officer Karen Smith told E! Online.
The Jolie-Pitt clan, which is rumored to be expanding, was not home at the time.
Smith said that their housekeeper called the cops at 12 p.m. after noticing a silver car blocking the entrance to the house in the 5700 block of tony Briarcliff Road. She also saw a man, who police later identified as 25-year-old Eric Ray Mitchell of Hollywood, asking passersby where Pitt's house was.
When officers arrived at the scene, they took Mitchell into custody and impounded his vehicle. Smith couldn't say whether he was still in custody as of 4 p.m.
Pitt and Jolie most recently went public at the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, where the latter was nominated for her heart-tugging turn in A Mighty Heart. The 32-year-old actress went home empty-handed, but she garnered plenty of attention by sipping water all evening and donning a figure-skimming gown.
Stealing kisses at their table or just romantic glances, the twosome stuck close, returning to their table together hand in hand, no less! after a brief break from the main ballroom at the Shrine Auditorium. But the lovebirds soaked up the affection from at least one other person. Mickey Rooney approached the two at their table before the show, gabbed for a bit and posed for a picture.
"I've never been this close to them," gushed Eva Longoria, who craned her neck to catch a glimpse. "Oh my gosh, she's stunning."
Pitt and Jolie stayed on the other side of the carpet from most reporters, delighting screaming bleacher fans by signing autographs and posing for photos.
The specific attributes of the three actresses topped the list of the annual "Hollywood's Hottest Looks" survey released on Thursday by The Beverly Hills Institute of Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery.
According to doctors Richard Fleming and Toby Mayer their clients ask for plastic surgery not to look exactly like a specific star, but to replicate a distinct feature of various celebrity faces and bodies.
The most requested look-alike female nose was that of "Grey's Anatomy" star Katherine Heigl, while British actress Keira Knightley was tops in the cheek department, and Paris Hilton haD the most sought-after skin.
The features most desired by men were Leonardo DiCaprio's nose, soccer player David Beckham's body and the blue eyes of the latest James Bond actor, Daniel Craig. George Clooney's cheeks and Matt Damon's lips also got top billing.
"Our patients continue to turn to Hollywood to raise their standard of beauty," said Fleming. "Our patients want to look rested, energetic and, most of all, youthful like the celebrities they see in glossy magazines."
Pulling rank alongside such seemingly more NAACP-friendly Oustanding Movie Actress nominees as Halle Berry, for her dramatic turn in Things We Lost in the Fire, and Jill Scott, for her work in the multinominated Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?, is a somewhat unexpected name: A Mighty Heart's Angelina Jolie.
The Image Awards strives to honor projects and individuals that promote diversity in arts across several industries, including television, music, literature and film. This year's eco-friendly event, the theme of which is "Stand Up and Be Counted," is no different.
One film that exemplifies that philosophy, The Great Debaters, is also the leading nominee, with eight nods, including individual nominations for Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Whitaker, Jurnee Smollett and Nate Parker, as well as a nod for Outstanding Motion Picture.
Alongside Washington in his bid for the Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture win are Talk to Me's Don Cheadle, Pride's Terrence Howard, I Am Legend's Will Smith and Stomp the Yard's Columbus Short. Washington is also up for his direction.
Meanwhile, Tyler Perry's assorted film and TV projects scored seven nods total, including an acting nomination for the man himself.
Debaters costars Whitaker, Whitaker (no relation, despite their playing father-son in the film) and Parker willl vie for Outstanding Supporting Actor against Talk to Me's Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?'s title-hogging Perry.
Perry 's film also racked up acting nods for Outstanding Actress (Jill Scott), Supporting Actress (Janet Jackson) and Motion Picture, where it will compete with The Great Debaters, American Gangster, I Am Legend and Talk to Me.
Perry also notched an Outstanding Comedy Series nod for his TBS series, Tyler Perry's House of Payne. The show also earned a pair of acting nods.
House of Payne goes head-to-head with 30 Rock, Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends and Ugly Betty for the top TV trophy.
All told, CW had the best showing on the television side, scoring more than a dozen nominations thanks to hits Everybody Hates Chris and Girlfriends.
Ugly Betty herself, America Ferrera, earned a nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series, as did Everybody Hates Chris' Tichina Arnold. Scrubs' Donald Faison and Psych's Dulι Hill were the big name nominees for Outstanding Comedy Actor.
As for the Outstanding Supporting thesp nominations, The New Adventures of Old Christine's Blair Underwood, 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan, Ugly Betty's Vanessa L. Williams and Curb Your Enthusiasm's Vivica A. Fox were among the nominees for both sides.
In the Outstanding Drama Series showdown, Grey's Anatomy, House, K-Ville, Lincoln Heights and The Unit will vie for the prize.
K-Ville's Anthony Anderson, The Unit's Dennis Haysbert, CSI: NY's Hill Harper, Law & Order staple Jesse L. Martin and Cane's Jimmy Smits will tough it out for Outstanding Actor honors, while The Shield's CCH Pounder and The L Word's Jennifer Beals are among the nominees for Outstanding Drama Actress.
Underwood, meanwhile, scored a second acting nod, this time as Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role in Dirty Sexy Money. He'll compete with Grey's Anatomy's James Pickens Jr., ER's Mekhi Phifer, House's Omar Epps and Private Practice's Taye Diggs.
In the Supporting Actress in a Drama category, Private Practice's Audra McDonald and Grey's Anatomy's Chandra Wilson, last year's winner, are up against Law & Order's S. Epatha Merkerson, Without a Trace's Marianne Jean-Baptiste and The L Word's Pam Grier.
Like Underwood and Perry, Merkerson doubled her nomination pleasure, taking home another nod for Outstanding Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries, vying against The Starter Wife's Anika Noni Rose, Matters of Life & Dating's Holly Robinson Peete, Life Support's Queen Latifah and The List's Sydney Tamiia Poitier.
Other notable TV nominations include High School Musical 2's nod for Outstanding Children's Program.
Meanwhile, American Idol scored a nod for Outstanding Reality Series, a field that also includes America's Next Top Model, Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Run's House 4.
Idol's reigning champ, Jordin Sparks, got in on the nominated action, scoring in the musical category for Outstanding New Artist. She vies against Sean Kingston and HSM alum Corbin Bleu for the honor.
Kanye West, meanwhile, will be pleased to know he's in the Outstanding Male Artist field, alongside Common, Chris Brown, Prince and Seal. Outstanding Female Artist nominees include Alicia Keys, Aretha Franklin, Beyoncι, Jill Scott and Mary J. Blige.
Keys, Brown, West, Blige and Seal all have horses in the Outstanding Album of the Year race, for As I Am, Exclusive, Graduation, Growing Pains and System, respectively.
The NAACP also announced that Stevie Wonder will be inducted into this year's Hall of Fame, owing not only to his pioneering role in the recording world, but in knocking down barriers to achieve international success and impact.
The 39th Annual NAACP Image Awards will air live on Fox Feb. 14.
The actress proved to be the most-liked celebrity among ten women who regularly found their way onto magazine covers and into gossip columns in 2007, according to a poll on Friday.
For its E-Score Celebrity survey, E-Poll Market Research asked more than 1,100 people ages 13 and older whom they found the most appealing, confident, glamorous, interesting and over-exposed, among other qualities.
Witherspoon, 30, who has been in the spotlight since winning an Oscar for playing country singer June Carter in "Walk the Line," topped the list with a personal appeal rating of 74 percent, followed by former "Friends" TV star Jennifer Aniston at 70 percent.
The Oscar winner has not had any major movie hits since "Walk the Line," but has been the focus of numerous headlines and stories this year due to her divorce from actor Ryan Phillippe and subsequent involvement with Jake Gyllenhaal, her co-star in "Rendition."
That movie, an espionage thriller, has proved to be a major disappointment at box offices taking in only $17 million so far in global ticket sales.
Meanwhile Angelina Jolie, who is now the companion of Aniston's ex-husband Brad Pitt, was the No. 3 most appealing celebrity at 53 percent.
Actress/singer Jennifer Lopez was behind her with a 52 percent rating, while Katie Holmes followed at 32 percent and behind her was former Spice Girl Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham in the No. 6 position with a rating of 28 percent.
Troubled celebrities of 2007 -- Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears -- who all have battled drug and alcohol abuse and run into legal problems, rounded out the list with Hilton the least-liked.
She had a low 9 percent appeal rating, and was deemed to be the most over-exposed. Only one notch above Hilton was pop singer Spears with 11 percent likeability and a 68 percent over-exposed rating to Hilton's 75 percent.
Hollywood star Jolie commanded the greatest public respect of all celebrity public do-gooders this year due to her work as a U.N. goodwill ambassador and as the adoptive mother tried to raise awareness of suffering in Africa.
But the poll by humanitarian Web site Reuters AlertNet (http://www.alertnet.org) found not all do-gooders fared so well, with fellow adoptive mother Madonna voted the least respected celebrity altruist of 2007 despite raising millions for orphans in Malawi, and Bob Geldof struggling for support.
Madonna's image was hit by claims she used her fame and wealth to circumvent Malawian adoption rules.
"People aren't stupid," said Peter Walker, director of the Feinstein International Famine Center at Tufts University.
"They can really sense when it's just an endorsement and when somebody really means it. Someone like Angelina Jolie comes across as having more integrity than some celebrities and a greater sense that she doesn't just do this for the publicity."
The online poll of 606 people conducted from December 7 to 19 put 32-year-old Jolie ahead of U2 singer Bono, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Microsoft founder Bill Gates -- all of whom have helped put African suffering on the global agenda.
The result underlined how far Jolie has changed her image since shocking onlookers by French kissing her brother at an awards ceremony about seven years ago and from wearing a vial of second husband Billy Bob Thornton's blood around her neck.
HUMANITARIAN HOBBY?
Since becoming an ambassador in 2001 for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, she has visited more than 20 humanitarian hot spots, most recently Iraq.
"She does this in a very low-key way," said UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler. "She goes out to see for herself, to get up close and very personal. She doesn't travel with film crews, and I think that is real testimony to her dedication to the cause."
Jolie has three adopted children -- from Ethiopia, Cambodia and Vietnam, and last year gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh, with her actor partner Brad Pitt.
But she has sparked little of the controversy that has dogged Madonna, who adopted a toddler from Malawi in 2006.
"Madonna seems to do philanthropy the way she's done Indian culture, sex, and just about everything -- like a disposable fad," said one anonymous voter. "Hope she doesn't get bored of her adopted African kid."
John McKie, who recruits celebrities for British relief agency Christian Aid, was less critical of Madonna.
"She has played Live8 and she's got her own charity in Malawi," he said. "Many celebrities don't engage in Africa on any level, so we shouldn't be too hard on Madonna."
After Madonna, U.S. socialite Paris Hilton gave the worst name to celebrity humanitarianism in 2007, the poll found, after announcing she planned to swap partying for philanthropy with a trip to Rwanda. The trip was later postponed.
Famous figures who scored highly for their humanitarian work included former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, Jordan's Queen Rania and former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan.
Actors Mia Farrow, Don Cheadle and Brad Pitt won praise for their advocacy on behalf of Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
Bono showed he has both admirers and detractors, ranking second after Jolie in the "most respected" category but also attracting enough negative votes to put him in the top five celebrity do-gooders people love to hate -- with Bob Geldof.
"This guy probably believes he's the new Messiah," said one anonymous voter.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
Ellen Page, Juno
"Absolutely, I would take that," Panettiere told PEOPLE Friday night in Washington, D.C. for the Forecast Earth Summit by The Weather Channel, where she spoke to a group of 22 high school students from across the country who were honored for their environmental outreach.
"She was definitely one of my inspirations growing up and she was definitely somebody I looked up to," the 18-year-old Heroes star says.
However, while Jolie is a strong advocate for humanitarian causes, the Heroes star is making headlines for her work to Save the Whales. An arrest warrant was issued for Panettiere in Japan after she and other activists paddled on surfboards into a cove in an attempt to protect dolphins facing slaughter from local fishermen.
"I grew up near the Hudson River in New York. I didn't grow up in the water; I don't surf. People think I surf because of the footage. I was just in a panic and happened to paddle really fast I was hauling butt!" she said.
Reflecting on the experience, she later told PEOPLE, "It caused a great amount of stir." In a town where "people like to see young girls in Hollywood get arrested," Panettiere said there's been discussion of returning to Japan, but "we don't have a reason why we would, and we don't know of any good that could come of it at the moment... [but] I don't mind getting arrested."
'Everything in My Life Is on Display': She credits the success of Heroes with helping to give her the power to bring attention to these types of issues. But, she adds, the show's success can be viewed in yet another way: "It completely ruined my personal life. I mean, you walk out the door and you've got ten cameras in your face. Obviously everything in my life is on display whether it be true or false 99 percent of it false."
For now, Panettiere says her job is her social life, and she prefers a quiet night at home over the club scene. "At home in bed with a movie and pizza and good friends," she described as her ideal Friday night. "I'd probably be watching Little Britain, a BBC TV show. It is phenomenal."
Not a Chain-Dater: And her dating life since she turned 18? "I'm not really a chain dater, and I'm not someone who kind of gives herself easily. So, I think it's attracting creepy old men, but I guess it's changed a little bit," she said. When asked if she has anyone special in her life, Panettiere coyly responded: "I don't know. I have a lot of special people in my life."
Much Love for Jennifer Love Hewitt: Meanwhile, she is more vocal on how she deals with the pressures of body image as a young woman in Hollywood, particularly amidst criticism of Jennifer Love Hewitt's recent bikini shots.
"Did you see TMZ the other day where I bent over and they took a picture of me, and there was a whole conversation on whether I had cottage cheese thighs or not?" she asked. "It makes me feel awful. I'm sorry, but no woman looks good under overhead lighting. It was not good lighting.
"I'm a teenage girl and I have the same body issues," she adds. "There are parts of my body that I don't mind, and there're parts of my body that I absolutely can't stand. And I don't need somebody pointing them out to me, because trust me, I know they're there. You don't need to tell anyone else about it. It doesn't need to be strewn across a magazine. It's my business. And the fact that you don't have anything better to talk about than my thigh fat is absolutely absurd. It just goes to show you the pathetic people in this world. I give Jennifer Love Hewitt all the support in the world. She's beautiful."
Since the late 1960s, the Philippine army has been fighting communist insurgents and Muslim separatists in twin insurgencies that have killed 160,000 people, displaced over 2 million and stunted economic growth in the country.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Movement of Farmers in the Philippines) has sent a letter to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to look at the worsening refugee situation in the country, its leader Willy Marbella said on Friday.
"Since June 2005, we have been asking the chair of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, to look into this and send Angelina Jolie to see the real situation of internally displaced people in the country," Marbella told reporters.
"Hundreds of people are being forced out of their homes and farms every month."
Jolie, who starred in Hollywood hits "Tomb Raider" and "Mr and Mrs Smith" opposite Brad Pitt, is an ambassador of goodwill at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The actress, 32, is set to star as real-life intelligence operative Kathi Lynn Austin in what Paramount plans to be a Bourne Identity-like action thriller about arms trafficking and terrorism, reports Variety.
In 2004, Austin was one of four experts selected to monitor the United Nations embargo prohibiting weapons flowing to militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the U.N. News Service.
Other field missions in which she worked for the organization were in Europe, Southeast Asia and Central America.
The Hollywood trade paper also reports that the plot will be based on a fictionalized version of a real-life figure, the Russian Victor Bout, alleged by many to be the world's most successful dealer in unlawful weapons.
Mentwabe Dawit, mother of two-year-old Zahara, described how she was attacked one evening in 2004 after a day's work at a construction site in the southern Ethiopian town of Awasa.
As she walked home in the darkness, a man approached.
"He pulled a dagger, put one hand on my mouth, so that I could not scream. He then raped me and disappeared," Mentwabe told Reuters in an interview, tears streaming down her face.
The 24-year-old decided to keep the assault a secret.
"I feared the consequences of being raped in a community where rape is considered a taboo, even if what happened happened forcibly," she said.
As her belly swelled, Mentwabe could no longer hide her pregnancy and confided in her mother.
"It was not as I feared. I found my mother understanding and consoling. She urged me not to do anything rash, which might endanger my life."
Mentwabe gave birth in the family's earth-floored house and she named the little girl Yemsrach which means good news in the Amharic language.
However, she soon found she was unable to feed the baby.
"My baby was on the verge of death. She became malnourished and was even unable to cry," Mentwabe said. "I was desperate and decided to run away, rather than see my child dying."
Mentwabe's distraught mother searched for her for months around Awasa, 270 kms (170 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa. She eventually put Yemsrach up for adoption, in the belief her own daughter had died.
Mentwabe said her mother did what she thought was best, and denied newspaper reports in the United States and Europe that she wanted Yemsrach, renamed Zahara, back.
"My mother was not misled by anyone, as was alleged by some media outlets. Her motive was to save the child from dying which I fully understand.
"I have never disputed the adoption of my baby by Angelina Jolie.
"I think my daughter is a very fortunate human being to be adopted by a world famous lady. I wish them both all the success they deserve," she said.
In an interview at her tiny home in the southern city of Awasa, Mentwabe Dawit rejected newspaper reports in the United States and Europe this week that she wanted two-year-old Zahara returned to Ethiopia.
Her words had been twisted, she said, by "so-called journalists" who had visited her and claimed to be working for the Oscar-winning actress.
"I have never disputed the adoption," Mentwabe told Reuters. "This was a mistake. It was something I never said."
On Thursday, the Ethiopian agency that arranged the adoption said it was "legal and irrevocable" and that Zahara's grandmother had told an Addis Ababa court her daughter was dead.
EARTH-FLOORED HOUSE
Speaking on Saturday in her earth-floored house, lit by a single light bulb, Mentwabe said she ran away from her home five months after giving birth because she had no food for her baby.
"I decided to flee rather than watch her die," she said.
Her mother searched for her for months around Awasa, 270 km (170 miles) south of the capital, but eventually concluded that she must have died and put the baby girl up for adoption.
Jolie, who also works as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, adopted her in July 2005. She adopted a Cambodian refugee boy, Maddox, three years earlier.
In Awasa, Mentwabe kissed a picture of the actress.
"This is to show I have no ill feelings towards her," she said. "I think my daughter is a very fortunate human being to be adopted by a world-famous lady. I wish them both all the success they deserve."
The holiday movie season's "terrible start" was still looking for a graceful end after the Industry suffered its weakest third weekend in November in more than a decade, Box Office Mojo's Brandon Gray said Sunday.
Beowulf led the weak box-office pack with $28.1 million, per estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations. Business was down nearly 30 percent when compared to last year, when Happy Feet and Casino Royale each earned more than $40 million.
"Slow has been the word for both the fall and the holiday season. The movies just aren't there," Gray said. "...If business was humming along as usual, Beowulf would not have opened No. 1."
But with the new family film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (fifth place, $10 million) flopping, Vince Vaughn's Fred Claus (fourth place, $12 million; $35.8 million overall) failing to rebound from a humbug of a debut, and Tom Cruise's Lions for Lambs (eighth place, $2.9 million; $11.6 million) disappearing in its second weekend, the field was open for Robert Zemeckis' fantasy epic starring a naked motion-capture animated Angelina Jolie.
Compared to most live action-animated hybrids, such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Beowulf was a hit. Compared to 300, which opened with $70.9 million in March, it was not.
Hollywood's holiday period began Nov. 2 with the openings of Bee Movie and American Gangster. With more than $100 million in the bank, the R-rated American Gangster (third place, $13.2 million) is the young season's lone blockbuster. The jury, meanwhile, is out on Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie (second place, $14.3 million; $93.9 million overall), which three weekends into its run has yet to match its reported $150 million budget.
The Coen Brothers have offered a rare boost with their latest, No Country for Old Men (seventh place, $3.1 million; $4.9 million overall), which in its second weekend moved into the Top 10 despite playing at only 148 theaters (compared to Beowulf's 3,153). The thriller faces the wide-release test next weekend.
Thanksgiving's biggest hope for a hit would seem to be Disney's fairytale comedy, Enchanted, due out Wednesday. December will bring more reinforcements in the form of Will Smith's I Am Legend and the National Treasure sequel, subtitled Book of Secrets.
Elsewhere, one of the fall's few bright spots, The Game Plan ($1.2 million; $87.4 million overall), fell out of the Top 10 after seven weeks. P2 ($800,000; $3.6 million overall, per Box Office Mojo stats) also took the plunge after a considerably shorter stay. Consisting of one week.
In limited release, the indie comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, starring Nicole Kidman, put up blockbuster numbers, hauling in $89,929 at only two theaters. The documentary What Would Jesus Buy? also did well, with $11,644 at one theater that's going to hell. At least in the eyes of those who happen to like Christmas shopping, thankyouverymuch.
Here's a rundown of the top 10 films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. Beowulf, $28.1 million
2. Bee Movie, $14.3 million
3. American Gangster, $13.2 million
4. Fred Claus, $12 million
5. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, $10 million
6. Dan in Real Life, $4.5 million
7. No Country for Old Men, $3.1 million
8. Lions for Lambs, $2.9 million
9. Saw IV, $2.3 million
10. Love in the Time of Cholera, $1.9 million
Since director Robert Zemeckis' Imax 3-D version of "The Polar Express" in 2004, the number of theaters capable of projecting 3-D films has exploded, with Real D leading the charge. In addition to Real D's expansion to more than 1,100 theaters worldwide, Imax has about 120 Imax 3-D screens globally, and Dolby recently unveiled its 3D Digital Cinema system in 75-80 screens worldwide.
Sony Pictures Imageworks was the ideal facility to turn Paramount/Warner Bros.' performance-capture computer-generated "Beowulf" into three dimensions.
"We've been down this road," says stereographer/3-D digital effects supervisor Rob Engle, who in addition to "Polar Express" includes 2006's "Monster House" and "Open Season" among the company's previous 3-D efforts. "Our job was to make Bob's vision into a stereoscopic film. We started at the same time as the bulk of the 2-D team. We were working in parallel with them, and we knew what the movie looked like from the beginning."
Engle and his team had to create a second eye from the source material and then work to converge the two images, exactly like our two eyes converge to see a single dimensional image. But it's far from a simple job. To get there, they had to deconstruct the original elements in each scene, produce a second set of them for the other eye and then recomposite all the elements back -- twice. "That allows us to tune the stereo image for each person and each object, tweaking each for its overall position in depth," Engle says. "It gives us a unique level of control."
The magic happens in Imageworks' "sweatbox," a 3-D theater equipped with a Real D 3-D cinema projection system. To previsualize and build the 3-D converged images, the team relies on Autodesk Maya animation layered with custom software that allows the animators to view a virtual world in stereo. "We bring up multiple shots from the movie, look at them in context and adjust the cameras in context," Engle says. "We're dialing in the 3-D in real time, and that's a tremendously powerful tool for experimentation."
The trickiest scene in the movie to transform into three dimensions is when Beowulf first meets the mother of Grendel. "Everything is very contrasty, and the mother is painted with gold paint, so she glows," Engle says. "One of the challenges in 3-D is that the technology isn't quite there to ensure that your left eye only sees the left eye movie. It's a phenomenon called 'ghosting,' and it's particularly problematic in areas of high contrast." It was a delicate balance between getting the proper depth without losing the sense of three dimensions, but Engle and his team aced it.
Is it worth the extra effort to see "Beowulf" in 3-D? Engle answers with an emphatic yes. "Bob and the producers of the movie think this is the way they want their movie to be seen," he says. "And it's the best ride you're ever going to have. You'll feel like you're in the movie."
That would be director Robert Zemeckis' passion project "Beowulf," which is on track to open with as much as $30 million.
Other new entrants during the busy pre-Thanksgiving frame include Fox's family fantasy "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," with Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman, and New Line's literary adaptation "Love in the Time of Cholera."
The Nicole Kidman vehicle "Margot at the Wedding" and director Brian De Palma's Iraq-themed "Redacted" open in limited release.
Prerelease tracking for "Beowulf" shows good strength in all demographics except for older women, and younger males have displayed truly avid anticipation.
"It has the look and feel of a movie that will perform stronger internationally than domestically," said David Davis, managing partner and entertainment adviser at Arpeggio Partners in Los Angeles. "It's kind of an action-adventure with a cast that should play well overseas."
Brit Ray Winstone performs in the title role of the motion-capture production, with John Malkovich, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie co-starring.
"Beowulf's" budget is estimated at $150 million. Producer/political activist Steve Bing's Shangri-La Entertainment provided about two-thirds of the funding.
Paramount is distributing "Beowulf" domestically, and Warner Bros. will distribute internationally.
"Emporium" looks likely to open in the teen millions, so third-week titles "Bee Movie" and "American Gangster" could outmuscle the rookie for the silver and bronze medals. "Bee Movie" led last weekend with $25 million.
"Cholera" is unlikely to make it out of the single-digit millions.
Meanwhile, industryites also will be watching for signs that the market can finally shrug off the theatrical malaise that has hampered grosses in recent weeks.
In seven of the past eight weekends, sales underperformed the same frame a year earlier. Fall grosses are running 5% behind those from a year ago, though the industry still is tracking 6% ahead on a year-to-date basis.
Newspapers have reported this week that relatives of two-year-old Zahara, including a woman who says she is her birth mother, want the child returned to Ethiopia. Jolie adopted Zahara in July, 2005.
"The court in Addis Ababa approved the adoption after studying the document her grandmother wrote ... saying her daughter, the mother of Zahara, had died and she was too poor to bring her up," Tsegaye Berhe, the head of Wide Horizons for Children, which conducted the adoption, told Reuters.
"The grandmother brought three witnesses to court who testified that Zahara's mother had died and that her father was unknown ... The court also investigated the social status of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt before approving the adoption."
Tsegaye said the adoption was "legal and irrevocable," and he blamed reporters who he said had paid the relatives to raise the dispute.
"The controversy is media hype by unethical journalists exploiting the poverty of the grandmother," he said.
Never fear. This 3-D animated "Beowulf" is more like "300," only with more violence, if that's possible. And nudity lots and lots of nudity.
Director Robert Zemeckis, using the same performance-capture technology he introduced with 2004's "The Polar Express," takes on the epic Old English poem by sexing it up. It's the cinematic equivalent of slipping pureed spinach into your kids' brownies.
Adapted by Neil Gaiman (the "Sandman" comics) and Roger Avary (who co-wrote "Pulp Fiction"), the film follows the mythic Viking hero who emerges from the sea to rid a Danish kingdom of the bloody, raging, pus-covered monster Grendel (played with pathos and twisted physicality by Crispin Glover). Only then can there be much merrymaking and mead-drinking and wench-bedding.
The 3-D effects are extremely cool and "Beowulf" is also being shown in IMAX 3-D, if your brain can stand the sensory overload. The way stuff comes at you (swords, spurts of blood) and seems to come out of nowhere from behind you (buildings, ocean waves), along with Zemeckis' use of reflections and realistic perspectives, makes you feel as if you're fully immersed in this ancient world. But then the characters look distractingly fake and stiff, as if they're made of wax that's an element of the technology that hasn't improved much since "Polar Express," unfortunately.
The storied Beowulf is played with a growl and a roar and very little clothing by Ray Winstone, though the character on screen strangely looks nothing like Winstone, the slightly tubby yet powerful British actor best known for his work in "The Departed" and "Sexy Beast." Everyone else in the stellar cast resembles the actors playing them: Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson and especially Angelina Jolie as Grendel's seductive, magical mother.
After watching his celebratory hall torn apart and many of his people slaughtered, Hopkins' aging King Hrothgar prays that someone will come to his kingdom and kill the mighty, and mightily misunderstood, Grendel. (And the creature is a frighteningly grotesque figure to behold.) His prayers are answered when Beowulf arrives on his shores with his army of warriors; meanwhile, his young queen, Wealthow (Penn), finds herself unexpectedly smitten.
Beowulf likes the riches, women and celebrity that being a well-known slayer of sea monsters and dragons can bring so much so that he perhaps fudges the details here and there in the retelling of his many conquests. (Malkovich, as the kingdom's jealous, lone skeptic, gets some bitingly funny zingers as he tries to take Beowulf down a few notches.)
Nevertheless, when it comes time to take on this beast in the town hall, Beowulf promptly strips down no weapons, no armor to fight Grendel on equal terms, mano a mangled mano. (His nudity also allows for an amusing sequence, reminiscent of "Austin Powers," in which several items are placed strategically to obscure his manhood: a candlestick, one of his men's helmets. So naughty!)
Beowulf must then take on Grendel's mother to erase completely the curse that has plagued the kingdom. She makes it tough, though. As played by Jolie, she's covered in nothing but iridescent gold with high heels for feet and a braid that whips around like a devil's tail. (Besides, if you had magical powers, wouldn't you turn yourself into naked Angelina Jolie?)
Unless you're a fantasy geek, though, it's hard to take all this swordplay and dragon slaying seriously. Beowulf bellows "I am Beowulf!" so many times, it could be a drinking game; it certainly rivals "This is Sparta!" as the year's preferred macho catch phrase. (And yes, fanboys, bring it on the misogynistic e-mail onslaught that came after reviewing "300" wasn't enough for one lifetime.)
Themes of heroism and bravery and loyalty seem secondary here. Depicted today, this comes off as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of undeserved fame. Beowulf could be Paris Hilton, if Paris Hilton had a goatee and six-pack abs.
"Beowulf," a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence including disturbing images, some sexual material and nudity. Running time: 113 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
The actress, who serves as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, discusses the Darfur crisis in a special Economist section devoted to predictions for 2008, the Guardian newspaper reports.
Jolie joins several presidents and the head of the United Nations in the roster of writers featured in the issue.
In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post in February, Jolie discussed the frustration of not being able to revisit Darfur after earlier trips there.
She wrote, "This might be the moment we stop the cycle of violence and end our tolerance for crimes against humanity."
Jolie, wearing black leather trousers and a tight sweater, signed autographs and chatted with fans Sunday in London's Leicester Square.
"It's so, so nice to see all these fans here, it always is," the 32-year-old actress told reporters as hundreds of people lined up outside the brightly lit runway to the theater. "I haven't been here for a little bit. I lived here for a few years, and I do plan to come back more often."
Pitt, dressed in a gray flat-cap, stood back.
"I'm off duty tonight," the 43-year-old actor told reporters before heading into the theater with Jolie to watch the film.
Director Robert Zemeckis brings the Norse legend of "Beowulf" to life with technology similar to what he used on "The Polar Express" to capture live actors whose performances are then digitally animated. Jolie plays Beowulf's vile foe, Grendel's mother.
Co-star Sir Anthony Hopkins also attended the premiere.
