Angelina Jolie is a Bouquet of Beauty

Wow, am I first?!

Wow! No comments yet??? In an hour, I’m sure there will be over 100 fo’ sho’.

Wow , Am I the third ?

Thank-you Jared. Beautiful oriental outfit.
Just adore seeing Angie and baby Shiloh

Really nice photo of Angelina. It’s looks as though she’s cut her hair. It looks a lot shorter than it had previously been.

Its good that they are laying low… too much of anything os good for nothing esp that much exposure for the kiddies

Wonder if they are heading for their family vacation? Brad and Angelina and their little world travelers…let’s guess where they will show up next.

Thanks JJ for the update!

WOW she looks GORGEOUS. I love the picture, it is just beautiful. And also the pictures with her and Shi, she looks great. I wonder where they are going.

Thanks Jared for the new thread and picture

“Family vacation?” LOL, they are never home. This “mother” is making ANOTHER movie? More daycare (warehousing) and more strangers taking care of you, kids. Geez, this woman cannot stand to be home (alone) with Brad OR her kiddie collection for 5 minutes. The kids probably think Angelina is the babysitter!

She Looks Beautiful!!

For the next thread, let’s try to get to 25 before a troll comes. Haha!

Ange is a true movie star!!!!!!!!!!!!!

where are they go ?i love them and best whishes for them

I hope you don’t mind my asking, but how much does a St. John’s suit cost?

FINALLLYYYYYYYY!!!!!
I WAS ABOUT TO JUMP OFF A BRIDGE,
I JUST COULDNT TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!
ALL I WANT TO SAY IS,
MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS JARED!!!

She is beautiful

1998 Gussie

The whole interview:

American cinema’s most beautiful mug returns to the screen with his band of seductive crooks, in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean Thirteen. Exclusive interview.

- In Ocean thirteen you co-star with Al Pacino, your idol. How did you feel?
- Al is one of the greatest actors ever. He is very nice, open and remarkably intelligent. I have never seen anyone invest so much in a role. During lunch breaks, I’d hear him repeating his lines to be perfect at the moment. Besides, I believe he was the only one in the band to be systematically excellent at the first takes.

-Yourself, you do not work like that?
- No. I’d become mad if I went home at night in character. To each his thing. Fortunately, I’m able to concentrate on demand.

- How did things go with Soderbergh?
- At he end, we were all a bit sad, because we had been informed: there wont definitely be a Ocean fourteen. It it depended on me, I’d have piled up for four or five more episode with the gang. Soderbergh is really an amazing, complex guy. He always manages to get new performances from his actors. He is someone who stimulates creativity without violence, he is not simplistic, quite the opposite. And he always leans towards human interest stories and I love that.

- Do you regret having done any of your movies?
- More than one, yes. I have made bad choices, been disappointed at some directors, and then, at a certain moment, I thought I had shot too much movies. I suffered from a compulsion that made me shoot two or three films a year and therefore some which I should never have accepted. A madness! Some are dear to me, like those I’ve shot with David Fincher, “Se7en” and “Fight Club”, but also “Seven Years in Tibet” de Jean-Jacques Annaud, the “Ocean” movies, or “Mr and Mrs Smith”. Many others, I have accepted by fear of finding myself unemployed.

- You, unemployed?
- Yes. I had shot some flops, like “Johnny Suede” which nobody remembers now, “The Flavour”, “Cool World”, “The Mexican”, “Spy Game” and moreover I was going through a turbulent time in my private life. Happily, more exciting projects, from respected directors I admire came my way.

- Like Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s “Babel”?
- Yes. That part of an American travelling through Morroco whose wife is accidentally shot by a lost bullet was terrific to me. Being an actor is not a hobby, it is a job that requires discipline, hard work and respect: lots of industry people only have a vague idea of what those words mean. For me, they are important, because counting back I’ve spent half my life making movies.

- You’re a working fiend…
- No, not really…

- But you say it yourself, you film a lot…
- A shooting doesn’t take more than three or four months. After twenty years that means a lot, but I particularly enjoy the waiting period between two sets. I do like acting, but I can’t stand the idea of going back to it

- If you are not addicted to work, to what are you addicted?
- To be exact. I’m not addicted to movies, but I am to the intensity a shooting brings.

- Do you think you have asserted your game?
-You do not? (Laughs). Frankly, I’ll say yes, I have.

- What’s the difference between today’s Brad Pitt and the one from his beginning, twenty years ago?
- If I answer that question, it will have to be a thesis. And we only have thirty minutes. If I sum it up in a sentence, the fact that I worked with people like Soderbergh, Fincher, Gilliam, Tony Scott, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Mark Foster and some others has polished my acting, cleaned it up and re-centered it.

- By whom would you like to be directed?
/b>- By people like Michael Mann, Roman Polanski, Ang Lee… You may think that at a certain level of fame, we choose what we want to film. It is a mistake. I’m happy with, and proud of, 90% of the movies I’ve made, but I’d have loved to do some others: “The pianist”, in the Adrien Brody role, even if I know I was not up to it, “Brokeback Mountain” in Jack Gyllenhaal’s role… Above all, I’d love to work again with Edward Zwick , with whom I shot “Legends of the Fall”. He did a fantastic job with “Blood Daiamonds” some months ago. I was very jealous of Leonardo DiCaprio! (Laughs.)

- It seems when you were little, you wanted to be Hulk…
-True. I adored a character that didn’t get red with fury, but green… I cracked myself up watching him.

- And it is soon coming back… without you! You must be so broken…
- (Burst of laughter.) I’ll try to survive it.

- You don’t love any other super heroes?
- I’m going to give you a scoop: I was asked to do the first “Spider-man”, but shooting permanently in front of a green screen to allow the superimposition of the 3D set would have made me loose my head. And I’m sure my public wouldn’t look forward to seeing me i that kind of production. I do not regret having refused.

We know Brad Pitt, the actor, less so the producer. How are things there?
Producing films is a financial bottomless pit. You stick your little finger in the process and you get eaten alive. But I’m proud of having produced Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart”, adapted from the book written by the widow of Daniel Pearl, the journalist killed in Iraq, that was just presented in Cannes. Angie plays Marianne Pearl. I cried at the screening, she is that poignant.

- Have things always been clear for you as to your path and all that happened to you?
- Yes. I’m mature enough to take stock of my successes, the movies that worked well, those I’ve believed in but have failed and those I was always sure were going to fail. I did stupid stuff, the media didn’t spare me and cut me down to size. But sincerely when the media are on the look out for the smallest of your gestures, your slightest word, everything you do gets blown out of proportion. I thought I was stronger than the sensationalist press, that I should ignore them and live my life as I thought fit. But everywhere in the world things have become so hellish, so out of proportion, and even so unfair I had to let it go, or I’d have died trying.

Your tumultuous relationships with stars have not helped things…
- I admit my life has not been restful. But what I do not understand and cannot bear is when people entwine my private life with my work. All the events of my personal life, particularly with my ex (Jennifer Aniston), were overblown. From the moment the public is interested in you, everything you do is subject to multiple interpretations, of which three quarters are false and biased.

- The critics and the public shower you with praise, but, nevertheless, you have never received an Oscar or a Golden Globe, only two nominations. Does that disturb you?
- No, that does not prevent me from sleeping, but I’ll be happy when it comes. If it comes! My logic is the most beautiful reward comes above all from the public.

- May we risk asking you one or two very private questions, or are you going to put on your boxing gloves?
(Laughs) You may always try.

- Everything is well with Angelina? Because, when you’re together, she is not very smiling!
- She is not one to show her feelings. And she is not going to burst into laughter every twenty seconds on the pretext of having photographers around! Everything is going well and we are as much in love as in the first day.

Do you love her numerous tattos?
Of course! It is body-art brought to perfection. Angie is a work of art: One almost ought to put her under glass in a museum (Laughs)

- Couldn’t you have blown a fuse or, worse, became depressed with the media frenzy that surrounds your life?
- I’ve often exploded, but in private. In public, I’ve the strength to show I can play the game. I’ve experienced the relentlessness of the media for a long time and a certain form of rejection from the professional milieu who had me catalogued and reduced to the “pretty face” shelf. But rather than getting me down, this has energized me and I have fought hard to build a carapace. When you are stalked by photographers 24h/24h, believe me, you cannot behave normally. And I am not saying this as an excuse for some attitude or other. Our contemporary culture builds idols in order to better destroy them. You are put on a pedestal and than the game is to bring down the statue.

- How have you managed?,
By standing back, by retreating from the public stage, by not stringing films together, by taking an interest in the politics of my country and in the environmental problems that should concern us all. That has helped me understand how some things are so relative. And after meeting Angie I became a new man, intimately and artistically speaking.

- Actually, in keeping with your friend George Clooney, you are also tremendously worried about the state of our planet…
- Of course you’re going to say it is a bit hypocritical to proclaim oneself an environmentalist and to travel by plane, even if for professional reasons. But on my daily life I drive a small electric car, very powerful for that matter. I am very interested in the G8 Summits and often organize, as we did in Cannes, fundraisers to help the most destitute or for Darfur. To hang around artists such as Bono, Bob Geldorf, to be able to discuss famine and AIDS in Africa, malaria and the world debt with the chief decision-makers has also strengthened my beliefs. The need to inform and the urgency of these problems remain vital. I’m going to get more and more involved in the years to come. I’d love to have done something good in my life!

Christophe Combarieu

Saw this on other sites but thanks JJ. Maybe these sets of photos will satisfy the ones who are always crying for new pics.

Bart- like always poor baby brad, BAD BIG CRAZY ANGIE..

TELL YOUR BOSS TO GROW SOME BALLS FOR ONCE.

BRAD PITT IS THE ONE PAYING TROLLS

No one went to see Angelina’s last flop, why is she bothering with another flop? So where are all her fans, not very many of them since this sk@nk’s movies always tank. Bottom line - Angelina’s name on a movie is a guaranteed flop. Brad’s life is in the toilet, couldn’t happen to a more deserving moron.

she is beautiful, but this is such a stupid ad campaign. that pose is just awful. can you imagine how much more striking it would have been had they have her look straight into the camera????

Hello to all the positive posters out there celebrating our favourite family! :-) So nice to see the fam off on vacay (France perhaps?) I’m sure they’ll have a well deserved break wherever they are.

Hope all the awesome fans here have been doing well and having a fabulous summer so far! I’ve been busy moving to a new apartment and enjoying the sunshine but was thinking about you guys and hoping all is well, so I popped in and voila - a new thread! Pax and hugs to all.

This looks like her hairdo we saw when it was in 2 low ponytails, remember from the shoot?

Topaz- responded on other thread. :)

MF- I did not get one from you :(

For Blondie’s question about how much a Saint John suit costs, here is their website. It looks like from $1500 to more than $2ooo. Too expensive for me. :(
http://stjohnknits.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/catalogPage.jhtml?tid=C4&itemId=cat301&parentId=cat000000&masterId=&cmCat=

2284 piper, with a low

I agree with you. I don’t like the Etta James version. Joe Crocker has the best version. Thanks Peace

Angelina looks lovely! She resembles a young Audrey Hepburn in the black & white photo holding, the rose bouquet. Is this a hint Bradgalina are getting hitched? Nudge, Nudge Brad. You’re not getting any better then Angie!

Why don’t her clothes ever fit her?

47 susie

I did ! :smile:

It’s nice to see the uber cool young mom and in demand actress of 4 on the go with her family. Home is where your family is so the Jolie-Pitts have been “home” since 2005. I very happy that Angelina’s happy with Brad and he with her. The pictures are stunning. Does anyone know if it’s the same photographer who took the first set last year? Shiloh is getting bigger and blonder every day.

“Dad’s bags for bikes don’t open needs to go on the jet.”

How cute. Hope the family enjoy their vacation.

Thanks Jared

Blondie, ntt- they are expensive but they are beautifully made knit suits and dresses. My mom used to wear St. Johns alot and I have them all now and they are still perfect and fashionable, like Chanel.

Cute cute!

Some people must be having a hard time dealing with just a few new photos of our favorite family. Still together, still happy, leaving on a jet plane for some fun with their kiddies…

Read another review today about Angelina’s performance in AMH and the strong, if not a sure thing, that she will be nominated for another Academy Award. Will try to scan it.

#27
Saint John’s knits retail for around $1000 — $2000. They’re an investment. Expensive as hell but they never go out of style.

The difference between Angelina and X is that Angelina could put on a burlap sack and make it look like a Saint John’s suit. X would make a Saint John’s suit look like a burlap sack.

ROFLMAO if you think Angelina gives a flying fcuk about Posh Spice. Only losers like X and her fans care about Posh Spice.

Jeesh, there is clearly 1 loser here switching their names up, how sad

MF-still didn’t get it :(

45 coalharbourqt

Hello coal! :smile:

Would you like to see this video I made ?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_XuSzfEXGoI#GU5U2spHI_4

Good Night everyone!

Opps..
Thanks no longer a lurker for the comments.

brieses - rest well.

Does anyone know how many days of filming she still has? I read that the filming in Chicago will be late July early August for 1 week.

She’ll probably have to take a break from her vacation.

New Beckham Thread!

Awww, the inbred trolls have made an appearance, coming into the new thread, right on time, on their cankles, their wonkey eye and brushing their snaggle tooth.

Is this the Fall/Winter ad campaign for St. John? Looks like Spring to me.
Nice pics. Those Newsweek pics are amazing. Thanks to whoever posted it.

