Brad Pitt And The Skipper Too

Rose says:
Adoption proceedings are sealed/closed/confidential, that means there is no public record. Brad said in an interview in Newsweek in June 2006 that the adoption was finalized and he is Mad and Z’s legal father. Angelina has also said that “she and Brad are legally bound to the children”. Adoption can take 3-6 months to a year depending on the circumstances and the individual state in the US. The date of the original filing of the adoption petition is not known, all that was made public was the name change petition which was made as part of the overall adoption proceedings, and public notice of a name change must be made.

Westwood says:
Every word you wrote shows how stupid you are. Shiloh is a product of the love between Angelina and Brad. Angelina has now said that they plan to have other biological children as well as adopt. No one with their means need have a child if they do not want to. If you bothered to read all the article, Angelina said “she is conscious that she does not ignore Shiloh’s needs, just because she feels the other two are more vulnerable”. WHERE DOES THIS SAY SHE DOES NOT LOVE SHILOH? DOES SHE NOT SAY THAT SHE HAS AN AWARENESS THAT SHE MUST ENSURE THAT SHILOH’S NEEDS ARE MET AS WELL AS MAD’S AND Z’S? WHERE DOES SHE SAY THAT SHE DOES NOT LOVE SHILOH AS MUCH AS SHE LOVES MAD AND Z? She is pointing out the truth that Mad and Z, no matter the best efforts made by Angelina and Brad, will face difficulties in their lives that Shiloh will not. Brad has said that he cannot live without Mad and Z, that they are his blood as much as Shiloh. THEY BOTH LOVE ALL THREE CHILDREN, BUT THEY CANNOT IGNORE THE REALITY THAT PEOPLE LIKE YOU EXIST IN THIS WORLD.

HOW COULD YOU EVEN INTERPRET HER WORDS AS NOT LOVING SHILOH? ONLY BECAUSE YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE JUDGEMENTAL FOLKS WHO BELEVES THAT YOU KNOW ALL, WHEN IN REALITY YOU KNOW NOTHING. YOU APPEAR DESPERATE TO FIND FAULT WITH ANGELINA, YOUR DISLIKE OF HER IS SO CLEAR,SO YOU TWIST HER WORDS TO FIND SOMETHING, ANYTHING TO SUPPORT YOUR BELIEFS. YOU WOULD MAKE A GOOD RECRUIT FOR A CULT WITH YOUR MINDLESSNESS ACCEPTANCE OF LIES.

The FF’rs are here in full force or Vag is doing her multi name posts. They call her on it at FF also, everything they are saying is quoted from Vag.

294
I love Jolie as an actress, but this is too good Says:
January 6th, 2007 at 4:10 pm

What can I say, you have hit the nail on the head. You are a very realistic person and i admire that.

Home> Mumbai> Bombay Yatra Sunday , January 07, 2007

Page One | News | Talk | All Headlines

BOMBAY YATRA

Meeting Brad and Angelina

Paroma Mukherjee

It’s not easy to keep up with a job that most people think is exciting and good-looking. So getting chosen for a photography workshop in Cambodia two months ago put me under more pressure to be a cool photojournalist. My work had to be more exciting than trying to manage an exclusive of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the Gateway of India back home. At that point of time, my only Cambodian connection was knowledge of Brangelina’s adopted child Maddox.

After spending two days guarding the Gateway and hoping that the star couple would grace the media outside with their presence, I made a rather meek exit without any photographs.

Bride Groom 18 - 24 25 - 30 31 - 35 36 - 45 46 - 50 50+ Hindu Muslim Christian Sikh Parsi Jain Buddhist Jewish Other

Siem Reap airport was like a little resort, with scores of people lined up for visas on arrival to the Kingdom of Cambodia. My workshop demanded that I explore the city on my own; finally doing justice to my profession and the image that went with it. So I rented a bicycle for a dollar a day (everything in Siem Reap can be managed for a dollar) and set out to look for a story that I could tell through my photographs.

Then in a quaint little lane parallel to where our edit sessions and daily discussions were held, I quietly cycled into a house with an odd signboard. Blind people administering a Japanese Shiatsu massage caught my attention immediately. I had found my story for the workshop and I was glad that it was not a sob story about the survivors of the war or the struggling economy of the country.

As I entered their home armed with a language that Cambodia was still only learning, Chea Leap (later my main protagonist) grabbed my arm mistaking me to be a tired, foreign tourist looking for a massage. It scared the daylights out of me since I am rather allergic to unknown human touch. Suddenly, I was in the middle of seven blind people who gave massages for a living, knew very broken English and were amused at my proposition of photographing them for two days at a stretch.

