Angelina Jolie headed to the National Geographic Museum after arriving in Washington, D.C.

She took part in a World Refugee Day conference, then spoke to the audience, addressing the fact that leading world countries need to step up and help refugees to either obtain asylum during times of tragedy or to help them safely make their way back home.

I’m hoping to find video footage of her speech; I’ll put it up if and when I do.

(edit: we’re currently experiencing a problem with the comments and I apologize for the frustration - the tech team is trying to resolve it right now. Please feel free to continue to comment, because they actually are going through, they just aren’t showing up at the moment but they will appear as soon as tech gets things sorted out. I’m sorry for the problems!)

More photos of Angelina Jolie at the National Geographic Museum below the cut!

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As I mentioned earlier this morning, Angelina Jolie is in Washington, D.C. today for World Refugee Day events. She arrived via private jet this morning with Maddox and Pax.

Meanwhile, as for her plans to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Hillary’s Chief of Staff issued the following statement:

“On the way to the White House late this afternoon, Secretary Clinton fell and suffered a right elbow fracture. She was treated at The George Washington University Hospital before heading home.”

It’s too bad that she won’t be able to attend, I would love to see these two powerful women discussing how we can all help refugees around the world, but at least Angelina is still there!

More photos of Angelina Jolie arriving in D.C. with Maddox and Pax below the cut!

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Although Salt has wrapped, Angelina Jolie still has a few busy days ahead of her but it’s work that is so important to her that I’m sure she doesn’t mind.

Because of World Refugee Day coming up on June 20th, Angelina is making a few media appearances to talk about the importance of spreading awareness of the plight of refugees around the world.

There is a World Refugee Day event in Washington, DC today (June 18th). Angelina Jolie was supposed to join Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to host the event. However, I follow the UNHCR on Twitter and there was a mention that Secretary of State Clinton couldn’t be there. That message has since been deleted, so maybe it’s all been worked out. Either way, the event will include an exhibit of the winners of the World Refugee Day Poster Contest. The contest asked children to think about what they would need to survive as a refugee and to draw a poster representing that, to show how people should help refugees.

Later tonight, Angelina will be on “Anderson Cooper 360″ (check your local listings for times) to discuss refugees as well. Since not everyone gets CNN (including me) I will post whatever video I can get tomorrow. The CNN website often has great video footage from its shows.

I’ve also heard that Angelina will be on the “Today” show tomorrow (Friday, June 19th), which would fit in with the story I posted earlier this week about Ann Curry having a chance to talk about something of great importance with Angie.

I don’t know at this time if Angelina will be somewhere for World Refugee Day itself. However, if you’re interested in attending a special event yourself or learning more about the day in general, please check out the UNHCR’s information. I intend to use the day as an opportunity to share some video with my children and teach them that there are many children just like them who are nowhere near as fortunate as they are - will you do something for World Refugee Day?

(I also wanted to remind you that PittWatch is on Twitter and you can follow over here. New post alerts are automatically sent over there so you’ll never miss something new; I also intend to start using it as a way to interact with PittWatch readers to discuss ideas for future posts and contests, so make sure you’re following!)

Image: Newscom

With World Refugee Day 2009 just around the corner (this coming Saturday - June 20th), it’s excellent news to hear that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $1 million to help refugees. The funds which came from their Jolie-Pitt Foundation will help refugees in Pakistan.

The head of the UN Agency said that the situation right now in Pakistan is “the most challenging humanitarian crisis of the past decade.” There are over two million displaced people in the country at the moment.

First it was a million dollars to help children with cancer, now a million dollars to help refugees in Pakistan - their willingness to assist people in need is so inspiring. Actors and athletes get paid a ridiculous amount of money and so many of them waste that money; look at how some celebrities end up bankrupt despite making millions because they blew it on ridiculous lifestyles. That’s why I love the way Brad and Angelina use their money. Yes, sometimes Brad will purchase expensive art, sometimes they fly around the world on a private plane, they have several homes and rent expensive homes when they’re abroad. But at the end of the day they give so much of their money to those who really need a hand and they make such a huge difference in people’s lives.

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Image: INF

Although they’re quite far past their own teenage years now, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie both received nominations for the 2009 Teen Choice Awards. The awards will air on FOX at 8 pm on August 10th.

Brad was nominated for the “Choice Movie Star: Drama” award for playing Benjamin Button. His competition is Hugh Jackman for Australia, Dev Patel for Slumdog Millionaire, Channing Tatum for Fighting, and Robert Pattinson for Twilight.