17 cruddup : 07/15/2007 at 10:22 pm
This “mother” is making ANOTHER movie?
********************************************************

Yeah, this mother works. Unlike poor X who has nothing to do but sit on her yoga mat and blow-dry her hair all day long because nobody wants to put her in their movies. (Never mind that she will never be anyone’s mother.)

The Jolie- Pitt family is an inspiration for all. Angie is the most beautiful woman in the world; everyone wants to copy her,

The difference between Angelina and X is that Angelina could put on a burlap sack and make it look like a Saint John’s suit. X would make a Saint John’s suit look like a burlap sack.

=======================

well said, jill, well said!

This made me drop out my chair laughing..lmao

Hey ntt, hey susie! *waving* Yup, done moving and now comes the fun part - buying some new furniture and unpacking my books etc. :D Love my new place!

How have you been? What’s new? I haven’t been here for a while - did I miss anything exciting? I’ll have to go thread reading and catch up a bit…hope all is well with you!

Thank You JJ for the new pics.Like I’ve always said you are the greatest!!!!!!!!!!!! What is a Troll?

78 new name : 07/15/2007 at 10:57 pm - Are you for real????

I like the ad. she’s staring at the sky because she would rather be flying a friggin’ plane than picking flowers dressed like that.

coal, hello! 4000+ posts for the beowulf thread, heard about it?

Lovely !

77 susie

Please check your email. thanks.
Good Night.

Angie is gorgeous as always !

Sheeit! Brad better start carrying Shiloh! Shiloh almost looks likes she outweighs Angelina! lol!

75 new name : 07/15/2007 at 10:57 pm
I’ve seen **.Johns clothing at J.C.Penny.Could it be the same one?
=================

No, I think JCP’s is Saint John Bay, not Saint John.

Not all Brad fans are crazy, some of them yes, they hate angelina and hate any woman he’s with at the time.

Missouri Fan - Brava! Brava! Well done on your video - love the music and some of the pics I haven’t even seen before :-) I hope you are having a lovely summer and enjoying your garden.

Hi Lady G - yes, finally! It was one of the hottest days of the year but I survived. How are you doing? Having a good summer?

no longer a lurker - are you freakin’ serious???!!! Holy crap! That must be some kind of record. I hope it wasn’t too ugly - those long threads tend to get pretty nasty in my experience. So much for catching up on reading - LOL! I hope all is well in your world! :-)

Nice pics of Angie and Shiloh - I hope JJ adds some more pics of the rest of the fam.!

Sheeit! Brad better start carrying Shiloh! Shiloh almost looks likes she outweighs Angelina! lol!

——————-
Didn’t you heard? Brad doesn’t care about angelina’s health! he doesn’t give a **** unless his PR is affected.

Shiloh is growing fast and she’s quite big. It looks like she may inherit those GIANT genes of the Voights.

Jon Voight is 6 ft 4 in.
Jamie is taller than John Voight.
Angie is taller than her mother.
Brad is about 6 ft.

To Post 87 Susie ~ Well, truth be told, neither would I. But you never know when an opportunity will come up! I could live in my comfy Levi’s but office attire gets in the way so I can go to work.

Coal- hi *waving*, congrats on the move. :lol:

Mzslil- make sure you drive to Play Del Carmen while you are there. It is a great, small funky town with alot of younger Europeans and the beaches aren’t commercial like Cancun, very cute! :)

The X fans will probably start yammering that they will never buy a Saint John’s suit after they put Angelina in their advertisements. It’s a moot point anyway because the typical X fan wouldn’t be able to fit into a Saint John’s suit. Saint Johns doesn’t make clothes in plus sizes.

Thank You Jared.. You are such a Prince..
I adore The Jolie-Pitt’s and I adore You….
Cheers Jared!!!

Thanks Susie…..Playa Del Carmen is on our to do list.

124 Jill

The X fans will probably start yammering that they will never buy a Saint John’s suit after they put Angelina in their advertisements. It’s a moot point anyway because the typical X fan wouldn’t be able to fit into a Saint John’s suit. Saint Johns doesn’t make clothes in plus sizes.

————

Absolutely correct. The typical X fan looks like this.

http://i17.tinypic.com/4u1gzy8.jpg

Now, I know why they hate so much.

62 susie : 07/15/2007 at 10:51 pm
My mom used to wear Saint Johns alot and I have them all now and they are still perfect and fashionable, like Chanel.
********************************************************************

ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE YOU!! I think I’d sell my soul for a Saint John’s suit! :mrgreen:

Just kidding. :-) Wear them with pride. You’ll pass them on to your granddaughter and they will never go out of style.

Syd…..I totally agree.

I am hoping that Brad and Angie take the kids to the beach. Z loves the ocean.

#129
LOL, I think the average X fan shops at Lane Bryant’s.

Cancun is WILD! have fun, I prefer Punta cana but cancun is great. Hope you enjoy the tequila and Corona beer cuz you’re going to have it even at breakfast

44 no longer a lurker : 07/15/2007 at 10:42 pm
lylian, also this one:

http://www.souliejolie.com/forum/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=35594

________________

Thanks. will check it out later.

Does anyone know where the Changeling will be filmed?

128 Julianne : 07/15/2007 at 11:31 pm
I am curious….what is considered a plus size in the fashionista world? The average American women is a size 12, so would they be barred from this line of clothing?
*******************************************************************

That’s a good question. Actually, I heard the average American woman is a size 14. I know a lot of high-end designers refuse to market any of their designs over a size 12. Ann Taylor is a mid-price chain and they only recently started stocking clothes up to size 16. But they still don’t sell plus sizes.

I saw a store in NYC last year that advertised “REAL clothes for REAL women”. They had some very nice models in the window. I went in there and they didn’t have a thing under a size ten. I was like, wait a minute — us single-digit sizes are REAL women, too!

Jill (size 4 or 6)

http://i17.tinypic.com/4u1gzy8.jpg
—————————————-
She looks like her idol.

Hey Lilian- If I remember correctly, you live in Australia. If so, can you tell me anything about Sydney and places of interest. I will be there in september and am trying to get as much information as possible.

I hope you are still online.

Awww….thanks for the photos and for the other link to see more photos. The jolie- pitts are look super great as usual, love them! Oh and that photo on the other website of Maddox getting on the jet is soo cutee! More, more jolie- pitts!

Jill ~ I wasn’t really sure if it was size 12 or 14. I guess the designers have researched what sells to plus size and what doesn’t. It’s funny that the store in NYC depicted a real woman to be at least a size 10! A real woman can be any size, we all know that!

144 Jill : 07/15/2007 at 11:44 pm
122 fashionista : 07/15/2007 at 11:22 pm
What I would like to see is Angelina be the spokesperson for Christian Louboutin shoes. She wears them all the time. They are one of my faves.
**********************************************************************

Are those the shoes with the red soles? I see her in them all the time. I think she wore them with that $26 dress she wore to the premiere of AMH. Those shoes can make any outfit look like a million dollars.

________________________________________

yes and she also wore them in Mr.& Mrs. Smith. You can see the red soles clearly during the last scenes of Brad & Angelina at the marriage counselor. She swings one of her crossed legs up and down and you catch the red sole of the shoe she’s wearing.

150 Lurker Opinion - Thank you for that answer. That’s cool, they can stay in their LA home while filming.

151 Julianne :
LOL, I thought it was kind of funny. I think that store was opened by people who felt there was a need for stylish clothes for ladies who wear plus sizes. It must be kind of disheartening to go into stores like Bloomingdales or Saks or Bendels and not find anything stylish in larger sizes. I’m fortunate to wear a single-digit size; I can always find something in the stores. But some designers seem to want to punish large-size women for being large. That attitude totally sucks. You don’t have to be stick-thin to be attractive. Good-looking women come in all sizes.

#29 … ITA (LOL)!!!!

http://i17.tinypic.com/4u1gzy8.jpg

I have never seen this picture before. The girl holding the picture is really ugly inside out. I feel sorry for her.

157 Jill: I agree with you. My efforts through dieting and alot of walking on my treadmill helped me shed just about 30 lbs. and get into a size 10. It’s been really interesting see how people treat me differently. Still the same person inside, but our society is still so fixated on the visual image that we project, and it’s evident from comments from both men and women.

Gotta hit the pillow ~ nice chatting with you tonight.

A ROSE betwin ROSES.

After only 2 hours this post is already at 167 comments. One could never say that Angie doesn’t inspire debate.

Cancun….too funny.

I’ve been tested before. My friends took me to TJ (Tijuana, Mexico) on my 20th birthday and I survived without a drink. Drinks were $1 a piece back then, I was the only sober member of the group that night. We were almost detained @ the border because my friends were in no shape to drive back to LA….lol.

You can find Saint John’s clothing at Nordstrom.

I think the average American size woman is 6 or 8 not 14.

Saint John clothing doesnt fit me. I prefer the brand “free people” or “miss 60″. I also shop at Banana Republic for work clothes

172 syd

I don’t think Brad is part of Dirty Tricks. He’s a producer of the movie but not one of the cast members. IMDB is not very accurate.

———

Brad will shoot State of Play after Burn After reading. I think he has a small part in BAR.

I only know about Burn afte reading - the Coen Brother movie that Brad is going to film.

Does State of Play even have a cast yet?

State of Play begins shooting in late November in Washington DC.

Burn After Reading must not be a long shoot for Brad as The Changeling begins shooting in October in LA and they have been alternating work and parenting. Also Brad is scheduled to participate in Habitat for Humanity with Jimmy Carter again in LA in
October.

Average american woman is a size 12-14.

33 Reposting : 07/15/2007 at 10:35 pm
1998 Gussie

The whole interview:

American cinema’s most beautiful mug returns to the screen with his band of seductive crooks, in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean Thirteen. Exclusive interview.

- In Ocean thirteen you co-star with Al Pacino, your idol. How did you feel?
- Al is one of the greatest actors ever. He is very nice, open and remarkably intelligent. I have never seen anyone invest so much in a role. During lunch breaks, I’d hear him repeating his lines to be perfect at the moment. Besides, I believe he was the only one in the band to be systematically excellent at the first takes.

-Yourself, you do not work like that?
- No. I’d become mad if I went home at night in character. To each his thing. Fortunately, I’m able to concentrate on demand.

- How did things go with Soderbergh?
- At he end, we were all a bit sad, because we had been informed: there wont definitely be a Ocean fourteen. It it depended on me, I’d have piled up for four or five more episode with the gang. Soderbergh is really an amazing, complex guy. He always manages to get new performances from his actors. He is someone who stimulates creativity without violence, he is not simplistic, quite the opposite. And he always leans towards human interest stories and I love that.

- Do you regret having done any of your movies?
- More than one, yes. I have made bad choices, been disappointed at some directors, and then, at a certain moment, I thought I had shot too much movies. I suffered from a compulsion that made me shoot two or three films a year and therefore some which I should never have accepted. A madness! Some are dear to me, like those I’ve shot with David Fincher, “Se7en” and “Fight Club”, but also “Seven Years in Tibet” de Jean-Jacques Annaud, the “Ocean” movies, or “Mr and Mrs Smith”. Many others, I have accepted by fear of finding myself unemployed.

- You, unemployed?
- Yes. I had shot some flops, like “Johnny Suede” which nobody remembers now, “The Flavour”, “Cool World”, “The Mexican”, “Spy Game” and moreover I was going through a turbulent time in my private life. Happily, more exciting projects, from respected directors I admire came my way.

- Like Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s “Babel”?
- Yes. That part of an American travelling through Morroco whose wife is accidentally shot by a lost bullet was terrific to me. Being an actor is not a hobby, it is a job that requires discipline, hard work and respect: lots of industry people only have a vague idea of what those words mean. For me, they are important, because counting back I’ve spent half my life making movies.

- You’re a working fiend…
- No, not really…

- But you say it yourself, you film a lot…
- A shooting doesn’t take more than three or four months. After twenty years that means a lot, but I particularly enjoy the waiting period between two sets. I do like acting, but I can’t stand the idea of going back to it

- If you are not addicted to work, to what are you addicted?
- To be exact. I’m not addicted to movies, but I am to the intensity a shooting brings.

- Do you think you have asserted your game?
-You do not? (Laughs). Frankly, I’ll say yes, I have.

- What’s the difference between today’s Brad Pitt and the one from his beginning, twenty years ago?
- If I answer that question, it will have to be a thesis. And we only have thirty minutes. If I sum it up in a sentence, the fact that I worked with people like Soderbergh, Fincher, Gilliam, Tony Scott, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Mark Foster and some others has polished my acting, cleaned it up and re-centered it.

- By whom would you like to be directed?
/b>- By people like Michael Mann, Roman Polanski, Ang Lee… You may think that at a certain level of fame, we choose what we want to film. It is a mistake. I’m happy with, and proud of, 90% of the movies I’ve made, but I’d have loved to do some others: “The pianist”, in the Adrien Brody role, even if I know I was not up to it, “Brokeback Mountain” in Jack Gyllenhaal’s role… Above all, I’d love to work again with Edward Zwick , with whom I shot “Legends of the Fall”. He did a fantastic job with “Blood Daiamonds” some months ago. I was very jealous of Leonardo DiCaprio! (Laughs.)

- It seems when you were little, you wanted to be Hulk…
-True. I adored a character that didn’t get red with fury, but green… I cracked myself up watching him.

- And it is soon coming back… without you! You must be so broken…
- (Burst of laughter.) I’ll try to survive it.

- You don’t love any other super heroes?
- I’m going to give you a scoop: I was asked to do the first “Spider-man”, but shooting permanently in front of a green screen to allow the superimposition of the 3D set would have made me loose my head. And I’m sure my public wouldn’t look forward to seeing me i that kind of production. I do not regret having refused.