The only person with vision in the house was Chea Leap’s little daughter with her tiny dog on a leash. I photographed the family, initially from a distance and then from close quarters after they had finally understood that I didn’t want a massage even on the third day.

At the posh Carnets D’Asie gallery, after a photo edit session on the last day, I bumped into this good- looking guy with a white shirt, blue jeans, scarf around his head and unassuming, cool demeanor. He could pass off as a version of Brad Pitt, I thought, perhaps my desperation taking a toll on me from my misadventures at the Gateway. And then I looked again at the stunning woman behind him handling a tiny kid on her shoulders. My jaws, along with fifteen others’, dropped to the ground. It was Pitt and Jolie exploring the place. One of my tutors, Roland Neveu presented them with a book of his photographs of Cambodia through its war-ridden years. They spoke casually and hardly drew any attention, like any other couple on a holiday. I managed to stare at them for a ridiculous 20 minutes, something my Gateway colleagues would have killed for, and still did not manage to photograph them as there were strict instructions from the gallery to respect their privacy.

I couldn’t believe that I had them so easy in a country that I least expected this from. From the beautiful ruins of the Angkor temples to an interesting photo study of the independent blind and finally Hollywood’s most celebrated couple, Cambodia had won over me completely. But I still left the Killing Fields without a massage and with a shaken frame of Brangelina taken on the sly that is the exclusive that never was.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=216442

If I was Jen A and read the crap my so-called fan’s wrote,I would be depressed.Not a intelligent statement from ANY OF THEM.All they know how to do is insult and name call.What kind of adult insults small childern?Y’all need to let it go already and move on,Brad ain’t going back to Jen.Do ypu people really think Brad and Jen just woke up in Jan of 2005 and said let’s split up,please this marriage was over in late 2003.Instead of obsessing over the Elle interview go and read Jen and Brad’s interviews from 2003-2005 the writing was on the wall!

PAGE SIX:

BRAD Pitt and Angelina Jolie have cast aside their Third World lifestyle for some pricey vacation digs in the Virgin Islands. Spies at the Caneel Bay resort tell The Post’s Braden Keil that Brangelina have been living the high life with their kids and nannies in a five-bedroom, $8,000-a-night beachfront villa, formerly the private “cottage” of Laurance Rockefeller, who developed the 170-acre Caribbean playground in the 1950s. “They showed up with 97 pieces of luggage and a whole entourage,” gushed an incredulous witness. Pitt and Jolie have been spotted having candlelit dinners nightly on their veranda.

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix/pagesix_u.htm

294
I love Jolie as an actress, but this is too good Says:
January 6th, 2007 at 4:10 pm

295
So she has issues……. Says:
January 6th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
————————————
At least you could have posted under the same moniker.. :lol:

292 Sheri Says: January 6th, 2007 at 4:08 pm

re: 286 Original jpf Says: January 6th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

**********************************
Westwood aka “Vag” isn’t going to listen, she spews hatred. The things she has said about the children on FF are awful. I really need to do errands but this is the one hater that makes my blood boil, she believes in voodoo and well you don’t want to know.

^^^^

Please understand that I’m not attempting to sound snippy with you here, but I don’t know who it is and to be honest, I really don’t care. Yeah I remember a windbag from ages ago with some silly sense of importance and a even sillier long dumb name, and if it’s her/him here, whatever, my post was for anyone with the same mindset as the person whose idiocy and ignorance I was addressing.

jpf

310 Anna Says: January 6th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
PAGE SIX:

“Pitt and Jolie have been spotted having candlelit dinners nightly on their veranda.”

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix/pagesix_u.htm

^^^^

That’s the only part I give a darn about lol. If true, that’s wonderful!

