Brad & Angelina’s Pictures in Cambodia

Adventure With Grandma

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid. I
remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big
sister dropped the bomb: “There is no Santa Claus,” she jeered. “Even dummies
know that!”

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day
because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told
the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when
swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns. I knew they were
world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her
everything. She was ready for me. “No Santa Claus!” she snorted. “Ridiculous!
Don’t believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me
mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let’s go.”

“Go? Go where, Grandma?” I asked. I hadn’t even finished my second
world-famous, cinnamon bun. “Where” turned out to be Kerby’s General
Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we
walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those
days. “Take this money,” she said, “and buy something for someone who needs it.
I’ll wait for you in the car.” Then she turned and walked out of Kerby’s.

I was only eight years old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, but
never had I shop ped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and
crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few
moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering
what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the
kids at school, the people who went to my church. I was just about thought
out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and
messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock’s grade-two class. Bobby
Decker didn’t have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess during
the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he
had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn’t have a cough, and he
didn’t have a coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would
buy Bobby Decker a coat!

I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm,
and he would like that. “Is this a Christmas present for someone?” the lady
behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. “Yes,” I
replied shyly. “It’s …. for Bobby.” The nice lady smiled at me. I didn’t get
any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and
ribbons (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible)
and wrote, “To Bobby, From Santa Claus” on it — Grandma said that Santa
always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker’s house,
explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa’s helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby’s ho use, and she and I crept
noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me
a nudge. “All right, Santa Claus,” she whispered, “get going.”

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on
his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the safety of the bushes and
Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to
open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven’t dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering,
beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker’s bushes. That night, I realized that
those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were:
ridiculous.

Santa was alive and well, and we’re on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the tag tucked inside: $19.95.

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He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree.

thanks Jared and Audrey for the great pictures.

Brad and Angelina’s beauty radiates from the inside. Of course, they are good looking but it’s what they do with their power and influence to help others that makes a fan and keeps me praying for this family to always flourish and grow together.

Happy Holidays to everyone and Merry Christmas. Stay warm and safe.

Hello everyone! I only have one more Chrismas present to get and then I’m done!

Those photos are so lively. Thanks JJ.

Kinda OT: I’m really loving the catfight between Rosie O’Donnell and The Donald. I feel it’s some sort of bad karma that way overdue to Trump especially after his rant against Brad & Angelina on Larry King Live.

Another OT: don’t go to that blacklisted blog site. The one run by MK. on the Angelina thread it’s just nasty. Let the haters marinated in their own juices and talk to each other. Stay away from that site.because of his hits, he got the best blog award. (((rolling eyes))). We have plenty of good Brad & Angelina blogs and fansites in addition to legit news to keep us happy. The hate blogs don’t breakl any news so shy go there? They come to sites like JJ to steal news about BAMZS. PH is in big trouble for doing that.

Don’t know if anyone posted this because I haven’t been to the previous post.
Here’s an interview with Angelina at the TGS press junket
Here’s an intersting interview with Angelina at TGS press junket. The screenwriter also talks about Angelina to the reporter as does DeNiro:

Angelina Jolie

Cinematical: Can you give an update on Atlas Shrugged? What sparked your interest in developing it? “I think it’s a wonderful book. I’m a fan of her writing. I think it’s an amazing project. It’s, in many ways, a controversial and complicated project and I think it needs to be done right. There’s been a lot of talk as to how that can be and ‘what are the important reasons for making it?’ There’s a lot of really great people involved. It’s being written now, and we’ll see as the script comes out, how close we are. Then we’ll know how close we are to possibly making it. Everybody involved, the producers involved, we all sat down around a table and we all agreed that if we couldn’t do it right, if we couldn’t do it justice, if along the way any one piece didn’t come together like the right director or the right script, then we would all just fold it and not do it. So that’s where we’re at right now. We’re taking it step by step, and we’re going to make damn sure that it’s done right.”

Cinematical: What are the ‘important reasons’ you referred to? “I think it’s too complicated to get into, because I think the discussion about that project, the misconceptions about her [Ayn Rand], different interpretations of her, that script … it is a huge subject. So I’d be tentative about speaking lightly about it.”