We know Brad Pitt, the actor, less so the producer. How are things there?
Producing films is a financial bottomless pit. You stick your little finger in the process and you get eaten alive. But I’m proud of having produced Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart”, adapted from the book written by the widow of Daniel Pearl, the journalist killed in Iraq, that was just presented in Cannes. Angie plays Marianne Pearl. I cried at the screening, she is that poignant.

- Have things always been clear for you as to your path and all that happened to you?
- Yes. I’m mature enough to take stock of my successes, the movies that worked well, those I’ve believed in but have failed and those I was always sure were going to fail. I did stupid stuff, the media didn’t spare me and cut me down to size. But sincerely when the media are on the look out for the smallest of your gestures, your slightest word, everything you do gets blown out of proportion. I thought I was stronger than the sensationalist press, that I should ignore them and live my life as I thought fit. But everywhere in the world things have become so hellish, so out of proportion, and even so unfair I had to let it go, or I’d have died trying.

Your tumultuous relationships with stars have not helped things…
- I admit my life has not been restful. But what I do not understand and cannot bear is when people entwine my private life with my work. All the events of my personal life, particularly with my ex (Jennifer Aniston), were overblown. From the moment the public is interested in you, everything you do is subject to multiple interpretations, of which three quarters are false and biased.

- The critics and the public shower you with praise, but, nevertheless, you have never received an Oscar or a Golden Globe, only two nominations. Does that disturb you?
- No, that does not prevent me from sleeping, but I’ll be happy when it comes. If it comes! My logic is the most beautiful reward comes above all from the public.

- May we risk asking you one or two very private questions, or are you going to put on your boxing gloves?
(Laughs) You may always try.

- Everything is well with Angelina? Because, when you’re together, she is not very smiling!
- She is not one to show her feelings. And she is not going to burst into laughter every twenty seconds on the pretext of having photographers around! Everything is going well and we are as much in love as in the first day.

Do you love her numerous tattos?
Of course! It is body-art brought to perfection. Angie is a work of art: One almost ought to put her under glass in a museum (Laughs)

- Couldn’t you have blown a fuse or, worse, became depressed with the media frenzy that surrounds your life?
- I’ve often exploded, but in private. In public, I’ve the strength to show I can play the game. I’ve experienced the relentlessness of the media for a long time and a certain form of rejection from the professional milieu who had me catalogued and reduced to the “pretty face” shelf. But rather than getting me down, this has energized me and I have fought hard to build a carapace. When you are stalked by photographers 24h/24h, believe me, you cannot behave normally. And I am not saying this as an excuse for some attitude or other. Our contemporary culture builds idols in order to better destroy them. You are put on a pedestal and than the game is to bring down the statue.

- How have you managed?,
By standing back, by retreating from the public stage, by not stringing films together, by taking an interest in the politics of my country and in the environmental problems that should concern us all. That has helped me understand how some things are so relative. And after meeting Angie I became a new man, intimately and artistically speaking.

- Actually, in keeping with your friend George Clooney, you are also tremendously worried about the state of our planet…
- Of course you’re going to say it is a bit hypocritical to proclaim oneself an environmentalist and to travel by plane, even if for professional reasons. But on my daily life I drive a small electric car, very powerful for that matter. I am very interested in the G8 Summits and often organize, as we did in Cannes, fundraisers to help the most destitute or for Darfur. To hang around artists such as Bono, Bob Geldorf, to be able to discuss famine and AIDS in Africa, malaria and the world debt with the chief decision-makers has also strengthened my beliefs. The need to inform and the urgency of these problems remain vital. I’m going to get more and more involved in the years to come. I’d love to have done something good in my life!

Christophe Combarieu

________________________________

I have a toothache that was sooooo sweet. Brad is soooo in love with Angie. Lucky dog. Yeah Brad fans I made a vid just for you guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_o1MBW16iI

St John hired AJ in order to move their image a bit way from ‘ladies who lunch” to reach the daughters and granddaughters of their core customers. Those knit pieces are extremely well made, so they are great to pass on, but in the last few seasons, they have had some more youthful colors and have changed up some of styling in the lines, but you can always get the classic suit. I was a big fan before they signed Angie, but I love her ads. I actually was a bit surprised since up to now they haven’t used the classic suits on AJ in the ads. But even so the lines are classic — and so is Ms. Jolie.

I hope they have a nice vacay, but I will admit it is hard to wean myself of the photographic signs of life we’ve been treated to on almost a daily basis since they went to Prague. Stuck with Zanessa and the Beckhams — seems like the dogdays of summer to me!

question: I watched the unrated version of MAMS twice this weekend (ain’t procrastination lovely?) Who is the voice of the therapist?

#183, hunnybunny, I think it is the director, Doug Limen?

175 syd : 07/16/2007 at 12:40 am
I only know about Burn afte reading - the Coen Brother movie that Brad is going to film.

Does State of Play even have a cast yet?

There was an article (I think in the Washington Post) of the director checking out sites to shoot in the city. So the movie is going forward but I have not read who else might be in the movie.

Missouri Fan love your video.

OMG..look what I found on craigslist just now - this person is an idiot and a creep exploiting children like this:

Maddox Jolie Look-Alike Wanted

PS If you’re not sure about letting your kid do this, you can come along and pretend you’re Angelina’s “personal assistant”.

What a pr*ck.

ntt : 07/16/2007 at 12:04 am
http://i17.tinypic.com/4u1gzy8.jpg

I have never seen this picture before. The girl holding the picture is really ugly inside out. I feel sorry for her.

__________________________________________________________________________

ntt,
I agree. This is the first I’ve seen the pic too…. Can’t imagine a person who actually could get that close to her and want to do that kinda of thing…

I’d be the one calling for a signature and a pic…if only to be that lucky to catch her around like that…

123Jill : 07/15/2007 at 11:23 pm
The X fans will probably start yammering that they will never buy a Saint John’s suit after they put Angelina in their advertisements. It’s a moot point anyway because the typical X fan wouldn’t be able to fit into a Saint John’s suit. Saint Johns doesn’t make clothes in plus sizes.

_________________________________________________________________________

Jill, I don’t even think X can carry off Saint John’s suits and style unless they come in khaki shorts and white crop top..the ones that ensure the nipples will show….. X is the trashy beach bum class type, wonder how many of her fans has nipple enhancement surgery….hmm..

mmkay, when i clicked submit, it won’t do anything, i have to clicked refresh then it’s doing something, am i the only 1 having this problem?

What’s toilet water? Why’s GP advertising it?

————————————————————–
I think she is promoting perfume..lol

brads got some models 2 huh?..lol hot mess

BB news

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/news/1653200/

I was just playing with words. Eau de toilette=Toilet water (literally ). GP is advertising some brand, I don’t even remember. I think it’s Guerlain. She has a 2-page ad, same as AJ. JA had a 4-page ad in the last VF issue (the African issue).

4 page ad for some damn water! Omg! Kids in africa need clean water and they spend how much money? a page for some damn water…u can go into publix and get a whole big jug for 3 dollars or less while smartwater cost like what how much the same amount?..and omg its majic iit tastes the same as ever.Taste just like smart water..omg..smartwater must have some damn majic..it has 2 make u pee more..something..what does it do!

190 AddictedtoBAMPZs : 07/16/2007 at 1:07 am
179, LOVE ANGELINA….This is a fantastic video but I am wondering why you snuck those pictures of the x people in?

____________________

I didn’t want to, but the salt-n-pepa lyrics keeping mentioning stuff along the same lines. So I just wanted the pics to go along with the song. I like BBT and I think he is nice and he has always been supportive of Angie, all her exs have. Brads Exs…not so much.

It is called dumb water.

dumb water

dumb water

I think I must be getting really, really old. Every time I load Jared’s home page to check for a new J-P thread I find myself saying, “Who the fcuk is __________?” So…who the fcuk is Zac Efron? There’s a gazillion threads on this guy and he looks like he’s about 12. BTW - this is a rhetorical question. I don’t care who he is…it just bothers me that there are so many threads for someone I’ve never heard of!

203LOVE ANGELINA : 07/16/2007 at 1:37 am
190 AddictedtoBAMPZs : 07/16/2007 at 1:07 am
179, LOVE ANGELINA….This is a fantastic video but I am wondering why you snuck those pictures of the x people in?

____________________

I didn’t want to, but the salt-n-pepa lyrics keeping mentioning stuff along the same lines. So I just wanted the pics to go along with the song. I like BBT and I think he is nice and he has always been supportive of Angie, all her exs have. Brads Exs…not so much.
_________________________________

ITA, Angelina’s exes have always been supportive of her and it’s amazing that they continues to still be in awe and love her after the relationship ended.. I think it’s also a reflection of how good of a person she is and genuinely caring and honest her relationships has been.

Unfortunately Brad exes has been one cheating fishstick who didn’t realised how lucky she was to have the man proclaim her to be ‘the love of his life’ and one manipulative media wh*re who uses him to further her career and push him into the marriage that he did not want in the first place, he just wanted to be her friend.

Cliniqua:
That advert for Maddox lookalikes is creepy. AJ is a movie star; she is a public figure who is recognizable. While she is entitled to privacy, her likeness is in the public domain. Like Cher, Madonna, Marilyn, et al., impersonators are going to be in the game. Although she doesn’t sing or anything, (all the doubles I have seen in the past year have been hooked up with an X impersonator - — rolling eyes) but people gotta make a living.

That said, lining up the Maddox (or Kingston, or Suri or Grier or Moses) impersonator is seamy. Those kids are kids, and using his likeness for commercial purposes seems somehow unethical.

EVERYONE is COPYING BRAD!!! Wow, Brad really is a trendsetter and style icon. When I started seeing the ‘Mr. Smith’ haircut everywhere after it released in Summer of ‘05 (and that style has continued unabated), it was confirmed — now just look at JJ’s blog today…you’ve got this young’un Zac wearing Brad’s Fedora, and you’ve got David ‘Squeaky’ Beckham wearing Brad’s close brush cut (and dying it platinum - yet another shout out to Brad). They all need to get off Brad’s jock….but then again, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

_____________________________________

Isnt the “Mr. Smith haircut” called a Caesar? ahhh hasnt that haircut been around before Brads great great grandfather was born. I recall it being called the Clooney cut back when George Clooney rocked it in the 90s on ER. But I guess Brad wore it before then.

“Brad’s Fedora” dont tell me he invented that to and made it popular. ROTFLMMFAO

http://i17.tinypic.com/4u1gzy8.jpg

I have no idea what that is a picture of (that the woman is holding). Someone want to tell me? :lol:

manufacturing heroes
Why ‘A Mighty Heart’ Is A Cruel Failure

Asra Nomani, the former Wall Street Journal reporter who’s the “supporting character” in “A Mighty Heart,” the Angelina Jolie film about journalists Danny and Marianne Pearl and Danny’s murder in Pakistan, helped out on making the picture true to life. She made sure the cast even got the right notebooks that she and Danny used. But when she saw the glittery press photos out of the film’s premiere at Cannes, she had a “duh” moment. The marketing, the PR, the celebrities: All of it was absolutely the antithesis of Danny, she realized. The studio publicists brought a screener of the film to her house in West Virginia: the on-screen Danny just looked so flat. So in an email to a producer of the film early this month, Nomani wrote: “I’m not going to be attending the premiere because, upon reflection, I just don’t believe in the movie and the mythology of its marketing and PR campaign.”

In this excerpt from her email, she explains her thinking.

As much as the talking points say that this movie is for Danny and that everyone made the movie for the right reasons, I don’t at all feel that it is for Danny or that noble intentions underly this movie. That’s just my opinion, and I don’t mean to offend you, but I’ve just heard that soundbite one too many times.

In your role as producer, you may think I’m full of B.S. in seeing a reality that isn’t the one that you’re portraying on the big screen. I am told there is hardly a person who thinks too highly of Hollywood’s depiction of reality. But even knowing that intellectually, I cannot in good conscience enable an enterprise to me that represents to me little more than “astroturf reality.”

Maybe I’ve read a little too much Joseph Campbell, but I think that our society has become quite sick in the way that we manufacture heroes out of tragedy — Guliani, for example, being a hero when he was just doing his job as mayor — and to me the industry that supports this mythmaking is not one in which I want to participate. To me, the participation of the media industry in creating myths out of reality is most distressing.

The truth is that I am sorry that I ever got involved in the movie making from the beginning. I was naive in putting trust in the process, and I shouldn’t have been but my head was also spinning post-Karachi in trying to support Mariane as much as I could. To me, Danny had left her at my house, and I had a duty to him to take care of her.

I tried throughout the filmmaking to help because I hoped a greater good would come from this enterprise. In my heart, I don’t think a greater good emerges, despite all of the allegiances with reporting organizations, etc., because at the end of the day this movie could never have happened without the tragic sacrifice of Danny’s life, and my greatest sadness is that I don’t think that the movie comes close to even capturing Danny’s real life charisma and charm.

As the details of the movie have sunk into my conscience over the last couple of weeks, I realized that the film made me miss Danny even more as a friend, because he was so not present for me on the screen.

http://gawker.com/news/manufacturing-heroes/why-a-mighty-heart-is-a-cruel-failure-269290.php

JETS, NANNIES, GUARDS AND PREDICTIONS

-The trail of controversies left by Pitt and Jolie when they came to shoot in India

BEHIND THE SCENES

There are too many full stops in India, as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt discovered when they came down to shoot for Michael Winterbottom’s film, A Mighty Heart, based on the death of American journalist, Daniel Pearl. From the time of their arrival in the country, the couple — christened by the media as Brangelina — left a trail of controversies. These would not be forgotten in a hurry.