jpf

Original jpf
Hold your roll already! Damn, you’re taking her way to literally. If you’re familiar with Angelina Jolie at all, you know part of her being so honest and speaking frank, is that she sometimes has to be deciphered. She’s not deliberately speaking in some code language, but she is winging it; off the cuff and it’s wonderful. She’s saying simply that Shiloh came to this world without the issues that may face Madd/Zahara. It doesn’t matter that they’re the children of Jolie-Pitt, they are still of color, they are still adopted, and they are still part of a world that if you haven’t noticed was willing to pay millions of dollars to see photographs of their blond, blue eyed sister. Angelina is saying she’s aware of the overcompensation of her other children she and Brad probably do, and how it may affect Shiloh, and to make sure that never assume that because Shiloh by virtue of birth won’t be faced with her own set of problems. You can’t possibly believe she isn’t as loved are adored by her parents, unless of course that’s what you want to believe.
jpf

bdj
I think you read what you wanted to in the interview, mainly negativity. AJ feels for children born in these 3rd world horrors. Maddox and Zahara came from such places. Shiloh is a beloved child but she is a child born of two wealthy parents and will be a child of privilege. If BP and AJ had not adopted Mad and Zahara then more than likely they would have died (particularly Zahara) or born a life of servitude or abuse. Therefore she feels compassion for them and a sense of “if not for the grace of God” these children will not have survived. There are many people in Hollywood that want the perfect blue-eyed blonde children. It takes a special couple of BP and AJ compassion and magnitude to look beyond the WASP superficial and adopt children of color. I admire them for doing so. Maddox, Zahara and Shiloh are greatly loved. Maddox and Zahara are truly blessed to have been adopted by BP and AJ.

ntt Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Feeling compassionate=Feeling sorry for. Why would she feel sorry for Shiloh? As any mom, looking at her newborn baby, she probably was filled with love, joy and pride, not compassion. Remember the People article on the birth of S? I have the issue on my lap right now, I will copy some of the things James Haven said. “There’s a genuine love I was overwhelmed with”. “I walked in the room and it was so overwhelming I had to walk out”, Haven tells People of seeing his sister, proud dad BP and brand new-niece together post delivery. “To see the father, mother, daughter–it was such a beautiful image that it overtook me.”
OK, have to go now.

Montserrat Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
What she is saying is that she feels for their situation more. Not that she loved Shiloh less than Madd and Zee but that she is concerned for them in the larger scheme of things, their position in the family etc. Shiloh, by blood has two sets of grand-parents, aunt and uncles that will feel a natural pull for her. Shiloh, (which is why she qualifies her statement) will never lack an identity. The other children will. Angie recognizes that Shiloh occupies a very special status based on the biological bond she shares with her mother and father. The media and everyone else has already started to place her above the other children. It would be negligent of Angie not to be conscious of their special situation. That’s what she means.
Angie’s situation reminds me of Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway - who has a son who is not the biological son of her husband, The Crown Prince ,and two royal children. Her first son is not royal born and at times he cannot be included in some royal events, in much the same way as her other two children. The media and people in general often draw a distinction between the children and seem more accepting of the royal children than her non royal child. For their part, The Crown Prince and Princess seemed to be mindful of the situation (like Angie) and seem to have a special understanding of Marius’s (that’s the child’s name) situation. It does not mean they do not love the other children, it means they know that people will not always accept Marius so they try to give him special understandi