Jolie said she especially enjoyed working on the movie with Ray Winstone, who plays the warrior Beowulf. "He's amazing, I want to do something else with Ray soon because he's so much fun. He's brilliant," she said.
The PG-13 film has scenes of graphic violence, and Jolie said: "I think it's remarkable that it has the rating it has. It's quite an extraordinary film and some of it shocked me."
Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom Inc., will release the film in the U.S. on Nov. 16.
Director Robert Zemeckis not only deploys 21st century movie technology at its finest to turn the heroic poem into a vibrant, nerve-tingling piece of pop culture, but his film actually makes sense of "Beowulf." In Zemeckis' hands, it's an intriguing look at a hero as a flawed human being.
Remember in "Annie Hall" when Woody Allen advised Diane Keaton, "Just don't take any class where you have to read 'Beowulf'?" As multitudes stand in long lines to see this movie, many may indeed be reading "Beowulf," if only to relish what Zemeckis and company. have accomplished. In any event, those lines should last through year's end.
There are two sets of heroes here. One is the writing team of author/graphic novelist Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (the nearly forgotten other writer of "Pulp Fiction"). They have genuinely solved the structural problem of the poem, written around 700 A.D. The link between the early battles of a young hero and his fatal confrontation with the dragon as an aging king is his temptation by the monster's mother who dangles wealth, power and sexual favors before his bedazzled eyes. Makes sense -- Beowulf's sins come back to haunt him.
The other heroes are Zemeckis' "performance capture" and 3-D animation teams who digitally enhance the bare-bones live action into a beguiling otherworld brimming with vitality. This new technique, which Zemeckis broke ground with in the visually impressive though dramatically weak "The Polar Express," comes to full fruition in "Beowulf," where myth becomes vigorous flesh.
"Beowulf" tells of a young warrior, Beowulf (Ray Winstone), who emerges out of a raging storm in a Viking ship to rescue a Danish kingdom ruled by old King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) and his beauteous queen Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn). The monster Grendel (Crispin Glover), angered by the noise of singing and drinking in Hrothgar's great hall, has butchered many warriors.
Grendel is a thing of horrific beauty. He looks like a mummy with a contagious disease. He's a slobbering, puss-filled, bloody, drooling, hideously deformed giant with a lop-sided face and rotting teeth that can barely chew a man's head.
Knowing no weapon will defeat this monster, Beowulf sheds his clothes and waits for the next attack. In an epic battle, Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm. The now whimpering bully limps home to his mother's lair to die.
Grendel's mother (Angelina Jolie) takes revenge by attacking the hall following a night of celebration. She strings up the corpses of all of Beowulf's men save for his trusted lieutenant, Wiglaf (Brendan Gleeson).
Presented a sword by Unferth (John Malkovich), who initially doubted Beowulf's resolve, Beowulf enters the mother's grotto with its eerie lake. But rather than battle Beowulf, the mother sets out to seduce him, as she did Hrothgar years before.
Zemeckis is not afraid to indulge in moments of camp. Jolie's golden and nude temptress with a devil's tail strides toward her adversary in high heels! Grendel's whimpering about the Big Bad Man who tore off his arm reveals a pathetic mama's boy. The hero's constant assertion "I am Beowulf!" and Wiglaf's equally frequent refrain "You are Beowulf!" cry out for a "Saturday Night Live" skit.
But here lies Zemeckis' keen pop sensibility. He means to avoid Woody Allen's "Beowulf" by tapping into both the "Lord of the Rings" crowd and "Knocked Up" enthusiasts. The gruesome violence and male and female near nudity -- about as bold as a PG-13 rating will allow -- mixed together with ribald humor make "Beowulf" a waggish bit of postmodern fun. It may raise the eyebrows of English Lit professors but will quicken the pulse of everyone else.
"Beowulf" will roll out in the largest 3-D release of any film to date, including Imax 3D. While 2-D prints will certainly play well, Zemeckis has brilliantly designed the movie for 3-D, creating a strong depth of field and action in the fore, middle and back grounds in his more complex shots. Figures do blur slightly with heavy action or quick camera pans, but audiences will experience total immersion into the world of "Beowulf" best in 3-D.
Cast:
Beowulf: Ray Winstone
King Hrothgar: Anthony Hopkins
Queen Wealthow: Robin Wright Penn
Wiglaf: Brendan Gleeson
Grendel: Crispin Glover
Grendel's Mother: Angelina Jolie
Director: Robert Zemeckis; Screenwriters: Neil Gaiman, Roger Avary; Producers: Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke; Executive producers: Martin Shafer, Roger Avary, Neil Gaiman; Director of photography: Robert Presley; Production designer: Doug Chiang; Music: Alan Silvestri; Costume designer: Gabriella Pescucci; Editor: Jeremiah O'Driscoll.
"I think it's too much. I don't think they should see their mom that way. I don't wear nightgowns like that in the house. I've got boys in my house. You don't do that as a mom," Jolie, 32, told PEOPLE at the premiere of Beowulf, in which she plays a temptress killer lizard and is painted gold but animated without clothes.
She added: "But when they're older, hopefully they'll see it. It's weird, I'm a mom."
"I liked Vlad the Impaler," the actress recalled at Monday night's Beowulf premiere. "I had probably every book on him."
In Jolie's new film, a retelling of the Beowulf myth (in theaters Nov. 16), her image is digitally transformed into the seductive, demonic mother of the grossly deformed beast Grendel (an unrecognizable Crispin Glover).
Bundled up in an Escada camel-colored coat with matching Christian Louboutin heels and Harry Winston diamond earrings, the actress, 32, began her walk down the red carpet by first passing under a towering, smoke-emitting, medieval stone castle.
Waiting for Jolie inside the Mann Village Theatre was partner Brad Pitt and her brother, James Haven.
Her four children, Jolie said, have yet to inherit mom's macabre interests. "We're still very young in my house," she said. "We've been into dinosaurs, and now we're crossing over into dragons and knights and things."
Though a dragon wreaks havoc in Beowulf, her kids will not be viewing its fire-breathing destruction anytime soon. "They don't watch my movies," she said. "Your own kids don't find you very cool."
Rather, Star Wars and furry animals seem to be all the rage in the Jolie-Pitt home, as evidenced by last week's Halloween costume selections. Said Jolie: "We were Boba Fett (Maddox, 6). My littlest daughter (Shiloh, 17 months), we couldn't figure out if she was a bunny or a monkey, so she was a 'bunkey.' My 2-year-old (Zahara) was a bunny, and my 3-year-old (Pax) was a monkey. I was Curious George and Daddy (Pitt) was a Stormtrooper."
Jolie presents a far fiercer face as a demon who seduces both Beowulf (Ray Winstone) and the terrified village's king (Anthony Hopkins).
Many theaters across the USA will show the film in Real D, a twist on the classic 3-D format. The company's Michael Lewis promises that the technology (which still requires glasses) "will replicate what you actually see, putting you into the movie with Angelina Jolie. And it doesn't get much better than that."
Hopkins was looking forward to seeing Beowulf for the first time to see how its state-of-the-art technology compares with the 3-D films he remembers from 1953.
"I saw House of Wax with Vincent Price and Inferno with Rhonda Fleming," recalled Hopkins, 69. "You wore those cardboard glasses with the red and the blue. Those were the pioneering days where they were trying all the gimmicks to beat television, which they thought was taking over. From what I understand, (Beowulf's technology) has come a long way."
There's more "wulf" in Hopkins' future. He's about to start work as father to Benicio Del Toro's Wolf Man in a 2009 update on the classic monster movie. "It's great fun," he said. "I'm Wolf Man Sr. I don't know how they're going to transform us, but it's a great script."
John Malkovich, who plays an adviser to Hopkins' king, came dressed in a daisy print sport coat from his now-defunct clothing line, Uncle Kimono. Though there are some serious scares in Beowulf, for Malkovich, nothing will compare to the filmic frights he experienced as a boy.
"I remember being terrified by Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz," said Malkovich, 53. "In Peter Pan, it was the idea of having to grow up that I found so terrifying."
Malkovich and Jolie spent the earlier part of their day shooting a scene in a Pasadena church for their next collaboration, 2008's The Changeling. Set in 1928, it tells the true tale of a woman whose son is kidnapped, with the LAPD returning another child in his place.
For Jolie, no subject is more horrifying.
"As a mom, the kidnapping of a child is the last thing I want to think about," she said. "It's very emotional. Every day I'm crying. I don't know who's going to want to see me crying in every scene."
"I'm not much of a cook, so we'll see what happens," Angelina Jolie told Good Morning America on Monday. "I try. We all chip in. But I don't think anyone in my family wants me to handle Thanksgiving dinner."
Jolie, 32, and partner Brad Pitt, 43, are parents to adopted children Maddox (from Cambodia), Pax (from Vietnam) and Zahara (from Ethiopia), and have their own biological daughter, Shiloh. And the family's Thanksgiving celebration is similarly wide-ranging.
"We celebrate Moon Festival for my boys, who are from Asia, and Kwanzaa and things like that," Jolie said. "We certainly try to celebrate as many of those as we can, and celebrate all culture."
Asked if she will invite Hillary Clinton, her newly discovered long-lost distant cousin, Jolie joked, "There was a rumor that Brad and Obama are related."
Jolie was appearing on GMA to promote the new film Beowulf, in which she plays Grendel's mother a character who is evil but whom Jolie found oddly inspiring.
"I liked that she was a mother who would do anything and destroy anything if somebody hurt her son," she said. "It was the maternal side of me [that connected to her], and I love that that was her motivation."
"I got a little shy," Jolie said Saturday, on the topic of seeing herself in a simulated nude scene for her new computer-animated movie Beowulf.
"I was really surprised that I felt that exposed," Jolie, 32, said at a press confreence for the film in Los Angeles.
"There are certain moments where I felt actually shy and called home, just to explain that the fun movie that I had done that was digital animation was, in fact, a little different than [what] we expected," she says.
Jolie who in her role as a temptress killer lizard is painted gold but animated without clothes explains, "I didn't expect ourselves to come out as much. I didn't expect it to feel as real, and so because of especially the type of character I play, it was kind of funny at first."
Asked which body part she likes the most, Jolie answered with a laugh, "I love my tail."
Worked While Pregnant
The PG-13-rated Beowulf, based on the Old English epic poem, opens Nov. 16 and also stars Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich. Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Who Killed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and The Polar Express), it is actually Jolie's third animated film, after Shark Tale and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Jolie said she completed her two-and-a-half days on Beowulf while carrying daughter Shiloh, now 1.
"I was three months pregnant," Jolie said. "You wouldn't know. We did the mapping of my body before. It was a pleasure."
As for balancing her movie career and family, Jolie said, "You just try to balance, and try not to work too much, and take turns [with your partner when it comes to] working."
Washington genealogist William Addams Reitwiesner uncovered the ties, reports The Washington Post's Reliable Source column.
It turns out the Democratic presidential candidate, 60, and the Material Girl, 49, are 10th cousins. They share the same great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents 17th-century French ancestors who moved to Quebec and then came south.
The former First Lady can also count Jolie, 32, as a ninth cousin, twice removed.
If Clinton plans on inviting all her newly discovered cousins to Thanksgiving, she may need a bigger dinner table. According to Reitwiesner, Clinton is also distantly related to Camilla Parker-Bowles, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette.
The couple will executive produce an untitled drama about an international aid organization, focusing on both political maneuvering at the top and the struggles of aid workers on the ground. Scott Burns, a co-writer of "The Bourne Ultimatum," will write the script and also serve as an exec producer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jolie has been in this territory as an actress before, starring in the 2003 movie "Beyond Borders." Both she and Pitt are also active in humanitarian causes; their eponymous foundation supports groups such as Doctors Without Borders, and Jolie has been a United Nations goodwill ambassador for the past several years.
Pitt is currently starring in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and has several movie projects on deck. As a producer, he's teaming with "Fight Club" co-star Edward Norton for the HBO miniseries "Undaunted Courage," based on Stephen Ambrose's book about the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Jolie starred in "A Mighty Heart" (for which Pitt was a producer) earlier this year and will next be seen (in animated form) in "Beowulf," which hits theaters in November.
The nomadic superstars, who have lived in at least a half-dozen cities in two years, may be hurting their eldest son, Maddox, 6, by pulling him from schools and the younger three by "not creating a stable environment outside the family unit," said Manhattan-based psychotherapist/social worker Puja Hall, who's been practicing for 21 years.
"Maddox is an adopted child, so he already has a sense of abandonment," said Hall. "Kids that constantly move are like army brats, in that very often they don't want to open up to people. They feel loss, and there is a problem with attachment."
So far, the Jolie-Pitt clan has lived in New Orleans, Paris, Namibia, Berlin and, most recently, New York, where Maddox attended the prestigious Lycιe Francais for just six weeks. Now they're in L.A., where Jolie is shooting "The Changeling." Pitt and Jolie are rumored to have enrolled at least one of the kids at Universal Studio's child-care center.
"With the moves, the kids just don't invest in relationships, because they're going to lose them anyway," Hall told Page Six's Marianne Garvey. "They think: 'Why bother? I'm not gonna stick around. We're gonna pick up and go, and the loss of friends is painful.' "
Hall added that before Pax, 3, Zahara, 2, and Shiloh, 16 months, get any older, Angelina and Brad need to decide where to settle down. "It needs to be weighed," said Hall. "At some point, they will have to make some important choices so the kids can form those bonds and keep them."
That's not the only problem - the kids also seem to be skipping the waiting lists at the schools. "We would most likely not take a child for [just] a few months, because we have a waiting list. If we take them for two months and you pay for two months, we lose money and someone on the waiting list loses a spot," said an employee at Lycιe Francais, where the yearly tuition is $18,000 plus a $2,000 contract-signing fee.
"You still have to pay for at least half the year," the staff member said.
Jolie's rep, Cindy Guagenti, said that the story was "unfair to them" and that "it's nobody's business what they do with their kids." She said Maddox only goes to Lycιe schools. Pitt's rep didn't get back to us.
In response to his 34-year-old son's remarks to Marie Claire about the alleged mental abuse Voight inflicted on Haven and Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, the Oscar-winning actor said that he found it "heartbreaking" that his children "want to paint a bad guy portrait of me."
"I feel it comes from their inability to let go of years of programmed anger from their mother, who understandably felt quite hurt when we divorced," the Midnight Cowboy star said in a handwritten statement obtained by E! News. (View the letter.)
Bertrand and Voight were married for seven years before divorcing in 1978. Bertrand died of cancer in January at 56.
"In all truth, I tried to give him and their mother continuous love and support and large sums of money," Voight continued. "God knows, for years I've tried to mend this relationship. Perhaps the trauma of their mother's passing has made it worse. I continuously send them my heart and love and am always available to them for whatever they need from me."
Although Voight could be seen tearfully applauding his daughter when she picked up a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for the 1998 HBO movie Gia and an Oscar for Girl, Interrupted in 2000 and then later appeared as Lara Croft's father in the first Tomb Raider film in 2001, the 68-year-old actor and Jolie have been on the outs since her divorce from Billy Bob Thornton in 2002.
At the time, Voight said that Jolie needed treatment for "serious mental problems" and that she wasn't responding to his attempts to get in touch with her because she knew he was "trying to reach her to get help."
In June, Jolie told Britain's Evening Standard that she hoped that their relationship could be "more private in the future," and that some sort of reconciliation was a possibility.
"At the end of the day, we both wish the best for each other and we'll try to start communicating in some way," the 32-year-old actress said.
Haven partly echoed those sentiments in his sit-down for Marie Claire's November issue, but he also had a point to make.
"I don't want to constantly berate my fatherI wish him well, and I hope he finds peacebut he put my mom through years of mental abuse, and it made me care especially for abandoned women and children," he said. "So, that's my religionhelping widows and orphans."
Aside from the home environment he grew up in, Haven also attributes his sister's activism as a motivating factor for his altruistic ways, which include being an activist for AIDS and human rights causes. He is also on the board of Artivist, the sponsor behind an upcoming Los Angeles film festival focusing on projects about human rights and environmental issues.
"Angie was the catalyst," Haven said. "She'd say, 'I just heard this is going on in Darfur, [etc.]', and I'd want to be involved."
The actor is also enjoying his latest roleuncle to Jolie and Brad Pitt's ever-growing brood.
"They're unbelievable," Haven said, reminiscing about some of the foursome's more charming antics.
Haven then had to answer the inevitable question about the Kiss, the notorious smooch he and Jolie shared when she won her Academy Award.
"So long ago!" he said. "Can we please move forward? Somedoay I'll get married, and on my wedding day they'll be saying, 'Okay, we have to ask about that infamous Oscar kiss.'"
"They're unbelievable," Haven, 34, an activist for AIDS and human rights causes, tells Marie Claire in November's issue. "Zahara likes to hide from Angie, who always knows, right when she walks in the room, that Z's playing."
As for Pax, who was adopted at age 3 in March from a Vietnamese orphanage, the child "amazed me the first time he said my name," says the proud uncle.
"He didn't know any English, and I hadn't heard him say a word yet, so I wasn't expecting it," says Haven.
Human Rights Activist
Haven, an executive board member of Artivist, which is sponsoring an L.A. film festival Nov. 8 - 9 for movies about human rights and environmental issues, says he got started in philanthropy because of his sister.
"Angie was the catalyst," he says. "She'd say, 'I just heard this is going on in Darfur ...' and I'd want to be involved."
He also was prompted by what he called his difficult home conditions growing up with father Jon Voight.
"I don't want to constantly berate my father I wish him well, and I hope he finds peace but he put my mom through years of mental abuse, and it made me care especially for abandoned women and children," says Haven. "So that's my religion helping widows and orphans."
A rep for Voight didn't return a call seeking comment.
On a less serious note, Haven says he still wishes people would forget about his famous kiss of his sister at the 2000 Oscars.
"So long ago!" he says. "Can we please move forward? Someday I'll get married, and on my wedding day they'll be saying, 'OK, we have to ask about that infamous Oscar kiss.'"
"It's suddenly become the biggest question," Silverman says. "When we were writing, we met her. She was shooting a commercial for Japan on the lot, and she came over and said she liked the show. She was so nice. We were so star-struck."
Adds Silverman, "She intimated that she'd be open to being on the show if we think of a funny idea. Chances are, when we get back to her, she'd be saving an African country. Hopefully she'll have her priorities straight and do our show instead."
The first stop of the day... The Clinton Global Initiative, where Pitt asked for support for his Make It Right program. He's partnering with billionaire Steve Bing on the project, which plans to build 150 affordable and environmentally sustainable homes in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward. Pitt and Bing have each promised to match donations pledged during the initiative up to $5 million.
In the afternoon... Jolie is slated to attend a press conference with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guteres, to talk about a new campaign, Nine Million, aimed at improving education for refugee children around the world.
Then in the evening... Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, is scheduled to speak at a session focused on education for children in war-torn areas such as Darfur and Iraq.
The busy day of high-powered goodwill work is hardly unusual Pitt is already working with Global Green to create environmentally friendly housing in New Orleans, while Jolie has done extensive work in her role at the United Nations.
In was also announced Tuesday that Jolie would meet with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in New York to discuss global diplomacy.
And if that's not enough, Pitt's doing a little acting, too: He's filming Burn After Reading, which costars his pal George Clooney.
Miliband, the youthful British foreign policy chief, is seeking to soften the tone of global relations after Britain became involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"He will meet Angelina Jolie in New York for talks," a Miliband spokeswoman said while speaking on condition of anonymity in line with ministry policy.
Further details on the planned content of the discussion weren't immediately available.
The 32-year-old actress, who is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, will also appear on a revamped Foreign Office Web site.
Miliband, who was Britain's first blogging Cabinet minister in his last role as environment chief, will launch a new blog Wednesday. He is encouraging key aides to follow his lead.
"The day when we communicated mainly by telegram are over," Miliband told the Evening Standard newspaper. "Communication has to be for the masses now, not just elites."
Pitt and Jolie, with children in tow, were in Venice to talk about his film on Western outlaw Jesse James. The movie is competing for the top Golden Lion award at the city's film festival.
Pitt and Jolie already have four children including a 15-month-old girl, Shiloh, born to the couple. Jolie has also adopted three children close in age from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam.
Asked by Italian state TV whether they were ready for a fifth, Pitt replied: "Yeah we're ready."
He did not indicate whether they planned another biological child or if they would adopt.
Earlier on Sunday, Pitt told a news conference fatherhood was fun and good for his work, though he's not getting much sleep.
"It's the most fun I've ever had and also the biggest pain ... I've ever experienced," he said when asked what it was like to become a family with four children in a short space of time. "I love it and can't recommend it any more highly although sleep is nonexistent."
Having four small children "makes me much more efficient because when I work, I really have to focus. I know I've less time to get things done. Actually, I'm quite pleased by it," said Pitt.
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," stars Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Shepherd, and was directed by Andrew Dominik. Pitt described it as "more a gangster film than a Western."
Pitt plays James in the last year of his life as he lapses into paranoia over potential betrayal by accomplices and intimates.
The actress and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, 32, flew from New York to Syria on Monday. In Damascus, she visited a UNHCR registration center and spend hours talking to Iraqi refugees in their homes.
Tuesday's journey took her to Iraq to meet with 1,200 refugees camped out in a makeshift outpost at the border, because they are unable to leave the country. She also witnessed dozens of Iraqis crossing into Syria.
"I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw attention to the humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for UNHCR and its partners," Jolie said in a statement. "My sole purpose in both countries is to highlight the plight of those uprooted by the war in Iraq."
Following her Tuesday meeting with those at the Al Waleed camp in the war-torn nation, Jolie said, "It is absolutely essential that the ongoing debate abut Iraq's future includes plans for addressing the enormous humanitarian consequences these people face."
Besides her activities for UNHCR, Jolie also met privately with American troops and other multi-national forces in the region.
It's shaping up to be a busy week for the globetrotting Jolie, who spent some family time with Brad Pitt and their kids in New York City over the weekend. In addition to a trip to Central Park, Pitt and Jolie hosted a charity dinner in the Hamptons Saturday night for Brad's Make It Right project, which is aiming to help rebuild New Orleans with environmentally friendly homes.
Megastars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were spotted Friday with kids Maddox, Zahara and Pax shopping at Lee's Art Shop in midtown Manhattan. Baby Shiloh was not there.
According to the New York Post, the family then headed toward Times Square, where Pitt ordered five hot dogs from a street vendor, three with ketchup and mustard, two with just ketchup.
"I didn't know who he was," said vendor Mahmoud Omer, who added that Pitt wanted relish but he didn't have any.
The "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" stars enjoyed a culinary upgrade Saturday when they attended a fundraiser at the home of Tribeca Film Festival co-founders Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in Watermill, N.Y.
The Daily News reported that Pitt and Jolie left the kids with nannies and helicoptered to the Hamptons for the event, where they were joined by model Christie Brinkley, actress Ellen Barkin and beach balladeer Jimmy Buffett. The dinner was a benefit for Pitt's Make it Right project, which is focused on rebuilding New Orleans' Ninth Ward with environmentally friendly homes.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt travel in style - as they take a helicopter to a party.
The superstar couple were due to host a dinner of about 50 people to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
But rather than make the three-plus hour drive from New York City, they chose instead to hop in a helicopter and fly for around 45 minutes to the event, in the Hamptons on New York's Long Island.
The party was due to take place at the home of producer Jane Rosenthal and her husband Craig Hatkoff on Saturday night.
Pitt and Jolie were expected to make a large financial contribution to the cause before returning to Manhattan the same night.
Jolie, 32, and Pitt, 43, arrived at the heliport in the NYC VIP Heliport in a black SUV before a short walk to the waiting chopper.
They were joined by another male passenger before taking to the skies.
A source said: "They didn't want to make the long trip by road so this was the logical way to get to the party on time."
Pitt recently appeared on US television to discuss his involvement with the Global Green USA project, which is building zero energy, affordable housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
At least 1,800 people were killed when the deadly storm ravaged the US in August 2005.
Or so Gwyneth Paltrow thought.
Paltrow arrived at the same time as her former fiance, Brad Pitt; his companion, Angelina Jolie; and their children. Their presence has meant more star-hunting photographers than usual, said Paltrow, in town Friday to promote perfume at a Macy's store.
The actress also stayed at The Peninsula Chicago, where the Pitt-Jolie family is living while Jolie films the movie "Wanted."
"When Brad and Angelina leave, won't they (paparazzi) go, too?" the 34-year-old said. "Don't you think they sort of blow in and out with the celebs?"
In 2003 the Oscar-winning actress said she loved coming to Chicago "because there's no paparazzi."
"There are no problems whatsoever," the source adds. "Things are really good."
In fact, those who know the couple best say their only problem at the moment is the rumors themselves: that Jolie is fighting with Pitt, suffers from an eating disorder and is feuding with Pitt's parents, Bill and Jane.
Pitt's brother Doug, 40, who joined his parents and sister Julie at nephew Maddox's sixth-birthday party in early August in Santa Barbara, Calif., dismisses the speculation with a chuckle and Jolie, 32, has apparently done her best to brush off the more frivolous claims, including one that she angrily threw wine at Pitt, 43, while on vacation in France.
"Ridiculous," says a Jolie-Pitt source.
The movie star, who just had the best opening weekend of his career with The Bourne Ultimatum, is tops when it comes to how much his films earn at the box office for every dollar he earns in salary, according to Forbes' inaugural Ultimate Star Payback list.
Besting fellow A-listers Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp and towering over the Toms (Hanks and Cruise), Damon's last three films, not including the new Bourne, have grossed $29 per buck he was paid for the roles.
Forbes calculated a film's net revenue by totaling its worldwide grosses and U.S. DVD sales and then subtracting the project's budget. The net revenue was then divided by an actor's total compensation to produce gross income. All actors were then ranked according to the average gross income of their last three films.
So, the smaller a film's budget and its star's paycheck was, combined with how popular the movie was in theaters, especially overseas, and with DVD audiences, the larger the "star payback."
Ocean's crew mate Pitt, buoyed by Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Troy's huge international showing, ranked a close second, with a gross income return of $24, and Vince Vaughn and Johnny Depp tied for third place with $21.
Vaughn's number was helped in part by the relatively low production costs that went into making the hit comedies Dodgeball, Wedding Crashers and The Break-Up. Depp, meanwhile, happened to star in one of the top-earning movies of all time, The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Jennifer Aniston, largely thanks to The Break-Up (it sure wasn't thanks to Rumor Has It...), which raked in about $205 million worldwide, rounds out the top five with $17.
But, while these numbers certainly give producers something to think about, you can't measure fans' love and acting prowess in dollar signs.
"The biggest stars in Hollywood are not the actors that deliver the biggest returns," Forbes senior editor Michael Ozanian said in a statement.
Tom Hanks, for instance, isn't going to be collecting smaller paychecks anytime soon, despite the fact that his gross income of $12 is half that of Damon's. Fellow top earners Tom Cruise and Will Smith check in right behind him with $11 and $10, respectively. Leonardo Dicaprio and Denzel Washington are also $11 and $10 men, according to the list.
Meanwhile, Hollywood's leading ladies tended to fare better than their male counterparts, ratio-wise, with Angelina Jolie, Reese Witherspoon and Sandra Bullock hanging tough with $15, $14 and $13.
Affected by Forbes' use of worldwide box office as opposed to just U.S. ticket sales were comedy kings Adam Sandler ($9), Will Farrell ($8the French just didn't love Talladega Nights) and, once upon a time, Jim Carrey ($8), whose last blockbuster hit was Bruce Almighty five movies ago.
And despite his Oscar-winning pedigree, Russell Crowe's last three filmsA Good Year, Cinderella Man and Master and Commanderdidn't slay the box office competition, leaving the Aussie actor in last place with $5 in grosses for every dollar he was paid in salary.
For the full list, check out Forbes' complete report.
The pouty-lipped Oscar winner is "the modern Lana Turner because her filmography is not really the source of her fame . . . Despite winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2000 for 'Girl, Interrupted,' Jolie has an overall filmography that is less than stellar," screen historian Jeanine Basinger writes in "The Star Machine." Basinger singles out such Jolie turkeys as "Taking Lives," "Beyond Borders," "Life or Something Like It" and "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow."
"Fans don't need to watch her films . . . Her roles are only pale imitations of her off-screen self," continues Basinger, a professor at Wesleyan College. She then recites the sordid highlights of Jolie's life:
"[She twice] married and divorced very young; publicly kissed her brother a little too hard; admitted to cutting herself; made vague references to drugs; dated a woman; expressed a yearning to be 'taken down' by a suitably dominant individual of either gender; declared a willingness to try bondage; wore a vial of second husband [Billy Bob] Thornton's blood (and divorced him amid allegations of his insatiable sex addiction);" and "announced that she satisfies her post-divorce sexual needs by having flings with men in motels."
She also, the book recounts, "adopted a boy from Cambodia, a boy from Vietnam, and a girl from Ethiopia; allegedly delivered the death blow to Brad Pitt's staggering marriage to Jennifer Aniston; conceived Pitt's child; [has] given birth; and in the middle of all this, found time to take a genuine and serious mission to the United Nations on behalf of the world's children."
Basinger says Jolie, back in the days of the Hollywood star system, "could have found steady work playing larger-than-life, even terrifying female characters. Today, she has become one herself . . . It is not a cultural accident that Jolie's one serious, Oscar-winning role was that of a mental patient."
Jolie's manager, Guyer Kosinski, did not answer a detailed e-mail.
Before jetting off from their 10-day vacation in the western Charente/Dordogne region, the couple took over France's smallest family fun center "Le Palace Vert" with friend Mariane Pearl and her son.
.Le Palace Vert's owner Patrick Bernard tells PEOPLE that once they arrived, the Jolie-Pitts, Pearl and the four children (Maddox, 5, Pax-Thien, 3, and Zahara, 2, and Adam Pearl, 5) hit the lanes.
Pitt was especially attentive, Bernard adds, and encouraged all the youngsters whenever they hit a pin.
"At one point though, because the children don't have the strength to always get the ball down the lane, it sometimes stops. Brad thought he'd go down the lane to push it along. He slipped and fell on his back. Hard," Bernard tells PEOPLE.
Pitt survived the spill, but Bernard's wife was disappointed to have missed her "only chance in life to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Brad Pitt."
While Jolie spent time with Pearl, whom she portrayed in A Mighty Heart, Pitt demonstrated his air-hockey prowess.
"Brad was particularly good at it," Bernard says. "He and the three boys played two-a-side teams against one another for almost an hour."
Bernard adds: "With only two lanes we're certainly the smallest bowling in France, so we're still having trouble realizing we spent Monday afternoon with the most famous couple in the world."
Before leaving, Jolie and Pitt personally thanked the Bernards speaking a little French and signed a Livre d'Or with an inscription to the couple's 15-year-old daughter.
