Angelina Jolie, who is rumoured to be pregnant with twins, donned a helmet and flak jacket as she visited Iraq as part of her role as a UN goodwill ambassador.

The 32-year-old accompanied the U.S State Department on the trip to learn about the plight of 4 million displaced Iraqis.

Her partner Brad Pitt remains on dad duty in LA, where he was spotted yesterday with the couple’s adopted daughter Zahara.

Source: The Daily Mail

BAGHDAD (AP) — Note to world leaders: Next time you need instant access to foreign dignitaries and top military brass, forget the usual protocols. Just send in Angelina Jolie.

Hollywood’s globe-trotting leading lady swooped into Baghdad on Thursday to highlight the plight of Iraqi refugees, gaining an audience with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the American Embassy said.

On her mission as a U.N. goodwill ambassador, Jolie also met with Iraqi migration officials to stress that there needs to be a coherent plan for the more than 2 million internally displaced Iraqis who are beginning to trickle back to their homes amid a recent lull in violence.

“There’s lots of goodwill and lots of discussion, but there seems to be just a lot of talk at the moment,” Jolie said in excerpts of an interview aired on CNN.

Jolie mingled with American troops during lunch at a dining facility in the heavily guarded Green Zone, which houses the embassy and Iraqi government offices. She grabbed a red plastic tray at the mess hall, collected her lunch and sat at a long banquet table to eat — her fork tines down, of course — as flashbulbs from soldiers’ digital cameras lit up the wall behind her.

During the CNN interview, Jolie said the fate of Iraq will have an impact on the Middle East for years to come.

“And a big part of what it’s going to affect,” she said, “is how these people are returned and settled into their homes and their community and brought back together and whether they can live together and what their communities look like.”

Source: The Associated Press

Celebrity super couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie helped Seth Mascareno, an eight-year-old boy who was being crushed by autograph hunters at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Seth was trapped under a crowd greeting the couple as they arrived at the festival, reports say. Jolie was being honoured with the Performance of the Year award. The couple saw the kid in trouble and lifted him to safety.

The boy’s mother said, “The crush of people was just overwhelming. Jolie and Pitt rushed over and she helped pull Seth under the barricade while Pitt yelled for the crowd to back up. Then Jolie took Seth aside to make sure he was unharmed. When she was sure he was all right, she signed a Tomb Raider photo he was carrying. She stroked Seth’s hair and said, “There, there sweetheart, you’re okay now.”

BAGHDAD (AFP) — UN goodwill ambassador and Hollywood megastar Angelina Jolie visited Iraq on a humanitarian mission on Thursday and met top officials to demand help for people displaced by the war.

A scheduled press conference at the US embassy was cancelled, but the Oscar-winning actress gave an interview to CNN in which she said she wanted more to be done for Iraqi families driven from their homes.

“There are over two million displaced people and there never seems to be a real coherent plan to help them,” she said.

“There’s lots of goodwill and lots of discussion but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment and a lot of pieces that need to be put together.”

The US embassy said Jolie travelled to Baghdad with Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky “to discuss US humanitarian relief efforts for internally displaced persons and conflict victims.”

The trip, a statement said, is a follow-up to a visit by Jolie to the region six months ago and marks a “mission to support and implement joint solutions to assist Iraqi’s displaced population.”

The statement added that Jolie also met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Immigration and Refugees Minister Abdel Samad Rahman Sultan.

She had lunch with American troops serving in Iraq after earlier meeting their top commander, General David Petraeus.

The actress also held talks in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone with UN head of mission Staffan di Mistura and met a group of internally displaced people.

“Of the two million internally displaced, it’s estimated 58 percent are under 12 years old. It’s a very high number of people in a very, very vulnerable situation and a lot of young kids,” Jolie told CNN.

“So far, the different US officials I met with and different local people I’ve met with all have shared concerns, very, very strongly. They have spoken out about the humanitarian crisis, but there seems to be a block in.

“I don’t have the answers, but I know this is one thing that needs to be addressed and solved. (There needs) to be a real presence here to help count the people and register the people,” she added.

The actress, most famous for her roles in Hollywood hits “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and “Mr and Mrs Smith,” said she would urge US and Iraqi officials to provide better security for UN refugee agency workers.

Currently the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been unable to mount widespread aid operations within Iraq because of the daily violence that has wracked the country during its five-year-old war.

Jolie became a volunteer for the United Nations goodwill programme in 2001. She has campaigned on behalf of Iraqi refugees and has visited Iraq before.

In August 2007, she met some of the 1,200 Iraqis stranded on the border between Iraq and Syria and appealed for more international support for those affected by the conflict.

During that tour, Jolie left UNHCR officials to visit privately with US and other multinational forces based in the area.

The following month she launched a 150-million-dollar appeal by UNICEF, the UN’s fund for children, and the UNHCR to help educate one million children affected by the war.

Source: AFP

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have beefed up security at their home after daughter Shiloh was targeted by kidnappers, it was claimed today.

According to a US report, a chilling note was left at the door of one of the superstar couple’s houses.