Non-Cinematical Question: Have you ever been made aware of any CIA activity in developing countries during your humanitarian work? “I’ve never been aware of something specific, but I’ve witnessed our foreign policy and I’ve witnessed the change in the perception of America’s foreign policy in the last few years. Every trip I take in the field has been different because of the changes we’ve made. I’m sure the CIA has had a hand in that. What changes are you referring to? Well, to be completely honest, about five years ago when I started traveling and I would say I was American, everyone was very, very excited and they thought it was the greatest thing in the world, the greatest place in the world. Now you feel cautious. You feel that people are not so joyful about that. They question my country or they say things like ‘Oh, it’s extraordinary that you’re here, because you’re American.’ And that’s not true to the American people. The American people are very caring, generous people. That’s been proven with the work every individual household has done, the charity they do, and who we are as a people. But it’s not what our government has represented in the last few years, so it’s been difficult to go to places abroad and see that. I think we all know exactly what I’m saying.”

Non-Cinematical Question: Bob De Niro and Matt Damon both met with lots of CIA people in preparation for this role. Did you research by meeting with CIA families? “I didn’t, because most of the people they could talk to were men in the CIA. Women like Clover were absent, or quieted, or moved to Arizona. It was almost impossible to talk to the women, and I think the reality is that the women knew so little. There would be very little to talk about. So my choice was almost to really talk to nobody, understand nothing, and be trapped in this world. Sometimes De Niro’s character would come in and I hadn’t focused on exactly who he was in the script and exactly what he did. I didn’t do my research on it, so he walked in and I really wasn’t sure who he was. That was kind of how I stayed in the dark.”

Non-Cinematical Question: Do you want to work with Brad Pitt again? “Who’s going to watch the children?”

Non-Cinematical Question: Talk about how you connected with the character. What was it about her that you identified with? “I think that kind of ‘feeling alone’. I haven’t necessarily felt that in a marriage, per say, but in my life. She’s surrounded by a lot of people with a lot of secrets. A lot of quiet, a lot of people just ‘accepting’. As much as she’s broken, she’s also the only person who is desperate to scream out and try to get some reaction, something honest. I’ve found that in my life a lot. And it would break me, I would start drinking or something terrible, if I was in a situation where I was surrounded by lies or secrets or quiet, and just not a real life.”

Non-Cinematical Question: Do you think a certain amount of deception or self-deception is necessary in a relationship? “No, I think quite the opposite is the only thing that works. I don’t want to spend my life having to pretend to be someone else. And I don’t want the person next to me to have to pretend, ever, because we’ve got a long life ahead of us. You want to just be able to be who you are in every moment, and that’s the only way you’ll ever be truly happy, anyway.”

Non-Cinematical Question: Are you still interested in Sin City 2? “Yeah, we’ve talked about it and I read the comic. I don’t think the film is being made at this point, so when it’s actually going to be, then I’m sure we’ll talk about it. It was a funny thing because the idea came to me when I was pregnant. It was this idea that ‘I’ve been Clover and depressed and quiet’ and now I’m maternal and pregnant, and here was this idea of….sexy, violent and loud. I thought, ‘after I’m pregnant, maybe that will be nice to do’. It didn’t come at that time, but we’re still talking about it. I have no idea when it might go, and if I’ll have time when it does, but I think it’s a very interesting project, and I like the comics and I love him as a director, so it’s a possibility. A strong possibility.”

Non-Cinematical Question: How did you feel about seeing yourself in age make-up in the film? “Well, my mom is aging gracefully, so if I’m anything like my mother….she’s lovely. I love age on a face. I know that in this business, there’s not a lot of leverage for the way people have an opinion on how people should look, but I personally love it. I love to age in movies. I love to see my face old and in different ways. I actually feel there’s something very comforting about feeling yourself as an older woman. You know that when you get to that point, you’re going to have earned so many different things and be rooted in so many different ways. There’s a kind of comfort to it. Clover was a little different. I hopefully will not break apart as she did. We had these big yellow contacts and yellow teeth. I had ‘alcohol age’ if you look closely. A lot of broken capillaries and a lot of yellow.”

Robert De Niro

Non-Cinematical Question: Talk about the casting process, and how you arrived at Matt and Angelina. “I was originally going to do it with Leonardo DiCaprio, but it didn’t work out schedule-wise. So I went to Matt and he gave me a quick answer and said he would do it. There were only a few actors I would do it with and Matt was one of them, if it came to not doing it with Leonardo. I was very lucky to have him come on board and do it. He’s been great on every level. Angelina, the same. I was very lucky to get her. She had always expressed an interest and we had a few meetings. Her wanting to do the part, I sensed. I knew she had some real special feel for it, and about it. She surprised me even more than I thought with what she did.”