lylian Says:.
First: Angelina used the word “feel” for her biological child, not necessarily love her biological child. “Feel” is a very general word. FITR, I don’t know whether you have children but many parents do acknowledge that they feel differently for their children. Feel could mean, feeling more guilty, more anxious, more resentful, what ever. It is a very general and neutral word. Therefore, it is advisable not to read that word as meaning, feel love. And feeling more guilty, feeling more anxious what ever, is going to affect how you treat each child. Best to acknowledge it and deal with it.
Second: I strongly believe almost all parents feel differently for each of your own biological children, depending on the circumstances each was born. I strongly believe to feel differently about each child is absolutely natural and nothing to be ashamed about.
For example, many parents FEEL more anxious with their first child then they are with the second or third child. If one of their children was seriously ill when that child was an infant and more delicate healthwise, then they had different anxiety levels for that child.
Other parents feel more guilt with one child then another. For example, a very dear friend told me that she hadn’t planned on having a 3rd child and he was an accident. She had initially resented having him, was angry with her husband, cried when she discovered she was pregnant. This then affected her feelings about her 3rd child, she felt guilty, felt a conscious desire to over compensate with her 3rd child because she hadn’t initially wanted him. Fortunately, as a conscious parent, she worked through her feelings of guilt, anger and love for her 3rd child and they have a wonderful relationship. Was my friend f*ed up?? Absolutely not. She’s one of the most sane and well balanced human beings I know. That’s why she was (a) conscious of how she felt, (b) conscious of how she should act and (c) took conscious steps to process her feelings so that she did not over compensate with the youngest one, or swing the other way and under compensate. Was her child F*ed up? Well, from what I see, he is a happy and secure child and he is now 10. Did she need a couple of years to work through all the guilt etc.? Yes. But no one was f*cked up.
Another mother I know had a first child who was unplanned when she was still in full swing in her career. She quit work to raise the child, experienced some resentment, worked through those. Then subsequently, tried for a second child, suffered a couple of miscarriages before carrying the second child to full term. Did she have different feelings about the second baby to the first. YES. With the second child, she understood much more fully the miracle of having a baby, perfectly formed and healthy. She was much more joyful about having the second child then the first. Does she love one more then the other?? NO. Did she feel differently initially about each child. YES. Is she f*cked up bad mother. NO. She is a wonderful mother, dealing with her feelings consciously and honestly. And her relationship with her elder daughter is certainly a happy one.
Third: I believe it is not f*cked up to have to consciously remind yourself to feel and treat your children equally. It isn’t f*cked up to feel differently for your children. What is F* up is that you dishonest and don’t acknowledge that you have different feelings for each child. What is F*cked up is when you don’t consciously and honestly deal with your different feelings and act them out, all the while saying you feel exactly the same. Having grown up in a family where my father did feel differently for each of his children, my siblings and I can tell you it wasn’t that he felt differently but that he insisted that he felt exactly the same, even though his actions spoke differently that was F* up. It was the dishonesty. Because that’s when you feel, as a child, that its your fault. Luckily, as adults, my siblings and I were able to heal each other, confront my father and even more healingly, hear him apologise to each of us. Don’t get me wrong, my siblings and I never ever felt unloved by my father, never felt for a moment that he would not have given his life for anyone of us. But I might add, I never felt more loved by him and never loved him more then when he acknowledged to me, his mistakes.
So, I think Angelina is as sane and as conscious and as UNF*cked up a mother as they come. She has different feelings, but she wants to love them the same. And she is consciously and honestly acknowledging and dealing with those feelings. From what I’ve seen of real life examples, I’m pretty sure Angelina and her children will be have healthy loving relationships with each other.

gitane Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
why is this a big deal? for months people have been implying that angie and brad treat shiloh differently as if she were more precious than their other children. when that didn’t work, they decided that angie and brad didn’t love shiloh as much as zee and madd because they didn’t take her out. now, here you go, angie basically says she’s not inclined to coddle or prefer shiloh over her other children because that degree of worry she has for them is different. zee and madd are more fragile and precious to angie because of the circumstances under which she found them–circumstances which she could not control and which she took great effort and love to reverse. shiloh was born with a diamond binkie waiting for her, privileged from the moment of conception. zee and madd were not. that doesn’t mean that shiloh is unloved or unwanted or that angie tosses her aside if zee starts pouting. or that madd will get a second helping while shiloh starves. it’s a simple feeling/perception that shiloh is stronger because she never experienced the sickness and suffering that madd & zee did as infants. she’s never been abandoned/orphaned, so that measure of compassion that angie feels in addition to parental love is less defined where shiloh is concerned.

Montserrat Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
What she is saying is that she feels for their situation more. Not that she loved Shiloh less than Madd and Zee but that she is concerned for them in the larger scheme of things, their position in the family etc. Shiloh, by blood has two sets of grand-parents, aunt and uncles that will feel a natural pull for her. Shiloh, (which is why she qualifies her statement) will never lack an identity. The other children will. Angie recognizes that Shiloh occupies a very special status based on the biological bond she shares with her mother and father. The media and everyone else has already started to place her above the other children. It would be negligent of Angie not to be conscious of their special situation. That’s what she means.

Sweetpea Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I had to come out of lurking mode for this…
Boy it’s really disgusting to read these f***** up comments about Angelina loving Mad and Z more than Shiloh! Where the h*** did those interpretations come from? It is obvious from everything that Angelina has said that she loves all her children equally. Even if she hadn’t said a word, it’s OBVIOUS that she loves Mad and Z by the pictures that we’ve seen of them together. It’s OBVIOUS that she loves Shiloh because she’s HERE. Before Brad, Angelina said she was not going to have biological children. She starts a relationship with Brad and BAM she’s having his baby. Let’s face it, these days no woman has to carry and give birth to a child she doesn’t want. She WANTED to have Brad’s child. Shiloh is an expression of THEIR LOVE and I’m sure she holds a special place in Angelina’s heart just like her other children.
Mad and Z came from extremely adverse situations and she knows how lucky she is to have them. Is it a surprise that she ‘feels’ more for Mad and Z? Based on how those 2 children, especially Z, are attacked on some of these blogs, she does have to make sure they get extra attention. Hell, I can’t wait until the magazines and tabloids stop pointing out that they’re adopted. Mad and Z are Brad’s and Angelina’s children PERIOD. I know there are BA fans that adore Mad and Z, but there are also a lot of people out there that don’t. They only want to see and acknowledge Shiloh as a Jolie-Pitt. Of course it’s those people that get pissed off when it doesn’t seem like the BA hold Shiloh above Mad and Z like they do.
I wonder if the comments that Angelina made would be interpretted so f* up had she adopted 2 other who looked like her? How dare this famous, beautiful, rich White couple love those brown children as much as their own blonde haired, blue eyed daughter…

