Marianne Pearl, the wife of the slain Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, and Angelina Jolie (she plays her in the upcoming film A Mighty Heart) sits down with Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive for an interview at Angelina’s home. Here are some fun excerpts:
CINDI LEIVE: So Mariane, you started to tell me the story of how you guys initially met, which to my surprise had absolutely nothing to do with A Mighty Heart.
MARIANE PEARL: One day a few years ago, I was alone in New York with Adam, still having a rough time [after Danny’s death]. I read an interview with Angie in a magazine, about her and Maddox and her life as a single mom. And I thought, this woman could be my friend…. I’d never experienced anything like that before in my life. It was something in her tone, in the answers that she gave. I felt also that Maddox and Adam [then both about three] could be good friends. So I sent her a note saying, do you want to have a playdate?
ANGELINA JOLIE: And I, on the other side of it, had been aware of you through the time that everything went down. I remember being amazed by your courage and your grace…. And when I got the note, I was thrilled. Later I realized that Mariane and I are the two worst people to plan a playdate in the history of playdates.
CL: Why?
AJ: Because she hates the phone as much as I do. So it almost didn’t happen! But when it finally did, I remember being really nervous, thinking, she’s such an intelligent European woman—what are we going to do together? So we went to this serious, European, existential play—it seemed like the right thing [and it was supposed to be OK for kids]. But Adam and Mad got antsy, and finally halfway through, to each other’s relief, we were both like, do you want to get out of here? And we ran out and went back to Mariane’s place….
MP: We cooked pasta; it was actually good. And then we started talking about changing the world…
AJ: …and about all the things we were passionate about. Her instincts were right—we did have so much in common. And all the kids are great friends now. Zahara is madly in love with Adam.
The June 2007 issue of Glamour hits newsstands nationwide on May 8. Check out more of the Angelina/Mariane article with Glamour here. You can check our Pearl’s global diary here.