Brangelina flew from Mumbai to Pune (where the shooting was supposed to take place) in a private plane, provided by the industrialist, Gautam Singhania. They reached Pune, at around three in the afternoon, with their three children and a fleet of nannies.

The twist in the tale came shortly thereafter. Instead of asking for security from the police, they preferred to have their own men around for protection. It was around this time that intelligence reports about a possible terror strike in Pune had reached the police. However, Pitt and Jolie seemed to have little cause to worry, although they gave Indians enough reasons to lose sleep.

The Pitt-Jolie clan then checked into Le Meridien hotel, where five suites had been booked for them. But they were unhappy with the five-star arrangements and preferred a separate bungalow for themselves so that their children could run around freely.

The security frenzy did not die down so easily. Soon, the couple’s “own men” were parading in the corridors of the Le Meridien. While the celebrity family occupied suites 519 to 526 of the hotel, the entire fifth floor was sealed off from the rest of the guests.

There were no instructions, however, given to the chef regarding the food that would be served to the esteemed guests. While Jolie and Pitt were eagerly declaring their enjoyment of the “sights and sounds” of India, they were not quite ready to tolerate the smell of Indians so easily. Between shooting for long hours every day, they were eating their meals at one of the three bungalows rented for the shooting in Pune. Their fellow diners, who joined them at High Table, were the foreign crew of the film. The Indians ate downstairs. Clearly, the visual and olfactory delights of India, for the couple, stopped at the dining table.

The climax came at the Anjuman-E-Islam school where Jolie’s security guards clashed with parents who had come to fetch their children at the end of the day. It appeared that these parents were given no idea about the day’s special activities inside the premises, until the guards started barking at them. “You bloody Indians! Who are you?” one of them had allegedly shouted, gesturing with his hand that these Indians’ throats will be slit if they didn’t behaved themselves. We don’t know what the fate of these people would have been had they not listened to the bodyguards. After all, one of these security men had manhandled a British “paparazzi” shortly before this incident.

Jolie and Pitt left the country with the ominous words of a Mumbai astrologer, Anand Soni, ringing in their ears: Pitt would go back to Jennifer Aniston and “his marital life may not be blissful at all”. And, while Jolie’s career would grow rapidly till October 2007, her husband’s will be successful till 2008.

It appears that their time is running out rather fast!

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070710/asp/opinion/story_8036869.asp

219 w : 07/16/2007 at 2:15 am
==========
You know how stupid and pathetic you are, right?

I love this photo:
http://www.bradpittgallery.com/albums/premiere/2007/o13cannes0524/080.jpg

testing

the Bakedhams….

Angelina Jolie Worship Run Amuck

By Kim Jaynes
Jul 12, 2007

So where do we start with Angie’s celeb worship? “Angelina Jolie Dies for Our Sins,” screams Esquire. “A very beautiful woman who sees herself as the underdog becomes very famous. Because of her fame, she suffers. Because of her suffering, she becomes even more famous. Then she becomes virtuous. Very, very virtuous, blah, blah, blah Tom Junod writes.

Ron Rosenbaum of Slate was not impressed, “In the history of fawning gentlemen’s-magazine profiles,” Rosenbaum wrote last week in the _ magazine Slate, “there is unlikely to be a more ludicrous example than the profile in the July Esquire of — yes — Angelina Jolie, which spends many thousands of words ( about six thousand) and invokes grave national tragedies to prove to us that Angelina Jolie is not just a good woman, not just an enlightened humanitarian, not just a suffering victim of celebrity, not just strong and brave, but, we are told, ‘the best woman in the world.’ ”

***

Why is Rosenbaum outraged? Read this: “In post-9/11 America, Angelina Jolie is the best woman in the world because she is the most famous woman in the world — because she is not like you and me.” Uh-huh. Jolie tries to play it up bigger than she is, and she thrived on that for a while.

She travels the world extensively in private jets, lives in multi-million dollar homes and lectures on poverty. She charges millions for photos of her latest adopt an orphan program and then heads to work on yet another film and hands the third world child off to a nanny. The hypocrisy is thick.

***

I watched her latest film hoping for the “Oscar Winning” performance the movie reviewers of the world had promised. If she is even nominated for that performance it will be only for the type of worship put forth by so many writers including Junod. But somewhere along the way it appears that her adoring public has abandoned her.

She once held mystery. How did Jolie steal Brad Pitt away from America’s sweetheart Jennifer Aniston? Oh how the mighty hypocrite has fallen.

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272614697.shtml?ref=rss

Brad Pitt The Associated Press June 2006

A Jordanian salesman who tried to use an identity card with a photo of Brad Pitt was on trial this week in the United Arab Emirates the Gulf News reported. The 29 year old salesman allegedly forged the card with Pitts photograph and an Arabic name in an attempt to steal more than $22,000 left unclaimed at an exchange house where his brother worked as a teller the newspaper reported. The man who told the police he did not know who Pitt was said in court that he downloaded the photo from the Internet. Prosecutors in Dubai charged the man with forgery and embezzlement.

AMH: A propaganda film, pro-muslim

“A Mighty Heart,” starring Angelina Jolie, is yet another propaganda film masquerading as an action drama. The film is presumably about Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped, tortured, and gruesomely beheaded by Islamists who made sure the grisly video of their handiwork was viewed by millions on the Internet.

I remember that heart-stopping video. Before his decapitation, Pearl admits that he is a Jew (as if that were a crime) and that his parents are Jews – in fact, he tells us, perhaps gratuitously, that the Israelis named a street in Israel after his grandfather. The video functioned as a form of psychological terror. Many Westerners got the message and have behaved in an appeasing, dhimmi-like manner ever since.

We only see a snippet of this video in “A Mighty Heart.” The video is essentially missing – as is Daniel Pearl himself. What we see, instead, are Hollywood’s “good Indians.” This time they are Pakistani Muslim policemen who only want to help find Pearl’s kidnappers.

In Cannes, the film was given a standing ovation. Variety’s reporter, Justin Chang, congratulated the British director, Michael Winterbottom, for finding a way to interest people in what is, after all, a rather “harrowing” story. Chang also praised the film’s “utmost restraint” – which, in my view, is itself the ultimate in dhimmi behavior. Indeed, the film does not condemn Islamic terrorism at all and only once whispers the name “Al Qaeda.”

Predictably, New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis praised the film precisely for its (politically correct) political vision. While she did note that “Mr. Pearl was a casualty of Islamist hatred of Western civilization” she also wrote: “What distinguishes ‘A Mighty Heart’ is its assertion that politics and ideology play a part in poverty and terrorism, in the way some men exploit human misery in the name of God and righteousness.”

Thus, terrorists are merely religious people who are trying to resist “poverty” the best way they can. Dargis was careful to protest the briefly shown scenes of torture – not Danny Pearl’s torture, but that of those Muslims who were part of the plot to kidnap and behead him: “Mr. Pearl would probably have been appalled that this outrage was committed on his behalf; the point is, we should be too.”

It is not surprising that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) hosted the premiere of the film in Los Angeles. The political story line is quite to its liking.

The film also insinuates that Pearl himself was at least somewhat to blame for his own beheading. He was, after all, warned several times not to meet with Sheikh Giladi except in public, and yet, instead of deciding not to meet him at all, chose to pursue the story.

Pearl, the film suggests, was obviously naive or filled with hubris. He did not want to understand that Jewish-Americans in Pakistan were endangered prey. Heedlessly, he followed his story as if Al Qaeda had not declared jihad against infidels, as if he was immune to the consequences of such a declaration.

(Dargis, in her review, described the Pearls as “a little reckless… fired up by a shared belief that journalism could help make the world better, a chokingly poignant idea in these shockingly cynical times.”)

The message is clear: Salman Rushdie knew he had to go into hiding and many Muslim and ex-Muslim intellectuals publish only under pseudonyms. Did Pearl, as well as Jewish-American businessman Nicholas Berg, who was also decapitated on video, really think the rules of jihad did not apply to them?

How special do Americans and Jews think they are? If Sunnis and Shia Muslims kill each other, honor-murder their own women with impunity, and blow up each other’s mosques – do Americans and Jews think that special treatment is reserved for them because they value life more or hold their own lives dear?

“A Mighty Heart” gave me a mighty headache. It is outrageous that big money in Hollywood, and in film studios all across Europe and the Middle East, is funding so many visual Big Lies which will only continue to confuse and weaken Westerners who should be learning the truth about jihad before it is too late.

Dr. Phyllis Chesler, a frequent contributor to The Jewish Press, is the author of many works including the bestseller “Women and Madness” (1972), “The New Anti-Semitism” (2003) and “The Death of Feminism: What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom” (2005). Her forthcoming book is titled “The Islamification of America.”

An Emerita professor of psychology and women’s studies and the co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology and the National Women’s Health Network, she may be contacted through her website, http://www.phyllis-chesler.com.

http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/22163/Hollywood_Airbrushes_Jihad.html

Is white the new black?

Movies Features By Orville Lloyd Douglas

Publish Date: June 21, 2007

With the significant lack of leading roles for black women in Hollywood movies, Angelina Jolie seems like a strange choice for the lead in A Mighty Heart
With the significant lack of leading roles for black women in Hollywood movies, Angelina Jolie seems like a strange choice for the lead in A Mighty Heart

Angelina Jolie is the “new” black these days. From making Africa her new crusade to adopting an African daughter and talking about racial harmony on CNN, Jolie’s so-called altruism is her way to profit from the image of blackness.

The new black is also white actors like Jolie in blackface. Jolie is currently starring in the biopic A Mighty Heart as Mariane Pearl, the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl. Jolie is white, and the real Mariane Pearl is of mixed heritage. (According to news reports, her father is Dutch-Jewish and her mother was Cuban-black-Hispanic-Chinese.) In the film, Jolie’s skin is darkened to appear more African and she is wearing a kinky wig.

Some people argue that since Pearl is of mixed heritage and not dark-skinned, Jolie is acceptable in the role. However, the symbolism of blackface is not about whether a white actor takes on a dark skin tone or light. It is the implicit message being sent that black women in Hollywood–which is slow to capitalize on the bankable quality of black female stars–can be replaced by white women. This certainly isn’t because of a lack of talent.

Movies aren’t just entertainment. There are cultural values embedded in the subtext of films. Movie stars are mythologies of hierarchy created by publicists, studios, and news media.

The social constructions of the star-system archetype arose from the days of slavery. Hollywood’s consistent message is that black women are less profitable than white women. The standard by which North American women of all races are measured is the white female: feminine, beautiful, fragile, and perfect. By contrast, Queen Latifah’s mammy performance in the 2002 film Chicago as Matron Mama Morton and her 2003 Bringing Down the House role portray black women as aggressive, hostile, and unattractive.

The last major dramatic film for a black actress was the interracial drama Monster’s Ball. Although Halle Berry won an Oscar, it was degrading: Berry’s character, Leticia Musgrove, was depicted as sexually loose, the aggressor in the interracial sex scene, with the line “Make me feel good” delivered with a sneer.

Such scenes shattered some of the respect the black community had for Berry. By contrast in A Mighty Heart, Angelina Jolie’s character is a pillar of strength, a woman demanding to know what happened to her husband.

Since Hollywood is concerned about maximizing its profits, movies must be palatable to a mass market. Jolie was cast as A Mighty Heart’s female lead because she is considered an international draw, not for racial accuracy.

Black feminist bell hooks points out in Outlaw Culture, her groundbreaking book on films in pop culture, that we are controlled by a “White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy”. Hooks believes we must be “enlightened witnesses” and be cognizant that we are conditioned to accept whiteness as the centre of the universe.

Black women have a long history of being typecast in film primarily as sex objects or maids. A Mighty Heart was the chance for a black actress to shine in a film that showcased the female lead as a three-dimensional person with complex emotions.

A more serious issue is the paucity of leading roles for black women in Hollywood. A Mighty Heart also tackles the rarely portrayed interracial relationship, in this case an interracial marriage between a black woman and a white man. Jolie’s presence in the film is a hindrance as it obscures and ultimately eliminates the real Mariane Pearl altogether. (Women have also asked why Mariane Pearl would allow a white woman to take the female lead in A Mighty Heart.)

Jolie consistently portrays herself as a Hollywood liberal who is against racism. Yet her superficial insensitivity to the plight of black women suggests an unwillingness to be challenged about her own values. What will she teach her daughter about white cultural domination?

http://www.straight.com/article-96155/is-white-the-new-black

213 huh say what? : 07/16/2007 at 1:56 am

EVERYONE is COPYING BRAD!!! Wow, Brad really is a trendsetter and style icon. When I started seeing the ‘Mr. Smith’ haircut everywhere after it released in Summer of ‘05 (and that style has continued unabated), it was confirmed — now just look at JJ’s blog today…you’ve got this young’un Zac wearing Brad’s Fedora, and you’ve got David ‘Squeaky’ Beckham wearing Brad’s close brush cut (and dying it platinum - yet another shout out to Brad). They all need to get off Brad’s jock….but then again, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

_____________________________________

Isnt the “Mr. Smith haircut” called a Caesar? ahhh hasnt that haircut been around before Brads great great grandfather was born. I recall it being called the Clooney cut back when George Clooney rocked it in the 90s on ER. But I guess Brad wore it before then.