kk1 Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Sweetpea Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
THANK YOU. ITA. Angelina and Brad are aware of the difference in perception held by many people that Mad and Z are not their real children, that both children are “persons of color”, and that many see Shiloh as their only “real” child. This is why the emphasis on using the term “adopted” when referring to Mad and Z is done so often, rather than just saying that they have THREE children, period. They recognize that dispite their best efforts Mad and Z will encounter some negative people and situations in their lives that Shiloh will not experience. Some of the angriest and vile people at FF and PH regularly refer to Mad and Z using racial slurs. Some delusional Brad/____ golden couple fans regularly describe the imaginary beautiful blond/blue eyed offspring that Brad and ___ would have produced in comparison to how Mad and Z look. They are all racists pure and simple. They lack the big hearts that Angelina and Brad clearly have, to love without seeing differences in skin color and cultures. I am not much of a TCruise fan, but he also has such a big heart.
Angelina has said how she worried that she would feel different about Shiloh, as compared to her feelings for Mad and Z because she gave birth to Shiloh. I interpreted that to mean that she was worrried that she might love Shiloh maybe a bit more because Shiloh is her biological child with the man she loves. She went on to say that this did not happen, she loves them all the same. She was honest and said the main difference is that sometimes she looks at Shiloh and sees Brad, which she said was “sweet”. HOW IN THE HELL CAN ANYONE DOUBT THAT SHE LOVES ALL THREE OF THESE CHILDREN? SHE IS A FIERCE MOTHER. She is just too honest in expressing that she worries as to how Mad and Z will be and have been treated no matter that they are Jolie-Pitts, but at the same time recognizes that Shiloh has certain needs, and that she and Brad must make sure that all three children’s differing needs are met. She is totally devoted to being a mother, and what good loving mother doesn’t worry in this crazy world we all live in.
I have a good friend who has two children, and one child has severe health issues requiring many hospitalizations. She and her husband make a special effort to make sure that their healthy child does not feel neglected, is not neglected. They love their children the same, but the needs of the children differ.
Lastly, I am also part Native American and I was pleased to see that Angelina acknowledged that she and Brad were also. Maybe they will adopt a native american child.

piper, with a low Says:
January 6th, 2007 at 1:38 am
This is my last post of the night.
Ever since the Anderson Cooper interview when she said that she was surprised that her feelings for Shiloh wasn’t any different than Maddox and Zahara, people have been in a snit about it. Yes, she admitted that she was scared when she didn’t hear her cry immediately. You can bet that if she dwelled on that moment and retold that story time and time again, people would’ve accused her of milking it and being insensitive for talking about an experience that ___ didn’t get to experience. Hell, these people even tried to link Shiloh’s birth as a final fu to ___ just before her movie premiere.
When a child enters one’s life, should the mode in which he or she arrives be the sole attribute of the child? It shouldn’t be, but people have made it an issue from jump.
One last thing… whenever Angelina discussed her initial contact with her children, fear was always involved. When she held Maddox, before she even considered adoption, she was scared that he would react badly toward her–not much, but for someone who didn’t contemplate the option of being a mom, it could be frightening– and the fear that she didn’t know enough about taking care of a baby/child; with Zahara, it was the fear that Zahara may die; and with Shiloh, it was the fear that she wasn’t doing enough to secure Shiloh’s health- after all, she was the one carrying her 24/7. Whether it was the press criticizing her thin physique, her activities, and her choice to give birth in Africa, I’m sure that there were constant swirls of fear, the common fear that all mothers have. But most mothers have the luxury of anonymity, even a collective of women sharing their war scars to assuage guilt and anxiety.
But not Angelina. What she is getting is a bunch of priggish harpies who continue to live under the delusion that their $h*t smells like potpourri. People who continue to believe that a photograph, an interview or brief interaction, or recordings of mere moments out of billions define a person.