This wasn't the first amusement area the crew was spotted enjoying recently. Pitt made a scene in the bouncy castle when they all spent a day at the Aventure-Parc in Massignac.
"We're a small little town, we're not used to having celebrities," said one employee at the Aventure-Parc in Massignac. The facility, located in France's Charente-Limousin region, features tree-climbing, rope swings and other outdoor activities for kids.
"We don't get French celebrities, so it's completely crazy to find yourself standing with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the most chased-after couple in the world in front of you," said the employee. "Completely crazy."
While the park's six workers were seated at a picnic table having lunch, one told PEOPLE that on Monday afternoon a blacked-out Mercedes van pulled up carrying the Hollywood couple and three of their children, Maddox, 5, Pax-Thien, 3, and Zahara, 2.
"I asked myself, 'Who is this man with a ball cap and this woman with black sunglasses?' " one staffer told PEOPLE. "We were all extremely shocked."
The awed staff offered to waive the standard 5 entry fee, but Jolie and Pitt insisted on paying. They stayed an hour, using the playground area that included a bouncy castle and a children's obstacle course among other facilities.
"To see Brad Pitt knocking around in a bouncy castle with his children [and] screaming like wild animals was like a hallucination," said park operator Benjamin Gautier.
The three-acre park, which also features rope climbing courses between trees, normally welcomes 100-150 people during the day, but was otherwise empty because of overcast weather, according to staff.
The list of 19 famous faces, which appears in the magazine's latest issue, on newsstands Friday, was separated by editors into six categories: beauty queens, style setters, entertainers, newsmakers, survivors and body shapers.
OK! named Holmes, the 28-year-old wife of Tom Cruise and mother of their 1-year-old daughter, Suri, a beauty queen because of her "refreshing girl-next-door look" and sporty cropped haircut. Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez also made the cut.
O'Donnell, who brought ratings and controversy during her tumultuous tenure on ABC's "The View," made the list of newsmakers, as did Hollywood supercouple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and "Grey's Anatomy" star T.R. Knight. Knight announced he was gay after it surfaced that Isaiah Washington had used an anti-gay slur against him during an on-set clash with a co-star.
The youngest celebrity on the list: 10-month-old Dannielynn Hope, who was recognized as a survivor because she has been "at the center of Hollywood's most controversial tragedies," the magazine said. Her mother, Anna Nicole Smith, died in Florida in February. A bitter paternity dispute between Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead was put to rest months later when Birkhead showed he was Dannielynn's father.
The top three entertainers the "people who decide what we watch and listen to," according to OK! were "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell, Carrie Underwood and model-TV host Heidi Klum.
Tyra Banks was among the "body shapers" who influence notions of body image. Banks, who was dubbed fat after she was photographed on the beach, later appeared on her syndicated TV talk show in a bathing suit.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Justin Timberlake and Kate Moss were named the most prominent trendsetters in fashion.
This weekend, Paramount Vantage is launching "A Mighty Heart," director Michael Winterbottom's re-creation of the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl at the hands of Pakistani militants. Starring Angelina Jolie as Pearl's wife Mariane, who led the search for her husband, the film debuted in May at Cannes.
As of Thursday, the documentary-like thriller rated an 80 percent positive rating on RottenTomatoes.com, but higher-end critics have been even more positive. Vantage isn't being shy about using the "O" word: Print ads quote Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment proclaiming, "The early favorite for best picture at this year's Oscars," while TV ads also invoke its Oscar-worthiness.
Actually, months from now, when the Oscar campaigns are in high gear, "Heart's" awards hopes probably will coalesce around Jolie's performance as the actress succeeds in the tricky job of capturing a real-life woman whose tragic story made headlines in 2002. But a nomination isn't automatically guaranteed since this year's best actress field is one of the strongest in years.
Lionsgate already has released Sarah Polley's "Away From Her," a portrait of a couple coping with Alzheimer's, starring a luminous Julie Christie as a woman battling the disease, which could earn the actress the fourth nomination of her career. Picturehouse recently launched "La Vie en Rose," starring French actress Marion Cotillard as chanteuse Edith Piaf. At the Seattle International Film Festival, which concluded last weekend, Cotillard was rewarded with the audience award for best actress, a harbinger of future trips she could well make to the winner's podium.
Next weekend, another possible contender enters the field when Focus Features debuts "Evening," Lajos Koltai's screen adaptation of the Susan Minot novel. Vanessa Redgrave stars as a dying woman looking back over her life.
And that's just the best actress heat, which is destined to get more crowded as the year progresses and other films -- like Universal Pictures' "The Golden Age," in which Cate Blanchett reprises the role of Queen Elizabeth I, which earned her an Oscar nomination for "Elizabeth" in 1999 -- enter the field.
At the same time, other categories are just beginning to take shape. Next weekend also will see Disney's release of Pixar's "Ratatouille," which is earning rave advance reviews. Although just nine reviews have been posted on RottenTomatoes to date, they have registered a resounding 100 percent approval rating. There's still a wide array of animated films to come: among others, 20th Century Fox's "The Simpsons Movie"; DreamWorks' "Bee Movie"; and Sony Pictures Classics' "Persepolis," which uses animation to tell a very grown-up story of a young Iranian woman caught up in the Islamic Revolution. So "Ratatouille" isn't necessarily a shoo-in, but by summer's end, it's likely to have established itself as the animation front-runner.
However it ultimately fares at the box office and with critics, Michael Moore's "Sicko," which also moves into wide release next weekend, is sure to kick-start discussions about the documentary race. The film itself already has elbowed its way into the national conversation.
The star set up the Maddox Jolie Project in 2003 to aid conservation in a protected green area on the Thai border and is said to be listed as co-president with hubby Brad Pitt.
But according to local humanitarian group Cambodian Vision in Development, the future of the project is "uncertain" because of lack of funds.
It would seem that despite being a renowned humanitarian and multi-millionaire, the UN Goodwill Ambassador has stopped financing the project.
A website for CVD says their goal is "to protect and rehabilitate the wildlife, eco-system and watershed conservation values" of a forest area recently designated as protected. It also aims to benefit communities around the Samlaut Protected Area.
But the website says the project is "formerly funded by Angelina Jolie". It then adds that "because of lack of funds the future of this project is uncertain."
According to Wild Aid, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are co-presidents of the group.
The story focuses on the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl in Pakistan and the stalwart courage of his wife, Mariane. Winterbottom doesn't spoon-feed the audience or assign clear-cut blame. He weaves the tale with moral complexity, includes an expansive roster of characters and crafts the account with equal amounts of muscle and grace.
One afternoon, Pearl (Dan Futterman) leaves the home he shares with his pregnant wife, Mariane (Angelina Jolie), to interview a key player in terrorist circles. Diplomatic officials cautioned him to conduct the interaction at a public place, but we don't know if he even got the chance to try. Mariane is the story's emotional center, maintaining hope fiercely and fending off paralyzing bouts of dread.
It is not always easy to watch as the movie careens toward its inevitable and grisly conclusion. The acting is first-rate, particularly the nuanced performance of Jolie, who transforms into Mariane Pearl. Jolie's star power threatened to eclipse the overall story, but fortunately, she plays her character with an understatement that allows us to forget we are watching one-half of the world's most-photographed couple.
It also helps that Jolie makes every effort to look like her character, a dark-skinned, curly-haired woman to whom she bears no discernible resemblance. Before we see her on screen, we hear Jolie speaking with a not-very-convincing French accent in a rather grating voice-over. But her initially off-putting intonation gives way to the power of her portrayal.
A host of supporting performances have a palpable feel of authenticity. Irfan Khan is excellent as a Pakistani official leading the investigation. The frenetic style in which this political drama unfolds enhances its intellectual urgency. Players burst in and out of scenes, and we are left to piece things together, mirroring the sense of confusion those involved likely felt during the ordeal. Mundane moments are artfully blended with gut-wrenching events. While she waits to hear from her husband as his disappearance grows more ominous, Mariane is propped up in bed reading What to Expect When You're Expecting.
Winterbottom's skills are considerable in capturing the complexities of political peril, as he did in 1997's Welcome to Sarajevo. Not as riveting as United 93 but more involving than World Trade Center, A Mighty Heart deserves a place alongside the best films that seek to re-create a shattering time in our recent history.
The pouty-lipped baby addict apologized for not only trying to ban Fox reporters, but also for not allowing anyone to ask personal questions - and then blamed her overzealous lawyers when a public furor arose.
But tipsters tell Page Six that Jolie went on to ban some entertainment weeklies, including Us Weekly and Life & Style, from speaking to her at the film's junket on Friday at the Waldorf-Astoria - only deigning to allow access to OK! and her reliable ally, People magazine, which is inclined to swallow her p.r. hook, line and sinker.
Over the past few years, People has paid Jolie millions for the rights to publish photos of her and Brad Pitt's various kids, which she gave to charities, upping her positive publicity.
An insider who's worked with Jolie said, "Angelina is a control freak. She knows everything that goes and is very hands-on. It's unbelievable to me that she wouldn't know exactly what was going on at all times."
Maybe Jolie was just in a foul mood because she found out that Pitt's mom was planning on visiting his ex, Jennifer Aniston, on Sunday.
Jane Pitt - who was said to be devastated when her son split from Aniston two years ago - spent Sunday afternoon with her former daughter-in-law at Aniston's rented Malibu beach house. "Angelina really does not like Jennifer, even though Jen has not ever done anything to her and couldn't care less about her," said the insider. "She doesn't like that Brad's mom is still close with Jen and is threatened by that."
Jolie has a history of not liking the women whose men she stole. Jolie was said to "loathe" Billy Bob Thornton's ex-girlfriend, Laura Dern - even though Jolie wed Thornton just a week after he bought a house with Dern, who wasn't aware Jolie even knew her man.
Reps for Dern, Jolie and Thornton didn't return calls.
But in "A Mighty Heart" as Mariane Pearl, the wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Jolie reminds us that she really can act, that the supporting-actress Oscar for "Girl, Interrupted" wasn't a fluke, that there is indeed substance beneath the sex appeal. She deeply immerses herself and, as a result, stands tall as the film's graceful heart and soul. It's pretty hard to imagine that her name won't be at the forefront again come awards season this year.
(Likely to get overshadowed in the mountain of praise Jolie will duly receive is Dan Futterman as Pearl himself. The Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of "Capote" only gets about a half-dozen scenes to give us an impression of who this determined journalist was, mostly in flashbacks, and he does so with subtlety and intelligence.)
Director Michael Winterbottom ("24 Hour Party People," "Welcome to Sarajevo") wisely applies his trademark documentary-style approach, making us feel the building tension and dread as a multicultural coalition of investigators and journalists drops everything to track down Pearl's kidnappers. (The unadorned, fly-on-the-wall camerawork comes from longtime Winterbottom collaborator Marcel Zyskind. John Orloff wrote the no-nonsense screenplay based on Mariane Pearl's memoir, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny.")
Like the stylistically and thematically similar "United 93," this is a film that clearly needed no dramatic embellishment. And like "United 93," we know the devastating ending from the moment we walk in, yet may find ourselves silently, futilely hoping that things will turn out otherwise. Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic militants because he was Jewish, and the killing was videotaped. Thankfully, though, we don't have to see it.
But being aware of his outcome makes each early moment sadly meaningful the image of Danny pulling away in a taxi for his fateful meeting while researching shoe bomber Richard Reid, a casual mention that he might be late for dinner, a perfunctory "I love you" on the cell phone before saying goodbye.
Once Danny fails to return to the home where they're staying in Karachi, Pakistan, on the night of Jan. 23, 2002, Mariane herself a journalist for French radio puts her skills to use trying to determine what might have happened to him. She is six months pregnant with their first child, a son Danny wanted to name Adam, but she moves quickly and efficiently. At her side from the start is his longtime friend and colleague, Asra Nomani (Archie Panjabi), but as the hours tick away and the situation grows more grim, their circle expands to include investigators, editors and ambassadors.
Winterbottom puts us smack in the middle of them, gives us a seat at the table as they piece together names and faces, times and places. But that doesn't necessarily mean we'll always be clued into what's going on. The sensation of realism that permeates every frame of this film means that we also experience the same chaos these people endure; it can be frustrating but, then again, making us omniscient wouldn't make any sense.
Leading the investigation is the head of Pakistan's counterterrorism unit, a man known as Captain (Irrfan Khan, with tremendous presence) who turns out to be more caring and sympathetic than he initially appears. He orders his men to scatter through Karachi's crowded streets, dark alleys and hidden back rooms, rounding up the usual suspects.
This, by necessity, takes us away from Jolie. We truly miss her presence, and when she's gone, "A Mighty Heart" can get a bit draggy. For a big chunk in the middle it feels like a standard crime drama though it's a strikingly crafted and stirring one.
"A Mighty Heart," a Paramount Vantage release, is rated R for language. Running time: 108 minutes. Three stars out of four.
"A Mighty Heart," which revolves around Pearl's 2002 kidnapping and his wife Mariane's subsequent search for him, opens on Friday through Paramount Vantage.
"Given that one element of what Daniel and Mariane were doing there was trying to report and show people back home what Pakistan was like, it seemed to be essential that we try to film there," Winterbottom said.
Having used actual locales where key events took place, such as the Hotel Akbar and the restaurant where Pearl was kidnapped, the director said: "It's not only about being in the right country, it's about being in the right place."
Winterbottom, who had worked in Pakistan twice before, first flew with a small crew to the country for a quick research trip. There, he met with officials and others involved in the Pearl story and filmed some locations just in case the movie wasn't going to be allowed to film there. But he didn't have to film on the sly because the country is more open than one would think, he said. "When you're there, Pakistan is a pretty relaxed country. It's like being with a video camera in New York. You're not being surreptitious."
For the Pakistan portion of the shoot, crew members took a hostile terrorist training course, which was required to get insurance. The American actors, including Angelina Jolie and Dan Futterman, had security personnel also assigned to them.
But that still didn't prepare Winterbottom and his team for the mixed signals they received from the bureaucratic system. Many government agencies in Islamabad, as well as police agencies, were cooperative and supportive, but others in the intelligence community were not happy.
He recalled that a Pakistani intelligence agent had the film's extras -- who received official permission to dress as police officers -- arrested for the crime of impersonating police officers.
The cast and crew also began noticing that people were following them to the sets and videotaping them while they were filming.
"They weren't beating anyone up, but they were clearly trying to dissuade people not to work with us," Winterbottom said.
In addition, "Heart" filmed five weeks of interiors in India, with a house in Pune doubling for the Pearls' home in Pakistan, the story's central location.
The world might recall the images of dozens of motorized rickshaws chasing Jolie down the streets of Mumbai, but Winterbottom said filming in the second-most-populated country in the world was considerably easier.
"It didn't affect filming at all, to be quite honest," he says of the press attention. "I'm sure it was a hassle for them, but (the photographers) weren't on set. It wasn't like people on the street hassling her at all. The whole thing with Angie was really just press photographers."
"I knew the part had to be played by someone with Mariane's strength and understanding of the world, but I didn't know how to broach the subject," Pitt, 43, tells Newsweek.
"It feels a little like Wolfowitz trying to get his girlfriend a job," he quips (former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz resigned last month after he was accused of using his office to give his girlfriend a high-paying promotion).
Jolie herself has said she "was nervous" about playing Pearl, especially because the women are now close friends.
Says Pitt: "Being in the room with those two women is great fun. It's like sitting down with Roosevelt and Churchill only much better-looking."
But after Jolie was cast, some black actors were shocked that the white actress would play Pearl, who is of Afro-Cuban and Dutch descent. Jolie tells Newsweek, "I know that people are frustrated at the lack of great roles [for people of color], but I think they've picked the wrong example here."
Adds Pearl: "This is not about skin color. I wanted her to play me because I trust her. Aren't we past this?"
"I am hoping my relationship with my father will be more private in the future," Jolie told the U.K.'s Evening Standard newspaper in an interview this week. "At the end of the day we both wish the best for each other and we'll try to start communicating in some way."
Jolie and Voight have had little, if any, contact since 2002, when Voight made comments to Access Hollywood suggesting that she was unstable. The 32-year-old actress has made it clear in interviews that she had no time for Voight, whom she also claimed cheated on her late mother, French actress Marcheline Bertrand.
In the interview with the Standard, Jolie praises the parents of partner Brad Pitt for accepting her and her children she had adopted. "When I first met them I came in with two adopted children from other countries and I didn't know how they were going to be. But they are equally loving with them."
She also addresses her thinner figure, which she says is the result of trauma, not dieting. "I've always been lean and this year I lost my mom and I've gone through a lot. I have four kids and I finished breastfeeding it's been hard to get my nutrition back on track. Instead of people saying I look like a person dealing with something emotionally, they assume it's because I want to fit into skinny jeans."
Jolie has been seemingly everywhere this week, culminating with the New York City premiere of her new film A Mighty Heart. One major challenge in filming the movie, she says, was a scene in which her character gives birth. (The actress delivered her own daughter, Shiloh, by Caesarean.)
"Michael [Winterbottom, the director] had to explain labor to me because he was with his wife when she had children," she says. "It was very funny having a bunch of men explaining how to scream at the top of my lungs."
After FoxNews.com reported Thursday that Jolie tried to ban the Fox network from the red carpet of her new film, "A Mighty Heart," and forced reporters to sign lengthy contracts before speaking with her, Jolie tried putting the blame for her overbearing behavior on her advisers.
The contracts - which reporters had to sign in order to snag a few sound bites from the much-publicized mother of four - stipulated the journos were not allowed to "ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships." They also insisted, "The interview may only be used to promote the picture . . . The interview will not be used in a manner that is disparaging, demeaning, or derogatory to Ms. Jolie."
After the contract story broke, the star quickly went into damage control mode by talking openly about wanting more children and lending a hand to a photographer who was tailing her. She promoted her film on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" Thursday night and denied that reporters were asked to sign any documents.
She told Stewart (who seemed free to ask about her personal life), "There was a memo that went out to ask people if they would sign it that said, 'Don't get into personal questions, focus on the movie,' and things like that . . . It was from my representative trying to be protective . . . but it was excessive, and I wouldn't have put it out there."
Jolie also tried to turn the tables back to her saintly image yesterday by giving James Ambler, a paparazzo who works for Splash and regularly follows the Jolie tribe on his bike, a lift in her car after he got a flat tire.
The snapper said Jolie "was really interested" in the jobs of celebrity photographers.
"She was really impressed with what we do," Ambler told Splash.
In "A Mighty Heart," Jolie plays Marianne Pearl, the widow of kidnapped and beheaded journalist Daniel Pearl. The Wednesday night premiere was "meant to support" the organization Reporters Without Borders, which ironically "fights against censorship and laws that undermine press freedom."
A rep for Jolie did not return calls.
The star of the new film "A Mighty Heart," about the widow of slain reporter Daniel Pearl and freedom of the press, says her representatives were trying to protect her when they sought to make media outlets sign an agreement not to ask personal questions during interviews.
"I didn't put it out there," Jolie said Thursday on "The Daily Show." "It was from my representatives trying to be protective of me, but it was excessive and I wouldn't have put it out there. But it's all right and nobody was forced to do it."
Jolie spoke candidly about her family at the film's Manhattan premiere on Wednesday. But media outlets seeking one-on-one interviews, including The Associated Press, were asked to sign a legal document banning certain questions and mandating that any story from the interview must be about the movie.
Requests to sign such documents are rare, but on the rise with the increase of tabloid celebrity coverage. The AP declined to sign Jolie's agreement, yet was still scheduled to interview Jolie on Friday afternoon.
Jolie's manager, Geyer Kosinski, and a spokeswoman for the Paramount movie studio did not immediately respond to e-mail messages from the AP seeking comment.
Jolie's lawyer, Robert Offer, told The New York Times that he blamed himself a "boneheaded, overzealous lawyer" for the contract and that Jolie was unaware of the action. The document "was drafted overly broadly," he said. "It was well intended, but I understand how it was received."
Celebrity photographer James Ambler (who works for Splash News and Pictures) was continuing his routine of following the A Mighty Heart star around New York on his bike, when he suddenly ran over a nail and popped a flat on his two-wheeler.
Next thing he knew, Jolie's car stopped and the driver asked Ambler if he wanted a ride.
The stunned shutterbug whom Jolie as well as her kids had already nicknamed "Lance," after cycling champ Lance Armstrong then heard from Jolie herself, who said from the car, "Come on Lance, hop in."
(To see Ambler talking about his experience with Jolie, see his interview on Splash's site.)
Inside the vehicle, Jolie told him she appreciated the space some of the photographers were giving her children, he said. Asked afterwards how much time he actually spent in the car with her, Ambler replied that he didn't really know. "Time stood still," he said.
And as for how he'd describe his hostess on wheels: "Really down to earth, really lovely," says Ambler who soon found himself in a brand new position: as the target of the paparazzi lenses, for having had a brush with fame.
On Thursday's Daily Show, Jon Stewart wondered how many kids Jolie wanted in all, asking: "How high we going, you think?"
Replied Jolie: "It fluctuates between seven and 13 or 14." The audience howled and Jolie laughed, and Stewart said, "Wow, I'll tell you this: I admire that, because two is kicking my ass."
Jolie quipped: "Yeah, I understand that. Four is kind of kicking our ass, but we kind of feel like, 'Damn it, we're up for the challenge!' "
The actress, 32, has been in New York City promoting her and Pitt's new movie A Mighty Heart, which premiered Wednesday.
Stewart asked Jolie about a FOX News story claiming that journalists at a junket on Wednesday had been asked to sign a contract before talking to her requiring that they not ask about her personal life a common request at press events.
"There was a memo that went out to ask people if they would sign it that said, 'Don't get into personal questions, focus on the movie,' and things like that," Jolie explained. "It was from my representative trying to be protective of me, but it was excessive and I wouldn't have put it out there."
On Thursday, Jolie's lawyer, Robert Offer, issued a mea culpa, telling The New York Times the document was the fault of a "bone-headed, overzealous lawyer" himself and that Jolie hadn't been aware of it.
"This was my creating something to protect her from the press's talking about personal matters, a document that would limit discussion to the film," he said. "But it was drafted overly broadly. It was well intended, but I understand how it was received."
Also on Thursday, Jolie appeared on CNN's Larry King Live, where she described raising the latest addition to her family, 3-year-old Pax Thien, whom she adopted from Vietnam in March (he joined Maddox, 5; Zahara, 2; and Shiloh, 1). "He's wild. He's beautiful and wild," she said.
"He had no freedoms for three and a half years. ... He lived in the same place on the same cot along with 20 other cots and did things at the exact same time and had no chance to have an opinion himself or do he lived a very structured life. But he's also suddenly very free."
She explained that her new son's name was suggested by her own mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, before her death from ovarian cancer in January. "My mom wrote a list of names when we were going to have Shiloh," said Jolie. "One of the names that she suggested was Pax because it meant peace. [But] he's anything but at the moment."
What Is the What, by Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), is a "fictionalized autobiography" of a real-life Sudanese refugee named Valentino Achak Deng. Jolie actually makes a cameo in the story, as Deng recounts his immigration to the United States and his encounter with the actress.
"Ms. Jolie walked in, accompanied by a grey-haired man in a baseball cap," Deng says in chapter 13. "The two of them sat on a couch. ... I had no idea who she was; I was told she was an actress of some kind, and when I met her, she did look like an actress she had the same careful poise, the same flirtatious eye of Miss Gladys, my extremely attractive drama teacher in Kakuma, and so I liked her immediately."
The book's topic is close to Jolie's heart: In March, she and Brad Pitt donated $100,000 to help build a medical facility in the Sudan, and Pitt executive produced the documentary God Grew Tired of Us, about the young refugees known as the Lost Boys of the Sudan.
The prestigious think tank officially approved Jolie's membership nomination, adding her to a group whose membership includes presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, ABC's Diane Sawyer, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and journalist Tom Brokaw.
Earlier this year, Jolie, already a UN Goodwill Ambassador, was nominated and recommended for approval by the CFR membership.
"Angelina Jolie is accomplished in her field and has demonstrated serious interest in issues such as Darfur, international education and refugees," says Lisa Shields, vice president of communications at CFR. "As such, her profile fits very well with other young professionals we've selected as the next generation of foreign policy leaders."
In the new issue of Esquire, Jolie says she wants to be remembered for her humanitarian work, not her acting. "When I die, do I want to be remembered as an actress? No." she tells the magazine. "I recently had a column published in a newspaper and at the end it didn't say I was an actress. It said that I was a UN Goodwill Ambassador that's all. And I was really proud."
For Jolie, her CFR membership is another big step in a path that began in 2001, when she first joined the United Nations refugee agency after visiting Cambodia while filming Tomb Raider, the country where she also adopted her first child, Maddox. Since that time, Jolie has visited refugee camps in over 30 countries, and adopted two other children, Zahara, 2, from Ethiopia and Pax Thien, 3, from Vietnam. She and boyfriend Brad Pitt also have a 1-year-old daughter, Shiloh.
"Some people have their lives together and then they have their children," the actress, 32, tells the July issue of Esquire, according to the Associated Press.
"Brad and I are starting with the children and are planning to have our time together in our later years."
For now, she says, they do their best and socializing is on the back burner. "We don't go to parties," she says. "We hardly ever leave the house. We try to schedule time when we're alone."
That's not easy with a growing family: Pitt and Jolie are parents to Maddox, 5; Zahara, 2; Shiloh, 1; and the newly adopted Pax, 3 (who was legally given the last name Jolie-Pitt last week).
"Right now, Pax is sleeping in our bed," Jolie tells the magazine. "It's kind of nice, him immediately knowing and feeling comfortable with us. Mad slept with me until Brad and I got together. They're fun to sleep with. We have family sleep on Sundays. Everybody sleeps together."
She adds: "I try to make sure that each of my children has enough of my attention to feel equal. I try to make sure that my relationship with the man in my life is solid and complete and we're very connected and having a great life together and enjoying our children and being part of the world. So that's my life."
One thing that is not top priority: being a movie star. "I have no animosity toward Hollywood or the demands of the red carpet, all that silliness," says Jolie, who stars in the new movie A Mighty Heart. "That's my job, and I'm happy to have it.
"But when I die, do I want to be remembered as an actress? No. I recently had an op-ed published in a newspaper. And at the end, it didn't say I was an actress. It said that I was a U.N. goodwill ambassador that's all. And I was really proud."
Jolie says her humanitarian work allowed her to find meaning. "I entered this business before I had focus and purpose in my life," she says. "I was very unhappy, very unhealthy, and when I sat down for an interview, I didn't know why. I felt like I didn't have anything to share. It was a very empty time."
"I have no animosity toward Hollywood or the demands of the red carpet, all that silliness," Jolie, 32, tells Esquire magazine in its upcoming July issue. "That's my job, and I'm happy to have it. But when I die, do I want to be remembered as an actress? No."
"I recently had an op-ed (column) published in a newspaper," she continues. "And at the end, it didn't say I was an actress. It said that I was a UN goodwill ambassador that's all. And I was really proud."
Jolie, an activist for issues ranging from global poverty to wildlife conservation, says she has found meaning as a citizen of the world.
"I entered this business before I had focus and purpose in my life," says Jolie. "I was very unhappy, very unhealthy, and when I sat down for an interview, I didn't know why. I felt like I didn't have anything to share. It was a very empty time."
Today, her life is far from empty. Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, 43, have four children: 5-year-old Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia; 3-year-old Pax Thien, who was adopted from Vietnam; 2-year-old Zahara, who was adopted from Ethiopia; and daughter, Shiloh, who was born to the couple a year ago.
"I try to make sure that each of my children has enough of my attention to feel equal. I try to make sure that my relationship with the man in my life is solid and complete and we're very connected and having a great life together and enjoying our children and being part of the world. So that's my life," she says.
"We don't go to parties. We hardly ever leave the house. We try to schedule time when we're alone," says Jolie, who sports various tattoos, wore a vial of Billy Bob Thornton's blood around her neck during their marriage, and was blamed for Pitt's divorce from Jennifer Aniston which Pitt has denied.
"Right now, Pax is sleeping in our bed. It's kind of nice, him immediately knowing and feeling comfortable with us," she says. "Madd slept with me until Brad and I got together. They're fun to sleep with. We have family sleep on Sundays. Everybody sleeps together."
"Some people have their lives together and then they have their children," says Jolie, who stars in Viacom Inc.'s upcoming Paramount Vantage film "A Mighty Heart." "Brad and I are starting with the children and are planning to have our time together in our later years."
"I don't know how he does it, but ... I talk a lot in the bath," the actress and UN goodwill ambassador, 32, tells Marie Claire magazine for its July issue. "It's easier to talk when you're naked ... Get naked with me, and I'll talk!"
Jolie, who had been a single mother to her son Maddox, 5, before meeting Pitt, also says she's so grateful for the actor's presence in the lives of her kids.
"I'm so happy for my children especially Mad," Jolie tells the magazine, which hits newsstands June 12. "I didn't know if he was ever going to have a dad. So when I watch them having real strong father-son time, or even when Mad tells me, 'This is a boy thing, Mom' it's just really beautiful to see."
In addition to Maddox, Jolie and Pitt are parents to Zahara, 2, and Shiloh, 1, and Pax Thien, 3, who was legally given the last name Jolie-Pitt last week.
As for her own relationship with Pitt, Jolie says that their connection has grown over time despite many changes in their family life.
"I think we both went on a lot of faith we really did," she says. "Our family has grown very quickly, and we have a lot of responsibility together, and we acknowledge that we are lucky we turned out be for each other everything we'd hoped. We could have been very wrong, but every challenge we hit has brought us closer. It has been that kind of relationship."
Jolie, who recently said she plans to take a year off work, also tells the magazine that her career helps her in her personal life as well.
"My work has always been a great way for me to deal with things in my life," she says especially when it came to her new movie A Mighty Heart, in which she plays the real-life Mariane Pearl, widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
"Focusing on that story on a daily basis, you certainly don't worry about your life," she says in excerpts provided by the magazine. "I mean, there isn't a better film to make you hyperaware that you should complain about nothing."
A Santa Monica court on Thursday approved Pax Thien Jolie's name change to Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, a court clerk confirms to PEOPLE.
Pax, 3, was adopted from a Vietnamese orphanage in March, joining Pitt and Jolie's children Maddox, 5, Zahara, 2, and Shiloh, 1.
Because Vietnamese law makes it difficult for unmarried couples to adopt, Jolie adopted Pax on her own, but he is being raised by both her and Pitt.
In April, Jolie formally requested that the court change her new son's name to Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt.
In January 2006, after Jolie made a similar request in the same court, her other adopted children, Maddox and Zahara, were officially named Jolie-Pitt.