Angelina got her nomination for “Choice Movie Actress: Drama for her role in Changeling. She goes head-to-head with Nicole Kidman for Australia, Beyonce for Obsessed, Freida Pinto for Slumdog Millionaire. and Kristen Stewart for Twilight.

In all honesty, I don’t think they’re going to win. The award voting is open to teenagers (13-19) who can vote once per day online. That demographic is more than likely going to gravitate towards giving the award to Rob Pattinson and Kristin Stewart. Still, considering that it IS the Teen Choice Awards, I’m just really happy to see that they were nominated, especially Brad because I wouldn’t have thought of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as being a movie that would be overly interesting to your average teenager.

What’s especially interesting though is that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are competing against each other too. Both of them are nominated for “Choice Celebrity Activist” which is amazing. I’m so thrilled that this is an award, I think it’s a great example for young people, no matter who wins. Brad and Angie are up against each other, as well as Leonardo DiCaprio, Hayden Panettiere, and Natalie Portman.

I admire all five of them for their activism but I would personally love to see Angelina win for her hard work with the UNHCR or have Brad win for his efforts with Make It Right after he stepped up and helped the people who had been so beaten down by Katrina.

If you’re a PittWatch reader between the ages of 13 and 19, please go to the Teen Choice Awards website and register to cast your vote, and keep voting daily.

Good luck Brad and Angelina!

Image: Newscom

One of Russia’s biggest filmmakers Timur Bekmabetov recently announced that he is gearing up to film a sequel to Wanted - and he has also figured out a way to bring back Angelina Jolie’s character, Fox.

I’m really not sure how he intends to incorporate Fox into a new story unless he uses her as some kind of flashback character. I’d actually love to have seen a prequel instead, something that tells more of the story of how Fox came to be an assassin and her life before that, maybe some of her training. Still, I’m intrigued. If it’s a flashback, then Angelina’s role would be relatively small and probably wouldn’t take very long to shoot. It’s actually even possible that they might have extra footage that was never used in the first film that they could use in this new one, depending on how they handle it. Very interesting!

Bekmabetov said:

“In July we will start preparation for the film. I think in the late autumn or winter shooting will be performed. The shooting will take place in America, India and Russia.”

Three places that Angelina is very familiar with!

What do you think of this new possibility? I enjoyed the first film and I really don’t mind violent movies at all, but I’d still be somewhat less eager to see Wanted 2 if it didn’t have Angelina Jolie in it.

Image: Newscom

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Thanks Ligaya!

It starts with a simple request with Angelina Jolie pleading, “Please don’t turn away”. With World Refugee Day coming up on June 20th, Angie recorded a new PSA for the UNHCR, reminding people that the plight of refugees is ongoing.

Angelina asks us not to forget them, the “most vulnerable people on Earth”. The UNHCR has been my personal charitable organization of choice for years now. On the 20th I’ll be thinking of refugees around the world and thanking Angelina Jolie for being such a tireless champion of refugee needs and rights and for using her extreme fame to draw attention to the people who most deserve it.

Ann Curry has spent a great deal of time talking with both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. She’s not done yet either - she has an interview set up with Angelina sometime in the near future, though she didn’t specify when. We’ll all have to keep our ears pressed to NBC to find out when this is all meant to happen.

Ann did speak to OK! magazine about both Brad and Angelina and had nothing but good things to say about the two of them.

About Angelina Jolie as a person:

“I like her a lot. I see her as a very smart person, a very compassionate person who does movies.”

About the way Brad and Angelina use their power for good:

“What I love is that when you talk to actors you know the good they can do – it’s really touching because there are so many reasons why they could be just selfish and focus on themselves, but they’re not. When very very powerful people like Angie and Brad are focused on lovely projects that really change peoples lives you just want to applaud them, it’s just fantastic.”

I love hearing people in the media who know Brad and Angelina either as friends or colleagues or interviewers who express such positive things about them. That’s really what people need to remember when the tabloid headlines and the sleazy bloggers and the haters start to trash-talk the couple - don’t let it get you down because those are all people who don’t know Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie at all. Those that do know them and who have worked with or interacted with them have had so many wonderful things to say.

However, Ann Curry seems most interested in a future conversation she seems set on having with Angelina:

“In fact I may be talking to Angie coming up very soon. It’s something important and I’m excited to see her again.”

