TheAngelinaJolie.com Latest Blog Posts

Angelina Jolie's Oscar Rehearsal Session

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 11:46:49 GMT

Among the many stars readying for the biggest night in Tinseltown, Angelina Jolie was busy rehearsing for the 84th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. The 36-year-old took to the Hollywood & Highland Center venue where she was joined by the ceremony's producer Brian Grazer and stage manager Dency Nelson while practicing her presenter role.

And while the session was fast paced, even Grazer and Nelson couldn't help but fold to Miss Jolie's undeniable star power. "You have to take a picture with me first!" Brian said as soon as Angelina took to the stage before politely adding, "Well, you don't HAVE to."

Meanwhile, Dency added, "You just blew the minds of two of our stand-ins who got a hug from you," with Jolie replying, "Oh, you're so sweet."The rehearsal comes two days ahead of Sunday night's (February 26) 2012 Oscars - with the show airing live on ABC beginning at 7e/4p.

Angelina Jolie Pens Foreword for Billy Bob Thornton Memoir

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:12:55 GMT

Angelina Jolie has written a foreword for “The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts,” an upcoming memoir by her ex-husband, Billy Bob Thornton. The couple split in 2003, but Billy Bob, 56, says the two remain friends and that he’s thrilled about her directorial debut in In the Land of Blood and Honey.

As for what the book’s about, here’s a preview: “There is—and could only ever be—one Billy Bob Thornton: actor, musician, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, and accidental Hollywood badass. In ‘The Billy Bob Tapes,’ he leads us into his Cave Full of Ghosts, spinning colorful tales of his modest (to say the least) Southern upbringing, his bizarre phobias (komodo dragons?), his life, his loves (including his heartbreakingly brief marriage to fellow Oscar winner Angelina Jolie), and, of course, his movie career.”

Angelina Jolie: My mother was beautiful

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:08:37 GMT

Angelina Jolie believes her late mother "lived a beautiful life". The actress' mom Marcheline Bertrand passed away in 2007 from ovarian cancer. Angelina, who has six children of her own with long-term partner Brad Pitt, deeply reveres her mother. She is honoured to have had benefitted from Marcheline's guidance.

"She lived a beautiful life," Angelina told Extra. "She was nothing but gracious and kind and she was proud at the end of her life when we talked about different things she wasn't able to do. She didn't have the acting career she wanted. She didn't have the writing career she wanted. And she had absolutely no regrets because she was happy to be a mother."

Angelina has won a PGA Award and an NAACP image award for her 2011 directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey. The powerful love story is set against the backdrop of the Bosnian War.

Angelina helmed the picture with profuse passion. "I didn't make this film wanting to become a director," Angelina explained. "I made this film because I cared about the subject matter."Angelina co-starred with her beau Brad in 2005's Mr & Mrs Smith and enjoyed working with him. Although acting alongside Brad was fun, the actress admits that she unsure what it would be like to actually direct her partner in a picture. "What day is it?" Angelina chuckled. "The chance to work with him is a pretty great opportunity, so I would be a lucky director to have him."

Angelina Jolie, Bosnia in Her Heart

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:01:34 GMT

When Angelina Jolie asked me to join her in presenting the avant-première of her film, In the Land of Blood and Honey, I began, of course, by asking to view it. But once I had, I did not hesitate for a second.

Because, really, what a story! Here is a great Hollywood actress. Here is one of the most popular and famous stars of cinema in the entire world. Here is a great name, and no one could doubt that the day she decided to go behind the camera, she would have an unlimited choice of subjects, of financing, of scenarios, and, of course, of actors beating the path to her door for the privilege of participating in the adventure.

But one day Angelina Jolie, indeed, goes behind the camera -- and what happens?

She shoots a film d'auteur, with unknown Bosnian actors, in a language, Bosnian, that seems improbable both in America and in Europe -- and the film is set in this blind spot of 20th century history, in this moment of utter sorrow, one of indignity and shame, too, for the nations that let it happen: the Bosnian war.

The result is a film that, first of all, rings unbelievably true. I know the places she evokes. I saw, in real life, the men and women who resemble Danijel and Aila, the Romeo and Juliet of this love story set against a backdrop of concentration camps and horror, like brothers and sisters. And this affair of rape as a weapon of war, this humiliation of a people through the tortured bodies of its women, this ethnic purification via the belly that is, not the décor, but the subject of the film, I filmed it in Bosna!, my 1994 documentary. Well, the fiction she has based upon these tragedies, their reconstitution nearly twenty years later in the Hungarian studios, their presentation in script, scene, and caption, are strikingly true to life and recapture the breath, the dark violence, that were the mark of a reality that, unhappily, I can confirm.