In other Jolie news, the actress on Wednesday applauded President Bush's call to Congress to double the funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to $30 billion, which includes money to help orphans worldwide.
(Jolie serves as honorary board chair of Global Action for Children, an organization she helped launch in April.)
"We are all very grateful that the President has made this major commitment to these children," Jolie said in a statement. "These are the world's children, and this is the world's responsibility, and we hope that other G-8 countries will follow his lead."
She added, "I will continue to actively lobby on behalf of these children and encourage Congress to follow through on this commitment."
The 31-year-old actress, who with her off-screen companion Brad Pitt has formed the celebrity super-couple dubbed "Brangelina," plays Mariane Pearl, wife of the Wall Street Journal journalist who was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic militants in Pakistan in 2002.
Mariane Pearl, who wrote a book about her experiences, was about six months pregnant at the time, and Jolie filmed "A Mighty Heart" not long after she gave birth to her daughter Shiloh.
Jolie and Pitt, 43, also have three adopted children, from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam.
"My children help me keep perspective," Jolie told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday just outside Cannes, where the movie had its world premiere.
"The world forms opinions and has a view and does tabloid things and fortunately none of that is inside my home," she said at the exclusive Du Cap hotel. "I (am) focused on getting the kids to school, I'm focused on the balance of all the children."
Critics have praised Jolie for her portrayal of a woman who desperately seeks her husband through phone and e-mail trails and in the teeming city of Karachi, a hotbed of militancy just after the 9/11 attacks.
MEMORIES OF NAMIBIA
Jolie was in Namibia when discussing the script with Mariane Pearl and British director Michael Winterbottom as she prepared to give birth to Shiloh.
"We were all in Namibia and I was six months pregnant, and I remember seeing Mariane and talking to her about being pregnant.
"At the same time I would go home, sit and lay next to Brad, and he would put his hand on my stomach and we would talk about the hospital and the baby and were so excited together.
"To know that's what they took away from her at that time infuriated me, it made me so, so upset."
She added that Pearl had no time for letting her "emotions run wild," but added: "But thank God she was pregnant, because she has Danny in (their son) Adam ... he is Adam."
Jolie said "A Mighty Heart," which Pitt co-produced, did not signal a shift away from comic or action roles for which she is best known, even though she won an Oscar for "Girl, Interrupted" set in a mental institution.
"I think people think that now I'm just trying to be serious and do very serious films.
"But the reality is I'm playing an assassin now in a movie and my little boys think it's really cool and I'm going to do a cartoon next where I'm a tiger and ... that's why I get kudos in my house."
The star of box-office hits like "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," in which she played alongside Pitt, Jolie said she had been gripped by Pearl's tragedy when it played out before the media.
The film still had relevance today, however, for its message of tolerance.
"This woman, who has the greatest reason to be just blinded by hate, is speaking up very strongly and saying we have got to have a dialogue, we have got to continue to find ways to relate to each other and not just focus on differences."
Jolie said she would continue to take time off in between filming to be with her family, and that she and Pitt took turns acting in movies.
"You know, I want to be a great mom like my mom was and I want to also do the things that I love," the 31-year-old actress said in an interview that aired Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show.
"So I'm at a strange, I suppose, place in my life. I think that that happens when you lose a parent, where you drop and do a different kind of serious, and yet, at the same time, you want to enjoy and laugh as much as possible every day."
Tearing up, Jolie added: "But I'm holding on to my family really tight at this moment because of that and trying to be to be as good a woman as I can be in my life."
Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, 43, have four children: 5-year-old Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia; Pax Thien, 3, from Vietnam; 2-year-old Zahara, from Ethiopia; and daughter Shiloh, who will be 1 on May 27.
Jolie, who has been shooting the thriller "Wanted" in Prague, Czech Republic, has said she plans to take a year off from filmmaking to spend more time with her family. "I have a very solid, very warm home. I'm very fortunate," she said.
Her new film, "A Mighty Heart," had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this week. Jolie stars as Mariane Pearl, the wife of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic extremists while reporting for the Wall Street Journal in Pakistan in 2002.
The loss of her mother, though heartbreaking, cannot be compared to what Mariane Pearl went through, Jolie said.
"It's a natural thing for a child to lose a parent," she said. "I lost my mom too young, but it happened. And I'm happy she's out of pain, `cause I love her and she's my friend. Mariane lost her husband in a way that is not natural and is unfair. ... It's something to remember."
"This has been a very heavy year, in losing my mom and having a fourth child," the actress, 31, told Ann Curry in a Today show interview that aired Wednesday. (The interview will continue Wednesday night on Dateline NBC.)
"I suppose I'm very aware of time and of memories and enjoying life," Jolie continued, "not just doing the right thing and being a useful person which I certainly want to be, and believe that I am."
Recalling her mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, who died in January at age 56 after a nearly 8-year battle with cancer, Jolie said: "I want to be a great mom like my mom was. And I also want to do things that I love."
On Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, where she and Brad Pitt premiered their new movie, A Mighty Heart, Jolie told reporters she plans to take a year off from acting to spend time with her family: Pitt, 43, and kids Maddox, 5; Pax, 3; Zahara, 2; and Shiloh, who turns 1 on May 27.
(Jolie adopted Pax in March from Vietnam, and recently added a fourth line to the tattoo on her left arm that features coordinates for the birthplaces of all her children.)
"I'm in a strange, I suppose, place in my life," Jolie told Curry. "I think that happens when you lose a parent, where you drop into a different kind of serious. And yet, at the same time, you want to laugh and enjoy as much as possible every day."
To that end, she said, "I'm hanging on to my family really tight at this moment, and, because of that, trying to be as good a woman as I can be in my life." At that point, Jolie broke down in tears. "Dammit," she said, "you got me crying."
Curry apologized, but Jolie, regaining her composure, said, "That's alright. It's part of life. ... I lost my mom. It's a natural thing for a child to lose a parent. I lost my mom too young, but it happened. And I'm happy she's out of pain, because I love her and she's my friend."
Angelina Jolie has announced plans to take a year off from acting duties and lay low with her ever-burgeoning family, once she wraps production on a handful of projects.
"I'm working this summer. I'm in Prague for a few months, then I take two months off, then I work for two months," she told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival Tuesday. "And then I take a year off."
"We're getting work out of the way at the moment."
The 31-year-old Oscar winner failed to reveal whether her use of the word "we" meant that partner Brad Pitt would be joining her in the temporary unemployment line, though it's not likely. The actor has five projects in the works.
As for Jolie, the time off announcement is hardly a surprisejust slightly delayed.
Back in March, the mother of four announced that she would not be taking on any more projects in the immediate future to focus her newest addition, son Pax. However, just a week after making the announcement, Jolie signed on to star in the action flick Wanted, which she is in the midst of filming in Prague.
Jolie will now finish up her year with the Clint Eastwood mystery thriller The Changeling, as a woman whose kidnapped son returns home only to begin suspecting that the boy is not hers. Then she will take her leave.
As it is, Jolie, Pitt and their broodfive-year-old Maddox, three-year-old Pax, two-year-old Zahara and Shiloh, less than one week shy of her first birthdayhave been getting a head start on their quality bonding time this week in the French Riviera for the Cannes Film Festival.
The family arrived on Sunday to promote two films: the Jolie-starring and Pitt-produced A Mighty Heart, about Mariane Pearl, the widow of the slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and Pitt's significantly lighter and much more blockbuster-friendly fare Ocean's Thirteen.
For Jolie, the role of the pregnant widow hit close to home, not only because she had befriended Pearl in the months before signing on to star in the biopic, but because she found herself six months pregnant while filming the movie, exactly how far along Pearl was when her husband was killed by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002.
"It was something that haunted me through the whole thing and haunted, I think, everybody involved," she told NBC's Ann Curry in an interview airing on both Today and Dateline Tuesday. "Nobody ever really voiced that and nobody ever really talked about it, but I'm sure it was something that she did become a friend.
"What that took away from this time in their life, this is the happiest time in their life. And what that must be. I just can't imagine. I thought about that when I was breastfeeding. I though about that all through kind of the birth of, you know, that haunted me."
Other things that unfortunately seem to haunt Jolie is the incessant tabloid coverage of her and Pitt's private livesthe story du jour being that the genetically blessed duo is teetering on the brink of separationthough the actress told Curry that the rumors, which she opts not to read, are simply not worth setting straight.
"I know there's a cycle of certain things that they keep writing or whatever, but I can assume things are made up. But no, I haven't a clue. And why would I, you know? There's nothing I have to hide or defend. You know, I'm gonna live my life. Anf there are gonna be times when people wanna try to attack me and I don't know why, but they will. And that's okay."
For Jolie, she said her only concern is her familythe reason for her hiatus.
"My kids are healthy. I have a lot I want to do in this world. Before I do, I wanna do a lot of things as a woman, as a mom, and that's my focus. At the end of the day, I'm gonna be dead...and what people say about me is gonna be what I accomplished and what I did in my life and how my children are."
It's a sentiment that appears to have rubbed off on partner Pitt, who told Curry in a separate interview that, as far as his livelihood is concerned, "It's just not enough anymore to say that 'it's entertainment and enjoyment.'"
So, no Ocean's Fourteen?
"For me personally I'm saying, in my life, if you can move the ball forward a little bit...that's what this is about. Where is it going to go? The interesting thing is how it evolves for me individually for myself, and watching the same with Angie."
"There's nothing I have to hide or defend," the actress, 31, tells Ann Curry for an interview scheduled to run Wednesday on both the Today show and Dateline NBC.
"I'm gonna live my life," Jolie continues. "There are gonna be times when people wanna try to attack me and I don't know why, but they will. And that's okay. ... There are other things I'm more concerned about. My kids are healthy. I have a lot I want to do in this world. ...I wanna do a lot of things as a woman, as a mom, and and that's my focus."
When it comes to herself, "I have always been honest about who I am, and I've always been very outspoken to press," says Jolie. "I think people have heard a lot from me over the years. ...[If] people wanna believe negative things, they will. ... I can't help that.
"At the end of the day," she continues, "I'm gonna be dead one day. And what people say about me is gonna be what I accomplished and what I did in my life and how my children are."
This week, one of Jolie's accomplishments is her role in the new film A Mighty Heart, in which she plays Mariane Pearl, widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. The film was produced by Jolie's partner, Brad Pitt.
Recalling her first meeting with Pearl, Jolie remembers wondering, "God, how ... is this woman physically dealing with trying to maintain her strength and take care of this baby that's inside of her, working so hard and ... having so much emotional stress?
.Jolie says she thought it would be easy play someone she knows, but it "haunted" her.
"The day before we started shooting, I hardly slept and I was in a panic," says Jolie. "I had gotten to know her, and I'd gotten to know their son. And the thought that he would see this one day. It was my responsibility to not just show the world but also show him how much his mother loved his father and how much they loved each other and how they handled this time."
Jolie and Pitt showed the film on Monday at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
The couple attended a press conference to discuss A Mighty Heart in which she stars and he produces, through his Plan B production company.
Jolie admitted she had trepidations about taking on the project and the role of Mariane Pearl, whose husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, 38, was killed by Islamic militants in Pakistan in February 2002. (Actor and Oscar-winning Capote screenwriter Dan Futterman plays Daniel.) "I was very, very nervous to get it right," said Jolie.
And the outcome? "Mariane seems to think we've done all right."
Pitt, 43, and Jolie, 31, are staying at the exclusive Hotel du Cap, in a villa with their four children: Maddox, 5; Zahara, 2; Pax, 3; and Shiloh, who turns 1 this coming Sunday.
"We got here yesterday, and we had a beautiful day with our kids," said Jolie, who flew in from the Czech Republic, where she is filming the movie Wanted, with Morgan Freeman. "We've been playing with them since the moment we landed, and we plan to go home to them as soon as we are done with this."
As for her five-star hotel in France's Cap d'Antibes. "It's also a beautiful place, and we have an opportunity to enjoy it with our family and enjoy it as friends," said Jolie.
Pitt said he was captivated by the Pearl story from the moment he started following it on CNN. "It was our goal to see this thing through," said Pitt. "And to fight hatred."
Jolie said that despite the serious nature of the film, which tracks Daniel's kidnapping and his wife's desperation to save him, she remains able to smile in her downtime. "I am still capable of being silly and have fun," she said.
At one point, Pitt humorously referred to his partner as "what's-her-name" (when the press conference's mediator unexpectedly asked him to comment on a question previously directed to Jolie). He also stressed his and her aim of working together to help improve the planet.
"As a father, too, I look at my kids and realize they will inherit this world," said Pitt. "And we want to do everything we can to throw our weight in and make it a little bit better.
After the news gathering, PEOPLE asked Pitt how he was finding Cannes. "I'm enjoying it very much, man," he replied.
"A Mighty Heart" premiered to the press in Cannes on Monday, and is already one of the most talked about pictures at the film festival this year even though it is outside the main competition.
The movie unites Jolie with her partner Brad Pitt, who is a producer, and is directed by Britain's Michael Winterbottom, who has made films including "The Road to Guantanamo" and "9 Songs."
It is based on Mariane's book "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Daniel Pearl," which recounts the events leading up to and following Daniel's death when she was around six months pregnant.
The film takes the viewer into the teeming streets of Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, where Daniel was abducted, although the scenes involving Jolie were actually shot in India.
It paints a picture of chaos and confusion as Mariane, Pakistani intelligence, U.S. consulate officials and Daniel's newspaper colleagues seek unsuccessfully to track him down via e-mail and mobile phone trails and old-fashioned police work.
They are up against not only a ruthless and professional group of abductors, but also prejudices in Pakistani society that lead some to speculate that Daniel worked for U.S. or Israeli intelligence and that India was behind the kidnap.
Jolie said she was nervous about getting the part of Mariane right, but that the film had a message that went well beyond the gripping narrative and gut-wrenching finale.
"For me so much of why this film is important today was because I highly doubt there is anybody in this room who has more reason to hold hate inside herself than Mariane, and she doesn't," Jolie told a news conference.
"She is a very compassionate, thoughtful person who looks to dialogue to change things, to make things better. That is, I think, a lesson to all of us."
EXPERIENCE OF MOTHERHOOD
Jolie said that being a young mother helped her understand what the French reporter was going through.
"Many people know this story and they forget that Mariane was five and a half months pregnant at the time," Jolie said.
"I remember being six months pregnant and thinking, 'I can't imagine at this time not having the father with me,' she added, referring to Pitt, who was sitting close to her.
"As a mother it just made me so much more connected to her and also knowing that carrying that life inside, that little boy that's half Danny, that is so amazing."
The Pearls' child Adam was born after Daniel's death, and Mariane dedicated her book to her son so he could know his father was "an ordinary hero with a mighty heart."
Mariane steered clear of describing her feelings in any detail, but said she was grateful that Jolie, who has become a good friend, took on the part.
Jolie, one of the most famous faces in the world who is hounded by photographers and cameramen wherever she goes, said that during the making of the film she had learned to respect journalists more.
She also said that "A Mighty Heart" did not signal a shift away from comic or action roles for which she is best known, and that she would try and combine serious and light cinema.
The 20-year-old starlet tops the magazine's eight annual "Hot 100" list, which features the 29th-ranking Sarah Silverman on the cover.
"There is no other star in the world [who] causes more of a stir in the public eye than Lindsay," says Maxim Editor in Chief Jimmy Jellinek in a statement. "Her every move is watched and reported on."
Online, the magazine says that Lindsay, an "unbelievably beautiful, untamable Golden Age throwback with a nonstop social calendar and acclaimed acting chops is Ann-Margret, Meryl Streep, and Sophia Loren rolled into one."
Lohan has moved past her Disney remake ("Parent Trap," "Freaky Friday") roots and has moved on to adult fare such as "A Prairie Home Companion," "Bobby," "Georgia Rule" and the upcoming "Chapter 27."
The other ladies that made the cut, from No. 2 to No. 15 include: Jessica Alba, Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Biel, Ali Larter, Eva Mendes, Rihanna, Eva Longoria, Fergie, Sienna Miller, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce Knowles, Katherine Heigl and Avril Lavigne.
Other highlights include celebrity sisters Hilary and Haylie Duff (23, 89) and Ashlee and Jessica Simpson (16, 41), tennis hottie Maria Sharapova (17), Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger (22), Ashley Olsen (37), "Veronica Mars" star Kristen Bell (46), "Heroes" reality bender Missy Peregrym (53), "Battlestar Galactica" cylon Tricia Helfer (57), "Lost's" Evangeline Lilly (68) and the 3-D animated Second Life Girl (95).
The full list can be found at Maximonline.com or on newstands, beginning Saturday, May 18.
Jolie already had two kids, son Maddox, now 5, adopted from Cambodia, and daughter Zahara, 2, from Ethiopia, when she became pregnant with daughter Shiloh, who turns 1 on May 27. Asked in the June issue of Reader's Digest if the pregnancy was intentional, Jolie, 31, says: "It was.
"Before I met Brad, I always said I was happy never to have a child biologically. He told me he hadn't given up that thought. Then, a few months after Z came home, I saw Brad with her and Mad, and I realized how much he loved him, that a biological child would not in any way be a threat. So I said, 'I want to try.' "
Jolie, who stars in the new movie A Mighty Heart, also opens up about her relationship with Pitt, 43, why she decided to welcome a fourth child (son Pax, 3, whom she adopted from Vietnam in March) and more. Some highlights:
On how she went from single mom of one to part of a family of six in just three years: "I met this amazing person, and we realized we had very similar views on how we wanted to live our lives. It's happened quickly, with so many children. Yesterday, picking up the kids from school, Brad turned around in the car, and there were three of them. He couldn't stop laughing."
On deciding to adopt a toddler from Vietman: "As kids get older, it's harder for them to be adopted. ... Something changed for me with Shiloh. We had Mad and Z, and neither looked like Mommy or Daddy. Then suddenly somebody in the house looked like Mommy and Daddy. It became clear to us that it might be important to have somebody around who is similar to the other children so they have a connection. Mad's very excited that his brother is from Asia."
On her wanting more children: "Yeah, yeah. More biological, more adopted."
On finding quality time with Pitt: "Right now, that's our problem! We hang out. We try to talk over the swing set. We'll have a date night once everybody is settled. ... Especially now with Pax, he still gets scared if I'm gone more than a few hours. But we'll get them occupied with a movie and popcorn and try to run off and lock the door for a bit."
On what Pitt finds sexy about her: "I could be dressed up in the sexiest outfit for a photo shoot, and by his behavior, he'll let me know that's nice, but it's nothing as sexy as when I'm home surrounded by the kids or reading books, educating myself."
The June issue of Reader's Digest goes on sale May 22. To listen to Jolie talking about her life and family, click here.
The list of 100 most influential, on newsstands Friday, also includes Queen Elizabeth II, presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, director Martin Scorsese and model Kate Moss. It does not include President Bush.
In a piece she wrote for the magazine, Barbara Walters, the creator of "The View," had kind words to say about O'Donnell, who announced last week she was leaving the ABC talk show in June because she and the network couldn't agree on a new contract.
"And so, last September, we began a thrilling roller-coaster ride," Walters wrote. "We followed Rosie's passion and compassion, her feuds and fearlessness, her humanity and humor."
Walters said she and O'Donnell "remain respectful and affectionate friends."
Roseanne Barr weighed in on Baron Cohen, also known as Borat. "He does offend some people's sensibilities, but the youth of today are offended if they're not offended," she wrote.
Scorsese, who often casts DiCaprio in his films, praised the 32-year-old screen idol/activist as a "true actor."
"DiCaprio is another guy a lot of us underestimated as a pretty-boy type," Adi Ignatius, a deputy managing editor at Time, told AP Television News.
The list includes 71 men and 29 women from 27 countries.
Other entertainers making the cut were Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Justin Timberlake, Tyra Banks, Cate Blanchett, America Ferrera, Tina Fey, John Mayer, Brian Williams, Michael J. Fox, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller.
Separately, Time named 14 "power givers" such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Angelina Jolie and Queen Rania al-Abdullah of Jordan.
"I had to express the worst time in her life and the moment when she received the worst information of her life," Jolie, 31, tells Glamour magazine in its June issue, on newsstands May 8. "It became the worst acting day of my life and really, the hardest thing I've ever done."
"A Mighty Heart," directed by Michael Winterbottom, is based on Pearl's account of her husband's abduction and murder in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy.
Dan Futterman plays Daniel Pearl. The movie, to be released by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Vantage, will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
"You know, Mariane, you're somebody who has every right to have a lot of anger," Jolie tells Pearl, who was also interviewed for the Glamour article. "And the fact that you take a deep breath and stand up with a very clear voice of tolerance and dialogue that's why I wanted to do the film."
"Well, that kind of self-control hasn't been easy for me," replies Pearl, who was five months pregnant with her son, Adam, when she learned of her husband's fate.
Her first reaction was to grab "an AK-47 from one of the guards. ... If they had brought a person who was guilty (of Pearl's murder) to the house, I would have shot him," she says.
"But then I would have destroyed everything Danny believed in, and everything we did as a couple and I couldn't do that. Putting that gun down was my biggest act of courage."
Pearl says she wanted to meet Jolie after reading an interview with the actress a few years ago.
"I thought, `This woman could be my friend.' I'd never experienced anything like that before in my life. It was something in her tone, in the answers that she gave. I felt also that Maddox and Adam (then both about 3) could be good friends. So I sent her a note saying, `Do you want to have a play date?'"
Says Jolie: "Her instincts were right we did have so much in common. And all the kids are great friends now. Zahara is madly in love with Adam."
"This is a happy day because it is not often enough that these children are represented in this town," Jolie said to a room crowded with cameras and reporters.
Jolie appeared with four others to open the Washington headquarters of Global Action for Children, a nonpartisan advocacy group formed in 2003.
The group, supported by a collection of charities, religious groups and nongovernmental organizations, wants the Bush administration to commit an additional $2.5 billion a year to education and to aiding orphans in developing countries.
"The crisis has far outpaced the funding," said Jennifer Delaney, the group's executive director.
Jolie said orphan children sometimes beat the odds and survive but often are enslaved, resort to prostitution or are forced to become child soldiers. She said vulnerable children could be recruited to terrorist organizations.
"Our government has the power to choose which path these children are going to take," Jolie told reporters at the National Press Club. "We know the consequences of our inaction."
Jolie has adopted three orphan children, but said any help that people in the U.S. can offer is better than nothing. "The best solution for anyone who is abandoned or displaced is to be home (in their own countries)," Jolie said. "I would support that first and foremost."
Jolie demurred when asked if her cause might be better served if she became more political or ran for elective office. "I certainly don't think anybody wants that," she said, laughing.
"I just think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period," she tells the magazine. "Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness."
Barrymore, 32, graces the cover of the issue that hits newsstands Friday. It's her fourth time on the list, but first as cover girl.
Making the cover "made my peacock feathers shine in the golden-hour light and extend to the heavens," says Barrymore, who stars in the upcoming Warner Bros. film "Lucky You," opposite Eric Bana.
Inside, she weighs in on a host of beauty-related topics. Her beauty rules for dating? "The only fundamental rule for me is to just be yourself," she says. "Let your freak-flag fly, and if someone doesn't get you, move on."
Barrymore is one of 11 celebrities including Eva Longoria and the three Jessicas (Simpson, Alba and Biel) photographed for the issue without makeup.
"I find that men, in my past, have preferred me without it," Biel, 25, says of makeup.
Among others on the "Beautiful People" list: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Alicia Keys, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Garner, Scarlett Johansson, Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez.
Jolie, who adopted Pax Thien Jolie from a Vietnamese orphanage in March, filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court that would change the 3-year-old boy's name to Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt.
The filing, a formality required to legally change the boy's name, was first reported on the celebrity Web site TMZ.com.
Pitt has a daughter, Shiloh, with Jolie and has become the adoptive father of her other two adopted children, 5-year-old son, Maddox, from Cambodia, and 2-year-old daughter, Zahara, from Ethiopia.
Shiloh, Maddox and Zahara already share the last names of Jolie and Pitt, though the couple has not married and say they have no plans to wed.
The 31-year-old Oscar-winning actress co-starred with Pitt in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."
Jolie's representatives have explained that she adopted Pax as a single mother from Vietnam because that country does not permit unmarried couples to adopt children.
The couple will present their film A Mighty Heart out of competition when the fest kicks off on May 16. In the movie, which Pitt's company, Plan B, produced, Jolie plays Mariane Pearl, the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
("The story unfolds like a mystery," Jolie tells Entertainment Weekly. "You've got people collecting clues and trying to solve what happened. But it's also very real and personal. We didn't want it to be too melodramatic or too polished. We didn't want it to be a typical movie.")
Other celebs expected at the 11-day, 60th annual festival range from Jude Law and Leonardo DiCaprio to Jane Fonda, Quentin Tarantino and Bono, festival organizers in Paris said Thursday.
Some highlights:
Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and singer Norah Jones will set the red-carpet standard on opening night when they appear for director Wong Kar Wai's romance My Blueberry Nights.
Pitt himself stars in Ocean's 13, and will be joined in Cannes by George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and the rest of the cast for that film's world premiere.
DiCaprio is due to promote a special screening of the environmental documentary The Eleventh Hour, which he produced and co-wrote with filmmakers Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners.
Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg will be seen alongside Eva Mendes in director James Gray's gritty crime story, We Own The Night, which already has award buzz.
Past Palme d'Or winner Michael Moore will present the world premiere of his latest documentary, Sicko, a critique of the U.S. health care system.
Already generating demand for tickets: the weekend midnight screening of U2 3D, a 3-D film made during the band's most recent Latin American tour. Officials say the film will be shown in a theater specially equipped for the event and the band members will be on hand to greet fans.
Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson, Josh Brolin and a posse of other actors are riding in for No Country For Old Men, a sprawling Western adventure from perennial festival invitees Joel and Ethan Coen.
Taylor Momsen and Gabe Nevins will skate in with director Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, about a skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard.
After the film's lukewarm reception from American audiences, Quentin Tarantino will debut a special, longer version of his Grindhouse episode "Death Proof" alongside stars Rosario Dawson and Kurt Russell.
Unveiling a poster featuring festival veterans Bruce Willis, Penelope Cruz, Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche, organizers also announced that this year's nine-person jury, headed by The Queen director Stephen Frears, will include actresses Toni Collette, Maria De Medeiros, Maggie Cheung and Sarah Polley.
She blames the paparazzi for creating mayhem at a school where she was shooting scenes for the movie.
Her bodyguards who said they were trying to stave off photographers were accused of physically blocking parents from picking up their children. The gates of the school had been locked during filming, and a fracas took place when they were opened.
"It was not the film production that caused chaos," Jolie, 31, tells Entertainment Weekly magazine. "We were only guilty of bringing the paparazzi."
"A Mighty Heart," directed by Michael Winterbottom, is based on a memoir by Mariane Pearl, widow of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was abducted and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy.
Jolie plays Mariane Pearl and Dan Futterman plays Daniel Pearl. The film is scheduled for release in June by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Vantage.
"The story unfolds like a mystery," Jolie says. "You've got people collecting clues and trying to solve what happened. But it's also very real and personal. We didn't want it to be too melodramatic or too polished. We didn't want it to be a typical movie."
Winterbottom's shooting style is a little like the taping of a reality show. He uses handheld cameras, encourages as much improvisation as the story line allows, and follows his actors wherever they go.
"It could get intense. Michael and I would have disagreements over where he could follow me," Jolie says. "I just needed to know that if things got too heavy, there'd be a place for me to cry by myself."
Jolie won an Oscar for 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."
Marcheline Bertrand, 56, lost a battle with ovarian cancer on Jan. 27. An aspiring actress, Bertrand met Voight just after his Oscar nomination for 1969's Midnight Cowboy. They married in 1971, but Bertrand filed for divorce seven years later. They had two children.
Details of Bertrand's will surfaced in a legal filing entered in Los Angeles Superior Court on April 10.
The will also reveals Bertrand was a doting grandmother, having left $100,000 to her "beloved grandson" Maddox. It was updated with a note to "add Zahara and the new little precious one," leaving them $100,000 each.
With her estate worth more than $2 million, Bertrand requested that Jolie and her older brother James be co-executors of her will, with the bulk of her assets going to both children.
Voight wasn't available for comment. A longtime friend of his tells PEOPLE: "Jon paid spousal support to (Marcheline) years ago and was very generous to her. Where that dollar amount came from I have no idea."
Sources say Us Weekly, Star and other celebrity weeklies are so fed up with getting scooped by People, they've turned on Jolie and Brad Pitt with a vengeance.
Jolie - who recently adopted a 3-year-old Vietnamese boy she renamed Pax Thien -also has a Cambodian son, Maddox, and an Ethiopian daughter, Zahara, plus her biological daughter with Pitt, Shiloh.
"Angelina and Brad want to make sure Zahara doesn't feel alienated as the only black face in their family," a source told London's News of the World. Jolie herself recently said, "Should you balance the races, so there's another African person in the house for Zahara, after another Asian person in the house for Mad? We think so."
Jolie reportedly has already picked out a 1-year-old girl from Oure Cassoni in Chad and has her lawyers working on the adoption paperwork. "She is hoping to have her daughter home by the summer," a source told the British paper.
She'd better be generous with the baby pictures. The headline on Us last week blared, "Her Twisted Double Life," along with, "Her broken promise to be a stay-at-home mom . . . How she uses her kids to manipulate the media."
This week, Star went with "Angelina Walks Out on Brad! . . . and Dumps the Kids!" The tab says Jolie reneged on her promise to stay home with her kids and flew off to Chicago to film "Wanted."
She's also slated to star in "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Changeling," while Pitt will be busy promoting "Ocean's Thirteen" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and starting "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
When Jolie is in L.A., even though she has four full-time nannies, she leaves her three eldest kids at the $931-per-month preschool/day-care center on the Warner Bros. lot, Star reports, where other parents are upset with the special treatment Jolie gets. One flashpoint is a ban on cellphones because Jolie fears parents will take pictures of her kids.
Pitt's rep, Cindy Guagenti, told Page Six, "I wish people would leave them alone. They're trying to do something good." Jolie's manager, Guyer Kosinski, did not respond to questions e-mailed to him.
The Duk Lost Boys Clinic is the brainchild of John Dau, director of the non-profit organization Direct Change's Sudan Project and himself one of the "Lost Boys" of the Sudan.
His story is featured in the documentary God Grew Tired of Us, which Pitt executive produced.
Pitt and Jolie, who donated the money through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation, first learned of his efforts to build the clinic at the film's Hollywood premiere in January, according to a statement from Direct Change.
The clinic, set to open in the spring and serve more than 150,000 people, is located in the village Dau fled as a boy during Sudan's civil war in the late 1980s.