So here’s where we get to discussing! What do you suppose the “important” something is? I don’t know if I would count on it being an adoption. While we know they want more children and do intend to adopt I don’t know if Ann would be in the know about it, but you never know! If Angelina is adopting from an area that needs help, she might be willing to talk about it - if it’s already in the final stages of the whole process - in order to bring attention to the country in question.

World Refugee Day is June 20th this year, so I’m actually wondering if maybe that’s the big event that Ann wants to talk about. She traveled to Namibia in the past to talk to Angelina about her efforts to ensure education for all children around the world, so it could very well be something along those lines. I know I’d love to hear about it!

What do you suppose the big “important” topic is?

(And let’s hope she doesn’t stroke Angie’s face like she did with Brad!)

Images: Pacific Coast News

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Angelina Jolie is on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar - it comes along with an eye-catching article headline: The Power of Angelina. Power indeed!

What I love right off the bat about this article is that it’s written by Naomi Wolf, someone I have admired in the past. An outspoken author regarding women’s rights and empowerment, I am thrilled that she chose to write something about Angelina Jolie.

She appears to share some of the same thoughts about Angie as the fans do - she compares Angelina to the “sultry Hollywood goddesses” of the 1940s, and how often have we all said the same thing here? We routinely mention that something about Angelina screams Old Hollywood.

Ms. Wolf goes on to point out how Angelina manages to have it all whereas most other women throughout history were unable to manage to be everything at one time: a good person, sexy & sexual, a good mother, rich, famous, and talented with a successful career. Angelina has all of that and more.

The magic of Jolie’s self-presentation? She makes the claim, with her life and actions, that, indeed, you can get away with it. All of it. Against every Western convention, she has managed to draw together all of these kinds of female liberation and empowerment. And her gestures determinedly transgress social boundaries — boundaries of convention, race, class, and gender — giving many of us a vicarious thrill.

What I enjoyed was that she brought up what many naysayers have said in the past - things like her peculiar and very publicly sexual relationship with Billy Bob Thornton and the Oscar night kiss with brother James Haven and the fact that she was clearly seeking constant attention - BUT then she points out what those same people forget, that she has moved past that lifetime, past her eccentricities, and has grown into a mature woman. The transformation started with her decision to adopt Maddox and her involvement with the UNHCR. So many people in life go through a wild phase and then they grow up. It’s amazing to me how many people seem to think the same is not true for Angelina, so it’s refreshing to see someone GETS it.

It goes on to list the many things about Angelina that fascinates women as a whole. The entire article is wonderful to read and you can tell that Naomi Wolf obviously greatly admires Angelina Jolie. I can’t say that I blame her!

Image: Splash News Online

I knew that Angelina Jolie wrote a new opinion piece for Time magazine about the crisis and war crimes in Darfur, but since I was out most of the day yesterday I only got to read it this morning. A cup of coffee and reading about Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir is an interesting way to start off a Saturday morning, so if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a summary.

She starts off with explaining that the results of the international court’s investigation into Omar al-Bashir may create an international standard for trying war crimes around the world. The president was being tried for seven counts of war crimes as well as five separate crimes against humanity.

Angelina strongly expresses her feelings towards al-Bashir:

Bashir’s response to the indictments was an insult to the international community and the hundreds of thousands who have died in Darfur. He kicked out of his country 16 international aid groups who were desperately trying to save his citizens. He even appointed one of the suspects, Ahmed Haroun, to a committee supposedly investigating human-rights abuses in Darfur. You’ll struggle to find a better illustration of the culture of impunity that reigns in Khartoum.

She also goes on to describe some of the heart-breaking struggles for Darfur’s refugees - girls in the camps being raped, boys being murdered. It’s a kind of life that few of us can ever truly imagine and I’m grateful that Angelina brings so much attention to the issues.

I love when Angelina Jolie writes articles. In a world obsessed with physical appearance, it’s easy to sometimes assume that if someone is incredibly beautiful they might not be all that bright, but Angelina proves you can have beauty and brains at the same time.

I also really liked the way they attributed the article - instead of saying that Angie is an Oscar-winning actress, they ended the article with Jolie is co-chair of the Jolie-Pitt Foundation and a refugee advocate. Very appropriate for the cause at hand.

Read the full article on the Time website. It’s well worth the time.

Enjoy!

Image: Newscom