“Brad’s Fedora” dont tell me he invented that to and made it popular. ROTFLMMFAO
=======
The Mr.SMith haircut was just a damn shaved head. Many people have had that cut before Pitt. Lmao

To Tiger Says:

the thing that I have a hard time believing about Jen and Brad is how they could be REALLY IN LOVE but not show that by PUTTING EFFORT INTO THEIR MARRIAGE IN ORDER FOR IT TO LAST or by not turning THAT LOVE INTO SOMETHING TANGIBLE, REAL AND LASTING. i.e no kids.

It is like they never tried harder

For instance, they were rarely together nor share hobbies or do activities together. When they felt like a PDA, they did when the spotlight was on them(red carpet) then they kissed passionately and hugged for all to see but then when the spotlight was gone - each went back to his/her own thing. i.e. he worked and worked in another city and she worked and worked in another. It is well known long distance between couple DOES NOT ADD but SUBTRACT from the marriage. Then you read their interviews and you don’t get a sense of commitment but more like two people living together..each doing his/her thing…NONE WANTS TO COMPROMISE for THE OTHER…but they are married!

Then you’ve got Jolie. Is willing to put her career on hold to be in one place..close by Brad so that not only does she look after the kids as a mother but that Brad is also able to be close to his kids. And he in turn does the same for her when she goes to work. She rides motor-cycles with him and she is interested in his hobbies. Learn something new there. Furthermore, Jolie won’t fail to show her deep admiration and respect for Brad. And even though Brad is as private as usual when it comes to these matters of the heart and his women, his actions thus far are a FAR cry from before - really prove his COMMITMENT, LOVE AND WILLINGNESS TO COMPROMISE in this RELATIONSHIP than in the previous one. The man put his ******* career on the line to be with this woman. Many would have just fcuked her and ran away. But he didn’t. He is much better than that.
You read how Jolie describe Brad - it is more than her saying outright *I love* but she dives deep into details. Most of all, you get a sense she really admire him for THE MAN HE IS and NOT BECAUSE HE IS BRAD PITT. In short, Jolie makes it a point to highlight what is *inside* the man and not the outside and superficial things like he is CUTE, GORGEOUS, A SEXY MAN. For a man as private as Brad, I rather love reading these detailed and well thoughout comments from Jolie than point blank *I love him* or *he is the sexiest man*. The latter is all I got from Gwyneth and Jen. Jolie blows me away. I get the sense that she KNOWS this man more than his previous significant others did.

Jolie’s comments about Brad ADD AND NOT SUBTRACT from the man that is Brad Pitt. He already had this side of him but none of his past women, in my opinion, brought it out as Jolie does. It was always about themselves FIRST then Brad Pitt , the man. i.e. He was kinda presented by his women as arm candy - i.e. like they are saying - see ladies, I got me Brad Pitt, the Sexiest Man in Hollywood…yes that’s right. Impressive, isn’t. I got me the Brad Pitt. Look at me. Look at me. *fans self* LOL.

Jolie does not do that and this is why I think she is by far the best fit for him.
===============

I really like ths post.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/07/08/locks_of_controversy/

Locks of controversy
Rumors that Angelina Jolie had cut off her adopted daughter’s hair caused an outrage. Why is hair such a highly charged symbol in the black community?
By Wesley Morris | July 8, 2007

JUNE WAS A busy month for celebrity news (Paris Hilton went to jail, Kelly Clarkson canceled her tour, Matthew McConaughey is still a superbachelor). So you probably missed word that Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt, the second of Brad and Angie’s four children (she’s from Ethiopia), may have received a drastic haircut and that this haircut was deeply upsetting for certain stargazers with Internet access.

“I think they shaved the poor kid’s head cause they have no clue in how to style her hair. I think they should get a professional African braider to braid her hair,” wrote Sexycocoa in a post to the black gossip site Media Take Out. On the same site, Akan5 wrote, “I DON’T TRUST THESE PEOPLE AT ALL. Why cut her hair. WHY! IN THIS COUNTRY people always let the girls’ hair grow.” That’s a representative sample of what wound up on various message boards late last month, from Take Out to E! _, and in people’s inboxes, including mine.

Whether they realize it or not, Jolie and Pitt have wandered into the fraught zone of black hair care, particularly as it concerns black women. For centuries, the identities of African-American women have been bound up in what they’ve chosen to do with their hair: straighten it, get extensions, get a press ‘n’ curl, get a Jheri curl (yes, it’s still an option), get cornrows, grow dreadlocks, twist it, wear a weave, wear a wig, or just leave it natural. It’s a prideful question asked in the poorest homes and the toniest houses — a question from which no black female living in America is immune. Oprah Winfrey might be able to do anything she wants with her hair today, but when she first started out, she had to face the same dilemma as a lot of black women breaking into TV: whether or not to get rid of the kinks.

Now, arguably the two most famous parents on earth will have to tackle what all nonblack adoptive parents of black children inevitably do. But they will have to figure it out with the world’s camera lenses focused on little Z. And according to a growing number of concerned black folk, Z’s parents may not be fully prepared. With more and more black chat lines demanding to know why one little black girl’s hair isn’t fuller, thicker, or at least more moisturized, a “Save Zahara” campaign may not be far behind.

Black hair is personal. Black hair is political. Black hair is lucrative: In 2004, black-hair-care products were a $1.7 billion industry; that’s a figure that doesn’t include the hundreds of millions spent on styling.

Black hair is also a ritual that’s been bringing black women together for centuries, whether it’s at a beauty shop or in somebody’s cousin’s kitchen on the Saturday night before church, the week’s biggest hair event. (Part of that ritual traditionally featured the hot comb, the controversial straightener embraced by the grooming pioneer Madame C. J. Walker.) In some neighborhoods, parlor owners double as community leaders. Books like “Tenderheaded: A Comb-Bending Collection of Hair Stories” and “Chicken Soup for the African-American Woman’s Soul” provide a vivid sense of the heritage associated with black hair — doing and undoing it, celebrating and questioning it. There are hair parties, trade shows, and magazines such as Hype Hair and Sophisticate’s Black Hair Styles and Care Guide.

More than anything, black hair epitomizes the deep disconnect between white society and black society. By and large, most whites are oblivious to the cultural minefield young black girls are born into, just by virtue of having hair that doesn’t bounce and behave. The issues it raises are complex and seemingly eternal, and while only a few of the most hostile emails and message board posts begrudge Jolie and Pitt the right to raise a black daughter, from the moment Zahara was adopted in 2005 there was an almost unanimous consensus that her parents should be doing something else with her hair.

An African baby in this country will have the politics of appearance thrust upon her, and even the most well-meaning, open-hearted parents will be judged through that lens. Part of that scrutiny is over texture. Notoriously and unceasingly, black hair is jammed into two categories: “good” and “bad” — good being straight, manageable, “white”; bad being kinky and unmanageable. Spike Lee’s 1986 “School Daze” featured a big-band musical number on the subject — called, succinctly enough, “Good and Bad Hair” — in which the light- and dark-skinned women of a fictional historically black college square off at a hair salon.

Topic A in this scene is hair. Topic B is identity politics: Why would you want kinky hair when you could have it long and luxurious like this? (Whether you grew or bought it notwithstanding.) But when the fair-skinned women in Lee’s movie sing, “My hair is straight, you see?” their darker-skinned opponents note that “[your] soul’s crooked as can be.” In the song, for the light-skinned girls, “nappy” is a no-no.

This, of course, is partly why Don Imus’s scandalous reduction of the Rutgers women’s basketball team earlier this year was appalling: He was talking about good and bad hair. Never mind that nappy connotes unyielding hair and that, once upon a time, a nappy head meant a strong woman. Now, nappy is the other n-word. One of Malcolm X’s selling points for the Nation of Islam was, “We teach you to love the hair that God gave you.”

A few years ago, the folk-soul singer India.Arie, sick of all the signifying, decided to get rid of her dreadlocks and was nearly bald for several months. She even wrote and recorded a kind of protest song on the subject: “I Am Not My Hair.” It was a wishful moment. Arie’s hair is back — and thick, too. She has made her peace with the politics.

As it happens, Zahara’s hair wasn’t shaved. It had been swept into a ponytail somewhere in the back of her head, rendering it invisible in some of the thousands of paparazzi photographs of the baby. But it didn’t matter, really. This was bigger than whether she had no hair or whether the little hair she had was being styled “properly.”

Wide Horizons, the Waltham-based international adoption agency that helped Jolie adopt Zahara, offers help to American parents with foreign-born children, and tries to put them in touch with similar families. According to a spokeswoman, the agency offers “culture camps,” social networking opportunities, and, yes, advice on hair care. It also encourages aspiring adopters to talk to other parents on a Wide Horizons resource list.

Dru Davies, a white mother who two black children in Marshfield, says her 23-year-old daughter sometimes looks at photos from her girlhood and asks, “How you could let me look like that?” They have a good relationship. But Davies says even though she did the best she could, she could have done a little better.

“Grooming and hair in the black culture are extremely important,” she says. “You really have to be aware of it or you’re doing your child a disservice in terms of being part of their culture.”

Shellee Mendes, the owner of Salon Monet, Newbury Street’s only black-owned business, has a dozen suggestions for what mothers like Jolie might do with their daughters’ hair, stressing that for a woman of any race, hair is a showcase for her personality. But she does note an exception.

“With a little girl, her hair doesn’t say as much about her personality as it does her mother’s,” Mendes says of Zahara. “And this little girl’s hair says her mother doesn’t know what to do.”

Wesley Morris is a Globe film critic. E-mail wmorris@globe.com. Francie Latour of the Globe staff contributed to this article.

“A Mighty Heart” is Noble, But Unsuccesful

By Cassie McGrath

Published Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The latest depressing pseudo-documentary about current affairs, the Angelina Jolie vehicle, “A Mighty Heart,” opens with shots of a sprawling, overwhelming cityscape. The viewer is dropped squarely in the center of Karachi, Pakistan, the second most-populated city in the world, with an impossible question: “How do you find one man amongst all this?”
Anyone familiar with the gruesome story of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and brutally slain on videotape in Karachi in 2002, knows the unfortunate answer. But “A Mighty Heart,” adapted from Mariane Pearl’s autobiography of the same name, attempts to explain the frantic, month-long search for Pearl from a different point of view. Mariane Pearl, an Afro-Cuban Dutch Jew raised in Paris, was five months pregnant when her husband was kidnapped. She remains a journalist and world traveler, unfazed by terrorist intimidation.

The film tells the story from her powerful female perspective. This kind of performance requires a magnetic, compelling actress. Enter Angelina Jolie, in full pregnancy regalia, with darkened skin, brown contact lenses, a curly brown wig and a labored French accent. Both Jolie and Pearl have experienced grief, motherhood and paparazzi hounds, so the casting choice isn’t as odd as it may seem. However, Jolie presents a few problems.

The first is that the most skilled makeup artist cannot conceal Jolie’s luscious, exaggerated lips, which are incredibly distracting. However, there remains a much bigger problem: Although Jolie has been given the perfect canvas for the performance of her career, she fails to be truly compelling.

The character of Mariane Pearl requires both near-perfect casting and a virtuoso performance. Jolie is a terrific actress, and the viewer wants her to excel at this performance as much as the film needs her to. Demonstrating her trademark crackling energy, Jolie huffs around the house, snaps at the supporting cast, represses her grief over the loss of her husband and finally erupts in an excruciating, climactic howl. It is a noble effort. However, Jolie’s seething performance as Lisa in “Girl, Interrupted” is much more magnetic and believable. Seven years later, no amount of makeup can eclipse Jolie’s own personality, and in every scene, she cannot escape the celebrity she has herself become. Even if she could, she would still not be compelling enough.

That’s a shame, because director Michael Winterbottom excels at capturing the frantic, pulsating rhythm of Karachi. The stunning cinematography, accompanied by the loose, improvised script, makes the crisis feel all the more immediate. The supporting cast is also outstanding in every respect. Especially noteworthy is Irfan Khan’s performance as the captain of the Diplomatic Security Service, who, in one remarkable scene, tenderly interrogates a handcuffed, dangling suspect with fatherly empathy.

Despite its many strengths, “A Mighty Heart” needs a compelling main character to differentiate it from the recent slew of political thrillers, which lately seem to have the cinematic shelf life of skim milk. This film’s central character, Mariane Pearl, is also its greatest weakness. Because of that, “A Mighty Heart” is ultimately forgettable.

http://www.dailynexus.com/article.php?a=14388

I remember those Brad haters who proclaimed that TROY and Babel flopped.

Ratio 3:1

236 Lmao : 07/16/2007 at 2:32 am

Lmao @ the Brad fans trying to find negative Angelina articles.
===============
They are not “Brad fans”. They aren’t anyone fans… They stupid and pathetic little people with sad lives that behind the anonymity of a computer show the excuse for a human being, that they are.

Angelina Jolie Slammed by Ex Nannies for Kid Control
By Brenda Jones
Jun 22, 2007

Angelina Jolie’s ex nannies claim her kids aren’t Allowed to have friends as she is worried about privacy. A cover story has sourced some of what is reportedly some of the ex nannies of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and they are ready to spill out the secrets of the Brangelina children.

Angie who has admitted that she is quite protective of her kids won’t even allow them to have friends a report published in the National Enquirer claims. The couple has hired a nanny for each of their four children - Maddox, 5; Pax, 3; Zahara, 2; and their natural daughter Shiloh, 1, according to the report.

***

The report claims that Angelina doesn’t want the nannies carrying the children in public as it will make Jolie look bad. That is fairly well documented with photos. “If a nanny can’t live with Angie’s rules, she’s gone,” said the insider. “Another big issue for the nannies is the cant that the kids don’t have many - if any - friends besides each other.”