The result is a rare and very moving case of a successful transmission. Angelina Jolie was an adolescent at the time of the events she relates. She was only aware of them through vague hearsay, no doubt well after the fact. At the time when a mere handful of her elders (Peter Schneider and Hans Christoph Buch in Germany; Salman Rushdie in England; Christopher Hitchens or Susan Sontag in the United States; the author of these lines, and a few others, in France) feared that Sarajevo marked the tolling of the bell for a Europe had just offered the 21st century its new and no less nightmarish Spanish Civil War, she was still dreaming about her roles in Glass Shadow and Hackers. But she has taken over, picked up the torch, continued in a sense the struggle and, not content to relive what we lived through, accomplished the miracle, always overwhelming when it happens, of turning our memory into history.

And the result is, ultimately, a political act such as the cinema engenders with increasing rarity. A politically committed film? Partial? A film that does not hesitate to do battle and take the risk, when necessary, of being accused of Manicheism by the cretins? Yes, of course. For it's a film that calls a spade a spade. A film that, far from the braying unanimity one imagines a pure creation of the Hollywood industry might inspire, calls the members of the Serb militias of the era "fascists" and takes care to distinguish, in the confusion of those sombre days, victims and executioners. And a film that, as a result, to borrow Godard's expression, is not just a film, but a just film, rendering justice to the dead and honor to the survivors.

When In the Land of Blood and Honey was shown in Sarajevo, on the eve of its presentation in Paris, it was welcomed by a crowd that vacillated for long moments between tears and cheering. Normal. Consider the violated women who have remained silent for the past twenty years. The children of those rapes, who are now becoming adults, who have born their genetic burden like a disgrace. Consider this Bosnian society that beheld, there, its most painful secret. Here is, suddenly, a great actress, and a great lady as well, who has used her prestige so that, for the first time, they might be allowed to raise their downcast heads.

I witnessed a similar situation, forty years ago, in Bangladesh, when a Muslim chief of State, President Mujibur Rahman, made the courageous decision to declare birangona -- literally, national heroines -- the dozens of thousands of young women who had been raped by the ruffian soldiers of the Pakistani army and who, for that, had been outcasts not only of society but often of their own families as well. This, mutatis mutandis, is the gesture of Angelina Jolie. And it is what makes the sombre grandeur of her film.

Our paths had crossed once earlier, in connexion with the memory of Daniel Pearl, whose widow she portrayed in a film. And then a second time, on February 25th, 2007, at Bahai, in the north Sudan, where I was waiting for the possibility of clandestine passage to Darfur, and where she had come to visit the refugee camps.

This third meeting is the best -- at the encounter of a suffering that knows no statute of limitations and its inscription in the register of a work of art.

Angelina Jolie Supports UN Intervention in Syria

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:12:15 GMT

She may be considered as one of the top stars in Hollywood, but the superstar actress remains a kind hearted human being. In a recent media interview, Jolie is supporting calls for the intervention of the United Nations in the ongoing conflict in Syria.

Jolie said now is the right time for UN to intervene in the conflict in Syria since many civilians are dying due to the ongoing intensified crackdown by the Syrian government against people opposing their regime.

The actress, who has served for years as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said UN should do their part to stop these senseless killing for humanitarian purposes.

She said to protect the civilians, UN should now do their role to protect the civilians against their ruthless leader. Jolie also took time to hit those countries who are opposing the plan of UN to intervene in the Syrian conflict.

The superstar actress said instead of financial gain, these countries should think of helping the civilians who are suffering big-time due to the ongoing conflict in Syria.

Angelina Jolie says time for 'intervention' in Syria

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:14:56 GMT

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie said Saturday the world should intervene to stop the violent crackdown in Syria and condemned powers that have vetoed a UN resolution against the regime. "I think Syria has got to a point, sadly, where certainly some form of intervention is absolutely necessary," Jolie told Al Jazeera Balkans in an interview shown on the channel's Internet site.

"It's so sad, it's so upsetting, it's so horrible what's happening," Jolie said. "At this time we just must stop the civilians being slaughtered. "When you see that kind of mass violence and murder on the street, you must do something," added Jolie, who has served for years as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Jolie recently made her directorial debut with "In the Land of Blood and Honey," a wartime love story in Bosnia, a film she has called a "wake-up call" to prevent atrocities like those now happening in Syria.

Without naming China and Russia, she condemned "these countries that are choosing not to intervene" in Syria despite "global efforts". "I feel very strongly that the use of a veto when you have financial interest in the country should be questioned, and the use of a veto against humanitarian intervention should be questioned," Jolie said.

Moscow and Beijing have twice blocked UN resolutions condemning the ongoing repression in Syria that has left thousands of people dead since March 2011, according to human rights activists.