"Words cannot express my gratitude and the gratitude of the people of Duk County," Dau said in the statement. "Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt demonstrate the American spirit of generosity. Hopefully, their donation will inspire others to join with us to rebuild southern Sudan."
Jolie, 31, has a personal connection to the troubled African nation: As a goodwill ambassador for the United Nation's refugee agency, she recently traveled to Chad, where she met with refugees from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
Later, in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, she called upon the international community to intervene to stop the violence there.
Earlier this week, Jolie adopted her fourth child, 3-year-old Pax Thien Jolie, from Vietnam. "We are slowly beginning to build his trust and bond," she tells PEOPLE in its new issue. "But it will feel complete only when we are all together."
"You can imagine what courage it takes to be in all new surroundings with new people and a new language," Jolie said in an issue that hits newsstands April 2. "He is very strong."
Jolie, 31, flew to Vietnam earlier this week to adopt 3-1/2-year-old Pax, and on Wednesday returned to the United States to be with her companion, actor Brad Pitt, with whom she is raising three other children.
The Oscar-winning actress has a 5-year-old son, Maddox, and 2-year-old daughter, Zahara, both of whom were adopted. She gave birth last year to daughter Shiloh, who was fathered by Pitt.
"It will take (Pax) a while to realize he has a family, and that his new life is permanent and that it won't keep changing," she said. "I will stay at home to help Pax adjust to his new life."
As Jolie flew back to the United States, several reports surfaced that she was paid up to $2 million by People magazine for exclusive photos of her and the newly adopted boy, but a magazine spokeswoman said the figure was false.
"We never comment on the specifics of any negotiations but that number is completely inaccurate," People's spokeswoman said.
Jolie's representative also called the figure "not accurate" and noted any money received for the pictures goes to a non-profit foundation that disperses the funds to "a variety of charities."
Meanwhile Jolie, whose movie roles range from action hero Lara Croft in the "Tomb Raider" movies to a mental patient in "Girl, Interrupted" which won her the Oscar for supporting actress, told People she was content to stay at home and tend to her growing brood.
"I have four children now, and caring for them is the most important thing for me at the moment. I am very happy to be their mother," she said.
The actress and 3-year-old Pax Thien Jolie, whom she adopted last week from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, left Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport in a private jet on Wednesday, bound for home and, for Pax, a new life in the U.S.
Jolie, 31, understands the challenges her new son will face as the latest addition to the world's most famous multicultural family. "You can imagine what courage it takes to be in all new surroundings, with new people and a new language," she tells PEOPLE in its new issue. "He is very strong."
But she is committed to making his transition as smooth as possible. "It will take him a while to realize he has a family," she says, "and that his new life is permanent and that it won't keep changing."
The boy with the sweetly shy smile and the big brown eyes joins big brother Maddox, 5 (adopted from Cambodia), sister Zahara, 2 (adopted from Ethiopia) and 10-month-old Shiloh, the daughter born to Jolie and Brad Pitt, 43, in May.
As for Dad, because Vietnamese regulations don't allow unmarried couples to co-adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent while Pitt remained in Los Angeles, where he is filming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "He has specific days on the movie that couldn't be changed or production would run over," says his rep.
But Jolie still made sure to bring a welcoming committee: Joined by Maddox and Zahara Shiloh has been on the Button set every day with her father the new mom used her first few days with Pax to begin gently bonding with him and to allow her other kids to do the same.
"We are slowly beginning to build his trust and bond," Jolie says, "but it will feel complete only when we are all together."
For exclusive photos plus details on Angelina and Pax's first moments together, what Pax's life was like at the orphanage and more pick up this week's PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
Reuters photographers saw a private jet leave Hanoi's Noi Bai airport carrying the Hollywood star, children and assistants. Earlier, the group checked out of the historic French-colonial era Metropole Hotel.
Jolie, 31, finalized the adoption of a Vietnamese orphan on Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, according to the U.S.-based adoption agency that helped her.
The Oscar-winning actress arrived in southern Ho Chi Minh City a week ago, staying largely out of public view in hotels.
The boy's birth name is Pham Quang Sang but Jolie renamed him Pax Thien Jolie, a name that combines the Latin word for peace and the Vietnamese word for sky or heaven.
He is her fourth child she is raising with her partner, Hollywood star Brad Pitt.
The 3- year old had lived in a Ho Chi Minh City orphanage since being abandoned at birth until last Thursday when Jolie completed adoption procedures with Vietnamese authorities there.
She traveled to Hanoi on Monday for the obligatory U.S. embassy appointment and collection of a visa so the child could travel to the United States, the adoption agency said.
Jolie traveled to Vietnam with her 5-year-old son Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia, and 2-year-old daughter Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia. She gave birth last year in Namibia to her first biological child, a daughter fathered by Pitt named Shiloh.
Jolie has remained out of public view since arriving in southern Ho Chi Minh City last Wednesday to pick up the 3 1/2-year-old boy from an orphanage and traveling to Hanoi on Monday to complete the adoption.
The boy's birth name is Pham Quang Sang but Jolie has renamed him Pax Thien Jolie, a name that combines the Latin word for peace and the Vietnamese word for sky or heaven.
"The Vietnamese authorities had already cleared the adoption, and the U.S. Embassy approved the adoption on Tuesday," said spokeswoman Laura Feragen on behalf of Philadelphia-based nonprofit agency Adoptions From the Heart.
"They will pick up Pax's visa on Wednesday and they are free to go home," she said.
Oscar-winning Jolie, 31, traveled to Vietnam with her 5-year-old son Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia, and 2-year-old sister Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia.
She also has a biological child Shiloh Nouvel with actor and companion Brad Pitt.
An online newspaper on Tuesday reported that as Jolie finalized the paperwork, her adopted sons played and communicated by sign language in the lobby of the historic luxury Metropole Hotel in Hanoi.
"Maddox and Sang played in the lobby and they seemed to get along really well," the online VNExpress quoted an unidentified hotel staff member as saying. "They don't understand each other's language, but they used sign language to communicate."
Completion of the adoption came as Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety reported on Tuesday that Jolie has been cast in her next movie, an action film called "Wanted," set to begin shooting in Eastern Europe in May. Variety said she will play an assassin who teaches the ropes to an aspiring hitman.
Jolie, her family and their assistants arrived in Hanoi on Monday and checked into the white facade Metropole Hotel, which opened during French colonial rule in 1901. It has rooms named for Charlie Chaplin, an early Hollywood star, and the English author Graham Greene.
During Tuesday's lunch hour, a silver minivan with darkened windows -- thought to be carrying Jolie -- drove quickly into the Rose Garden Tower, one of two U.S. Embassy buildings in the Vietnamese capital. The vehicle left about 35 minutes later.
Security in front of the embassy increased noticeably before the vehicle arrived. U.S. officials declined comment on Jolie's adoption, saying it was a private matter.
Jolie has remained out of public view since arriving in southern Ho Chi Minh City last Wednesday to pick up the 3 1/2-year-old boy from an orphanage and traveling to Hanoi on Monday to complete the adoption.
The boy's birth name is Pham Quang Sang but Jolie has renamed him Pax Thien Jolie, a name that combines the Latin word for peace and the Vietnamese word for sky or heaven.
"The Vietnamese authorities had already cleared the adoption, and the U.S. Embassy approved the adoption on Tuesday," said spokeswoman Laura Feragen on behalf of Philadelphia-based nonprofit agency Adoptions From the Heart.
"They will pick up Pax's visa on Wednesday and they are free to go home," she said.
Oscar-winning Jolie, 31, traveled to Vietnam with her 5-year-old son Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia, and 2-year-old sister Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia.
She also has a biological child Shiloh Nouvel with actor and companion Brad Pitt.
An online newspaper on Tuesday reported that as Jolie finalized the paperwork, her adopted sons played and communicated by sign language in the lobby of the historic luxury Metropole Hotel in Hanoi.
"Maddox and Sang played in the lobby and they seemed to get along really well," the online VNExpress quoted an unidentified hotel staff member as saying. "They don't understand each other's language, but they used sign language to communicate."
Jolie, her family and their assistants arrived in Hanoi on Monday and checked into the white facade Metropole Hotel, which opened during French colonial rule in 1901. It has rooms named for Charlie Chaplin, an early Hollywood star, and the English author Graham Greene.
During Tuesday's lunch hour, a silver minivan with darkened windows -- thought to be carrying Jolie -- drove quickly into the Rose Garden Tower, one of two U.S. embassy buildings in the Vietnamese capital. The vehicle left about 35 minutes later.
Security in front of the embassy increased noticeably before the vehicle arrived.
U.S. officials declined comment on Jolie's adoption, saying it was a private matter.
Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch") is directing the adaptation of the comic by J.G. Jones and Mark Millar.
Michael Brandt and Derek Haas wrote the script, which is set in a dark alternate world in which super-villains run everything. A young man discovers that his recently killed father was a particularly villainous assassin (fittingly named The Killer) and that he inherited certain of his dad's traits.
According to Variety, Jolie will play a veteran assassin who educates the nascent young killer. The "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" star came aboard the project after Dean Georgaris ("Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life") rewrote the character for her strengths.
Jolie, whose next film is the completed Mariane Pearl drama "A Mighty Heart," recently signed on to star for Clint Eastwood in the Universal drama "The Changeling."
Jolie, who has been pursued by photographers and TV crews, was met at Hanoi airport by four cars and driven to the historic Metropole hotel in the city center, people inside and outside of the hotel said.
Jolie has stayed out of public view in Vietnam since her arrival in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday night to adopt an almost three-and-a-half year old boy from an orphanage.
The boy was re-named Pax Thien Jolie, the Oscar-winning actress's fourth child, when she completed procedures with Vietnamese authorities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest urban area with 8 million people.
The adoption will become final once U.S. embassy officials in Hanoi approve the paperwork for the child to travel to the United States, Vietnamese officials said.
The star of the Tomb Raider series has two other adopted children and a biological daughter with partner and Hollywood star Brad Pitt.
A U.S.-based adoptions agency that handled the adoption for Jolie said in a statement on Friday that she began the process last summer. The length of time for adoptions in Vietnam varies, but the average is about six months.
Jolie, 31, was seen by photographers on Saturday inside a car arriving at her hotel in the center of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest urban area with about 8 million people.
She arrived there on Wednesday night to adopt an almost three-and-a-half year old boy from an orphanage. Jolie has two other adopted children and a biological daughter with partner and Hollywood star Brad Pitt.
The U.S.-based Adoptions From The Heart agency, which handled the adoption for Jolie, said in a statement she began the process last summer in Vietnam.
"Throughout Ms Jolie's adoption process, she received no preferential treatment from the Vietnamese government or Adoptions From The Heart," said the statement by Heidi Gonzalez, the non-profit agency's Vietnam coordinator.
"Contrary to earlier reports, her application was not fast-tracked," said the statement issued on Friday by the agency based in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.
On March 9, Vietnam's senior adoption official Vu Duc Long said, "In this case, things can move faster because she's a celebrity and she has already found a child."
Some people complained Jolie received preferential treatment, but several parents said the boy's welfare was the most important issue.
The length of time for adoptions in Vietnam varies, but the average is about six months, sometimes longer.
Some Vietnamese involved in international adoptions believe Jolie made a donation to the orphanage where the boy has lived since infancy, but Gonzalez said she "has neither made, nor promised to make any financial contributions" to the orphanage.
The Hollywood star collected the boy, re-named Pax Thien Jolie, from the Tam Binh orphanage on Thursday and signed adoption papers with authorities in the southern city.
The adoption will become final once U.S. embassy officials in Hanoi approve the paperwork for the child to travel to the United States, Vietnamese officials said.
Jolie's keeping out of public view comes a day after the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper quoted the working actress as saying she would now be a stay-at-home mom, focusing on her growing family, now that she has added 3-year-old Pax Thien Jolie from Vietnam to her brood.
Jolie also apologized for exposing her new son to the media frenzy that greeted them in his native country. The paparazzi have been hot on the actress's trail since Wednesday, when she arrived in Vietnam to collect the child. She was also followed from the orphanage to the Ministry of Justice for an adoption ceremony on Thursday.
Pax, whose given name before he was adopted was Pham Quang, is the fourth child for the California-based, 31-year-old actress and Brad Pitt. (Their brood includes Maddox, 5, who was adopted from Cambodia; Zahara, 2, who was adopted from Ethiopia; and 10-month-old Shiloh, who was born to the couple last May.)
The U.S.-based Adoptions From The Heart agency, which handled Pax's adoption, said in a statement that Jolie was given no preferential treatment when it came to the adoption, which the organization says was begun last summer in Vietnam.
"Contrary to earlier reports, her application was not fast-tracked," according to the statement from the suburban-Philadelphia-based agency.
While some in Vietnam who work in international adoptions suggested that Jolie made a donation to the Tam Binh orphanage where Pax has lived since infancy Adoptions From The Heart coordinator Heidi Gonzalez said that the actress "has neither made, nor promised to make any financial contributions" to the facility.
"As we do with all of our clients, Adoptions From The Heart celebrates the miracle of adoption, and wishes the Jolie-Pitt family much joy," added Gonzalez.
"I will stay at home to help Pax adjust to his new life," Jolie told Friday's Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper, according to a translation on the Associated Press. "I have four children and caring for them is the most important thing for me at the moment. I am very proud and happy to be their mother."
Jolie and her new son went through an emotional introduction at Thursday's formal welcoming ceremony, during which the 3-year-old Vietnamese boy started crying when his new mom knelt down to talk to him.
As for all the attention brought to her new son, Jolie tells the newspaper: "Photographs and press coverage will make him upset. I'm very worried about that. I would like to say I'm sorry for bringing this into Pax's life."
Since arriving in Vietnam on Wednesday, Jolie, 31, and her son, Maddox, 5, have been followed by a horde of photographers and reporters.
But in answering those who have questioned the adoption, Jolie says, "Everyone would agree that children need to have a family. I have the ability to help children fulfill that desire. Why should I say no?"
Pax, whose given name before he was adopted was Pham Quang, is the fourth child for the actress and her partner, Brad Pitt. Their brood includes Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia, Zahara, 2, who was adopted from Ethiopia, and 10-month-old Shiloh, who was born to the couple last year.
Reports said the almost three-and-a-half year-old boy, renamed Pax Thien Jolie, cried when he first saw his adoptive mother at the Ho Chi Minh City orphanage where he has lived since infancy.
Jolie was quick to hug him and told him in Vietnamese "Khong sao dau, khong sao dau" (No problem, no problem) and immediately started playing with him, Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported.
Oscar-winning actress Jolie kept out of public view after receiving the Vietnamese boy, but her photograph was on front pages of several of Friday's newspapers, which are all state-run in communist-ruled Vietnam.
The boy's caregiver said his favorite dishes included fried noodle and yoghurt and that he can count from 1 to 10 in English, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported.
Jolie fetched the boy from the orphanage on Thursday and signed adoption papers with authorities in the southern city, which is Vietnam's largest urban area with 8 million people.
The adoption will be final once U.S. embassy officials in Hanoi approve the paperwork for the child to travel to the United States, Vietnamese officials said.
Reporters, photographers and TV crews outside the hotel where Jolie was staying have not seen her since a car took her from the government building where she signed adoption papers on Thursday.
Jolie, 31, has two adopted children and a biological daughter with partner Hollywood star Brad Pitt.
She flew into Ho Chi Minh City by chartered plane on Wednesday night from Japan. Her son Maddox and daughters Zahara and Shiloh Nouvel accompanied her.
Jolie visited Vietnam in November and filed papers in early March through an unidentified U.S. adoption agency without Pitt because under the law in Vietnam an unmarried couple cannot adopt a child, while a single person can.
The Oscar-winning actress and five-year-old son Maddox, himself adopted in neighbouring Cambodia, picked up Pham Quang Sang from his orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City before a formal ceremony with Vietnamese officials.
"They tried to make friends with the Vietnamese boy, who cried when he saw them because for him, they are strangers," said Nguyen Van Trung, the director of the Tam Binh centre for orphans and abandoned children.
"Jolie was very moved. Both of them tried to comfort the little boy."
She tried some Vietnamese to comfort him, repeating the phrase "khong sao dau," or "no problem," to the boy, whom she plans to rename Pax Thien -- a combination of the Latin word for peace and the Vietnamese word for heaven.
Trung said the children and female staff at the orphanage "said farewell to Jolie and the two boys" and gave the actress flowers.
It was the latest celebrity adoption of a child from the developing world after pop star Madonna and her director husband Guy Ritchie adopted a baby boy from a Malawi orphanage last October amid global controversy.
Sang is the fourth child for Jolie and fellow film star partner Pitt, who lives with her in New Orleans but did not join her for the Vietnam visit.
Aside from Maddox, the golden couple have a two-year-old daughter, Zahara, who was adopted in Ethiopia, and a biological daughter, Shiloh, born last May in Namibia.
Sang, abandoned in a local hospital when he was a month old, had to be soothed by orphanage staff who promised him a "fun excursion," Trung said.
On Thursday morning, Trung said, "there was a small ceremony, announcing the decision of the chairman of the city's people's committee.
"Jolie then said she agreed to adopt the child."
The adoption was confirmed later in Ho Chi Minh City when Jolie signed the official documents at the city's justice department.
"After that, she took a picture with everybody, together with the two boys. She will handle the rest of the administrative procedure with the foreign side because she is a foreigner," a senior department official told AFP.
Jolie and the two children, travelling with several bodyguards, were set to fly by private jet to the capital Hanoi to complete US adoption formalities, although the date of the trip was not clear.
An embassy spokeswoman said US immigrant visas for adoptive children from Vietnam were always processed in Hanoi.
She declined to comment on Jolie's adoption, saying only "we try to provide any adoptive parent with a dignified process."
But at times Thursday, the scenes were chaotic as dozens of photographers tried to take pictures of the mother and her new child, who were carefully shielded from view behind the obscured windows of a Toyota minivan.
One of Jolie's bodyguards scuffled with a local photographer who had tried to open a door of the van to get a shot of Jolie, Maddox and Sang.
Sang now reportedly weighs 14.5 kilogrammes (39 pounds), is 93 centimetres (three feet) tall and likes noodles, yoghurt and football. He has recently learnt some basic English phrases and how to count to 10.
Jolie filed the adoption papers for him in late January through an agency as a sole parent, as she is not married to Pitt.
The couple, who acted together in the 2005 film "Mr and Mrs Smith," first met the boy during a Thanksgiving Day trip last November, while on a break from filming in India of "A Mighty Heart," a movie about the 2002 abduction and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl by Islamic militants in Pakistan.
Jolie -- who won an Oscar in 2000 for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Girl, Interrupted" -- is a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency and has visited scores of refugee camps in Africa, Asia and South America.
Officials said the boy had been renamed Pax Thien Jolie and the adoption would be final once U.S. consular and embassy officials give approval.
The boy had been registered as Pham Quang Sang at the Tam Binh orphanage in the city, Vietnam's largest urban area with 8 million people.
Jolie and the child were driven by car from the orphanage to the nine-storey Justice Department building in the city center to sign adoption documents. Jolie's car was seen leaving the underground parking area 30 minutes later.
"It is lucky for him. It's wonderful to be adopted by someone really famous. You can have a good life," said Nguyen Thi Thuong, 39, who was at the office with her British husband to register their child's birth certificate.
The boy adopted by Jolie is aged between 3 and 4. She has three other children -- an adoptive son and daughter and a biological daughter with actor and partner Brad Pitt.
Jolie flew into Ho Chi Minh City late on Wednesday from Japan on a chartered plane, accompanied by her son and daughters.
The boy, described by adoption authorities as healthy, had been abandoned at a local hospital in 2003 and cared for since at the orphanage.
Senior officials said Jolie's adoption had been speeded up, partly due to her celebrity status.
The actress, 31, filed adoption papers in early March through an unidentified American agency without Pitt. Under Vietnamese law, a single person may adopt a child but an unmarried couple may not.
In Vietnam, adoptions can take as little as one month if background checks are quickly completed along with confirmation the adopting family can support a child. The process can drag on for six months or more.
Jolie and Pitt visited Ho Chi Minh City last November and met children at the orphanage.
The couple say they have no plans to marry but are committed to raising their children together. Their biological daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, was born last year. Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia and Zahara from Ethiopia before her relationship with Pitt, who has now become their adoptive father.
The couple starred in the 2005 movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." They are also working together on the film "A Mighty Heart" about the killing of a U.S. journalist by Pakistani militants.
Jolie won an Oscar in 1999 for best supporting actress in "Girl, Interrupted." She starred in the 2001 movie "Tomb Raider" which was filmed in Cambodia, neighboring Vietnam.
Two Vietnamese online newspapers published reports and photographs of Jolie, 31, in a vehicle in the southern city after her arrival at the airport.
Jolie and partner Brad Pitt have one biological child and two adopted children. The Vietnamese boy, described by officials in the communist-run country as a healthy 3- to 4-year-old, would be the fourth for the movie-star family.
"All they need now is a signature from the vice mayor of Ho Chi Minh City to give the final approval," said Vietnam's top adoption official, Vu Duc Long, who is director of the International Adoption Department.
Sources familiar with the Jolie case said she would attend a "giving and receiving" ceremony with Vietnamese officials in the southern city on Thursday. The U.S. consulate would issue the child a passport to travel to the United States.
Jolie, 31, filed adoption papers in early March through an unidentified American agency without her partner Brad Pitt because under Vietnamese law, an unmarried couple may not adopt a child. Single people may adopt children under the law.
In Vietnam, adoptions have been known to take as little as one month if background checks and issues of whether the adopting family can support a child are quickly resolved.
However, the process can take six months or longer in some cases.
Long had said the child was a boy aged between 3 and 4 years from the Tam Binh orphanage in the city of eight million people, Vietnam's largest urban area.
VNExpress online newspaper quoted orphanage director Nguyen Van Trung as saying the boy was healthy and liked to play soccer. The child had been abandoned at a local hospital and was admitted to the orphanage in 2003, Trung added.
Jolie and Pitt visited Ho Chi Minh City last November and met children at the orphanage. They have one biological child, Shiloh Nouvel who was born last year, and two adopted children -- son Maddox from Cambodia and daughter Zahara from Ethiopia.
Jolie and Pitt, who starred in the 2005 movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," have said they have no plans to marry but are committed to raising their children together. They are also working together on the film "A Mighty Heart" about the killing of a U.S. journalist by Pakistani militants.
Jolie won an Oscar in 1999 for best supporting actress in "Girl, Interrupted." She starred in the 2001 movie "Tomb Raider" which was filmed in Cambodia, neighboring Vietnam.
Officials in Ho Chi Minh City are reviewing Jolie's file and should complete their work by the end of the month at the latest, said Vu Duc Long, director of Vietnam's International Adoption Department.
Jolie can pick up the child anytime after the application is approved, he said.
The child was abandoned at a Ho Chi Minh City hospital as a baby and then taken to the nearby Tam Binh orphanage, where he has lived ever since, said Nguyen Van Trung, the orphanage director.
Shortly after he arrived at the orphanage, the Tam Binh staff tried unsuccessfully to locate the boy's birth parents.
"He is in good health," Trung said. "He is a little bit shy."
The boy gets along well with other children and loves to play soccer, Trung said.
The adoption is being processed quickly because the boy is an older child, and his files were nearly complete before Jolie decided to adopt, Trung said.
Jolie and Brad Pitt have three children: 5-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia; 2-year-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia; and another daughter, Shiloh, who was born to the couple in May.
The pair made a surprise visit to the Tam Binh orphanage at Thanksgiving, when they were spotted cruising around Ho Chi Minh City on a motorbike.
"The first two years I just cried constantly," the actress told Newsweek. "I couldn't really talk about the situation without being emotional. And I went through a period of just complete lack of hope."
During her February visit to the Oure Cassoni camp on the border between Darfur and Chad she came across a disturbed 7-year-old boy whose family had tied him to a pole to stop him wandering away or banging himself. The boy had spent 48 hours hiding in the bush after his village was bombed.
"I talked to him for like half an hour and just kind of looked at him for a long time before he touched me," Jolie told the magazine, "and there was a little boy in there who was open to a kind sound."
Jolie has visited camps in Africa, Pakistan and Cambodia as part of her work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She said she travels unaccompanied on commercial flights, and doesn't care about people who describe what she does as celebrity tourism.
"I don't know if anybody saying that has spent the last six years of their life going to over 30 camps and really spending time with these people," said Jolie, who wants to return to Cambodia.
According to Variety, the studio and production company are looking to fasttrack the J. Michael Straczynski-scripted period drama. Production could begin later this year, which would likely make it Eastwood's next directing effort.
The film is based on true events in 1920s Los Angeles and focuses on a woman (Jolie) whose child is kidnapped and returned. The woman begins to suspect that the returned child isn't actually hers. Uh-oh. Don't you hate it when that happens?
Brian Grazer and Ron Howard will produce for Imagine along with Rob Lorenz of Eastwood's Malpaso shingle.
"The Changeling" was considered a possible directing effort for Howard, but the one-time Oscar winner's slate was too busy, so the call went out to two-time Oscar winner Eastwood, a recent nominee for "Letters from Iwo Jima."
Jolie, most recently seen in "The Good Shepherd," has "The Mighty Heart" and "Beowulf" upcoming. In addition, Jolie has been linked to an adaptation of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," though no timetable is in place for that Randall Wallace-scripted flick.
Jolie chose the boy, who is between 3 and 4 years old, during a recent visit to the Tam Binh orphanage on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, said Vu Duc Long, the head of the justice ministry's international adoption department in Hanoi.
Under ordinary circumstances, it takes about four months to process an adoption after the forms arrive, Long said. If the prospective parent already has chosen a child, the adoption can be completed in just three months.
"Three months would be the longest," Long said, adding that Jolie's case could be processed faster than that.
Long confirmed last week that Jolie had filed adoption papers, but did not provide any details about the child or how long the process would take.
Jolie initiated the adoption process in the United States, but her application only arrived at Long's office last week. His department has approved the application and sent it to officials in Ho Chi Minh City, who also must review it.
Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, have three children: 5-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia; 2-year-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia; and another daughter, Shiloh, who was born to the couple in May.
The pair made a surprise visit to the Tam Binh orphanage at Thanksgiving, when they were spotted cruising around Ho Chi Minh City on a motorbike.
A U.S. adoption agency representing the 31-year-old actress filed the papers at Vietnam's International Adoption Agency, said Vu Duc Long, the agency's director.
"She just filed the papers this week," Long said.
Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, have three children: 5-year-old son Maddox, adopted from Cambodia; 2-year-old daughter Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia; and another daughter, Shiloh, who was born to the couple in May.
Long would not name the U.S. adoption agency working with Jolie, who applied to adopt as a single parent.
A phone message left with Jolie's Los Angeles-based manager, Geyer Kosinski, wasn't immediately returned.
Jolie and Pitt, 43, made a surprise visit to Vietnam at Thanksgiving, when they visited the Tam Binh orphanage, on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.
Their pictures were splashed across the front page of Vietnamese newspapers, showing the couple cruising around Ho Chi Minh City on a motorbike.
Nguyen Van Trung, the director of the Tam Binh orphanage, declined to comment. He said he was awaiting the papers from the International Adoption Agency.
"It's always hard to see decent people, families, living in such difficult conditions," said Jolie, who reached the 26,000-person Oure-Cassoni camp after crossing a Saharan sandstorm.
"What is most upsetting is how long it is taking the international community to answer this crisis," she said in a statement released Wednesday by the Geneva-based U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Oscar-winning actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador completed her trip Tuesday.
Jolie said it is about time that those responsible for crimes against humanity in Darfur face international justice.
"Today, many refugees seemed to have a new sense of hope and they want to see those guilty brought to trial," said Jolie, who welcomed the first accusations by the International Criminal Court's prosecutor against individuals for war crimes in the four-year-old Darfur conflict.
On Tuesday, the ICC's chief prosecutor linked Sudan's government to atrocities in Darfur, naming a junior minister as a war crimes suspect who allegedly helped recruit, arm and bankroll the murderous desert fighters known as the janjaweed. A janjaweed militia leader was also named in the case.
The conflict has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced 2.5 million people. Fighting erupted in February 2003 when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Khartoum government. Sudan's government is accused of unleashing the Arab janjaweed, which is blamed for widespread atrocities against ethnic African civilians in Darfur.
"In order to feel safe enough to return home, these people said they would need to know that the men who attacked them had been stripped of their weapons," Jolie, 31, said. "This is a very important day for international justice. The decisions of the ICC could make a big difference in the lives of these women and their children."
On Tuesday, Mia Farrow told a press conference at the United Nations that she had encountered burned villages and terrified refugees with no help in sight on her recent trip to Central African Republic and Chad.
The 62-year-old actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador recalled impressions from her visits earlier this month to villages and refugee camps along border areas where violence has spilled over from Sudan's Darfur region.
This time, Jolie, the Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, will not be allowed to actually go to Darfur itself, due to the violent, unstable conditions. On Sunday, Jolie arrived in N'Djamena, Chad, and she's scheduled to visit refugee camps about two miles from the border of Sudan.
Jolie is expected to stay there for a few days, Trevor Neilson, Jolie's political adviser, tells PEOPLE. Her aim with this latest trip is to continue to raise awareness about the continuing crisis, and also see the current conditions which have deteriorated since her last trip in 2004.
In other Jolie news, the actress has been nominated to join the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank of international stalwarts including four Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright. Other members of the group include Alan Greenspan, Tom Brokaw and Richard Holbrooke.
Neilson says the nomination (submitted by a sitting member of the council) was approved, but the board will still need to give its final approval in June. Said Neilson: "Few people are more committed than she is to these issues."
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may be trying to adopt a fourth child, this one from Vietnam, according to press reports.
The Hollywood couple have reportedly filed papers with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to adopt a boy from the Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's former capital where the stars spent Thanksgiving.
According to Long Duc Vu, the head of the Bureau of International Adopted Children -- aka the Ministry of Justice -- authorities in Vietnam still haven't been contacted. The director of Tam Binh Orphanage, Trung Van Nguyen, is still awaiting direction from the Ministry of Justice.
If the adoption goes through, the boy would join the family-in-progress consisting of adopted boy Maddox, 5, adopted girl Zahara, 2, and Jolie-Pitt blood offspring Shiloh, 9 months. The couple is reportedly looking to adopt a boy around the age of 3 or 4.
The Jolie-Pitts currently make their home in New Orleans, but have been jetting around the world for various work-related, personal and humanitarian purposes. Jolie, 31, last starred in "The Good Shepherd" and can be heard as the voice of Grendel's mother this summer in "Beowulf." Pitt, 43, starred in the Oscar-nominated "Babel," and next stars in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," which will be released in the fall.