It’s hard for the children to make permanent friends because they are constantly on the move, going from New Orleans to Los Angeles to Prague in the past year, with more traveling ahead. Angelina has said she believes her children benefit tremendously by traveling so much and being exposed to different cultures.

***

Is this best for the kids? You decide. The report speculates that one negative side effect of all this traveling is loneliness and that hit hard during a birthday party for Maddox.

“For Maddox’s 4th birthday they did a decoy party at the house with balloons and the kids of the security guards. Meanwhile, Brad and Angelina and a nanny and Maddox went up to Santa Barbara,” the insider told the Enquirer. “It was terribly sad. Maddox would have been far happier playing with the security guards’ kids than riding his mini ATV on the sand.”

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272614254.shtml

G’Nite/G’Morning JPville!

Greetings to all BAMPZS fans. Happy to see them on the go again and wishing and praying safe travels for all in our most loved family.

Enjoying the discourse and LOL at the commentary.

Something has bugged me for a while now and I cannot figure it out. Please help if you can. The second picture im Missouri Fan’s lovely video, the one described in the past as Brad “macking” on Angie, the one on the balcony: can someone please say when it was taken? Was it a part of M&MS deleted scenes? I have almost every photo since they became a known item and I do not remember that one. It is driving me crazy!!

Loved the **John Ad. I think there are few AJ pictures more beautiful than her B&W photos and that is saying a lot since she hardly has any that are not “knock ‘em out of the ballpark” georgeous!!

Another troubling question (LOL at my obsessivness): The Jet looks small. Is there enough room for Mikey, the retainers, guards and Holly? If not do they have their own plane? (I know…SILLY!)

Finally, and this is a hangover from a previous discussion here and more recently on PITTWATCH regarding the persistent labelling of adopted vs biological. It occurs to me that all children tend to emulate their parents and as Angie herself said that “they are not unlike us in that they are brave and bold”. That being said is it only me or has anyone else noticed that Mad and Angie have the same long feet? That ALL the kids have full lips? That Mad walks JUST LIKE Brad? And…even though I have not seen it yet from Pax, their smiles are meggawatt, just like Mom and Dad and can melt a glacier? (OK, I’m certifiable!)

Oops, Big shock, I guess I just love my BAMPZS! BG

Marcheline Bertrand’s _ memorial by her brother, sister, cousins, ex-partners, goddaughter and close friends.

Since Jolie did not allow them to be at her memorial service they had to find another way.

The shocking is that her partner (Billy Day) for more than a decade and stepfather to Jolie when she was a baby wrote this:

Saturday, February 3, 2007
She Was The Wine! - Bill Day

Marcheline was a benevolent force in many lives, including my own. To see her end up such a tragic figure is unaccetable. For some of us, the long winter freeze is over and the big thaw has begun. Let us all take this opportunity to know the best course forward is to avoid the path of unforgiveness lest we tempt the same fate.

I held my own memorial down by the ocean. I blew a kiss out to sea and said, “Ciao, Bella.” On my way home, a smile suddenly came to my face. I thought about all those poor little wankers out there pining for Angie.Too bad they didn’t know Marche like I did. She was the wine!

Bill Day - Los Angeles

Bill Day was Jolie’s step dad for 12 years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19266006/site/newsweek/

The Wall Street Journal

Of the two powerful presences in “A Mighty Heart,” only one gets star billing: Angelina Jolie gives a fierce and astute performance as Mariane Pearl, the wife of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was abducted and murdered by al Qaeda operatives in Karachi five years ago. The other presence is the city itself — vast, throbbing with life, teeming with misery and, as depicted here, all but unfathomable to Westerners seeking to penetrate its secrets. This is a smart and serious film, however much it may also function as a star vehicle. The director, Michael Winterbottom, working from a script by John Orloff, has turned Mariane Pearl’s memoir into a relentlessly intense drama about the search for her husband, as well as her search for meaning in his death. And the immediacy of the setting, heightened by documentary techniques, makes this a chastening film, a portrait of the explosive new world in which we live.

In her own portraiture, Ms. Jolie mixes tenderness with implacable toughness. She plays Mariane, a journalist herself and six months pregnant at the time, as a wife who loves her husband passionately, but a woman with no time or inclination for the niceties of behavior once it’s clear he has been taken prisoner. At that point she becomes an obsessive organizer of the search, and a compulsive scourge of anyone who threatens to stand in her way. (One fatuous Pakistani functionary insists that the abduction is an Indian plot.) Given Angelina Jolie’s celebrity, the obvious danger in such a take-no-prisoners style of acting was imposing herself on the real-life story, but that hasn’t happened. To the contrary, the actress enters the character and stays there, even during her feral cries in the film’s most harrowing scene.

Dan Futterman (right) as Daniel Pearl and Angelina Jolie (left) as his wife, Mariane, in ‘A Mighty Heart.’
Daniel Pearl is played by Dan Futterman (who, oddly in this context, may be best known as the Oscar-nominated screen writer of “Capote”). The reporter is seen fleetingly, at first, as he arrives in Karachi from Islamabad, then goes to his fateful meeting with a supposedly legitimate source for a story he was doing on the shoe bomber Richard Reid. I didn’t know Danny, so all I can say about Mr. Futterman’s performance is that it, and his physical resemblance to his character, seem persuasive. But Danny’s character seems persuasive too — not a hero of the war on terror, as some have sought to cast him, and certainly not the incautious naïf that others have thought him to be, but a first-rate reporter of maturity, reflexive decency, insatiable curiosity, reasonable prudence and unreasonable dedication to finding the truth of whatever story he might have been working on.

Against most Hollywood odds, Danny Pearl’s tragically truncated life story has fallen into good hands, thanks to the film’s producers (first among them Brad Pitt) and to the filmmaker they entrusted with the production. For much of the past decade Michael Winterbottom, who was born in England, has been refining his agile style in such extraordinary films as “Welcome to Sarajevo” and “In This World,” and in last year’s “The Road to Guantanamo.” It’s a style that integrates drama and documentary footage, mixes professional with non-professional actors and yields a sense of place that’s as vivid as anything seen on TV news.

On one occasion the stylist stumbled. “The Road to Guantanamo” was long on immediacy but short on factuality. And one aspect of the technique here amounts to tacit editorial comment. Through the use of oppressive close-ups, quick cuts, film-noir peeks into labyrinthine neighborhoods and long lenses that compress the confusion of Karachi’s streets into pandemonium, the director and his Danish-born cameraman, Marcel Zyskind, have made the city seem endlessly menacing. What would the same locales have looked like if they’d been shot by a Third World filmmaker?

Yet the film’s point of view is inevitably that of an outsider, which Danny Pearl was, and menace is the essence of this shattering story, which has been told with skill and urgent conviction. “A Mighty Heart” makes the terms of the terrorist threat palpable.

‘Evan Almighty’

When God commands a modern-day Noah to build an ark in “Evan Almighty,” he gives him a book called “Ark Building for Dummies.” This is movie-making by and for dummies, a sappy little bible story, blissed out on its own ineptitude, that’s full of birds (plus their doo), that looks like “The Birds” when it isn’t aping “Dr. Dolittle,” and that is definitely, though far from incidentally, for the birds.

Steve Carell in “Evan Almighty’
The Evan of the title is Evan Baxter, last seen in the 2003 Jim Carrey comedy “Bruce Almighty.” Evan, played by Steve Carell, was Bruce’s rival, the self-satisfied TV newscaster who suddenly began to spout gibberish on the air. (More gibberish, that is, than TV newscasters usually spout.) Mr. Carell plays Evan again, but this time, in Jim Carrey’s absence, his character has graduated from bit player to hero, and from newscaster to a freshman congressman who got elected with the hollow campaign slogan Change the World. (Which is, admittedly, no more hollow than the gibberish that political candidates usually spout.) God is played, once again, by Morgan Freeman, whose suave charm can sell all sorts of silliness, but not the amiable imbecility peddled by this film.

None of it makes much sense. God’s commandment kicks in after Evan proves himself a poor steward of the environment — he drives a Hummer and lends his name to a bill that will destroy the national parks. But why would that make him a candidate for ark captain? And why do people think he’s crazy, since hordes of animals, as well as birds, follow him wherever he goes? Though these are troubling questions, their significance pales in comparison to the idiocy of Evan’s itinerary. His vessel travels only from suburban Virginia to Capitol Hill, on a flood tide that’s mostly inside the Beltway. Still, that’s far enough to be certified as a ride. Look for an ark sometime soon at a theme park near you.

*

Oh please, know you patetic people are going to bring here the tabloid trash? Keep the trash to yourselfs and enjoy it. You guys are sick!

33 Reposting

1998 Gussie

The whole interview:

American cinema’s most beautiful mug returns to the screen with his band of seductive crooks, in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean Thirteen. Exclusive interview.

- In Ocean thirteen you co-star with Al Pacino, your idol. How did you feel?
- Al is one of the greatest actors ever. He is very nice, open and remarkably intelligent. I have never seen anyone invest so much in a role. During lunch breaks, I’d hear him repeating his lines to be perfect at the moment. Besides, I believe he was the only one in the band to be systematically excellent at the first takes.

-Yourself, you do not work like that?
- No. I’d become mad if I went home at night in character. To each his thing. Fortunately, I’m able to concentrate on demand.

- How did things go with Soderbergh?
- At he end, we were all a bit sad, because we had been informed: there wont definitely be a Ocean fourteen. It it depended on me, I’d have piled up for four or five more episode with the gang. Soderbergh is really an amazing, complex guy. He always manages to get new performances from his actors. He is someone who stimulates creativity without violence, he is not simplistic, quite the opposite. And he always leans towards human interest stories and I love that.

- Do you regret having done any of your movies?
- More than one, yes. I have made bad choices, been disappointed at some directors, and then, at a certain moment, I thought I had shot too much movies. I suffered from a compulsion that made me shoot two or three films a year and therefore some which I should never have accepted. A madness! Some are dear to me, like those I’ve shot with David Fincher, “Se7en” and “Fight Club”, but also “Seven Years in Tibet” de Jean-Jacques Annaud, the “Ocean” movies, or “Mr and Mrs Smith”. Many others, I have accepted by fear of finding myself unemployed.

- You, unemployed?
- Yes. I had shot some flops, like “Johnny Suede” which nobody remembers now, “The Flavour”, “Cool World”, “The Mexican”, “Spy Game” and moreover I was going through a turbulent time in my private life. Happily, more exciting projects, from respected directors I admire came my way.

- Like Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s “Babel”?
- Yes. That part of an American travelling through Morroco whose wife is accidentally shot by a lost bullet was terrific to me. Being an actor is not a hobby, it is a job that requires discipline, hard work and respect: lots of industry people only have a vague idea of what those words mean. For me, they are important, because counting back I’ve spent half my life making movies.

- You’re a working fiend…
- No, not really…

- But you say it yourself, you film a lot…
- A shooting doesn’t take more than three or four months. After twenty years that means a lot, but I particularly enjoy the waiting period between two sets. I do like acting, but I can’t stand the idea of going back to it

- If you are not addicted to work, to what are you addicted?
- To be exact. I’m not addicted to movies, but I am to the intensity a shooting brings.

- Do you think you have asserted your game?
-You do not? (Laughs). Frankly, I’ll say yes, I have.

- What’s the difference between today’s Brad Pitt and the one from his beginning, twenty years ago?
- If I answer that question, it will have to be a thesis. And we only have thirty minutes. If I sum it up in a sentence, the fact that I worked with people like Soderbergh, Fincher, Gilliam, Tony Scott, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Mark Foster and some others has polished my acting, cleaned it up and re-centered it.

- By whom would you like to be directed?
/b>- By people like Michael Mann, Roman Polanski, Ang Lee… You may think that at a certain level of fame, we choose what we want to film. It is a mistake. I’m happy with, and proud of, 90% of the movies I’ve made, but I’d have loved to do some others: “The pianist”, in the Adrien Brody role, even if I know I was not up to it, “Brokeback Mountain” in Jack Gyllenhaal’s role… Above all, I’d love to work again with Edward Zwick , with whom I shot “Legends of the Fall”. He did a fantastic job with “Blood Daiamonds” some months ago. I was very jealous of Leonardo DiCaprio! (Laughs.)

- It seems when you were little, you wanted to be Hulk…
-True. I adored a character that didn’t get red with fury, but green… I cracked myself up watching him.

- And it is soon coming back… without you! You must be so broken…
- (Burst of laughter.) I’ll try to survive it.

- You don’t love any other super heroes?
- I’m going to give you a scoop: I was asked to do the first “Spider-man”, but shooting permanently in front of a green screen to allow the superimposition of the 3D set would have made me loose my head. And I’m sure my public wouldn’t look forward to seeing me i that kind of production. I do not regret having refused.

We know Brad Pitt, the actor, less so the producer. How are things there?
Producing films is a financial bottomless pit. You stick your little finger in the process and you get eaten alive. But I’m proud of having produced Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart”, adapted from the book written by the widow of Daniel Pearl, the journalist killed in Iraq, that was just presented in Cannes. Angie plays Marianne Pearl. I cried at the screening, she is that poignant.

- Have things always been clear for you as to your path and all that happened to you?
- Yes. I’m mature enough to take stock of my successes, the movies that worked well, those I’ve believed in but have failed and those I was always sure were going to fail. I did stupid stuff, the media didn’t spare me and cut me down to size. But sincerely when the media are on the look out for the smallest of your gestures, your slightest word, everything you do gets blown out of proportion. I thought I was stronger than the sensationalist press, that I should ignore them and live my life as I thought fit. But everywhere in the world things have become so hellish, so out of proportion, and even so unfair I had to let it go, or I’d have died trying.