Eric Roth

Non-Cinematical Question: What else are you working on? “Well, they’re shooting Benjamin Button as we speak, with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, in New Orleans.”

Non-Cinematical Question: Talk about the casting of Angelina. “Quite honestly, I told her when we met ‘I don’t believe you as a WASP. You’re kind of ethnic-looking to me.’ I don’t have a problem being honest with people. It would be better to be honest and she didn’t like me, than to do a bad job and then the movie’s wrecked. I’d rather go down that way. I mean, I’m being respectful. I thought she was a wonderful actress. I just had somebody in mind that was a fair and WASPY kind of person. Like Gwyneth Paltrow? Yeah, or like they did with Diane Keaton in The Godfather. Somebody a little blander, I guess. Not that Gwyneth Paltrow is bland, God knows. But Angelina sparked to it. She took it as a challenge. I always felt she could act it, but I didn’t know if it would be believable, and I think she made it believable. I sent her a huge thing of flowers. I didn’t think she could, not because of her acting ability, but because of the sense you have of her, plus her persona, and her publicity, and the sort of ‘vamp’ — all that stuff.

But she found the dignity in the thing. So it was an interesting combination, because as a personality, as a human being, I think she’s not a very repressed human being. I think. I don’t know her that intimately, but she seems on face value to be sure of herself. She does what she wants to do for herself. And in that era, under those circumstances, women were very repressed. But the character is sexually aggressive. Yeah, but I think she’s a woman who wants something. In other words, I think in a way she also has a point of view about it. I know she’s sexually aggressive in that particular instance, but I think it’s sort of anger. She’s taking her anger out. In another day and age, she could be Angelina Jolie and not be a repressed woman, but this is the 1940s. So then she found herself alone. And everybody said to me ‘Why do you have that one moment where she says ‘I’m no longer Clover, I’ve changed my name.’ We never talk about it again. It was supposed to be representative of someone saying ‘This is who I really am.’”

http://www.cinematical.com/2006/12/11/junket-report-the-good-shepherd/

Amaya Says:

December 20th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
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Jon’s imitation was funny, although it was different from the last time; he hunched himself in a way that made him look like he had no neck.

BTW… the USA Network is showing a special preview of The Good Shepherd in a few minutes.

My bad…

The preview revolved around USA’s ‘Characters Welcome’ mantra, focusing on Matt Damon’s character.

Grandma Says:

December 20th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
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Thank you for posting.
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piper, with a low Says:

December 20th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
And Brad’s sporting another headband/scarf. I wonder what’s that about
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LOL. Brad and his head gear. Brad has gone from the motorcycle baseball cap to the gray elf cap to the Sinatra style hats to the headband/scarf. Only Brad.

ntt, glad to see you here. I appreciate your comments on the Damon thread. I got so tired of foggy thinking that I closed shop and went away. I wanted to quote the peaceful parts of the Quran to that one dude but I thought he was so caught up in his hatred of Muslins, my weak words would never change his mind.

lurker opinion Says: December 20th, 2006 at 9:04 pm - i think that head-gear has to with some Cambodian tradition, if u notice in the Hello/People pics with the whole family, Maddox has the ’scarf’, but around his neck

A lot of children need help here too.

possible, I agree. I’m sure it hurts him to read all the headlines about her. He did marry her. I’m sure he still feels her pain .

Oh Please, stop with the Aniston thing already…I´m tired of that. Let´s do what somebody here said: No more posts of Jen.
There are a lot of things that we can talk about of our beloved couple: their kids, their humanitarian job, their movies, their travels, etc, etc

# Possible Says:
December 20th, 2006 at 9:38 pm

She will hopefully heal. And they may even be in contact still. Who knows? Everyone, especially BAMZS, have a tendancy to throw them against each other as if they are enemies. But the way AJ talked, she’s wiling and wanting to meet with her. If they were to become friends, what would all the BAMZS fanatics do? Stop hating her? It’s a bit of a frutrating annoyance about reading some of the hateful blogging. JA could be doing things worthwhile behind close doors. We are not to know. And a weird thing is people diss her skinnyness and her yoga but isn’t it the same goes for AJ? She is both skinny and practices yoga - ever seen the interview for Lara Croft and the photos in Paris when she goes to prenatal yoga? Why is that considered a diss against her. ANYHOW, just think Bamzs need to think a little. Not be so one dimensional about the relationships.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Are you going to agree with yourself again?

Possible Says: December 20th, 2006 at 9:38 pm - isn’t there a X thread some where to go sing her praises????????????