Bertrand died Saturday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Jolie said in a news release. No age was provided.
Jolie, her older brother, James Haven, and her boyfriend, Brad Pitt, were at the hospital Saturday, according to the news release.
Bertrand, who had small roles in the movies "Lookin' to Get Out" in 1982 and "The Man Who Loved Women" in 1983, raised Jolie and her brother after divorcing their father, Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, when Jolie was a toddler.
A private funeral was planned.
In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai.
The actress traveled to the Asian country to take a meeting on behalf of the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Project, her charity aiding her son's native country of Cambodia.
According to MJP co-president Stephan Bognar, he and Jolie met with officials from the International Finance Corporation's Mekong Private Sector Development Facility, a privately funded World Bank initiative that promotes economic development in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Despite Internet rumors, Pitt was in New Orleans, where he's filming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and couldn't make the trip and Jolie was not in Vietnam for another adoption.
Now the actors, along with kids Maddox, 5, Zahara, 2, and Shiloh, 7 months, are back together in the Big Easy, where Pitt and Jolie recently bought a six-bedroom, $3.5 million house.
Pitt is also been working on a development project of his own in the city: He worked with the environmental organization Global Green USA to find an Earth-friendly plan for rebuilding neighborhoods ravaged by Katrina a project that is on track to begin construction in February or March.
Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and their three children have moved from Hollywood to New Orleans, reports Us Weekly.
"We love it there," says Jolie. "The kids are going to go to school there. We're really looking forward to it."
Son Maddox is already 5-years-old and thus ready for kindergarten or the first grade. Daughters Zahara, 2, and Shiloh, 7 months, won't be old enough for school for a while.
While Pitt is shooting locally for his film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Jolie is reportedly doing the mommy thing. The couple recently purchased their fourth house there, a $3.5 million, six-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath mansion in the French Quarter.
Earlier in April, architecture enthusiast Pitt had teamed up with Global Green USA to sponsor an eco-friendly design competition to rebuild parts of the city that were the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. It's likely that with it newest celebrity residents, New Orleans will get a tourism boost as well.
Pitt, 43, received a Golden Globe nomination for his supporting role in "Babel." This year, he'll star in the heist sequel "Ocean's Thirteen" and then the western "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."
Jolie, 31, last starred opposite Matt Damon in "The Good Shepherd." She next stars in "A Mighty Heart," which Pitt is producing, and the voice of Grendel's mother in "Beowulf."
Jolie told French magazine Gala she would "never take a child away from a place where adoption is illegal." Yet Jolie failed to mention that she adopted her Cambodian son, Maddox, through a group that was later found to be guilty of fraud. Now procedures have been tightened up, and it is next to impossible to adopt from Cambodia.
"Angelina is not a hero in the adoption community," Tatiana Beams, a Seattle-based international adoption advocate, told Page Six. Beams said parents and other adoption agents are disappointed Jolie "does nothing, or at least very little, to keep international adoption open and legal for American families and children."
Jolie later backtracked from her criticism of Madonna, and told People.com her words had been twisted. But some adoption advocates remain irked by the star's failure to acknowledge her own adoption issues.
When Jolie and then-husband Billy Bob Thorton adopted Maddox in 2002, she used Seattle International Adoptions, run by Lauryn Galindo - who was found guilty two years later of visa fraud and money laundering related to Cambodian adoptions.
Beams said that after Jolie's adoption scandal, Cambodia closed its doors, and many families who were waiting to acquire children were left empty-handed.
"She [Jolie] adopted Maddox under a questionable agency, where the directors went to prison." Beams added, "It would be nice to see her speak out on issues and policies surrounding international adoption."
David Ptasnik, director of Americans Adopting Orphans, admits he was uncomfortable with some practices of Jolie's agency, but said that at the time, "it was the largest agency in the world. Angelina Jolie wouldn't know that she was entering into a questionable adoption."
Madonna's adoption of the boy last year led some right groups in Malawi to question whether the American pop star had used her celebrity to bypass laws governing the adoption of Malawians by foreigners -- an argument denied by her lawyers.
"I was horrified by the attacks against her," Jolie, who has two adopted children herself, told French magazine Gala.
But Jolie added that she would have steered clear of adoption from a country like Malawi.
"Madonna knew the situation in Malawi ... In this country, there is not really a legal framework for adopting. Personally, I prefer staying on the right side of the law. I would never bring back a child from a country where adoption is illegal."
Jolie and actor Brad Pitt have formed one of Hollywood's most glamorous families with baby daughter Shiloh, adopted Ethiopian daughter Zahara and adopted Cambodian son Maddox.
Madonna signed interim adoption papers for one-year old David Banda when she and her husband, British film director Guy Ritchie, visited Malawi in October on what they said was a humanitarian mission to help orphans in the southern African nation.
David Banda, whose mother had died, was living in an orphanage and his father -- who initially voiced some questions about the process -- later said he supported it.
Under the interim order, David Banda was to stay with Madonna for 18 months during which time his progress would be monitored by Malawian officials before deciding whether final approval may be given for him to remain with her family.
Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous work has garnered the attention given "Blessed Art Thou," showing this weekend at Art Miami, an annual exposition of modern and contemporary art.
The painting has gotten much attention from celebrity web sites and blogs. Since the buzz started, the number of daily unique visitors to Kretz's own blog has jumped from an average of 30 to 15,000 on Wednesday.
"My intention was to ask a question and get people to think," Kretz said in a telephone interview Friday from Miami. "I had no idea so many people would be asking a question and thinking."
The painting -- acrylic and oil on linen -- depicts an angelic Jolie in the clouds, holding her newborn daughter, Shiloh, with children Maddox and Zahara at her legs. Below them is a Wal-Mart checkout line. The painting is for sale for $50,000 through Chelsea Galleria in Miami, which represents Kretz.
On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her child, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status."
Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, asked to comment about "Blessed Art Thou" on a Post blog, was unimpressed. "Once you've deciphered it, there's not much chance of giving it a second look," Gopnik wrote.
Pitt also said that the globe-trotting clan (who recently traveled to Panama) will add to their frequent-flier miles, temporarily relocating to New Orleans for the next several months to film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
"I do like it there," Pitt said. "It's one of our most unique cities and it certainly needs some help right now. I know it will do fine, and the people are just fantastic."
Pitt has visited New Orleans for the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort, cosponsoring with Global Green USA a contest to find an eco-friendly plan for housing and community centers. He also has been working with organizations helping AIDS orphans.
The family's most recent stop has been the Caribbean, where Pitt and Babel costar Cate Blanchett were on location for Benjamin Button.
"We wrapped at 6 in the morning, got on a plane and got our crusty asses here," he told PEOPLE.
Jolie and the children stopped over in Los Angeles while Pitt headed to Palm Springs with Blanchett for the film festival's awards gala. The festival honored the Babel cast as well as Blanchett for career achievement and director Alejandro Gonzαlez Iραrritu. (The movie is also nominated for several Golden Globes, including a best supporting actor nod for Pitt.)
"For us, it's about the ensemble award," said Pitt. "Given the international nature of our cast, it's a really nice honor."
During the gala, Pitt joined the cast on stage and the 1,800 people in the audience in singing happy birthday to costar Rinko Kikuchi, who turned 26 on Saturday.
Their visit was so low-key, one amazed resident shouted, "Are you Brad Pitt?"
According to the newspaper Panama America, the actor replied with a smile: "Sometimes."
The day before, the couple dropped in on a former U.S. military base and the construction site of Panama's new Biodiversity Museum, which will trace the country's natural history and include a botanical garden, the Associated Press reports.
The museum's designer is Pitt's pal, Los Angeles-based architect Frank Gehry, with whom the actor collaborated on designing a seaside development in Britain, PEOPLE reported in August 2005.
The AP reports that the couple planned to ring in the New Year in Costa Rica, where they'd spent Christmas with refugees from Colombia.
1 (1) Night at the Museum ........... $ 37.8 million
2 (2) The Pursuit of Happyness ...... $ 19.3 million
3 (7) Dreamgirls ..... $ 15.5 million
4 (5) Charlotte's Web ............... $ 12.0 million
5 (3) Rocky Balboa ... $ 11.4 million
6 (4) The Good Shepherd ............. $ 11.2 million
7 (6) Eragon ......... $ 8.5 million
8 (8) Happy Feet ..... $ 8.0 million
9(10) We Are Marshall ............... $ 7.8 million
10 (9) The Holiday .... $ 6.7 million
NOTE: Last weekend's rankings in parentheses.TOTALS TO DATE
Happy Feet ..... $ 176.2 million
Night at the Museum ........... $ 116.9 million
The Pursuit of Happyness ...... $ 98.4 million
Eragon ......... $ 56.7 million
Charlotte's Web ............... $ 52.9 million
The Holiday .... $ 50.0 million
Rocky Balboa ... $ 48.8 million
Dreamgirls ..... $ 38.5 million
The Good Shepherd ............. $ 35.3 million
We Are Marshall ............... $ 25.1 million
One resident yelled, "Are you Brad Pitt?" The actor smiled and said: "Sometimes," according to the newspaper Panama America.
Besides touring the capital, where they shopped for souvenirs and walked around a colonial neighborhood, Pitt and Jolie on Thursday visited a former U.S. military base and the construction site of Panama's new Biodiversity Museum, designed by Frank Gehry, at the entrance of the canal in the Amador district.
The newspaper said Pitt, who has a love of architecture, and Jolie were considering investing in the $56 million project and buying land in Panama.
The museum, which will trace Panama's natural history, will include a botanical garden.
Publicists for Pitt and Jolie couldn't be reached for comment.
The couple, who arrived Thursday, were to return on Saturday to Costa Rica, to celebrate the New Year at a beachfront resort where room prices range into the thousands of dollars a night.
Jolie, 31, arrived in Costa Rica last week as part of her work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She and Pitt spent Christmas Day with Colombian refugees.
She co-stars in the Universal Pictures drama "The Good Shepherd" with Matt Damon and Robert De Niro. Pitt stars in "Babel," a Paramount Vantage release.
A telephone call to Pitt's publicist in Beverly Hills, Calif., wasn't immediately returned Thursday.
Accompanied by their three children, a nanny and a personal chef, the Jolie-Pitt entourage, registered as "the Black family," have been staying at the resort since last Friday, the report said.
Jolie and Pitt have three children: 5-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia; 23-month-old daughter, Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia; and 6-month old daughter, Shiloh, who was born to the couple in May.
The hotel's Web site describes the facility as "spilling down a lush mountainside to an isthmus of golden sand," and says room rates range from $470 to $6,800 a night.
Jolie, 31, and Pitt, 43, spent Christmas Day in Costa Rica with refugee children and families from Colombia, also part of Jolie's ambassadorship for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the agency said.
There are about 11,500 refugees in Costa Rica, most of whom fled Colombia because of the conflict among leftist guerrillas, soldiers and paramilitary forces.
"I am deeply affected by having had the opportunity to be with them," said Costa Rica's former Culture Minister Guido Saenz, who gave the couple a tour of the country's art museum. "They have a mixture of physical beauty, great talent and an altruistic attitude."
Jolie co-stars in the Universal Pictures drama "The Good Shepherd" with Matt Damon and Robert De Niro. Pitt stars in "Babel," a Paramount Vantage release.
Back in November, during a stealth family visit to the homeland of their son Maddox, 5, the couple pledged to expand the scope of the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Project (MJP), which Jolie launched more than four years ago as a conservation initiative.
They've donated millions of dollars and teamed up with Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and his antipoverty organization Millennium Promise on an economic-development program in northwestern Cambodia. Seventy MJP workers will work with Sachs's group on activities including rice planting, distribution of bed nets to fight malaria, school meal programs and providing medicines for clinics to create Asia's first Millennium Village.
"We have learned so much," Jolie, who was awarded honorary Cambodian citizenship in 2004, tells PEOPLE, "and I think we are on the right track."
During their stay in November, the family also traveled to the capital city of Phnom Penh to visit the Maddox Chivan Children's Center, a facility to care for kids affected by tuberculosis and AIDS, which was opened this past February with substantial financial assistance from Jolie.
"They arrived and just couldn't hold enough kids," says Anne Goldfeld, cofounder of the Cambodian Health Committee, which operates the center. "They were very natural, very real, very respectful and very interested. We wouldn't have been able to do it without her."
In the coming year, Jolie and Pitt also hope to boost Cambodia's economic development by encouraging tourism. "We hope people will travel to Cambodia," says Jolie. "The people there have overcome so much."
No matter what, Cambodia has a permanent place in their own hearts. "It was incredibly moving," says Pitt, "to visit my son's country."
To find out more about efforts supported by Pitt and Jolie, go to millenniumpromise.org, cambodianhealthcommittee.org and tourismcambodia.com.
For more on this story, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
Jolie arrived Monday to visit a group of mostly Colombian refugee children and families and to meet Costa Rican officials, the UNHCR said in a statement.
There are about 11,500 refugees in this Central American country. Most of them fled Colombia because of a conflict between leftist guerrillas, soldiers and paramilitary forces.
"The conflict in Colombia is the greatest humanitarian tragedy in the Western Hemisphere, but it receives very little international attention," the Oscar-winning actress said after she arrived in San Jose. "My Christmas message to Colombian refugees and to the millions of displaced people in Colombia is that the world has not totally forgotten them."
An estimated three million Colombians have been forced from their homes by more than two decades of armed conflict, and most are internally displaced, essentially refugees in their own country.
Another 500,000 have fled to other countries in the region. Together, the UNHCR said they make up the largest single population of concern anywhere in the world.
UNHCR said this was Jolie's second trip to the region since she became a goodwill ambassador for the refugee agency in 2001. It said she went to Ecuador in 2002 and later wrote a personal journal of her meetings with Colombian refugees in that country.
That is not surprising given that its director, Robert De Niro, starred in Godfather II and must have absorbed some of Francis Ford Coppola's filmmaking flourishes.
The mesmerizing espionage thriller chronicles the inception and ascendancy of the CIA. At its heart is the stoic Edward Wilson (Matt Damon, in a superb, nuanced performance).
Wilson is an idealistic Yale student who harbors a tragic past. Shortly after his recruitment into the college's Skull-and-Bones secret society, he is asked to spy on a professor who seems to be a Nazi sympathizer (Michael Gambon). Upon graduation, he is approached (by De Niro in a small but important part) to work for the Office of Strategic Services, the CIA's precursor. His acceptance of the offer, which entails a stint in Europe during World War II, changes his destiny. A principled and patriotic young man, he soon becomes paranoid and coldhearted, unsure whom to trust.
Just before taking the assignment, Wilson is embroiled in an unlikely tryst with a friend's sister (Angelina Jolie), who becomes pregnant. He marries her, but the marriage is the only part of the film that doesn't feel authentic. Perhaps it is the casting of Jolie as the lonely wife he never really loved. She capably plays the part, but it's hard to picture her settling for a life of quiet desperation.
The fascinating relationship is between Wilson and his son (Eddie Redmayne). At first, Wilson seems coldly unresponsive to the boy, but as each grows older, a bond develops.
The saga clocks in at nearly three hours and feels too long. Still, it is a complex story spanning three decades and takes a while to unfold. It jumps back and forth between the late '30s and the early '60s and the Bay of Pigs mission and its aftermath. The plot can be hard to follow initially, but it soon grows clearer and more compelling.
Supporting players put in strong performances, notably Gambon, John Turturro, Alec Baldwin and William Hurt.
Apparently, De Niro has long had an interest in intelligence-gathering, and The Good Shepherd is the culmination of his fascination. What makes the story work so powerfully is his focus on a multidimensional individual Wilson thereby creating a stirring personal tale about the inner workings of the clandestine government agency.
The latest overlong would-be masterpiece, "The Good Shepherd," traces the origins of the CIA through the eyes of one of its earliest agents (played with powerful stoicism by Matt Damon) and runs a butt-numbing two hours and 40 minutes.
While it can be suspenseful in its Cold War, cat-and-mouse intrigue, and features some great performances, director Robert De Niro's film simply doesn't maintain the sort of tension it needs for the duration.
And it completely wastes Angelina Jolie, who's woefully miscast as Damon's wife. She is simply too va-va-voomy to play a patrician, East Coast senator's daughter. It's also incredibly hard to accept that she would not only throw herself at him but on him the night they meet in the woods in front of a campfire, no less, with everyone they know nearby. (Not that any guy would mind having that happen; it just seems implausible, even in your wildest fantasies.)
As pioneering agent Edward Wilson, Damon has a relationship that's much more believable with his Soviet counterpart, whom he knows as "Ulysses," played by Oleg Stefan. There's a great spy-vs.-spy banter in their exchanges, a natural interest that goes beyond national security.
But in the end you have to believe that Edward would be willing to sacrifice his wife and son (Eddie Redmayne) for his country he's idealistic, yes, but is that enough? We just don't know enough about what drives him to make that possible.
It's a testament to Damon's abilities and his ever-expanding range that he's able to convey any presence at all in the role. Edward is supposed to be enigmatic precisely the reason he's recruited out of Yale University and the elite Skull and Bones society to serve as one of the founding members of the Office of Strategic Services, which would become the Central Intelligence Agency.
Buttoned-down with his glasses and his proper little hat, he blends in and reveals nothing. That's why he has such an exceptional career, which ranges from World War II through the Bay of Pigs. The script from Oscar winner Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump") jumps around in time, showing us who Edward has become before detailing how he got that way.
But it's hard to build a movie around a central figure like that. Fortunately, Roth and De Niro (directing for the second time following 1993's "A Bronx Tale") have surrounded him with an illustrious array of supporting players, one of whom De Niro plays himself: Gen. Bill Sullivan, the uncensored Army official who chooses the agency's promising young recruits.
Also among the esteemed cast are Alec Baldwin as the brash FBI agent who first approaches Edward in the shadows of the Yale campus; Michael Gambon as the predatory English professor accused of being a Nazi sympathizer; and William Hurt as a top agency official who comes under suspicion. And John Turturro has come excellent scenes as Edward's right-hand man, who seems to revel in the dirty work inherent to dealing with the bad guys.
As in any decent spy movie, though, most of the dealings are clandestine, and the requisite paranoia and elaborate subterfuge can be dazzling for the audience, at least, if not for the participants. Secret meetings and code words, surveillance footage and underground passageways "The Good Shepherd" is loaded with them, all of which take a toll on Edward's already stilted home life.
At one point, Edward's wife, who goes by the WASPy nickname Clover, screeches at him in a drunken rage about how she has no idea who he is or what he does for a living (which is funny, considering her high-profile role as a spy in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith").
As protracted as the film is, De Niro himself should have followed the advice Edward receives from a veteran spy: "Get out while you still can, while you still have a soul."
"The Good Shepherd," a Universal Pictures release, is rated R for some violence, sexuality and language. Running time: 160 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
"In reality, both the people we're involved with couldn't have cared less about that (love scene) because they know us," Jolie told Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"It's one of those things where it's like the least threatening person," the 31-year-old actress said. "Good luck to you guys, I hope it's not too awkward."
Said Damon, who co-starred with Pitt in the "Ocean's Eleven" and "Ocean's Twelve" movies: "It's weird. ... We all know each other."
Damon married Luciana Bozan while filming "The Good Shepherd." The couple have a 6-month-old daughter, Isabella.
The 36-year-old actor said getting married had more of an impact than he thought it would. "We already had the house in Florida and everything, and so I didn't. ... I didn't think it was going to really change anything necessarily, but it actually did."
Jolie has said that she and Pitt, who will be 43 on Monday, are in no rush to wed. Pitt has wondered why they should marry when gay couples can't.
"I think ... he was commenting just on the state (that) we all wish for," Jolie said. "That's not really a comment on whether or not we would or if we plan to."
"The Good Shepherd," a Universal Pictures release, opens in theaters Dec. 22.
Zahara, who will be 2 next month, is the couple's middle child. They have a 5-year-old son, Maddox, and a 6-month-old daughter, Shiloh.
"Mad is very smart, but he's got a certain sense of calm. Zahara is possibly the funniest person I've ever met in my life. So dramatic and creative and loud and charming," Jolie says. "She's definitely the biggest personality in the house."
Who's the family disciplinarian?
"I am," Jolie says. "Brad can be, but if Z doesn't get the bottle from me, she'll very quickly run to Daddy."
Jolie, who stars opposite Matt Damon in the upcoming drama "The Good Shepherd," says she and Pitt are proud parents.
"Somebody said to us recently that they were happy kids, and we talked about how much that meant to us to hear," she says. "And they're good kids. God knows how we managed to do that but they're good kids."
The Jolie-Pitt clan, frequently photographed visiting far-flung and exotic places, is a nomadic one. Jolie has traveled throughout the world as a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Maddox was adopted from Cambodia, Zahara was adopted from Ethiopia, and Jolie gave birth to Shiloh in Namibia, where the family had traveled for privacy.
"It's hard, and maybe one day we'll have to stay in one place," Jolie says. "I'm sure (the kids are) going to be 18 and say, `God, I just want to stay in one place.' They'll never want to leave home!"
Jolie, 31, said the two stars realized while working together on the film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" in 2003 and 2004 that they shared a "deep, emotional bond," although Aniston was clearly Pitt's best friend.
"I think we were both the last two people who were looking for a relationship," she told Vogue in an interview in the magazine's January issue.
"Because of the film we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened."
Jolie said she remained "very, very good friends" with Pitt after shooting the movie without commenting further on the nature of their relationship.
Pitt, 42, and Aniston, 37, broke up in early 2005.
"And then life developed in a way where we could be together, and where it felt like something we would do, we should do," she said.
Jolie said she does not plan to marry Pitt, but they are committed to raising their three children.
Jolie adopted her son Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 during her marriage to actor Billy Bob Thornton and a daughter, Zahara, from Ethiopia, in 2005.
This year she gave birth to their daughter, Shiloh.
"We've both been married before, so it's not marriage that necessarily kept some people together. We are legally bound to our children, not to each other, and I think that's the most important thing," said Jolie, whose new film "The Good Shepherd" is being released this month.
The actress, who is currently working on the film "A Mighty Heart" portraying the wife of murdered U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, admitted she once lived life too close to the edge.
But she said all that changed once she had children.
"I'm committed to life. I think definitely before my son, I was a little nihilistic," said Jolie.
"I'm starting to be able to see being 50 years old with the kids graduating from high school."
Jolie didn't know where Pitt then married to "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston was in his personal life, the 31-year-old actress tells Vogue magazine in its January issue, on newsstands Friday. "But it was clear he was with his best friend, someone he loves and respects."
"I think we were both the last two people who were looking for a relationship. I certainly wasn't. I was quite content to be a single mom," Jolie tells the magazine.
"Because of the film we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened," she says.
Jolie remained "very, very good friends" with Pitt after shooting ended, she says. "And then life developed in a way where we could be together, where it felt like something we would do, we should do."
Pitt and Aniston announced their separation in January 2005. Aniston filed for divorce in March, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce became final in October.
Pitt denied that Jolie was behind the split.
In late April, photos were published of Jolie and Pitt playing in the sand and strolling on a beach in Africa with her 3-year-old son, Maddox, whom she adopted from Cambodia.
In July, Pitt and Jolie went to Ethiopia, where Jolie adopted a baby girl, Zahara.
Jolie gave birth to the couple's daughter, Shiloh, in Namibia in May.
The actress says it was her children who ultimately cemented her relationship with Pitt as a family.
One day, Maddox "just out of the blue called him Dad. It was amazing. We were playing with cars on the floor of a hotel room, and we both heard it and didn't say anything and just looked at each other."
"So that was probably the most defining moment, when he decided that we would all be a family."
In December 2005, Pitt filed a petition asking to change the names of Maddox and Zahara to Jolie-Pitt to indicate that he planned to become their adoptive father.
But don't expect Pitt, 42, and Jolie to marry, she says.
"We are legally bound to our children, not to each other, and I think that's the most important thing," the twice-divorced actress is quoted as saying.
Jolie also tells Vogue about how motherhood has changed her.
"I think definitely before my son, I was a little nihilistic. But once I adopted Mad (Maddox) I knew I was never going to be intentionally self-destructive again.
"I'm starting to be able to see being 50 years old with the kids graduating from high school though in my mind we're in the middle of a desert or a jungle with tutors and some local friends."
Pitt and Jolie appeared together Monday in New York City at the premiere of her new film, "The Good Shepherd."
"I'm very, very lucky. I love the different elements of my life. I love working abroad, and I love being with my kids and I love being with Brad," Jolie, 31, said Friday at a press event for her movie The Good Shepherd. "I'd like to add many more children and many more obstacles and many more things to my life."
Asked if she'd ever again work with Pitt, with whom she costarred in last year's Mr. and Mrs. Smith, she replied with a laugh: "Who's going to watch the children?"
Indeed, she chooses her films with Maddox, 5, Zahara, 23 months, and Shiloh, 6 months, in mind. "I don't think that I've shot for more than seven weeks on a movie in two years," she said. "I need to make sure that I have time with my kids."
And she makes every effort to give her children a normal life, despite her own fame. "I've made a point to not let it change the way that I live my life, other than I carefully plan my holidays or where we go or where we stay or things like that to try to ensure some kind of quality of life that is private and nice for the kids. But we simply don't let it affect us."
She does admit, though, that there are challenges: "I think that the only time that it is hard is when the kids want to go somewhere and want to see something. I've had so many people offer to take my children to Disneyland or places that I can't take them. And they don't understand how upsetting that is.
"People offered to take my kids trick or treating or take my kids to whatever things that they assume my kids can't do. So we plan to find ways to do all of those things. There are worse problems and so we're okay."
This Halloween, she said, "We were in India and so we had this really odd celebration at the hotel. We just had candy and costumes sent from the states and so we all dressed up. Z had a really big afro and Maddox had dreadlocks. We had some fun with dress-up."
What is it that draws Jolie who is supporting an orphanage in Zahara's native Ethiopia and fighting for legislation on behalf of AIDS orphans to children? "They're fun. They're just a joy. It's a joy of life that exists nowhere else."
The unique home spans Mill Run, a creek that flows through woods about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Wright built the home for department store magnate Edgar Kaufmann Sr. in the 1930s. The American Institute of Architects voted it the "Building of the 20th Century."
"Brad said he had wanted to experience Fallingwater ever since he took an architectural history course in college," said curator Cara Armstrong. "He and I talked quite a bit about design and art. He was incredibly well-informed about architecture."
Armstrong said she led Pitt and Jolie on a two-hour tour Thursday that was followed by a private birthday celebration for Pitt in Fallingwater's living room. The actor will be 43 on Dec. 18.
"Brad said he had a visual sense of Fallingwater but experiencing it in person, hearing the sound of the waterfall cascading under the house and smelling the wood from the fireplace, was better than anything he could have imagined," Armstrong said.
Pitt's new movie, "Babel," from Paramount Vantage, is now in theaters. Jolie, 31, has been filming "A Mighty Heart," based on a memoir written by Mariane Pearl, the widow of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.
Jolie's new film, "The Good Shepherd," will be released by Universal on Dec. 22.
Pitt was spotted driving the motorbike through the city center with Jolie perched on the seat behind him Thursday in a country where virtually everyone travels on the two-wheeled machines. The couple later dined at a popular Vietnamese restaurant converted from an old temple.
Pitt and Jolie arrived unannounced in Vietnam after an earlier surprise visit this week to Cambodia where on Wednesday they toured a former Khmer Rouge death camp, which is now a genocide museum.
The 31-year-old actress, who has an adopted son from Cambodia, also met with officials to discuss a forest conservation project in the country's northwest near Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold. She has pledged up to $1.3 million over five years for the program.
Jolie's Cambodian son, Maddox, is 5 years old. She and Pitt also have a 1-year-old daughter, Zahara, who was adopted from Ethiopia. Jolie gave birth to the couple's daughter, Shiloh, in Namibia in May.
The 31-year-old actress briefly visited officials in Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in northwestern Cambodia, said Keut Sothea, a deputy governor for the Pailin municipality.
He said Jolie had a brief discussion about a forest conservation project near Pailin with Ieng Vuth, another municipality deputy governor and the son of former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary.
Kong Duong, head of the Pailin information office, said Jolie and her party arrived on two helicopters.
"They came very briefly before flying out. They seemed not to have much time for us," he said, declining to elaborate.
It wasn't clear when Jolie arrived in Cambodia or who had accompanied her. She has been filming a movie in India in recent weeks.
Jolie, who adopted her 5-year-old son Maddox from Cambodia, has promised up to $1.3 million over five years for a forest conservation program that was approved by the Cambodian government in 2003.
Stephan Bognar, executive director of the Maddox Jolie Project, couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Calls to his phone went unanswered.
Jolie has been involved in a dispute with Mounh Sarath, director of Cambodian Vision in Development, her former Cambodian associate in the conservation project.
Her philanthropic and political adviser, Trevor Neilson, told The Associated Press in New York last month that "hundreds of thousands of dollars" Jolie had provided for the conservation effort were missing.
Mounh Sarath, who has denied the allegation, said Wednesday he knew about Jolie's visit. Mounh Sarath said he wanted to talk to Jolie and could account for all the money he had received from her.
Scenes for Jolie's 2001 movie, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," were filmed at Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple.
"It is not surprising that the press involved failed to mention their share of the responsibility in the chaos," Jolie said in a statement.
According to Reuters, Indian police detained three of the actress's bodyguards on Friday after parents complained the men had manhandled them and their children at an Islamic school in Mumbai where Jolie was filming a scene for A Mighty Heart.
Mohammed Yusuf Patni, general secretary of the Anjuman-e-Islam school's Parent Teacher Association, told the Associated Press, "This Jolie's bodyguard called one parent, 'You bloody Indian.' "
In her statement, Jolie said, "As for this horrible rumor that someone referred to a local man as a 'bloody Indian,' let me say this: I would never work with anyone that was derogatory towards another man's race. My family is of mixed race."
According to reports, the fracas took place as parents tried to get into the school to pick up their children on Thursday and guards tried to keep paparazzi out.
"We have arrested three people. They are in jail now and will be produced in court," Brajesh Singh, Mumbai's deputy commissioner of police, told Reuters. He did not give a date for the court hearing.
Police said the British bodyguards had been taken into custody after receiving complaints about an incident at a Mumbai Islamic school where Jolie was filming "A Mighty Heart."
Angry parents had said the guards had threatened them and called them "bloody Indians" when they tried to get into the school to collect their children on Thursday. The film crew admitted that there had been some confusion at the school as the guards tried to keep the paparazzi out.
"We have arrested three people. They are in jail now and will be produced in court," Brajesh Singh, Mumbai's deputy commissioner of police, told Reuters. He did not give a date for the court hearing.