Your tumultuous relationships with stars have not helped things…
- I admit my life has not been restful. But what I do not understand and cannot bear is when people entwine my private life with my work. All the events of my personal life, particularly with my ex (Jennifer Aniston), were overblown. From the moment the public is interested in you, everything you do is subject to multiple interpretations, of which three quarters are false and biased.

- The critics and the public shower you with praise, but, nevertheless, you have never received an Oscar or a Golden Globe, only two nominations. Does that disturb you?
- No, that does not prevent me from sleeping, but I’ll be happy when it comes. If it comes! My logic is the most beautiful reward comes above all from the public.

- May we risk asking you one or two very private questions, or are you going to put on your boxing gloves?
(Laughs) You may always try.

- Everything is well with Angelina? Because, when you’re together, she is not very smiling!
- She is not one to show her feelings. And she is not going to burst into laughter every twenty seconds on the pretext of having photographers around! Everything is going well and we are as much in love as in the first day.

Do you love her numerous tattos?
Of course! It is body-art brought to perfection. Angie is a work of art: One almost ought to put her under glass in a museum (Laughs)

- Couldn’t you have blown a fuse or, worse, became depressed with the media frenzy that surrounds your life?
- I’ve often exploded, but in private. In public, I’ve the strength to show I can play the game. I’ve experienced the relentlessness of the media for a long time and a certain form of rejection from the professional milieu who had me catalogued and reduced to the “pretty face” shelf. But rather than getting me down, this has energized me and I have fought hard to build a carapace. When you are stalked by photographers 24h/24h, believe me, you cannot behave normally. And I am not saying this as an excuse for some attitude or other. Our contemporary culture builds idols in order to better destroy them. You are put on a pedestal and than the game is to bring down the statue.

- How have you managed?,
By standing back, by retreating from the public stage, by not stringing films together, by taking an interest in the politics of my country and in the environmental problems that should concern us all. That has helped me understand how some things are so relative. And after meeting Angie I became a new man, intimately and artistically speaking.

- Actually, in keeping with your friend George Clooney, you are also tremendously worried about the state of our planet…
- Of course you’re going to say it is a bit hypocritical to proclaim oneself an environmentalist and to travel by plane, even if for professional reasons. But on my daily life I drive a small electric car, very powerful for that matter. I am very interested in the G8 Summits and often organize, as we did in Cannes, fundraisers to help the most destitute or for Darfur. To hang around artists such as Bono, Bob Geldorf, to be able to discuss famine and AIDS in Africa, malaria and the world debt with the chief decision-makers has also strengthened my beliefs. The need to inform and the urgency of these problems remain vital. I’m going to get more and more involved in the years to come. I’d love to have done something good in my life!

Christophe Combarieu

==============

I am thrilled that Brad is opening up a bit. I love how he feels and say about Angie.

Weekend:

No.23
A Mighty Heart ParV $193,000 -70.2% 176 -475 $1,096 $8,832,000

Weekend:

No.23
A Mighty Heart ParV $193,000 -70.2% 176 -475 $1,096 $8,832,000

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2007&wknd=28&p=.htm

Times Review:

A Mighty Heart

Michael Winterbottom’s harrowing film about Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and decapitated in Karachi in 2002, is a raw account about the frantic efforts to get him back. It nails the ghastly moment when journalists became prized scalps for terror organisations. Angelina Jolie plays Pearl’s pregnant wife, Mariane – on whose memoir the film is based – with a rigour and passion that surprised even the most jaded sceptics in Cannes.

The film begins on the day Danny (Dan Futterman) fails to turn up for supper. He is working on a story about the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, and has arranged a meeting with an organisation who have background knowledge. A missed supper becomes a crisis within 24 hours. The film charts the hollow weeks Danny is missing mostly through Mariane’s eyes. The house of a close colleague becomes headquarters during the desperate search for motives and information.

There is a confusion of investigators treading on each other toes, and contradictory information about who might have snatched Pearl. Leaks and rash speculation in the press add to the vertiginous panic. At times it’s difficult to know who exactly is in charge. A terrific cast of fixers and officials tease out clues from laptops, emails, and telephone numbers. An uneasy alliance is gradually forged between an American diplomatic security agent, Randall Bennett (Will Patton), various Wall Street Journal friends including the editor, John Bussey (Denis[correct] O’Hare), the head of the Pakistan’s brand new counter-terrorism unit, Captain (Irrfan Khan), the Citizens Police Liaison Committee, and the FBI.
At the still centre of this increasingly tense investigation is Jolie’s defiant Mariane. The film shuttles manically between meetings, endless telephone calls, the growing media frenzy, and the streets of Karachi with terrific confidence. What the kidnapping means to each character is etched on their faces. The power of this giant documentary-style jigsaw lies between the rumours, the false leads, and the hard details. Winterbottom captures brilliantly the chaos of daily life in Pakistan, and the febrile atmosphere as Pearl is first denounced as a CIA spy, and then – when his Jewish roots are fatally exposed – an agent for Mossad.
The director’s rapid-fire and choppy editing gives you a genuine feel for the many different sides of Karachi, and the urgency of the investigation. Shots of street vendors and overloaded buses are slotted between armed raids and interrogations. You can almost smell the fear on suspects. And there’s a controversial flavour about the vested, sometimes murky, interests of assorted officials. Ultimately what makes the film such an affecting modern parable is the authenticity of the emotions. Jolie’s blasts of grief when Mariane hears the dreaded news that her husband has been beheaded pricks tears and raises the hairs on your neck.

Tuesday 30 May 2006
Brendan O’Neill

Brad, Angelina and the rise of ‘celebrity colonialism’
What gives two Hollywood actors the right to shut down an African nation so that they can have a special experience?

Over the past six weeks a Western security force has effectively taken over the small African nation of Namibia. A beach resort in Langstrand in Western Namibia has been sealed off with security cordons, and armed security personnel have been keeping both local residents and visiting foreigners at bay. A no-fly zone has been enforced over part of the country. The Westerners have also demanded that the Namibian government severely restrict the movement of journalists into and out of Namibia. The government agreed and, in a move described by one human rights organisation as ‘heavy-handed and brutal’, banned certain reporters from crossing its borders.

However, this Western security force is not a US or European army plundering Namibia’s natural resources or threatening to topple its government. It is the security entourage of one Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the celebrity couple better known for living it up in LA than slumming it in Namibia. They reportedly wanted their first child to be born in Namibia because the country is ‘the cradle of human kind’ and it would be a ‘special’ experience (1). And it seems that no security measure is too stringent in the name of making Ms Jolie feel special. Welcome to the new celebrity colonialism.

Pitt and Jolie went to Namibia, a small and largely impoverished nation of 1.8 million, six weeks ago. Their daughter - Shiloh Nouvel - was born on Saturday night. As they awaited the birth they reportedly surrounded themselves with their own personal security detail and armed Namibian police. According to the Independent there was even a no-fly zone, enforced by the Namibian government, over the luxurious Burning Shore beach resort where Pitt and Jolie were holed up.

Apparently, the stars also got to dictate which reporters could and could not enter the country. According to one report, the Namibian government ‘bowed to pressure from the duo and granted them the right to ban foreign journalists from entering the country - a remarkable move for the government of any sovereign state’. The government is said to have granted this extraordinary veto to Brad and Angelina after the couple told ministers that they would be ‘forced to quit the country unless allegedly intrusive journalists and paparazzi were brought to heel’ (2). Namibian ministers hope that a trip by two Hollywood bigwigs to their shores will do wonders for their tourism industry, and thus have done everything they can to keep the couple happy (3).

More:

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/327/

to posters “TRY”, “KINDS”, “WAL” and the rest of the TROLLS AND HATERS !!!

You can post all the tabloids articles you can find against Angie … the fact remains that FORBES, TIME MAGAZINE, NEWSWEEK and other legitimate news media respect and give credits to angelina’s work and that’s all that count ..deal with it!!!

“She is a very beautiful woman and very clued-up.” - George clooney

“It’s sort of like now, having seen Brad and Angelina in a movie together, I just thought they were the most astonishing couple. You go, ‘Oh my God, this is fun to watch.’ It just knocked my socks off. I thought, Whoa! This is so good the way they are together. It’s magic, magic.” - Diane Keaton [Premiere Magazine]

“Angelina is beautiful. I have a lot of admiration for her.” - Mary Louise Parker [People Magazine]

“Angelina Jolie is a good example of someone who really puts her time into bettering the lives of so many children.What I don’t understand is the media’s criticism (of Jolie’s) involvement in humanitarian aide and why they question her motives and sincerity. It’s like, Who cares? She’s doing a good job and putting so much of her time and money in the causes.” - Tea Leoni

“I think she’s an exemplary human being. Kind, incredibly smart, lovely. But my story has nothing to do with her intelligence and everything to do with adventure.” - Elizabeth Mitchell [TV Guide]

“I’m not sure what I expected before I met her, but to say I was impressed would be an understatement. She is smart, funny, self-deprecating, and intensely passionate about her children and her work on behalf of refugees.” - Anderson Cooper

Angelina Jolie is so stunning that even camels, palm trees fall in love with her,even dead people would want to date her - she’s amazingly gorgeous”. (Val Kilmer)

” She’s ravishingly beautiful and never gets old and never gets boring ” (Ethan Hawke)

“I swear to God I’m going to tackle her and lick her and hit her over the head and drag her back to my house, caveman-style” (Tommy lee)

“Angelina Jolie is my favourite chick right now.
I’ve never met her actually. I’m to the point. I’d just let her know. ‘Yo, I need to holla at you, come see me in my hotel tonight.’
If I see her face-to-face I’ll let her known what it is. We need to get a fling going.” (Rapper Cam’ron)

“She’s very sexy - there’s just something about the way she moves. She’s like liquid.” (Denzel Washington)

Some excerpts from “transcript from “The O’Reilly Factor,” April 26, 2007, that has been edited for clarity” found online

quotation:
“O’REILLY: OK.

Now, your daughter, Angelina Jolie. You know, we checked her out. I don’t know whether you know this or not. Big investigation on her. And we found out she walks the walk, that she gives all the money, millions of dollars and this and that.

She has become, I believe, the most interesting celebrity in the world. In your opinion, why?

VOIGHT: Yes, she is fascinating. She’s fascinating to me. She’s my daughter. I’m completely fascinated with her. And I have a great admiration for all the work she does and in her humanitarian effort.

I think she’s quite stunning, of course. Very attractive gal. And she, for whatever reason, she has a certain charisma.

O’REILLY: OK.

VOIGHT: Now, she’s one of those people. There’s several people that catch…

O’REILLY: In the acting — in the acting profession, you’ve known them all. Some people have charisma and some don’t. She obviously has it.” (end of quotation)

It looks like we have something to look forward to come the OSCARs!

From Hollywood-elsewhere:

OSCAR BALLOON 2007

BEST PICTURE: American Gangster (Universal Pictures); Atonement (Focus Features); Charlie Wilson’s War (Universal Pictures); Evening (Focus Features); The Golden Age (Universal Pictures); In the Valley of Elah(Warner Bros. Pictures); The Kite Runner (Dreamamount); Lions for Lambs (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer); Love in the Time of Cholera (New Line Cinema); A Mighty Heart(Paramount Vantage); Nothing Is Private (Scott Rudin/no distributor yet); Reservation Road( Focus Features); Sweeney Todd(Dreamworks SKG); There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage); Things We Lost in the Fire (Paramount)

BEST DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood); Alan Ball (Nothing Is Private); Susanne Bier (Things We Lost in the Fire); Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd); David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises); Marc Forster (The Kite Runner); Terry George (Reservation Road); Paul Haggis (In the Valley of Elah); Gavin Hood (Rendition); James Ivory (City of Your Final Destination); Lajos Koltai (Evening); Sidney Lumet (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead); Mike Newell (Love in the Time of Cholera); Mike Nichols (Charlie Wilson’s War); Vadim Perelman (In Bloom); Robert Redford(Lions for Lambs); Ridley Scott (American Gangster); Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart); Joe Wright(Atonement).

BEST ACTRESS: Halle Berry (Things We Lost in the Fire); Summer Bishil (Nothing Is Private); Cate Blanchett (The Golden Age); Jennifer Connelly (Reservation Road); Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose); Julie Christie (Away from Her); Claire Danes (Evening); Jodie Foster (The Brave One); Scarlett Johanssen (The Nanny Diaries); Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart); Nicole Kidman (Margot at the Wedding); Keira Knightley (Atonement); Laura Linney (The Savages); Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Love in the Time of Cholera); Uma Thurman (In Bloom); Naomi Watts (Eastern Promises); Sigourney Weaver (The Girl in the Park); Reese Witherspoon (Rendition).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Phillip Seymour Hoffman(Charlie Wilson’s War); Eric Bana (The Other Boelyn Girl); Javier Bardem (Love in the Time of Cholera/No Country for Old Men); Philip Bosco (The Savages); Vincent Cassel(Eastern Promises); Russell Crowe (American Gangster); Paul Dano (THere Will Be Blood); Robert Downey, Jr. (em>Zodiac); Robert Duvall (The Last Full Measure/We Own the Night); Chewitel Ejiofor (Talk to Me); Dan Futterman (A Mighty Heart); Samuel L. Jackson (Resurrecting the Champ); Kevin Kline (Definitely Maybe/Trade); Derek Luke (Lions for Lambs); Omar Metwally (Rendition); Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises); Mark Ruffalo (Reservation Road); Liev Schreiber (Love in the Time of Cholera); John Travolta (Hairspray); Jonathan Tucker (In the Valley of Elah); Bruce Willis (The Last Full Measure).

