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

Overall, my favorite things to read about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are - in order - their various humanitarian efforts, their movies (past, present, future), and their family life. Their physical appearance isn’t the most important aspect, and honestly looks are subjective. Some people find certain folks to be drop-dead gorgeous while others scratch their head and wonder what the appeal is.

That being said, I think it’s generally accepted that Brad Pitt is one hot man. Am I right?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. While I could see he was attractive in his 20s, he didn’t really do much for me. Back then he was very much in a pretty boy phase and that’s not my type. However, unlike a lot of people, Brad keeps getting better with age. The older he gets the more I have to stop, catch my breath, and say whoa.

This won’t change the world - voting won’t help build one more home in New Orleans - and it’s laughable to think that Brad would even care, but it’s still fun to play! Vanity Fair has a new poll out to find the Most Handsome Man in the World. You can vote here for your choice.

A month ago they did one for the most beautiful woman and Angelina Jolie won as Most Beautiful Woman in the World (by a landslide, they said). Now it’s the men’s turn. Right now Brad is in second place. He’s got a very considerable lead over the third place spot (held by the also very drop-dead gorgeous Johnny Depp), but the Twilight fans are out in full force because right now Robert Pattinson is leading by a mile. I’m not going to deny it, Rob is quite easy on the eyes. But think of poor Brad. He already has Angelina ahead of him on the Forbes power list, we can’t let him come in second at Vanity Fair without a fight - think of the merciless teasing that will go on in their kitchen! (I’m kidding of course.)

Still, let’s do Brad Pitt a favor and get over there and vote for him. The Twilight fan base is huge, but with the high number of PittWatch readers, I know we can give old Rob a run for his money. Go vote!

Image: INF

(Thanks Rubi!)

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

Amid all the tabloids who are still screaming about break-ups and trouble in paradise, one magazine is shaking its head. Hello! magazine (a Canadian publication, not a tabloid) has a beautiful photo of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie snuggled on the cover with the headline “Brad and Angelina: Does This Look Like a Couple in Crisis?”

I *love* the headline. It’s like thumbing their nose at the other dramatic headlines that are still hanging in there. Inside the article, it describes how Angelina goes to work - for now, at least - and Brad’s day at home with the kids revolves around making breakfast for everyone, taking the older children to school, and hanging out until Angie comes home. Brad said, “it’s how I was raised in Springfield, Missouri.”

For PittWatch readers in Canada, the issue is on sale right now at news stands, go check it out. It will be easy to find, just look for the one sane voice of positivity among the dissenters!

(Thanks to Amy for sending this my way!)

Image: Newscom

Here’s something that’s no surprise to fans - Angelina Jolie ranked in the top five Most Glamorous Women of 2009 on the Glamour magazine’s annual list.

Angie came in 4th place with the caption:

Last year’s number one has a style uniform that works: simple, classic, modern. “She stands out without wearing a look-at-me dress,” says Roxanne Lowit.

You can’t deny that. I think most of us were lukewarm about some of Angelina’s dress choices at the awards shows this year, but she still looked fantastic in all of them. She always wears her clothes - they never wear her.

Naturally, biased though I may be, I would put Angelina Jolie at the top of the list myself. However, she was surpassed by three classy and beautiful ladies (Kate Winslet #1, Anne Hathaway #2, and First Lady Michelle Obama #3) so I won’t complain too much!

See the full slideshow of the top 50 in Glamour’s Most Glamorous Women of 2009 right here if you’re curious about the other contenders - lots of great women in there!

Image: Splash News Online

Awhile back I mentioned - as did several people in comments as reminders - that Angelina Jolie was nominated as the “most beautiful woman in the world” over at Vanity Fair. The votes came in, and Angelina was the winner by an absolute landslide.

I will pause as you all take a moment to say, “Well DUH”.

Angelina swept up a whopping 58% of the votes, leaving Gisele Bundchen (also very beautiful and my favorite model!) a very distant second with only 9% of the votes!

We already knew she was undeniably gorgeous and this is not the kind of thing that Angie herself would ever really care about, but it’s fun anyway and it shows that the people who admire her physical appearance are certainly not in the minority!

(Thanks to those of you who emailed me to let me know the results!)

Image: Newscom

Every year, Time magazine puts out their issue with the top 100 influential people of the past year. We’ve repeatedly seen both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie appear on the list in various positions, and they’re contenders again this year as well.

What’s different this time is that Time is allowing readers to help decide the ranking of the 100 most influential people by voting on a sliding scale.

As fans, we can head over and give a 100% vote to each of them! To vote for Brad, click here, and use the sliding scale on the left to decide what percentage you’d like to give him. Then you can go vote for Angelina the same way right here.

If you want to see some of the other amazing people on the list, you can start at the beginning and see them all. It blows me away to see Brad and Angelina in the company of presidents, religious leaders, and major political forces.