Jolie has been in India for almost a month, shooting on teeming streets and crowded trains for the film which is based on the kidnap and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 in Pakistan by hardline Islamist militants.
The sultry actress is portraying Pearl's wife Mariane.
Jolie, accompanied by her children and partner Brad Pitt, who is also the film's producer, and their children has sparked a media frenzy and the film's sets often attract huge crowds, prompting her bodyguards to step in.
Jolie plays the part of Mariane, wife Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while investigating Islamic militants in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"Playing her role is certainly challenging for me, as I have to make the world understand this woman and her family," the sultry actor, who has been shooting in India for almost a month, said in remarks published on Thursday by the Times of India.
"We need to tell the story of Daniel Pearl and the reason we are making this film is because it's very important to have a dialogue between the two cultures," she told the daily.
Barring a few background shots, the movie could not be filmed in Pakistan due to security fears and much of it is taking place in the western Indian cities of Pune and Mumbai.
Jolie said the film was not about terrorism but the strength and resilience of a bereaved wife. She said Mariane did not harbor any ill will toward Pakistan even though she had reasons to be "embittered and angry" about what happened to her. The film is an adaptation of Mariane's book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl."
The fracas began when the gates of the Anjuman-e-Islam school, which had been locked during filming, were opened to let the parents fetch their children. "This Jolie's bodyguard called one parent, `You bloody Indian,'" said Mohammed Yusuf Patni, general secretary of the school's Parent Teacher Association. "Children were pushed around." Patni, who has two children studying at the Muslim school, said "mothers were also shoved aside by the guards." Dallington TV, a British production company that organized the shoot, blamed the scuffle on photographers and television cameramen that it said rushed the school to get pictures of Jolie. "We had the full permission and cooperation of the school to film on the premises," Dallington said in a statement. "When the gates were opened to allow the parents in to collect their children, the paparazzi rushed the school causing confusion." Representatives for Jolie refused to comment. The scuffle wasn't the first that security guards have had since Jolie arrived in India last month with Brad Pitt and their three children. In one incident, an Associated Press freelance photographer alleged that security guards protecting Jolie's movie set in Pune had hit him and threatened him with a gun. Earlier, as Pitt and Jolie were leaving a hotel, one of their security guards manhandled a British photographer trying to take their photo, grabbing the man by his neck and verbally abusing him. "A Mighty Heart" is based on a memoir written by Mariane Pearl, the widow of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, who was abducted and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy. Jolie had said that playing Mariane Pearl is "certainly challenging for me, as I have to make the world understand this woman and her family." "She still loves Pakistan, she carries no hatred. She is above all that, and her strength is a reminder that this is what the world needs," the DNA newspaper quoted Jolie as saying. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, "A Mighty Heart" is expected to be released next year.
"I personally found it a little odd that they were re-creating a wedding that never really happened," said Cindy Guagenti, Los Angeles-based spokeswoman for Pitt. "As Brad's representative, I found it disturbing." Adrian Jones, general manager of the wax museum at the Venetian resort, said in a statement that the decision was made to not cross the stars. "Since Madame Tussauds enjoys excellent relationships with the celebrity community, we made our own decision not to create the wedding scene," he said. The Brangelina wedding had been scheduled Wednesday to mark the unveiling of a Jolie wax figure. Pitt's already got one. The scene would have had wax figures of George Clooney, standing in as best man, and the Rev. Robert Schuller, pastor and president of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., officiating. Wax witnesses would have included the likenesses of the likes of Elvis, Liberace, John Wayne, Bugsy Siegel, Frank Sinatra, Ben Affleck and Luciano Pavarotti. Instead, Jolie's wax figure will be introduced Wednesday, without the wedding bells. Guagenti said Pitt was unaware of Madame Tussauds' plans. He and Jolie were with their three children in Mumbai, India, where Jolie is filming a movie about slain journalist Daniel Pearl. Pitt told Esquire magazine for its October edition that he doesn't intend to marry Jolie until legal restrictions are lifted in the U.S. and "everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able."
Jolie, filming in India for almost a month with partner Brad Pitt, bought tickets from a city station and boarded a crowded compartment of a Mumbai train with co-actor Dan Futterman. A Reuters photographer on the train said disbelieving passengers jostled for a view of the sultry actor -- wearing a green T-shirt and khaki trousers -- but were kept at bay by four of her bodyguards. Passengers brought out pens and paper for autographs, but they were not allowed near Jolie. There was no police security for the shooting. Jolie plays the wife of Daniel Pearl, an American journalist who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002, in the film "A Mighty Heart." Futterman plays the reporter in the film which is being produced by Pitt. Suburban trains are Mumbai's lifeline and are used by some six million commuters every day, many of whom travel by hanging from the door-less coaches during rush hour. Mumbai's teeming railway network was the target of a terror attack in July when bombs went off on packed evening rush hour trains and platforms, killing 186 people and wounding about 700.
With her 5-year-old son Maddox in tow, she toured an Afghan Sikh refugee camp in New Delhi on Saturday, listening to children play religious music and chatting with students, a UNHCR statement said. Some 9,500 Afghan Sikh refugees are in India. They fled Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power in 1996 and targeted non-Muslims. Jolie also visited the one-room home where a refugee from Myanmar lives with her three children. The woman, one of the 1,750 refugees who have fled Myanmar to India since 1982, told Jolie that she and her children left after her husband was arrested by the military government in Myanmar, the statement said. Myanmar-India relations turned cold after the Myanmar military violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, but relations have warmed in the past few years. "I am grateful to the refugee families who spent time with me and shared their stories. They are remarkable, courageous people," the statement quoted the 31-year-old actress as saying. On Sunday, Jolie met Indian Junior External Affairs Minister Anand Sharma and lauded India's help to the refugees. "The wonderful thing that I have learned since I have been in India is there are many, many needs for your own people and yet you have all been so gracious and been so open to so many refugees over the years," Jolie told reporters. "I have also since I have been here spent time with Indian people and we spoke about concerns for disabled people, children and orphans," she said after meeting with Sharma. Jolie is scheduled to return to the western Indian city of Pune to resume shooting this week for the film "A Mighty Heart," in which she plays Mariane Pearl and Dan Futterman portrays Daniel Pearl. The movie is based on an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl." Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy. A bungalow and adjoining cottages replicate the area where Pearl and his wife stayed in Karachi, Pakistan, before Pearl's abduction. Pune is about 100 miles south of Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment hub.
Jolie, who is in India shooting a film with partner and actor Brad Pitt, is also a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. On Saturday she met Afghan and Burmese refugees living in New Delhi. "The wonderful thing that I have learned since I have been in India is there are many needs for your own people and yet you have all been so gracious and been so open to many, many refugees over the years," Jolie said after meeting Sharma. Sharma said they had talked about "Indian traditions and also the great influence of Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy of peace and non-violence." Gandhi is an icon of India's independence movement which ended in its freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. Sharma said India acknowledged "with appreciation the good work" which Joie has done in Sudan's Darfur region, Cambodia and Ivory Coast. Jolie and Pitt have been shooting "A Mighty Heart" in the western city of Pune. The film is based on the life of American journalist Daniel Pearl who was killed in the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2002 while researching a report on the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Jolie is playing the role of Pearl's wife in the film which is bring produced by Pitt.
However, Stephan Bognar, the Cambodia-based head of the star's Maddox Jolie Pitt Project, said the relationship with Cambodian Vision in Development (CVD) had ended amicably in December because their aid work was "moving on to a new level." "Angelina and I will be unveiling our new program and commitment to Cambodia in about a month," Bognar told Reuters from the western town of Battambang. Much of the organization's work would center around community development, rather than wildlife conservation, he said. Besides accusing Jolie of breaking funding promises, CVD head Mounh Sarath said his organization had taken exception to reported suggestions from Jolie's lawyer that it had stolen some of her donations and was considering a libel action. "I have been asking Jolie and her lawyer to give me an appropriate answer, but so far no answer," Mounh Sarath told Reuters from the western town of Battambang. "Now I give her one week and if there is still no answer I will a file suit in the local court of Battambang." The Oscar-winning actress, who adopted a Cambodian son, Maddox, in 2002, was granted special citizenship of the war-scarred southeast Asian nation last year in recognition of her environmental contributions. In 2003, Mounh Sarath said Jolie had paid out $350,000 to kick off a long-term project to set up a 20,000 hectare (50,000 acre) wildlife sanctuary in a jungle-clad area once controlled by Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge. It is not clear how much more money was paid out.
Trevor Neilson, philanthropic and political adviser for Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt, told The Associated Press in New York on Monday that "hundreds of thousands of dollars" were missing. He was responding to allegations by Mounh Sarath, director of Cambodian Vision in Development, that Jolie had reneged on an agreement by stopping funds for his group. Neilson denied the 31-year-old actress had broken any agreement with Mounh Sarath. "The sad reality is that this person who made these allegations was fired because we believe (he) stole" Jolie's donations, he said. He didn't elaborate or say whether action would be taken to recover the funds. Mounh Sarath denied the allegations and said he "will fight any lawsuit to find out the truth and to see if they have any documented proof of the money stolen." Jolie has promised up to $1.3 million over five years for a forest conservation program that was approved by the Cambodia government in 2003. She terminated the contract with Cambodian Vision in Development in December, and has set up an independent Cambodian organization to administer the conservation project for remote northwestern areas of Cambodia, Stephan Bognar, executive director of the Maddox Jolie Project, said Monday. The Maddox Jolie Project is named for Jolie's 5-year-old son Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia in 2002. Scenes for her 2001 movie, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," were filmed at Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple.
Jolie terminated the contract with Cambodian Vision in Development and U.S. conservation group WildAid, which had co-managed the project, in December, said Stephen Bognar, executive director of the Maddox Jolie Project. The new group is named for Jolie's 5-year-old son Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia in 2002. The 31-year-old actress has promised up to $1.3 million over five years for the forest conservation program, which was approved by the Cambodia government in 2003. Mounh Sarath, director of Cambodian Vision in Development, said Monday Jolie had violated the agreement "under which she agreed to provide funds to CVD." Trevor Neilson, the philanthropic and political adviser for Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, denied the actress had reneged on any agreement. "A decision was made to spend the money in a new way that would be more effective for the people of Cambodia," Neilson said. "No agreement was broken. There was no reneging on any commitment." "Angelina has been funding projects in Cambodia for the last three years and is committed to doing her part to improve the lives of the Cambodian people," he added. Scenes for Jolie's 2001 movie, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," were filmed at Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple. Jolie and Pitt also have a 1-year-old daughter, Zahara, who was adopted from Ethiopia. Jolie gave birth to the couple's daughter, Shiloh, in Namibia in May.
The celebrity couple are in India shooting for "A Mighty Heart," a film about American reporter Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002. The couple's chopper landed at a palace-turned hotel in Jodhpur city in the desert state of Rajasthan on October 20 after claiming it needed to make an emergency landing, the Times of India newspaper quoted a government official as saying. "After speaking with the Umed Bhawan Palace (hotel) management, the district administration would now ask Jodhpur's air traffic control for it's report," the Jodhpur official, Bhura Ram Delu, was quoted as saying by the daily. Delu said the helicopter, operated by an Indian firm, did not have permission to land at the luxury hotel's private helipad. The penalty for the violation was not immediately known. The couple's month-long visit to India -- which has sparked intense media coverage -- has been eventful with Jolie's minders roughing up a persistent photographer, and on another occasion, a car in her convoy knocking down a motorcyclist.
Jolie, who has two adopted children - Maddox and Zahara - from Cambodia and Ethiopia respectively, is well aware of the red tape Westerners must overcome in their bid to adopt a tot from the developing world. And the concerned star is believed to have put the Ritchies in touch with her own adoption lawyer, in case of difficulties with British authorities. A friend tells British newspaper the Evening Standard, "Brad and Angelina know all about the adoption and have been helping Madonna and Guy in every way they can. They know how important it is to them and how difficult the process can be." Madonna recently had to defend herself against reports she and her director husband had broken African adoption law to become the legal parents of a one-year-old Malawian boy - and she insists she has "gone about the adoption procedure according to the law, like anyone else who adopts a child."
Most of the scenes are being filmed inside a spacious bungalow in the Pune suburb of Aundh, chosen because the area resembles Karachi, Pakistan, where Pearl and his wife Mariane spent time. The bungalow is located inside a gated community that has been largely closed to the media. The photographer representing the AP, Guautum Singh, said he gained legitimate entry to the area and was accosted by security guards after giving Jolie his business card. Singh said he was down the road from the bungalow when he spotted Jolie in the back of a taxi while filming a scene from the movie. When the filming paused, he said, he put down his cameras and approached Jolie to give her his card, which she accepted through the window of the taxi before it drove off. At that point, he said he was approached by one American security guard and two Indian guards, all of whom verbally abused him. One of the Indian guards punched him in the face and he swung back, also hitting the guard in the face, Singh said. Then, he said, the other Indian guard "grabbed me and the first guard punched me again." Singh said the first Indian guard then drew a gun and said he would be shot if he did not leave. The American guard did not take part in the scuffle, but witnessed the incident, the photographer said. Singh said he was then let go, and he collected his equipment and departed. Jolie did not witness the incident, he said, adding that his face was bruised under his right eye but he was otherwise uninjured. The altercation was not the first that Jolie's security has had with a photographer since she and Brad Pitt arrived late last week in Pune, where hordes of photographers, television cameramen and reporters have followed their every move. On Oct 8., as the couple was leaving the Le Meridian hotel where they are staying, one of their security guards manhandled a British photographer trying to take their photo, grabbing the man by his neck and verbally abusing him. Video of the incident was broadcast on India's CNN-IBN news channel, and the Hindustan Times newspaper identified the photographer as Sam Relph of Barcroft Media. The newspaper reported the security guard had shouted at photographers to stop shooting the couple and grabbed Relph when he refused to put down his camera. The couple's children Maddox, 5, Zahara, 18 months, and 4-month-old Shiloh Nouvel have accompanied them on the trip to Pune, about 100 miles south of Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment hub. Dan Futterman portrays Daniel Pearl in the movie that will be co-produced by Plan B, a production company founded by Pitt and his ex-wife, actress Jennifer Aniston. The movie is based on an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl." The Wall Street Journal reporter, Pearl, was abducted and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy.
The car was carrying members of the film crew shooting "A Mighty Heart," which stars Jolie, when it collided with the motorcycle in the western city of Pune on Wednesday, police said. Nineteen-year-old Mittal Rawat who was on the bike suffered minor injuries, police said. They quoted him as saying that the car sped away after hitting his vehicle. "We have increased the security for Ms. Jolie to see that incidents like this do not happen again.," R.S. Khaire, a police officer in Pune, told Reuters by telephone. "We are not taking this incident lightly." Another police officer said a case had been registered against the driver of the car, and added that more police would now accompany Jolie on location. Arti Surendranath of Kailash Picture Company, which is managing the film's shooting schedule in India, said Jolie was not in the car which met with the accident. "It's a small incident which has been blown out of proportion," she said. "A Mighty Heart" is based on the life of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped in the Pakistani port city of Karachi and killed in 2002 while researching a report in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Oscar-winning Jolie who is playing the role of Pearl's wife, Mariane, arrived in India last week with partner Pitt who is producing the film. The movie is being shot in Pune because of security concerns in Pakistan. The quiet city has been in a frenzy since the arrival of the celebrity couple. Hundreds of people are thronging the hotel where they are staying as well as the heavily guarded shooting location.
Even worse, the Academy Award-winning actress and United Nations goodwill ambassador said, was that people in the West did not seem to care. "It's a scandal, really, in such a rich world, that we are not even finding a way to help feed refugee families properly," Jolie wrote in an op-ed piece released this week in Refugees, a quarterly magazine published by the U.N. refugee agency. She said Europeans, who only six decades ago were confronted by 40 million refugees in the aftermath of World War II, have turned their backs on victims of tyrannical regimes. Jolie also criticized Americans and Australians for failing to improve the situation of the many migrants who have died trying to emigrate to their countries. "We will put Band-Aids over the most gaping wounds because they look a bit ugly," even as UNHCR battles to meet funding requirements for its annual programs helping 20 million people, Jolie said. "Agencies like UNHCR should not really have to struggle to scrape a few tens of millions of dollars together to help rebuild shattered nations like Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia and south Sudan," Jolie said. "But we won't pay for a full cure." Jolie, who has made over 30 missions for the agency since becoming goodwill ambassador in 2001, described her shock over a photo printed in an edition of Refugees earlier this year capturing a couple bathing on a beach while disregarding a black man washed ashore. "They can't see the stark reality lying a few yards further up the beach," she wrote. "We are all myself included behaving like the couple sitting under their umbrella on the beach, gazing studiously out to sea."
NBC News reported Wednesday that a car Angelina Jolie was riding in peeled away from a traffic signal, supposedly to avoid a pack of photographers, and hit a man on a motorbike. Police confirmed to the network that 19-year-old Mittal Rawat was hit by the vehicle while Jolie was riding in the car, reading. The teenager himself was the one who pointed out that the actress' driver was looking to escape some eager paparazzi. Jolie and Brad Pitt are in Pune, India, about 125 miles southeast of Mumbai, filming A Mighty Heart, a biopic about slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Jolie plays Pearl's widow, Mariane, and Pitt is producing. The comely couple donated $100,000 to the Daniel Pearl Foundation Tuesday, on what would have been the journalist's 43rd birthday. Luckily the young man who took a tumble at the hands of Jolie's driver was doing well enough to speak to reporters afterward, just as the photog who was shoved by a member of Brangelina's security detail Saturday was able to inform the Hindustan Times that the grab-happy bodyguard threatened to kill him. But apparently even that incident wasn't enough to deter those anxious for yet another picture of Jolie in a foreign country. The Mr. and Mrs. Smith star was also forced to cut short an outing with son Maddox Sunday when the flashbulb-popping crowd swarmed the rickshaw mother and child were touring in every time it came to a stop. And Wednesday's incident just serves to further prove that paparazzi plus celebs and moving vehicles can equal a highly combustible mix. Just ask Lindsay Lohan, who has been involved in multiple fender-benders that were later blamed on some overzealous photographers. Lohan's pair of accidents last year even sponsored a state law calling for steep fines for paparazzi who either assault or in another way harm their subjects in pursuit of a decent shot. Similarly, Paris Hilton had a literal run-in with another car in a parking garage because, according to the Simple Life star, she was rushing to avoid the paparazzi on hand to capture her loading shopping bags into her Range Rover. Then there's Britney Spears, who is being sued by a shutterbug who claims the pop star's mom Lynne drove over his foot with her SUV as she was pulling out of a parking space in 2004. Spears and her little sis, Jamie Lynn, were passengers.
The gift, made through the recently formed Jolie-Pitt Foundation, was presented on Tuesday, which would have been the late Wall Street Journal reporter's 43rd birthday. "On this day our thoughts go out to Danny's family," Pitt and Jolie said in an exclusive statement released by their rep, Trevor Neilson, to PEOPLE. "The Daniel Pearl Foundation is celebrating this day, his birthday, with music festivals around the world. The festivals are a great reminder of not just Danny's work as a journalist but of his life and his love of music." Pitt and Jolie arrived last week in Pune, India, to film the Pearl biopic, A Mighty Heart, based on the book written by the journalist's widow, Mariane Pearl, whom Jolie portrays in the film. At the time of his death, Pearl was investigating links between the terrorist group Al Qaeda and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. Pitt and Jolie formed their foundation last month in order to give away $2 million, to be evenly divided between the Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders, to help families affected by HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty.
More than 7,000 people have died trying to get into Europe over the past decade, according to Jolie, whose comments appeared in the magazine "Refugees," published by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for whom she is a goodwill ambassador. She expressed outrage at a photo which appeared recently in the quarterly magazine, taken on an unidentified Mediterranean beach in Spain in 2002, which showed a couple relaxing under an umbrella not far from the washed-up corpse of a black man. "We'll never know who he was or why he ended up there and the couple on the beach apparently couldn't care less," Jolie wrote. "Someone's son, someone's brother, or someone's loved one. In fact, you or me, if we had been born at another time, or in another place." Jolie, who has been to more than 20 countries since becoming a UNHCR goodwill ambassador five years ago, said it was a scandal that such a rich world was not feeding all people in refugee camps, especially in Africa. Many would-be refugees fell into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers "who push them into overcrowded boats or hide them in the backs of containers, or tell them to walk across minefields or scale barbed wire fences in the middle of the night." "Many have also died trying to get into the United States and Australia. But we don't notice," wrote the Oscar-winning actress, who is filming in India. Ignoring simmering conflicts had proven damaging and expensive, she said, citing Bosnia, Rwanda and Afghanistan. "I have been to some of these countries, or to their neighbors, where most of the refugees remain," said Jolie. "It is a truly humbling experience, a shocking eye-opener. It has made me realize that we are all -- myself included -- behaving like the couple sitting under their umbrella on the beach, gazing studiously out to sea," she said.
The film, "A Mighty Heart," is the story of Daniel Pearl, a reporter with The Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped in the Pakistani port city of Karachi and killed in 2002 while researching a report in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. It will be shot for a month in the western Indian industrial city of Pune as security concerns prevented filming in Pakistan. On Monday, filming began in a two-storey white bungalow in Pune's Sindh Society locality, which has a striking similarity to the district in Karachi -- with its boulevards, row houses and bungalows -- where Pearl was staying. Cars painted yellow to resemble Karachi taxis were parked in front of the house and used for filming. "Some scenes were shot today, but we are not aware of the exact portions that have been shot," said Sunita Thakar of Kailash Picture Company, which is managing the shooting schedule of the film in India. The Oscar-winning U.S. actress plays the slain reporter's wife, Mariane. Her partner Brad Pitt is the movie's producer. The celebrity couple's arrival in Pune has thrown the quiet Indian city into a frenzy as hundreds of fans throng their luxury hotel and the shooting locale for a glimpse. The tightly guarded venues have also been surrounded by dozens of journalists and cameramen. At the weekend, the couple took rides around the city in a three-wheel taxi with their adopted son Maddox, drawing large crowds who gave their security staff a trying time. Pune, an industrial town of more than four million people, is about 130 km (80 miles) southeast of Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment hub. The film is based on a book by Mariane Pearl, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl." Dan Futterman plays the murdered journalist and English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, famed for war-based films such as "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "The Road to Guantanamo," is the director. "A Mighty Heart" is about "cross-cultural understanding and the values that people of all faiths share," Jolie said in a statement. "This is not a film about terrorism or conflict, it is a story of people of all faiths working together to find the truth." No release date has been set for "A Mighty Heart."
"We deeply appreciate the warm welcome we have received from the people of Pune, India, where we are filming A Mighty Heart," Jolie tells PEOPLE in a statement. "We are excited to have this chance for our children to learn about India's wonderful culture and history." As Pitt first confirmed to PEOPLE in July, Jolie is playing Mariane Pearl, the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in the film version of Mariane Pearl's book, A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl. The movie is being produced by Pitt's Plan B production company. Daniel Pearl was abducted and murdered by Islamic extremists in Pakistan in early 2002. Jolie says she and Pitt were unable to film the movie in that country due to security concerns. "I had hoped to make this film in Pakistan, but after discussions with Pakistani officials it became clear that they would be more comfortable for us to film in India," she says in her statement. "I am disappointed that we could not shoot the film in Pakistan, a country that I love and have visited three times. We look forward to visiting Pakistan soon. A Mighty Heart is a film about cross-cultural understanding and the values that people of all faiths share. This is not a film about terrorism or conflict, it is a story of people of all faiths working together to find the truth." Jolie and Pitt spent Thanksgiving 2005 in Pakistan helping deliver supplies to survivors of the earthquake that hit the country that October. The actress visited Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan shortly before she was named a United Nations goodwill ambassador in 2001.
The celebrity couple were chased by photographers, cameramen and reporters forcing them to turn back after a 20-minute ride that took them past shops and department stores in downtown Pune, in western India. Several traffic signals slowed their short rickshaw ride. At every red light, security men traveling in a rickshaw behind jumped out and surrounded the three-wheeler to prevent the media from snapping pictures of Pitt and Jolie. They then returned to the Le Meridian hotel where they have been holed up since arriving on Thursday. Security for the star couple has been tight since their arrival in Pune by private jet along with their children Maddox, 5, Zahara, 18 months and 4-month-old Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. On Saturday, one of Pitt's and Jolie's bodyguards manhandled a British photographer as he tried to take their picture at the hotel, an incident caught on video by an Indian television station. When Pitt and Jolie tried to leave the hotel, a security guard caught the photographer trying to take their photo, grabbed the man by his neck and verbally abused him. Video of the incident was broadcast on India's CNN-IBN news channel, and the Hindustan Times newspaper identified the photographer as Sam Relph of Barcroft Media. The newspaper reported that the security guard had shouted at photographers to stop shooting the couple and moved for Relph when he refused to put down his camera. "He said if I took his pictures he would kill me," the Times quoted Relph as saying. "I couldn't breathe. He had his fingers on my windpipe and he knew what he was doing." Two Indian journalists also complained that they too had been threatened by the same security guard, who was not identified in the report. A weekend call to the office of Pitt's publicist in Beverly Hills, Calif., was not immediately returned. The couple are reportedly scheduled on Monday to start shooting scenes for "A Mighty Heart," in which Jolie plays Pearl's widow, Mariane. The movie is based on an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl," and will be co-produced by Plan B, a production company founded by Pitt and his ex-wife, actress Jennifer Aniston.
Pitt and Jolie were in Pune, India, to shoot scenes for a movie about the life of the slain journalist Daniel Pearl. The celebrity couple have been holed up at the city's Le Meridian hotel since arriving late week, presumably trying to avoid the horde of photographers, reporters and TV cameramen camped outside. On Saturday afternoon, when Pitt and Jolie tried to leave the hotel, one of their security guards caught a British photographer trying to take their photo, grabbing the man by his neck and verbally abusing him. Video of the incident was broadcast on India's CNN-IBN news channel, and the Hindustan Times newspaper identified the photographer as Sam Relph of Barcroft Media. The newspaper reported that the security guard had shouted at photographers to stop taking pictures of the couple and moved for Relph when he refused to put down his camera. "He said if I took his pictures he would kill me," the Times quoted Relph as saying. "I couldn't breathe. He had his fingers on my windpipe and he knew what he was doing." Two Indian journalists also complained that they too had been threatened by the same security guard, who was not identified in the report. The couple were reportedly scheduled on Monday to start shooting scenes for "A Mighty Heart," in which Jolie plays Pearl's widow, Mariane. The movie is based on an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl," and will be co-produced by Plan B, a production company founded by Pitt and his ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston.
Security concerns there caused officials to suggest they work elsewhere. So with the exception of a few background scenes shot in Pakistan, "A Mighty Heart" will be made in the western Indian city of Pune. The Oscar-winning actress plays the slain reporter's wife, Mariane. Pitt, Jolie's partner, is the movie's producer. "I am disappointed that we could not shoot the film in Pakistan, a country that I love and have visited three times," said Jolie in a statement issued on Saturday by Trevor Neilson, an adviser to the couple. "They talked with people from all levels of the Pakistan government and there's certainly no hard feelings. But it became clear that it was preferable to film in India," Neilson told Reuters by telephone. He said there was no release date set for "A Mighty Heart," which is being made by Pitt's production company, Los Angeles-based Plan B. The film is based on a book by Mariane Pearl, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl." Pearl, a 38-year-old reporter with The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in Karachi in early 2002 while researching a story in the aftermath of September 11. A videotape of Pearl having his throat cut was later circulated by his killers. English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, famed for such war-based films as "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "The Road to Guantanamo," is directing the movie. In her statement, Jolie said "A Mighty Heart" is about "cross-cultural understanding and the values that people of all faiths share. This is not a film about terrorism or conflict, it is a story of people of all faiths working together to find the truth." Pune, a metropolitan area with more than 4 million people, is in Maharashtra state, about 80 miles southeast of Mumbai.
Neither Pitt nor Jolie made any public comments Friday, but were spotted at the Le Meridian Hotel in Pune. In the nearby suburb of Aundh, about 50 workers readied a spacious bungalow for the start of filming next week, according to a set manager who did not want to be named because the crew has been warned that leaking information to the media could cost them their jobs. Elsewhere in the city, assistants scouted more locations for "A Mighty Heart." Jolie is playing Pearl's widow, Mariane; Pitt is a producer for the film. Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy. The set manager said the Pune bungalow was chosen becomes it closely resembles a home in Karachi, Pakistan, where Pearl and his wife spent time. Security for the star couple was so tight that their arrival in Pune by private jet Thursday was missed by television reporters and journalists waiting at the airport. "They were whisked out of the airport from the cargo section so that the press and no one else could catch a glimpse of them," said Deepak Shastri, the airport director. In Pakistan, crew members ran into trouble in July while filming without permission near Karachi's Village restaurant, where Pearl had planned to meet a contact shortly before his abduction. Officials halted the filming and police and federal agents arrested three Pakistani men who were wearing police uniforms and carrying guns for impersonating policemen. The movie is based on an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl." It is being co-produced by Plan B, a production company founded by Pitt and his ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston.
Written in 1957, "Atlas Shrugged" is considered Ayn Rand's masterpiece by people who believe that the Russian-born author had a masterpiece and by people who feel that the major qualification for "masterpiece" status is epic length. The film's 1,100 pages have proven daunting for many a producer, though Howard and Karen Baldwin ("Ray") determined back in April that they'd cracked the puzzle. The "Atlas Shrugged" project is set up at Lionsgate. The weighty tome focuses on railroad executive Dagny Taggart, who feels crushed by society's evil shift toward collectivism or something silly like that. In a world on the verge of economic collapse, everybody has to learn important lessons about selfishness and self-sufficiency. They also have to find out the answer to the question "Who is John Galt?" According to Variety, Jolie will play Dagny. Actually, Variety says Jolie will play "Dagney," but since Variety practically willed Jolie's casting into being with unsourced speculation this spring, we'll give them the benefit of a couple copy gaffes. Back in April, Variety also attempted to cast Jolie's baby-daddy Brad Pitt in the film, but there's no mention of Pitt's involvement in the latest story. Jolie has been a longtime fan of Rand's work, which suggests that the Oscar-winning UN Goodwill Ambassador has never read any of the "Fountainhead" author's virulent screeds against the United Nations. Upcoming projects for Jolie include "The Good Shepherd" and "A Mighty Heart," along with turns in "Beowulf" and "Kung Fu Panda."