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: David Benioff (The Kite Runner); Ethan Coen & Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men); Laurence Coriat & Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart); Michael Cunningham (Evening); Terry George & John Burnham Schwartz (Reservation Road); Christopher Hampton (Atonement); Ronald Harwood (Love in the Time of Cholera); John Logan (Sweeney Todd); Peter Morgan (The Other Boelyn Girl); Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (City of Your Final Destination); Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson’s War); Emil Stern (In Bloom); Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood); Steven Zaillian (American Gangster).

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Craig Armstrong (The Golden Age); Affonso Beato (Love in the Time of Cholera); Stephen Goldblatt (Charlie Wilson’s War); Gyula Pados (Evening); Harris Savides (American Gangster); Roberto Schaefer (The Kite Runner); Marcel Zyskind (A Mighty Heart).

BEST FILM EDITING: John Bloom (Charlie Wilson’s War); Matt Chesse (The Kite Runner); Peter Christelis (A Mighty Heart); Naomi Geraughty (Reservation Road); Joe Hutshing (Lions for Lambs); Chris Lebenzon (Sweeney Todd); Pietro Scalia (American Gangster).

BEST MAKEUP: Luisa Abel (Charlie Wilson’s War); (American Gangster); Claire Green, Colin Shulver & Tristan Versluis (Sweeney Todd); Joe Hopker (The Golden Age); Marese Langan (A Mighty Heart); (Love in the Time of Cholera).

From the interview with Bergian/French journalist at Cannes

American cinema’s most beautiful mug returns to the screen with his band of seductive crooks, in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean Thirteen. Exclusive interview.

- In Ocean thirteen you co-star with Al Pacino, your idol. How did you feel?
- Al is one of the greatest actors ever. He is very nice, open and remarkably intelligent. I have never seen anyone invest so much in a role. During lunch breaks, I’d hear him repeating his lines to be perfect at the moment. Besides, I believe he was the only one in the band to be systematically excellent at the first takes.

-Yourself, you do not work like that?
- No. I’d become mad if I went home at night in character. To each his thing. Fortunately, I’m able to concentrate on demand.

- How did things go with Soderbergh?
- At he end, we were all a bit sad, because we had been informed: there wont definitely be a Ocean fourteen. It it depended on me, I’d have piled up for four or five more episode with the gang. Soderbergh is really an amazing, complex guy. He always manages to get new performances from his actors. He is someone who stimulates creativity without violence, he is not simplistic, quite the opposite. And he always leans towards human interest stories and I love that.

- Do you regret having done any of your movies?
- More than one, yes. I have made bad choices, been disappointed at some directors, and then, at a certain moment, I thought I had shot too much movies. I suffered from a compulsion that made me shoot two or three films a year and therefore some which I should never have accepted. A madness! Some are dear to me, like those I’ve shot with David Fincher, “Se7en” and “Fight Club”, but also “Seven Years in Tibet” de Jean-Jacques Annaud, the “Ocean” movies, or “Mr and Mrs Smith”. Many others, I have accepted by fear of finding myself unemployed.

- You, unemployed?
- Yes. I had shot some flops, like “Johnny Suede” which nobody remembers now, “The Flavour”, “Cool World”, “The Mexican”, “Spy Game” and moreover I was going through a turbulent time in my private life. Happily, more exciting projects, from respected directors I admire came my way.

- Like Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s “Babel”?
- Yes. That part of an American travelling through Morroco whose wife is accidentally shot by a lost bullet was terrific to me. Being an actor is not a hobby, it is a job that requires discipline, hard work and respect: lots of industry people only have a vague idea of what those words mean. For me, they are important, because counting back I’ve spent half my life making movies.

- You’re a working fiend…
- No, not really…

- But you say it yourself, you film a lot…
- A shooting doesn’t take more than three or four months. After twenty years that means a lot, but I particularly enjoy the waiting period between two sets. I do like acting, but I can’t stand the idea of going back to it

- If you are not addicted to work, to what are you addicted?
- To be exact. I’m not addicted to movies, but I am to the intensity a shooting brings.

- Do you think you have asserted your game?
-You do not? (Laughs). Frankly, I’ll say yes, I have.

- What’s the difference between today’s Brad Pitt and the one from his beginning, twenty years ago?
- If I answer that question, it will have to be a thesis. And we only have thirty minutes. If I sum it up in a sentence, the fact that I worked with people like Soderbergh, Fincher, Gilliam, Tony Scott, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Mark Foster and some others has polished my acting, cleaned it up and re-centered it.

- By whom would you like to be directed?
/b>- By people like Michael Mann, Roman Polanski, Ang Lee… You may think that at a certain level of fame, we choose what we want to film. It is a mistake. I’m happy with, and proud of, 90% of the movies I’ve made, but I’d have loved to do some others: “The pianist”, in the Adrien Brody role, even if I know I was not up to it, “Brokeback Mountain” in Jack Gyllenhaal’s role… Above all, I’d love to work again with Edward Zwick , with whom I shot “Legends of the Fall”. He did a fantastic job with “Blood Daiamonds” some months ago. I was very jealous of Leonardo DiCaprio! (Laughs.)

- It seems when you were little, you wanted to be Hulk…
-True. I adored a character that didn’t get red with fury, but green… I cracked myself up watching him.

- And it is soon coming back… without you! You must be so broken…
- (Burst of laughter.) I’ll try to survive it.

- You don’t love any other super heroes?
- I’m going to give you a scoop: I was asked to do the first “Spider-man”, but shooting permanently in front of a green screen to allow the superimposition of the 3D set would have made me loose my head. And I’m sure my public wouldn’t look forward to seeing me i that kind of production. I do not regret having refused.

We know Brad Pitt, the actor, less so the producer. How are things there?
Producing films is a financial bottomless pit. You stick your little finger in the process and you get eaten alive. But I’m proud of having produced Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart”, adapted from the book written by the widow of Daniel Pearl, the journalist killed in Iraq, that was just presented in Cannes. Angie plays Marianne Pearl. I cried at the screening, she is that poignant.

- Have things always been clear for you as to your path and all that happened to you?
- Yes. I’m mature enough to take stock of my successes, the movies that worked well, those I’ve believed in but have failed and those I was always sure were going to fail. I did stupid stuff, the media didn’t spare me and cut me down to size. But sincerely when the media are on the look out for the smallest of your gestures, your slightest word, everything you do gets blown out of proportion. I thought I was stronger than the sensationalist press, that I should ignore them and live my life as I thought fit. But everywhere in the world things have become so hellish, so out of proportion, and even so unfair I had to let it go, or I’d have died trying.

Your tumultuous relationships with stars have not helped things…
- I admit my life has not been restful. But what I do not understand and cannot bear is when people entwine my private life with my work. All the events of my personal life, particularly with my ex (Jennifer Aniston), were overblown. From the moment the public is interested in you, everything you do is subject to multiple interpretations, of which three quarters are false and biased.

- The critics and the public shower you with praise, but, nevertheless, you have never received an Oscar or a Golden Globe, only two nominations. Does that disturb you?
- No, that does not prevent me from sleeping, but I’ll be happy when it comes. If it comes! My logic is the most beautiful reward comes above all from the public.

- May we risk asking you one or two very private questions, or are you going to put on your boxing gloves?
(Laughs) You may always try.

- Everything is well with Angelina? Because, when you’re together, she is not very smiling!
- She is not one to show her feelings. And she is not going to burst into laughter every twenty seconds on the pretext of having photographers around! Everything is going well and we are as much in love as in the first day.

Do you love her numerous tattos?
Of course! It is body-art brought to perfection. Angie is a work of art: One almost ought to put her under glass in a museum (Laughs)

- Couldn’t you have blown a fuse or, worse, became depressed with the media frenzy that surrounds your life?
- I’ve often exploded, but in private. In public, I’ve the strength to show I can play the game. I’ve experienced the relentlessness of the media for a long time and a certain form of rejection from the professional milieu who had me catalogued and reduced to the “pretty face” shelf. But rather than getting me down, this has energized me and I have fought hard to build a carapace. When you are stalked by photographers 24h/24h, believe me, you cannot behave normally. And I am not saying this as an excuse for some attitude or other. Our contemporary culture builds idols in order to better destroy them. You are put on a pedestal and than the game is to bring down the statue.

- How have you managed?,
By standing back, by retreating from the public stage, by not stringing films together, by taking an interest in the politics of my country and in the environmental problems that should concern us all. That has helped me understand how some things are so relative. And after meeting Angie I became a new man, intimately and artistically speaking.

- Actually, in keeping with your friend George Clooney, you are also tremendously worried about the state of our planet…
- Of course you’re going to say it is a bit hypocritical to proclaim oneself an environmentalist and to travel by plane, even if for professional reasons. But on my daily life I drive a small electric car, very powerful for that matter. I am very interested in the G8 Summits and often organize, as we did in Cannes, fundraisers to help the most destitute or for Darfur. To hang around artists such as Bono, Bob Geldorf, to be able to discuss famine and AIDS in Africa, malaria and the world debt with the chief decision-makers has also strengthened my beliefs. The need to inform and the urgency of these problems remain vital. I’m going to get more and more involved in the years to come. I’d love to have done something good in my life!

Christophe Combarieu

==============

He said his former relationship was turbulance.
And he said he is a new man after meeting Angie.
He also said he is in love with Angie as was first in love with her.

Re-posting because I got caught and submerged in the Troll DUNG! BAMPZSters it is like they wait for the sun to go down and emerge en mass to swarm like a tide of pestilence over the landscape! Eeach! Must IGNORE!

249 perpetual lurker : 07/16/2007 at 2:44 am
G’Nite/G’Morning JPville!

Greetings to all BAMPZS fans. Happy to see them on the go again and wishing and praying safe travels for all in our most loved family.

Enjoying the discourse and LOL at the commentary.

Something has bugged me for a while now and I cannot figure it out. Please help if you can. The second picture im Missouri Fan’s lovely video, the one described in the past as Brad “macking” on Angie, the one on the balcony: can someone please say when it was taken? Was it a part of M&MS deleted scenes? I have almost every photo since they became a known item and I do not remember that one. It is driving me crazy!!

Loved the **John Ad. I think there are few AJ pictures more beautiful than her B&W photos and that is saying a lot since she hardly has any that are not “knock ‘em out of the ballpark” georgeous!!

Another troubling question (LOL at my obsessivness): The Jet looks small. Is there enough room for Mikey, the retainers, guards and Holly? If not do they have their own plane? (I know…SILLY!)

Finally, and this is a hangover from a previous discussion here and more recently on PITTWATCH regarding the persistent labelling of adopted vs biological. It occurs to me that all children tend to emulate their parents and as Angie herself said that “they are not unlike us in that they are brave and bold”. That being said is it only me or has anyone else noticed that Mad and Angie have the same long feet? That ALL the kids have full lips? That Mad walks JUST LIKE Brad? And…even though I have not seen it yet from Pax, their smiles are meggawatt, just like Mom and Dad and can melt a glacier? (OK, I’m certifiable!)

Oops, Big shock, I guess I just love my BAMPZS! BG

FROM WHAT MY FRIENDS AND RANDOM PPL, ONLINE USERS I ASKED SAID ANISTON IS A TERRIBLE ACTRESS

She is gonna have a problem. She is 38, by hollywood standard, she is old.

actresses we prefer:–

and Hillary Swank, Naomi Watts.

Mr and Mrs Smith Says:

Another day and here you are AGAIN. For someone who claims to hate Angie, you are totally obsessed with her and how she lives her life. Like the lady on Showbiz Tonight said, there are people who are intimidated by Angelina Jolie because she lives her life the way she sees fit and doesn’t give a damn what the masses think and those are the people prone to alot of criticism of her, and I believe you are one of those intimidated people. See, you are a hateful person and the thing that my pastor said that ‘what you criticize in others is invariably true in yourself’. I think there is something that you hate in yourself and something about Angie brings that out. So, the next best thing is to attack her, her children, her choices.

The good thing is that God knows and loves Angie and he will take care of her and her family. The more you spew your hate, the more blessings you send Angie’s way.

Just look at past examples, people spew all kinds of hate toward her in 2005, calling her all sorts of names in the media, magazines, and what happens in Angie’s life? She starts a relationship with a good, yes I said good man, a sweet little girl called Zahara enters her life, she is given a humanitarian award, she is blessed with child by becoming pregnant, etc. In 2006, while the hate is still going on, what happens, her children are permanently blessed with Brad as their father, her and her family are travelling the world and we see them enjoying themselves despite an encounter with a nasty __ fan, she gives birth to a beautiful baby girl, she and Brad go out for dates and to parties, they get to travel all over the world and even with challenges, they manage to come out of those challenges stronger.

In 2007, we start off with very very very bad press by the media before and after the GG, but that doesn’t stop her from living her life. Her mother dies, but she doesn’t go through it alone, because Brad and his family and her children are there for her and her brother. She goes on to a mission in Chad and shares with the world the tragedy in Darfur. She is named as a candidate to enter the CFR and has a very strong possibility of being accepted in. She is blessed again with another little boy in her life. We also learn that she has been an asset to **. Johns clothing line and not a liability as was reported negatively last year, and she has an opportunity to starr in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood (a big time, well-respected actor/director).

So, you see, in as much as you spew your hate, you are never going to stop God’s blessings from coming down her way. Love you always, Angie, Brad, and your family. Keep on keeping on and may God continue to bless your lives.

I knew thay you don’t have the ball to publish the comment. You are a coward JJ.