It included a photo of the 20-month-old tot - alongside the warning: “We got this close already.” An insider said: “They’re freaked out.

“Shiloh has someone protecting her 24-7, and Brad and Angie are trying to avoid taking her out of the house.”

The insider added: “Someone got to their doorstep and left a threat against Shiloh.

“The person included a photo of her, and a note that read, ‘We got this close already.’”

The note was left in early January, a US celebrity magazine claimed.

The insider was unable to reveal which house belonging to Pitt, 44, and Jolie, 32, was targeted, because of security reasons.

Shiloh - the couple’s only biological child - has not been photographed in public since January 4, according to Life & Style magazine.

Last November, two shots were reportedly fired outside their Los Feliz, California home.

The insider added: “Brad and Angie will do whatever it takes to protect the children.

“There have been frequent threats against their kids, but this time someone just got too close.

“They are by far the most security-conscious celebrities in the world.”

The couple already has impressive security at their California home.

It includes a £120,000 state-of-the art control room manned by at least four staff.

Motion tracking cameras with ultra-sensitive detectors alert security to any possible intruders.

Observers say their security bill for 2008 could top £2.5million.

As well as Shiloh, they have three other children, Maddox, six, Pax, four, and Zahara, three.

A Mighty Heart actress Jolie is rumoured to be several months’ pregnant with twins.

On 2 February, at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, she said: “I like being a mum.

“That’s my big passion.”

Source: The Daily mail

Angelina Jolie has officially made it through the longest part of her trip overseas, arriving in London at Heathrow airport early Monday morning (February 5).

As previously reported, the A Mighty Heart actress is reprotedly flying to Amman, Jordan, although it’s not known whether she’s going there for United Nations work, or some other charitable reason.

Meanwhile, everyone’s still wondering whether or not the pregnancy rumors are true or not.

Of the situation, an insider told Fox Pop Tarts, “Angelina isn’t the type to need to go on about having a baby. If she is pregnant, it is something she will discuss only between very close friends and family at least for a while.”

Source: Gossip Girls

With beau Brad Pitt in the audience and her latest director Clint Eastwood on hand to present her with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Outstanding Performance of the Year Award for her turn in A Mighty Heart, Angelina Jolie signed autographs and posed for photos Saturday night with scores of fans who filled the streets, before taking the stage to discuss her film career and reveal a few candid nuggets from her off-screen life.

She retains fond memories of sharing a single acting scene in Tomb Raider with her father Jon Voight, from whom she’s currently estranged. “Strangely enough, the scene was about a daughter and her father who had not spent their lives together and had a lot of questions for each other…[It was] kind of therapeutic for us to get some things out and talk. We spent that time as two artists, and it was a special time. It was an important time.”

When her ex-husband and Pushing Tin costar Billy Bob Thornton was mentioned, she said “I thought he was an amazing artist, and still is.”

•Prior to screening the famous tango scene clip from Mr. & Mrs. Smith, she was asked if she or Pitt was the better dancer: “I think we’re about equal,” she replied. “Equally not so good.”

•Despite starring in several high-tech productions, she’s technologically challenged in real life: “As Brad knows, I don’t really how to turn on a computer.”

•After back-to-back clips featuring romantic scenes with Brad in Mr. & Mrs. Smith and she and Matt Damon in The Good Shepherd, Jolie said she looked like she was “out on one date and went out on another.” Given the choice between former [Pitt] and current [Damon] holders of PEOPLE’s “Sexiest Man Alive” title she responded “I’m going with the first one.”

•Both she and Pitt were initially reluctant to take on their roles in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but “obviously I’m very glad I did it – It changed my life.”

•When asked if her humanitarian efforts were an even greater passion than acting, she chose a third alternative: “I love being a mom, and I think that’s my big passion: being with my family.”

Source: People

CLINT EASTWOOD honoured ANGELINA JOLIE at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Saturday (02Feb08) by handing her the event’s Performance of the Year award.
The actress won the prize for her portrayal of Mariane Pearl, wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, in A Mighty Heart.
Jolie was thrilled to receive the honour from Eastwood, the director of her new film The Changeling, stating, “I think he’s just a genuinely great guy.
He’s nice to everybody on set.” The actress arrived at the prizegiving gala with partner Brad Pitt. The media in attendance was instructed not to ask the couple questions about a rumoured pregnancy.

Source: Pr Inside

3 February 2008 - Angelina Jolie and partner Brad Pitt were at Santa Barbara Film Festival at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA. Saturday, February 2.

Jolie is being honored at the festival with the Outstanding Performance of the Year award in recognition for her work in A Mighty Heart.

Other honorees include Casey Affleck, Julie Christie, Tommy Lee Jones, Ryan Gosling, James McAvoy, Ellen Page and Amy Ryan.

According to OK Magazine, Angelina Jolie is in fact expecting her second biological child with husband Brad Pitt.

The internet was buzzing with pregnancy rumours when Angelina wore a loose hanging dress to the 2008 SAG Award show a few days ago, which is unusual for the star.

It is said that Angelina has wanted another child for some time and is very, very happy. Well, she looks more beautiful that ever and she does have that certain glow about her.