The recipients are Global Action for Children and Medecins sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders. "In the most troubled parts of the world places that much of the world has abandoned MSF is always there," said Jolie in a statement issued by Trevor Neilson, the couple's philanthropic and political adviser. "I have seen these brave men and women working in war zones and horrific conditions and I deeply admire them." Jolie, who co-starred with Pitt in the 2005 film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. Jennifer Delaney, U.S. director for Global Action for Children, expressed her thanks for the gift from the Jolie-Pitt Foundation. "Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt not only care, but more important, are taking concrete action to address the fact that there will be 20 million children orphaned by AIDS by 2010, and millions more orphaned by tuberculosis, malaria and conflict or whose parents are sick and dying," she said. Delaney said the vast majority of these children are in the care of extended families and communities that need support to overcome the ravages of HIV/AIDS and poverty.
A man was arrested Thursday for impersonating a federal employee after purportedly telling Sunset Protective Services and Investigations--the firm that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie rely on for security--that he was a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. When applying for a position with the company, bodyguard Nelson Mercado, 46, specifically asked to be assigned to Pitt and Jolie's security detail, according to court documents obtained by E! News. Per the indictment filed in U.S. District Court, Mercado was carrying a phony DHS credential and driving a Ford Crown Victoria (your typical law enforcement car) with tinted windows and police lights that was fraudulently registered to the government agency. The Torrance, California, resident allegedly kept up the charade from August 2005 to May 2006. Before requesting Brangelina duty, Mercado says that he worked as a security consultant and professional bodyguard for a number of people, including athletes and entertainers, according to the indictment. Mercado is facing up to three years in federal prison if he's convicted. Meanwhile, it certainly seems as if Jolie and Pitt are attracting far more felonious behavior while together than either celebrity ever did on his or her own. A Jordanian salesman was arrested in Dubai in June after he used a fake I.D. with Pitt's photograph--but not his name--on it in an attempt to collect more than $23,000 from a currency exchange bureau. Apparently not looking like Brad Pitt gave him away. The man claimed not to know who Pitt was, saying he had downloaded a random photo from the Internet. Shortly after the Middle Eastern malfeasance, FBI raided the Massachusetts home of a Connecticut camera shop employee and found pictures from Jolie's baby shower that had been swiped off a digital memory card belonging to the actress' brother. Federal authorities then opened an investigation into whether the Massachusetts man and his coworker were attempting to sell those snapshots to the highest bidder. Then, in honor of the no-privacy agreement Jolie and Pitt must have signed when they got together, a paparazzo was nabbed in July at Maddox Jolie-Pitt's Malibu daycare center while allegedly trying to snap a quick pic of the youngster. Clint Brewer, 25, was taken into custody but the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office eventually determined there wasn't enough evidence to file a trespassing charge against him.
The Mr. and Mrs. Smith star told Esquire he plans to wed Angelina Jolie only when the institution has been democratized. If that promise doesn't mobilize the American vote, nothing will. "Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able," the cover boy told the magazine in its October issue, according to the Associated Press. The 42-year-old papa of three revealed his caveat for a vow swap in a list for the magazine, divulging "15 things I think everyone should know." Pitt also waxed on about the state of his family with Jolie, something he said he "cannot imagine life" without. Of adopted children Maddox, 5, and Zahara, 1, Pitt told the magazine "they're as much of my blood as any natural-born, and I'm theirs. That's all I can say about it. I can't live without them. So: Anyone considering [adoption], that's my vote." Pitt also discussed his parenting style with regards to Maddox, Zahara and exalted baby Shiloh. "I try not to stifle them in any way," he said. "If it's not hurting anyone, I want them to be able to explore. Sometimes that means they're quite rambunctious." Still, Pitt knows when to leave the tots to themselves and when to enforce--er, encourage--the quality bonding. "I feel it's really important to have that time to sit and talk to them. I really like that last minute before they fade off," he said, adding what might be the first semblance of parental advice offered from a men's magazine. "Always give them a heads-up before you jerk them out of something. You need to tell them, like, 'You have three more minutes.' " As for Jolie, Pitt reinforced the competitive nature of the camera-ready couple's relationship in discussing his new favorite (Jolie-influenced) pastime, flying. "Everything can go wrong very fast," he said of manning the cockpit. "It's humbling." Pitt also boasted that he has earned his American pilot's certification, though his qualifications have been bested by his baby mama, who's earned both the American and the tougher British certifications. "She gives me total s--t for that," he said. Pitt next appears on the big screen in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's time-traveling drama, Babel, set to debut this week at the Toronto International Film Festival and then in general release Oct. 27. He's also produced a documentary on the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan, titled God Grew Tired of Us, due out in November. The Esquire issue hits newsstands Sept. 19.
They were in New Orleans on Thursday, though only Pitt appeared at an afternoon news conference to announce the winner of the design competition he started in April to rebuild hurricane-ravaged neighborhoods using environmentally friendly designs and construction. "We're going to be spending a lot of time down here," Pitt said. Preproduction for his next movie is scheduled to begin in November, and Pitt said he would be in New Orleans for much of January and February for filming. Around that time, he also hoped to break ground on the first phase of the neighborhood redevelopment project slated for a section of the devastated Ninth Ward, he said. The winning plan was submitted by Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop APD in New York. It includes designs for six single-family housing units, 12 multifamily units, a community center and play area, and a pedestrian bridge leading from the neighborhood to the top of the levee. Pitt said the goal is to replicate the project in other parts of the city. The designs had to pass certain standards to account for future emergencies and they incorporated architectural influences found in many New Orleans homes, such as gabled rooftops over windows and doors. Pitt headed the jury of architects, city residents and others who decided on the top designs that use energy-saving materials such as metal roofing and recycled textiles. More than 100 individuals and architect firms submitted designs for the competition. Six finalists were announced in July, when Pitt got his first up-close look at the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. Pitt said Thursday he's still appalled embarrassed even that people in many New Orleans neighborhoods cannot return because of the lack of basic services like hospitals and schools. "This is a social justice issue," he said. "In a catastrophe, you help the most vulnerable first, and we failed to do that. Pam Dashiell, a Ninth Ward resident who served on the committee that judged the designs, sat beside Pitt at the news conference. She said the rebuilding plan will likely urge residents to come back home. "It's the first real redevelopment project in the Ninth Ward," she said. "This is hope." Matt Petersen, president and CEO of Global Green USA, the national environmental organization working with Pitt on the project, said 50,000 homes rebuilt according to the energy cost reduction goals in the competition could save residents as much as $50 million. Pitt initially contributed $100,000 to help underwrite the contest. It was announced Thursday that he contributed another $100,000 to help cover prize money. The winning team will get $75,000 and two others Fred Schwartz of Schwartz Architects in New York and Steve Dumez of Esckew-Dumez-Ripple in New Orleans will receive $7,500 and certificates of excellence.
The exalted offspring of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt has been chosen to be the first infant ever memorialized in wax by Madame Tussauds, the New York outpost of the museum announced Tuesday. Shiloh, "the world's most famous baby," per Madame Tussauds, will be unveiled in wax form to the public on Wednesday. The figure, complete with her mother's "signature pouty lips and delicate features," will be displayed in an "African-themed nursery," where it will rest "peacefully" in a woven basket, according to the museum's description. Wax figures of Pitt and Jolie will stand proudly over their waxen daughter. Wax versions of Shiloh's siblings, on the other hand, did not make the cut for the family tableau. Visitors to the New York exhibit will have the opportunity to pose for a photo with the waxen Jolie-Pitt clan--almost as if they had journeyed to Namibia themselves. In recognition of the family's commitment to philanthropy, Madame Tussauds has even pledged to donate $1 of the proceeds from every photo purchased to UNICEF. The charitable donations to be earned through photos of her waxen alter-ego are just another act of goodwill that can be attributed to Shiloh. At only two months old, the celebrated tot has already raised millions for her parents' charities of choice via her very first baby photos, which were auctioned off to the highest bidder--namely, People magazine. Her birth further inspired her parents to donate $300,000 to hospitals in the region where she was born and $15,000 for a school and community center. Meanwhile, at three months old, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' (mostly) unseen offspring has yet to accomplish anything of note--except maintaining her anonymity. Which, in this day and age, is not an unimpressive feat.
"A Mighty Heart," adapted from Mariane Pearl's memoir of the same name, will begin shooting within the next five weeks, the paper said. The book details Pearl's search for her husband, who was abducted and beheaded by militants in Pakistan in early 2002. "I am delighted that Angelina Jolie will be playing my role in the adaptation of my book," Daily Variety quoted Pearl as saying. "I deeply admire her work and what she is committed to." English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, famed for such war-based films as "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "The Road to Guantanamo," will direct. Jolie's boyfriend, actor Brad Pitt, will serve as a producer of the project, which is set up at Paramount Vantage, the art-house arm of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures.
Clint Brewer was arrested on June 22 after a security guard for Pitt and Jolie claimed the photographer was hiding in the bushes outside the school waiting for the celebrity couple to drop off their 4-year-old son, Maddox. Prosecutors said they investigated the case but did not charge Brewer, 25, because they could not prove that he had been on school property instead of an adjacent dirt road. "We declined to file based on the lack of sufficient evidence of where exactly he was standing," Los Angeles County District Attorney's spokeswoman, Jane Robison, said. Pitt, 42, and Jolie, 30, have been at the center of a tabloid frenzy since the birth of their daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, in the African nation of Namibia late last month. The couple also has a 17-month-old daughter, Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia and now part of what People magazine has labeled "the World's Most Beautiful Family." Maddox was adopted from Cambodia.
Brad Pitt's better half is putting an end to her big-screen maternity leave, taking on her first project since the May birth of daughter Shiloh: lending her voice to the DreamWorks animated flick Kung Fu Panda. The Oscar-winning actress has signed on to play Tigress, a martial-arts mastering--you guessed it--tigress, who is among the animals called on to train a "chosen" yet nearly irredeemably lazy panda to defend their ancient Chinese city against encroaching enemies. The kid-friendly 'toon reunites computer-animated costars Jolie and Jack Black, who gives voice to the titular kung fu-loving panda. The duo previously costarred together in DreamWorks' 2004 hit Shark Tale. And the studio is hopeful that history will repeat itself: Shark Tale has grossed $363.5 million worldwide, per BoxOfficeMojo.com. Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane also star in the movie, due out in May 2008. But Jolie won't have to wait that long to be seen on the big screen. Prior to her springtime Namibian getaway, she completed filming the Robert De Niro-helmed CIA drama The Good Shepherd opposite Matt Damon, due out this December. In the meantime, though, Jolie is busy trying to keep a different performance off computer screens. Photos of a private baby shower, held in Namibia and costarring Pitt, were apparently stolen from a digital memory card from a camera belonging to Jolie's brother, James Haven, and shopped around to various media outlets before leaking online. Two weeks ago, the FBI traced the photos back to Bill Keyes and Adam Beckwith, coworkers at a Enfield, Connecticut, electronics shop where Haven had brought his camera for repair. After discovering the potentially lucrative images, the twosome allegedly downloaded the photos to their personal computer before attempting to hawk them to the highest bidder. Los Angeles authorities are reviewing the case and have yet to file charges. Jolie's lawyer, however, is threatening to sue any media outlet that republishes the photos, which feature Jolie and Pitt goofing around--complete with feather boas--while opening gifts.
Local police, accompanied by state police and Secret Service officers, went to the Westfield home of William Keys on Tuesday to recover a digital camera's memory stick after three photos that appeared on the Internet were tracked to Keys, police said Friday. Officers then went to Precision Camera and Video Repair in Enfield, Conn., where Keys works, and recovered the camera. It remains in custody of Westfield police. No one has been arrested or charged in the case. It was unclear who took the photos. Keys did not return telephone calls Friday. "It's an ongoing investigation, and we cannot comment," said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County prosecutor's office.
CNN attracted 1.33 million viewers for Anderson Cooper's interview last week with the U.N. goodwill ambassador and new mother of Brad Pitt's baby, more than doubling the audience Cooper typically gets for his nightly newscast. Since the news network doesn't usually traffic in the game of big celebrity "gets," it also drew its share of criticism for journalistic stargazing. "I don't know of any news organization that would not have talked to Angelina Jolie," said Klein, "and I also don't know of any other news organization that would have aired that interview as the apex of a day's worth of coverage ... of that important issue. It was both good journalism and well within the brand of CNN." Throughout the day before the interview aired, CNN telecast several reports on the humanitarian crisis in Africa. That's the issue Jolie has focused on in her humanitarian work and during most of her interview with Cooper. Since it was Jolie's first TV interview since giving birth, part of it included baby talk. CNN contends that material would have dominated any other TV interview. That didn't stop the critics, particularly given CNN's history as a no-frills network where news is supposed to be the star. "News may still be a star at CNN today," wrote Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times, "but I'm guessing it might be on the verge of throwing a tantrum about the reduced size of its dressing room." Slate's Troy Patterson wrote that the "ferociously dull" interview was a reminder that "with the exception of the charming and resourceful Jeanne Moos, the many-headed Cable News Network couldn't cover popular culture if you gave it a tarp." Asked the Chicago Tribune's Phil Rosenthal: "Does CNN really want to be known as the Celebrity News Network?" Klein said CNN hadn't actively sought the Jolie interview; she came to the network because of its track record covering international issues. For instance, Christiane Amanpour just spent a week with refugees in Uganda, he said. CNN's one-day focus on World Refugee Day during most of its programs on June 20 immigration-focused Lou Dobbs was a notable exception mirrors what the network has done recently on other issues, including lung cancer and the Dubai ports, he said. "You don't spend the whole day covering immigration or the whole day covering Dubai ports because you think you're going to get huge numbers for that," Klein said. "These are not sexy subjects. But we've done that in the past and we'll continue to do that in the future." Most people who watched the coverage were impressed with its depth and scope, he said. "The cherry on top was the two-hour interview with Angelina Jolie," he said. Cooper's ratings for June are 36 percent over June 2005, making him second only to Dobbs in ratings gains for the network's high-profile shows. Dobbs' surge was unexpected; CNN has aggressively sought to boost Cooper's show and he has become the network's public face. CNN's prime-time viewership is up 6 percent over last June while first-place Fox News Channel is down 17 percent during the same period. Klein said he recognized the danger of a public backlash against Cooper, whose profile has increased markedly since the newsman's coverage of Hurricane Katrina. "The public will always sniff out a fraud," he said. "Since Anderson is so obviously the real deal, I don't think there will be any backlash that sticks. There will be an increasing number of people who will want to throw darts at him, but I think they will bounce off harmlessly."
Clint Brewer, 25, was detained by a private security officer for Pitt and Jolie about 10:30 a.m. local time and jailed briefly by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies before being released on $1,000 bail. "He was seen hiding in the bushes at about the time parents tend to drop off their kids, trying to get a shot of (Pitt and Jolie)," a sheriff's spokesman said. He said it was not clear whether the Hollywood couple or their adopted son, Maddox, who attends the school, were present at the time of the arrest, and the spokesman did not know if Brewer was employed by a photo agency. Brewer will be ordered to appear in court to face the trespassing charge, the spokesman said, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of one year in the county jail. Pitt, 42, and Jolie, 30, have been at the center of a tabloid frenzy since the birth of their daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, in the southern African nation of Namibia late last month. They also have a daughter, Zahara, an Ethiopian native who is about 16 months old, part of a blended celebrity clan labeled "the World's Most Beautiful Family" by People magazine. Maddox was adopted from Cambodia.
"Our priorities are quite strange," the 31-year-old actress said in an interview that aired Tuesday night on CNN. Jolie said spending money on war rather than "dealing with situations that could end up in conflict if left unassisted" could prove costly in the end. "We're missing a lot of opportunities (to do) a lot of good that America used to do and has a history of doing," said Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N.'s refugee agency. Jolie said that when she is in Washington to raise funds for AIDS orphans, she is often told the war in Iraq is the more pressing matter. She explained that a tattoo on her upper back, "Know Your Rights," is a phrase taken from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the U.N. in 1948. Jolie, who gave birth to her daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt in Namibia, last month, said her older children, 18-month-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia, and 4-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia, are adjusting to life with a new sibling. She said Zahara is jealous of Shiloh "because she's still a little girl," but for Maddox, "it's like having this tiny little pet he can just hold and look at." Jolie also told interviewer Anderson Cooper that she and Brad Pitt, Shiloh's father, plan to adopt their next child.
Powell spoke at a National Geographic Society program marking World Refugee Day. But Jolie wasn't on hand to hear his praise. "She's busy doing something else," he joked. "Not getting enough sleep, I suspect." Jolie opted to remain in Los Angeles with her new baby, Shiloh, her other two children and her partner, Brad Pitt. Jolie's daughter Zahara, 17 months old, is from Ethiopia, and her son, Maddox, 4, is from Cambodia. But the actress did put in a big plug for World Refugee Day by appearing on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Tuesday night, where she discussed her interest in the plight of refugees. She said she first encountered refugees in an amputee camp in Sierra Leone, where "they were still having civil war. ... And it was, probably to this day, the worst camp I've seen." She added: "I was so grateful to have that experience. In some ways, it was the best moment of my life." During her conversation with Cooper, Jolie talked about adopting Zahara from a developing country, where so many children need care. "You feel guilty," she said. "And you have that feeling of, 'Oh, if I took two out then,' but you can just drive yourself crazy with those kinds of thoughts." As for how Zahara and Maddox have taken to sister Shiloh, Jolie said: "Mad loves her. Because when Z came home, she was older. She was 7 months old. So (for) Mad, it's like having this tiny little pet that he can just hold and look at, and he's great. "Z's a little jealous because she's still a little girl."
"Next we'll adopt," Jolie told CNN in an interview to be aired on Tuesday. "We don't know which -- which country. But we're looking at different countries. And we're -- I'm just-- it's gonna be the balance of what would be the best for Mad and for Z right now. It's, you know, another boy, another girl, which country, which race would fit best with the kids," she said, referring to her adopted children. Jolie's adopted daughter Zahara, now about 15 months old, is from Ethiopia, and son Maddox, 4, is from Cambodia. The couple's younger daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, was born on May 27 in Namibia in one of the most highly anticipated celebrity stories of the year. Jolie said she had given birth in Namibia because she loved Africa and had wanted to bring Zahara back to Africa. "My other daughter's African," she said in excerpts of an interview to be aired on CNN's program Anderson Cooper 360. .".. And I wanted to take her back to Africa." Jolie said she was frightened during the birth, which was by Caesarean section because the baby was in a breech position. Pitt was in the operating room for the delivery, she said. "And you know, because you're there for the birth, which I wasn't for my first two kids, you're just suddenly terrified that they're not gonna take a first breath," she said. "That was my whole focus. I just wanted to hear her cry. And I was sure everything would go right -- at the last minute, I became the mother that was sure everything was gonna go wrong. And she's healthy, and it was amazing." The Oscar-winning actress, who said she gives a third of her income to refugees and other causes, is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the CNN interview will be aired on June 20, World Refugee Day. "I had a stupid income for what I do," she said. The money does make a difference and Jolie does see change. She said she feels "lucky" because she is able to visit the places that receive her money. "I can meet some people who say, 'God, we really need a well, or these cars are broken. Or we need something in the camp that's ... at school.' And I can go back a year later and see it built or see the cars."
"You know, because you're there for the birth, which I wasn't for my first two kids, you're just suddenly terrified that they're not gonna take a first breath," the 31-year-old actress says in an interview to air Tuesday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" (10 p.m. EDT). "That was my whole focus. I just wanted to hear her cry." Jolie gave birth to Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt on May 27 at a private clinic in the resort town of Walvis Bay in Namibia. The baby, healthy and weighing 7 pounds, was delivered by Caesarean section. In excerpts of the interview, released exclusively to The Associated Press on Friday, Jolie says Brad Pitt was in the operating room for the delivery. "He was in the operating room, yeah, yeah," she tells Cooper. "And we had amazing doctors. And everybody was so lovely." Jolie and Pitt, 42, have since left Namibia with their newborn daughter and two older children: 16-month-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia, and 4-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia. Both Maddox and Zahara's surnames have been legally changed to Jolie-Pitt after Pitt announced his intention to adopt the children as well. The actress also acknowledges to Cooper that she gives a third of her income to charity and jokes, "Yeah, well, I had a stupid income for what I do." The Jolie interview will air Tuesday as part of CNN's entire day of programming devoted to World Refugee Day.
Scuffle at Jolie school film shoot
Angelina Jolie's bodyguards allegedly roughed up parents and students Thursday at a school where she was filming scenes for her new movie, "A Mighty Heart," witnesses said.Pitt-Jolie wax wedding on ice in Vegas
Organizers of a fantasy wedding on the Las Vegas Strip between Hollywood's hottest unmarried couple got cold feet. Madame Tussauds nixed the plan to stage a depiction of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt tying the knot after a representative for Pitt protested, representatives for the actor and the wax museum said Monday.Angelina Jolie causes stir on packed Indian train
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie caught passengers of a packed commuter train unawares in India's financial hub of Mumbai on Monday where she shot for a film on a slain American reporter.Angelina Jolie and son visit refugees
Taking a break from shooting a movie about the life of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, Angelina Jolie spent the weekend in the Indian capital in another role as goodwill ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.Jolie, Indian minister talk on refugees, Gandhi
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie met Indian junior foreign minister Anand Sharma on Sunday and discussed the problems of refugees and how Indian freedom hero Mahatma Gandhi was still relevant to conflicts around the world.Cambodian charity threatens Jolie with lawsuit
A Cambodian charity threatened on Wednesday to sue Angelina Jolie for breach of contract, saying the Hollywood star had reneged on a promise to give $1.5 million over five years to wildlife conservation.Aid group head denies Jolie allegations
The head of a Cambodian aid group denied Tuesday allegations that donations by Angelina Jolie for a conservation project had been misappropriated.Jolie still funding Cambodian project
Angelina Jolie has set up an independent Cambodian organization to administer a conservation project for remote northwestern areas of the country, the director of the new group said Monday.Brangelina chopper lands in trouble in India
A helicopter ride has landed Hollywood star couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in trouble after their hired aircraft landed at a palace hotel in western India without permission, a newspaper said on Friday.Madonna Takes Advice From Jolie Over Adoption
Madonna and Guy Ritchie have reportedly been taking advice from Hollywood golden couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie over the adoption process of 13-month-old David Banda.Photographer: I was punched on Jolie set
An Associated Press freelance photographer says security guards protecting a movie set where Angelina Jolie is shooting her latest film punched and threatened him at gunpoint Friday, in the second run-in between the star's security and the news media this week. Jolie is in the western Indian city of Pune to film scenes for "A Mighty Heart," a movie about the life of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.India police tighten Jolie's security after accident
Indian police have stepped up security for Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie after a car in her convoy was involved in an accident in which a motorcyclist was slightly hurt, police said on Friday.Jolie: West's apathy on refugees a shame
Angelina Jolie says it is shocking that refugees are being turned into hate figures in rich countries in an attempt to win elections or sell newspapers.Angelina's Driver Swipes a Biker
Whoopsy-daisy.Brad & Angelina Donate $100K to Daniel Pearl Foundation
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have made a $100,000 donation to the Daniel Pearl Foundation in memory of the American journalist who was kidnapped and eventually killed in Pakistan in February of 2002, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.Angelina Jolie slams West for barring refugees
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie on Tuesday accused the West of cold-heartedness and hypocrisy in trying to shut out migrants, including refugees, from Africa and other hotspots.Indian city in frenzy as Jolie begins film shoot
A leafy boulevard in an Indian city stood in for a swish Pakistani neighborhood on Monday as Hollywood star Angelina Jolie began shooting for a film about a U.S. journalist abducted and killed in Pakistan.Angelina Thanks People of India for Warm Welcome
Angelina Jolie says she and Brad Pitt have gotten a positive reception from locals in the Indian city where they're filming their new movie, A Mighty Heart.Pitt, Jolie give baby ride in rickshaw
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, in India to shoot scenes for a move about the slain journalist Daniel Pearl, went on an autorickshaw ride with their 5-year-old son on Sunday.Photographer roughed up while trying to shoot Pitt, Jolie in India
A bodyguard for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie manhandled a British photographer as he tried to take their picture at a hotel in western India, an incident caught on video by an Indian television station.Jolie says disappointed not filming in Pakistan
Angelina Jolie says she and Brad Pitt are disappointed they are not shooting "A Mighty Heart," a film about U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan where he was abducted and murdered in 2002.Jolie, Pitt in India to film Pearl movie
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were in India on Friday, preparing to shoot scenes for their movie on the life of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, a member of the film crew said.Bio Baby Only
TROUBLE might be looming in the splendiferous world of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Jolie has told pals she's ready to adopt again - but Pitt, it seems, is not. "Brad wants another child, preferably a boy - but he wants a biological boy," said our snoop. "He is adamant and wants her to get pregnant again right away." The couple have one biological child, Shiloh, and two adopted kids, Maddox and Zahara. Jolie doesn't have a rep and Pitt's rep didn't return calls.
'Atlas Shrugged,' Jolie Shrugs Back
Apparently there was some substance to those rumors about Angelina Jolie wanting to take aim at all notions of community and togetherness in a feature version of "Atlas Shrugged."Jolie and Pitt give $1 million gifts
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are giving gifts of $1 million each to two humanitarian organizations, an adviser to the couple said Wednesday.Wannabe Brangelina Bodyguard Arrested
Be careful whom you allegedly impersonate while trying to get close to Brangelina. Someone might want to make a federal case out of it.Brad Pitt: I'll marry when everyone can
Brad Pitt may have just given lawmakers more incentive to legalize gay marriage than both GLAAD and Rosie O'Donnell combined.ENOUGH, ALREADY!
JENNY Shimizu just can't keep her mouth shut about her one-time lesbian affair with Angelina Jolie. Shimizu tells "The Starr Sisters of Malibu," Randa and Patte Starr, on their blog and podcast, starrsecrets.com, that she once visited a dominatrix den with Jolie, who "loved it!" This and other stories are also included in the Starr sisters' new book proposal, "Starr Secrets: The Down & Dirty Truths About Today and Yesteryear's Celebrities," making the rounds courtesy of Matt Cohen of the Marianne Strong Literary Agency.
Pitt, Jolie to watch New Orleans rebuild
As residents work to rebuild their lives and homes a year after Hurricane Katrina, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will be frequent visitors to the city observing the progress.Party Spoiled
ANGELINA Jolie and Brad Pitt were in no mood to reconcile with Jolie's outspoken dad, Jon Voight, at the Hollywood birthday bash for Scott Caan the other night. The ultimate celebrity couple spent a half-hour sitting in their car out side the party after learning that Voight was in side. Pitt finally went in by him self to pay re spects to Caan, his co-star in "Ocean's 11" and "Ocean's 12." Mo ments after Pitt's arrival, his pre sumptive father-in-law left the party, paving the way for Jolie to enter through a back door. Voight became estranged from Jolie in 2002 when he said on national TV that she needed help for her "mental problems."
No Gawking
ANGELINA Jolie loves to eat out - as long as a woman is serving her. When Jolie and two pals breezed into the Dakota restaurant at the Hollywood Roosevelt the other night, she oddly requested "a female server only" to bring her halibut and salad, our spy says. "The theory is she feels guys gawk at her too much, and this is one way of avoiding that." Jolie's rep didn't respond. A few days earlier, Brad Pitt strolled into Gearys Beverly Hills and bought his and hers Rolex watches.
The Waxing of Shiloh
Sorry, Suri--as Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt might tell you, you snooze, you lose.Jolie to play widow of journalist Daniel Pearl
Actress Angelina Jolie will star in a movie as the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, trade paper Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.Photographer not to be charged over Jolie incident
A celebrity photographer arrested outside the school where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie send their son will not face trespassing charges, prosecutors said on Wednesday, citing a lack of evidence.Angelina Ends Maternity Leave
Well this explains all those animal noises reportedly emanating from Angelina Jolie's African abode last year. Apparently, she was just getting into character.Police seize camera with Pitt-Jolie photos
Police in this western Massachusetts town say they have seized a digital camera with images of celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Africa for an investigation by Los Angeles authorities.CNN gets high ratings for Jolie interview
To anyone who thinks CNN sold its soul to Angelina Jolie for ratings, network chief Jonathan Klein has this message: Find me a news outlet that would have turned her down.BRANGELINA ACTING 'COLONIAL'
ANGELINA Jolie probably thought she was helping the people of Namibia when she generously decided to give birth to Shiloh there. But Namibia's National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is calling her and Brad Pitt "colonial overlords" who "used heavy-handed and brutal tactics" to pressure the government into providing extraordinary restrictions on the media. A NSHR spokesman said, "To shut down a national border so she can give birth in peace is a massive abuse of power." Foreign reporters had to be approved by Jolie and Pitt before they were issued visas. South African journalist John Liedenberg had his passport and camera equipment confiscated, and was later arrested on public property and charged with trespassing. The NSHR said the Namibian government should be spending more money on its own pregnant mothers, "who go without medical care, food and shelter! But government can afford to spend thousands of taxpayers' money on the so-called protection of the privacy for a filthy rich Hollywood family! Who is fooling whom?"
Photographer arrested near Pitt-Jolie son's school
A celebrity photographer was arrested on suspicion of trespassing on Thursday after he was found hiding in the bushes outside the school where actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie send their 4-year-old son, police said.Tidbit
ANGELINA is tattooed with various persons' names including one that says "Billy Bob," and she's probably added "Brad." Next up, "To whom it may concern"
Angelina Jolie criticizes U.S. priorities
Angelina Jolie says the U.S. government has "strange" priorities when it comes to spending money on war rather than on AIDS or refugees.Jolie speaks out on Refugee Day
Former secretary of State Colin Powell thanked his "buddy, Angelina" Tuesday for the work Jolie does as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations.Jolie, Pitt eye adoption next
Weeks after the birth of their first biological child, Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are planning to adopt another.Jolie: Birth experience was 'terrifying'
Angelina Jolie, in her first U.S. interview since the birth of her daughter last month, says the experience was frightening.Not In The Price
THE $4 million Angelina Jolie collected from Time Warner's People magazine for her pictures of baby Shiloh had nothing to do with how Anderson Cooper landed her first post-partum TV interview for Time Warner's CNN. Although the Jossip.com blog claims "his 'exclusive' was included in the $4 million," Cooper's executive producer, David Doss, says, "That couldn't be further from the truth. They [Brad Pitt and Jolie] decided to do one interview on World Refugee Day, and they are big fans of Anderson and what Anderson has been doing in Africa." Doss says that when he was offered the interview, his reaction was, "Are you kidding me? You're just dropping this in my lap?"
Forbes Annual Power List
Power rank - Star Category - Pay in millions
1 Tom Cruise Actor 67
2 Rolling Stones Musician 90
3 Oprah Winfrey Talking Head 225
4 U2/Musician Musician 110
5 Tiger