Angelina Jolie Brings 'In The Land Of Blood And Honey' To Croatia

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:18:07 GMT

Tending to her non-stop promotional duties, Angelina Jolie was spotted at the premiere of “In the Land of Blood and Honey” in Zagreb, Croatia. Greeted by hundreds of excited fans, the “Salt” actress looked fabulous in a rust-colored J Mendel long-sleeved dress and posed for several pictures alongside Bosnian actress Zana Marjanovic and actor Rade Serbedzija.

On Thursday, Jolie, who wore a Ralph and Russo gown, and a Gucci clad Brad Pitt attended the Parisian premiere of “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”Recently chatting with AP about the movie, Angelina told, “This film has taught me to love film again because I see what film can do … and I am re-inspired because I was not feeling very inspired as an actress. I was feeling very disheartened."

Angelina Jolie receives threats over directorial debut

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:02:11 GMT

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has received intimidating threats since the premiere of her directorial debut "In The Land Of Blood And Honey". The 36-year-old actress says she and several of her Serbian castmembers have been targeted since the film's premiere on February 14 in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo, reported The Guardian.

"There were things sent to me, there were things posted online. The cast... have never complained to me about these threats but I've heard through other people it was happening... one of them did have their windows smashed in on their cars and someone else had an issue when their phone was hacked and emails were sent out saying they were from them and saying they had been hurt. It was a scary thought that someone was thinking along those lines," Jolie said.

The actress fears her movie, about a romance between a Serbian soldier and a Bosnian woman during the 1990s war in the region, will cause unwanted controversy in the Balkans. "The physical threats are not what most bothered me because I have been to so many different countries where there are different kinds of threats, being in Afghanistan and other places as an outspoken American woman. It was more that... with a film like this, you don't want it to be used as a tool... especially in an election year, where people are deciding to label it without having seen it, and try to incite aggression and violence," she added.

Angelina Jolie weeps at movie premiere

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:52:19 GMT

Hollywood actress turned director Angelina Jolie wept yesterday, after receiving a standing ovation at the premiere of her movie In the Land of Blood and Honey, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Angelina was joined by her husband Brad Pitt for the screening of the movie about a Serbian woman and a Bosnian soldier who fall in love during the war in the region in the 1990s. Many of the people at the screening had experienced the war, which made the standing ovation even more meaningful to Angelina.

Jolie explained, "To see you receiving it so well means the world to me. I feel so deep for all of you in this country. I feel very strongly about the film and I believe that its core issue - which is the need for intervention and need for the world to pay attention to atrocities when they are happening - is very, very timely, especially with things that are happening in Syria today.”

She added, "It is very important that this film is out at this time. If this film points the finger at anybody it is the international community, so I hope it remains a wake-up call for them." Angelina Jolie has previously praised the Bosnian cast of In the Land of Blood and Honey, for teaching her as much, and if not more than she could have imagined.

Angelina Jolie Looks Stunning at the Cinema For Peace Gala

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:26:34 GMT

The 2012 Berlin Film Festival is currently underway, and Angelina Jolie wowed Berlin with a stunning yet simple ensemble at the Cinema for Peace Gala, one of the events taking place during the course of the festival. Jolie was there to accept a Cinema for Peace Award for her work as director of The Land Of Blood And Honey.

Angelina Jolie Dresses Up for Peace
According to the Daily Mail, the Cinema for Peace organization recognizes films that help in the struggle to end human rights abuses, war, and genocide. To accept the award at the Cinema for Peace event, Jolie wore a simple tailored pencil dress of silk-cashmere herringbone—a choice that fit the serious nature of the award she was accepting. Jolie;s hair was worn long with waves at the shoulders. She colored her lips with a soft coral-colored lipstick, and her eyes looked bright yet dramatic for the occasion.

Looks inspired by Angelina Jolie's appearance at Cinema for Peace start with Shiseido Dual Balancing Foundation. Then Shiseido Perfect Smoothing Compact Foundation sets the foundation. Shiseido Bronzer applied to the cheeks and the brow bone just below the eyebrows gives the face a healthy glow. Shiseido Luminizing Satin Eye Color Trio in the brown palette brings drama to the eyes. Shiseido Smoothing Eyeliner Pencil and Perfect Mascara Defining Volume finish the look off.

The Land Of Blood And Honey is Jolie's directorial debut. According to IMDb, the film tells the story of two men, a Bosnian and a Serb, during the Bosnian War. Jolie has been promoting her film during the Berlin Film Festival. Pictures from the festival posted by the Daily Mail show the stunningly beautiful actress and director at the Cinema for Peace event in the company of her partner, Brad Pitt, and accepting the award for her directorial effort.