CLINIQUA Says:
January 6th, 2007 at 3:57 am
I’m not even addressing what peeps have been discussing…aj has very clearly communicated that she loves her children equally…so the game of ‘GOTCHA’ that haters play and even try to entice us into is ridiculous…if you don’t get that aj was talking ‘compassion and cognizance over mad & z’s special circumstances being adopted, being non-white, and coming into the world in poverty and tragedy, then you need to examine why you are a fan to begin with.
uh-oh…looks like I addressed it anyway.
‘feel more’ isn’t ‘love more’…she’s talking compassion for them (HELLO?!?!) and the awareness that her older two kids are more ‘vulnerable’ in this society than shi.
that’s not to say shiloh can’t be vulnerable and that she shouldn’t worry about her in this way as well…but i’m sure aj feels THAT is something that SHE & BRAD CAN CONTROL…how Shi sees herself…her self-esteem…while with mad and z, like the wonderful intuitive smart woman she is…she knows she has to prepare them for how they may be treated in the world due to several factors…including them being adopted…and not being the same race as mom and dad….i’ll never forget aj talking about how a friend of hers once said asian men were not her type…and aj immediately felt a pain in her heart as she thought of someone thinking that way about mad.
I admire the way in which aj is so real and righteous…the only thing that frustrates me is the realization that much of the press and some members of the public, if they are not haters outright, may just not be worthy, compassionate, or smart enough to deal with and understand her brand of refreshing honesty.
I got what she meant straight off…and am po’d it’s even being discussed this vociferously…to the exclusion of everything else she says in the article of interest! wtf! like for instance…does she really say brad is part native american too? how cool! I always suspected he might be…something about the eyes.
i’m going to check it out now…i still haven’t seen aj’s pic in the carrib

People

We all know Angie loves her children to death!! there is no need to dissect her statements and discuss about it. Period.

One small question:

Since “A Mighty Heart” is being produced by Brad’s Plan B, with Angie starring in it. Does it mean that Brad will pay Angie her fee, I mean the fee she usually gets for her movies(i.e. $10-15 million)!! its kind of funny, hahaha. Good for them. Way to go Brad.

Artist depicts Angelina Jolie as Virgin Mary
The Associated PressPublished:

RALEIGH, North Carolina: A painting of actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary hovering over a Wal-Mart check-out line is on sale for $50,000 (€38,200) and has created a buzz on the Internet.

Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous works has garnered the attention given “Blessed Art Thou,” which was to show at Art Miami 2007 beginning Friday. One reason for the attention was a posting of the painting on the popular gossip site, http://www.perezhilton.com.

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 checkout line at Wal-Mart, where women wait in line. The painting is for sale through Chelsea Galleria in Miami, which represents Kretz.

On her blog, Kretz 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.”

“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 attention is startling for Kretz, who does not watch much television and never read tabloids until she began doing research for this painting. “I’m looking at it from the point of view from somebody from another planet — what is this about, this is so strange.”

Kretz, 43, was an associate professor at Florida International University for 10 years before moving to Burlington, North Carolina, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Raleigh.

With the popularity of “Blessed Art Thou,” her blog, which used to average 30 unique viewers daily, is getting more attention from strangers these days with 15,000 unique views Wednesday.

Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, asked to comment about “Blessed Art Thou” on a Post blog, said the painting’s message is too obvious.

“It’s more like a puzzle-picture than a probing work of art: Once you’ve deciphered it, there’s not much chance of giving it a second look,” Gopnik wrote. “Its van-art technique, especially, is so generic that it hardly has a thing to say that hasn’t been said a thousand times before — often, much better.”

But Kretz’s experience so far is that the painting is not so easily decipherable — opinions posted on her blog range from people who think she’s deifying celebrities to those who believe she is making fun of the culture that deifies them.

“Kate, I love the painting and I love even more what it says to me,” one blogger wrote. “This is very inspiring. The weird world of the celebrity cult fascinates me and repulses me at the same time. There is nothing stranger than the spaces, premises and concepts of the world we live in.”

But another said “I’m feeling a bit of resentment towards the artist for being yet one more media person to shove Jolie’s useless visage in my face.”

Kretz, who was raised Catholic and often uses church imagery in her work, said the painting has become a lightning rod on the subject of celebrity culture.

“Whatever people want to foist on the painting, they are foisting on to the painting,” she said.

Just found that! I want to share it!! http://www.planetangelinajolie.com/wp-content/bradgelina-1.jpg Look how they are happy!! Just wonderful!