In Angelina’s write-up they mentioned that she was in three movies released in the same year (Kung Fu Panda, Wanted, and Changeling) and that she was smart enough to use her insane fame to sell photos of the twins to People in order to give that money straight to charitable causes. For Brad they brought up his Oscar nod for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and they also made me laugh because they mentioned his mustache - we all know how heavily we’ve debated the ’stache over here at PittWatch! Still, I do with they had acknowledged his continued hard work with Make It Right.

It’s fun to be able to be a part of this year’s list, so let’s go help them out!

(Special thanks to Pierce from Time for contacting me to let me know!)

Image used with permission: Newscom

Brad Pitt is featured in this year’s “Oscar Roundtable” in Newsweek magazine, with several big celebrities - Anne Hathaway, Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Frank Langella, and Sally Hawkins. They talk about whether it’s a good idea for an actor to Google their own name (Brad says “Dear God. No.” and that while he does have a Blackberry, he doesn’t really know how to operate a computer.), and what fame is like.

Something that struck me as very interesting was the perception of success vs. failure. Anne Hathaway mentions that she started in - and loved - theater and always felt like if the film possibilities came to a halt, she could always go back there and be happy. Meanwhile, Brad’s take on the success of a film is personal. He was asked what he does when one of his films “tanks” - does he feel pressured to make sure he does a money-making blockbuster or does he choose his next project with his heart. His answer was:

Pitt: I have nothing to prove anymore. The only thing that’s worth anything is when you explore something that’s interesting. I did a film a couple years ago, “The Assassination of Jesse James,” and it’s on the books as a failure. I loved that movie, I had such a great experience.

I love that. I love that he doesn’t care what the numbers say, he just cares about the story he told and the way he felt about telling it. Also, it bears mentioning that the others were all shocked to hear that The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was considered a commercial failure. Maybe that’s the difference between the Oscar contenders (past and present) and the ones who make the movies that we watch and forget, they care about the story behind the film more than what it does in theaters.

Read the whole thing and check video clips too from the roundtable here.

Oscar nominations are to be announced soon so stay tuned for updates - I’m sure that Brad Pitt will be nominated for best actor and that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will be up for several awards and I’m hoping that Angelina Jolie will be nominated for best actress.

(Thank you Ann!)

Image used with permission: Newscom

It wasn’t too long ago that Brad Pitt shared his own personal photos of his family in the pages of W magazine for all of us to see. Intimate pictures of Angelina Jolie and their children made people swoon.

Now W has gone back to Brad again - he is on the cover of their February 2009 issue! The article starts off by detailing how Brad’s insane fame level is so high that his security needs - basement entrances and hidden service elevators - rival those of high-profile politicians. He tries so hard to live a normal life with Angie and the kids, but seriously, it must be so weird to be Brad Pitt. I particularly thought it was funny when the article mentions that he called room service to order some coffee and said that he was in the penthouse, “I think”. Not only did fans and guests not know where Brad was - BRAD didn’t know where Brad was!

The article goes on to talk about how Brad resisted the role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for quite some time before finally taking it on. They move next to personal topics, and apparently Brad was very open about Angelina Jolie and their children - he referred to the family as “this cuckoo’s nest that we got going on over there.”

And here’s something that fans have been waiting to hear for awhile - after all the media back and forth what with “Angelina said this about the relationship” and the “Jennifer Aniston said that about the Jolie-Pitt family” and the neverending circus, someone asked Brad about Jennifer’s “uncool” remark and he responded.

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Okay. We’ve all read it already, right? On December 26th, the L.A. Times posted an article about Brad Pitt, talking about his new movie (which continues to do well at the box office!). However, more than what he said about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, people are talking about what he said about his love life and family.

In particular, this seems to be a hot topic right here:

As everyone but a handful of Himalayan monks doubtless knows, the woman who sleeps by Pitt’s side these days is Angelina Jolie, with whom he shares parenting duties for six children (three of their own, three adopted). During an interview of an hour’s duration, Pitt refers repeatedly to his satisfying home life and the way it has refashioned his priorities.

“I had a whole other life and I got to experience a lot. And I probably got away with more than I should,” he says. “And it kind of ran its course, you know, it kind of hit a dead end.” Fatherhood, he notes, is “the direction I always thought I would go in. But not until, with Angie and it felt like a natural evolution, a natural direction.”

Many people are saying that Brad is finally fighting back against things that certain very specific people have said about him and about Angelina Jolie in the media. Other people are saying that it’s callous. And a lot of people - myself included - figure that after about four years, for the love of God, the man is allowed to talk about the love in his life and the happiness he has with Angelina and their children.

Many of you emailed me to ask me to start a proper discussion post about it so that we can all talk about the article and our thoughts on it. I did indeed want to but because I wasn’t online as frequently during the holiday period, I didn’t want to risk having people caught in moderation for days on end, which would stall the conversation. Now that I’m back online on a regular basis, it’s a good time for us to chat.

What do you think of the overall article and what Brad said about his love life in particular?

Keep reading for more quotes and commentary!

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