Angelina Jolie pays radio tribute to late Olympian Louis Zamperini
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- Published on Wednesday, 05 November 2014 18:09
- Written by BBC
Actress and director Angelina Jolie has recorded a tribute to Louis Zamperini for a Radio 4 documentary about the late Olympian and prisoner of war.In the programme, to be broadcast on Friday, Jolie calls Zamperini "one of the greatest people I've ever met"."He was somebody that was so full of love and life and it was contagious."Jolie has made a film about Zamperini, entitled Unbroken, that dramatises his experiences at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and during World War Two.Born in 1917 in New York state, Zamperini competed in the 5,000 metres at Berlin before enlisting in the US Army.He served as a bombardier during the war and survived 47 days adrift on a raft after his plane crashed into the Pacific.Eventually picked up by a Japanese patrol, he spent the next two years in prison camps before finally returning home.He went on to become a devout Christian and devoted his life to teaching the importance of forgiveness.Zamperini, who is played by British actor Jack O'Connell in Jolie's film, died in July at the age of 97."They say to never meet your heroes because they disappoint you, but Louis was my hero," the actress will be heard telling historian Dr Uta Balbier in Friday's tribute."He reminded me of the power of the individual spirit and a sense of purpose, and overcoming obstacles."If you were around him you became a better person who looked at life differently and it helped to remind me of that." The Louis Zamperini Story will be broadcast on Radio 4 on 7 November at 11:00 GMT.
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Angelina Jolie hints she may be ready to run for office
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- Published on Tuesday, 04 November 2014 20:41
- Written by Page Six
She has won an Oscar and regularly conquers the box office — so how hard could winning an election be? Globe-trotting Hollywood do-gooder Angelina Jolie hints in a new interview that she’s ready to enter politics.“When you work as a humanitarian, you are conscious that politics have to be considered. Because if you really want to make an extreme change, then you have a responsibility,” Jolie, 39, tells Vanity Fair’s December issue.“I honestly don’t know in what role I would be more useful — I am conscious of what I do for a living, and that [could] make it less possible,” said Jolie, director and a special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.Pushed further, she admitted, “I am open” to pursing politics.Jolie — who directed the upcoming film “Unbroken,” about Olympian-turned-war hero Louis Zamperini — also dished on tying the knot with Brad Pitt, her partner of 10 years.“It does feel different,” she said. “It feels nice to be husband and wife.”The pair got hitched in the South of France in August, and Jolie said their six children lent a hand.“There was no cake, so Pax made a cake,” she said, referring to their second-oldest son.“The kids made little pillows for the rings, and Knox practiced [being a ringbearer] with an acorn that kept falling off the pillow. Brad’s mom went and picked some flowers and tied them up.”
She said their kids wrote her and Pitt’s vows.“They did not expect us never to fight, but they made us promise to always say ‘sorry’ if we do. So they said, ‘Do you?’ and we said, ‘We do!’ ” Jolie said.She noted both she and Pitt worked on war movies at the same time recently with Pitt on the World War II tank thriller “Fury” and her on “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”They sent each other notes in the mail to replicate World War II GIs would received letters from loved ones back home, she said.She broke down in tears discussing the true story behind “Unbroken,” due out next month, and Zamperini’s incredible tale of survival.Zamperini, who ran in the 1936 Berlin Games, flew in the Air Force and was shot down over the Pacific. He floated at sea for 47 days before he was captured and sent to a Japanese POW camp.“It was an extremely emotional experience, to watch someone watching their own life … someone so physically strong … and they are at the stage where their body is giving up,” she said.
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Driving Mrs Jolie-Pitt: Brad gets behind the wheel of a classic convertible to shoot scenes for By The Sea with wife Angelina
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- Published on Tuesday, 04 November 2014 04:58
- Written by Daily Mail
Driving Mrs Jolie-Pitt: Brad gets behind the wheel of a classic convertible to shoot scenes for By The Sea with wife Angelina... as their working honeymoon continues
They tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in France on August 23 but Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been hard at work since then. Indeed, even their honeymoon has had to come second to their filming commitments as the duo have been shooting By The Sea, written and directed by Angelina, in Malta since just after their wedding. The couple were spotted filming scenes in a classic convertible in Gozo on Monday with Brad behind the wheel and Angelina in the passenger seat. While he drove the car along the island, they were joined by a film crew perched precariously on the back. This is the couple's first project together since Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2005 - the film which saw them falling in love both on and off screen.By The Sea documents the challenge a longtime married couple face as they go on vacation throughout Europe in the 1970s.It sees 'Vanessa, a former dancer, and her husband Roland, an American writer, travel the country together,’ according to IMDB.‘They seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper and a hotel owner,' the description added.Speaking about the project to US TV show Extra, Angelina said of the project, 'It's the kind of movie we love but aren't often cast in. It's a very experimental, independent-type film where we get to be actors together and be really raw, open, try things.'
Angelina sports a blonde wig in the film while Brad has been rocking a mustache. Meanwhile, Pitt and Jolie tied the knot in August on the urging of their children, Maddox, 13, Pax, 10, Zahara, nine, Shiloh, eight, and six-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.And their father said the brood is thrilled that the union is now official.He recently told People, 'They like it. They like it.'All six children were very much a part of the nuptials that took place at Chateau Miraval in the South of France on August 23.Jolie wore a floor length white dress with a veil that had the drawings of her little ones on it.'The children wrote vows and asked us to make promises to each other,' said the Maleficent actress. 'It was very sweet what they came up with.'
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Imogen Anthony dons huge leather horns and cloak to become Angelina Jolie's character for Halloween
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- Published on Saturday, 01 November 2014 10:46
- Written by Super User
She's Maleficent! Imogen Anthony dons huge leather horns and cloak to become Angelina Jolie's character for Halloween while King Kyle goes as... King Kyle.She's made no secret of her desire to be compared to Angelina Jolie.So it was no surprise Imogen Anthony dressed up as Maleficent, the actress's most recent film role, for Halloween on Saturday.Posting photos to Instagram the 23-year-old model and designer looked transformed at her boyfriend Kyle Sandilands' Sydney party, using the villainous Disney character as inspiration, even going so far as to have cheek prosthetics put in.Wearing the character's trademark long black cloak and the black horns, Imogen accessorised with a crow and a staff to really get into character.The only thing seemingly lacking from the costume was a collar that stuck up behind her head, but it looks like Imogen's fell flat. She wore red lipstick and had her nails manicured into a long pointed shape as well, her hair hidden by the horns. Meanwhile Kyle went as the King, wearing a black cloak with a green hood and crown.Normally known for flaunting her figure, Imogen surprised by opting to keep her famed body underwraps in the voluminous cloak, which swathed around her slender figure.Imogen has previously alluded to her likeness to Angelina during her public slinging match with her boyfriend's ex, Tamara Jaber in June.The slim beauty compared her own relationship with Kyle and his ex to that of the famous love triangle between Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston.'I'm Angelina, you Jennifer,' she wrote by the side of a picture of her dressed in a black catsuit.Imogen has been dating Kyle for more than three years after meeting him at his 40th birthday party.
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71 actor Jack O’Connell says Angelina Jolie film Unbroken his biggest challenge
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- Published on Thursday, 30 October 2014 18:21
- Written by The National
Jack O’Connell, 24, is a hot property right now. Following his much-acclaimed performance earlier this year in the angry prison drama Starred Up, now he is receiving rave reviews for his part in director Yann Demange’s high-octane debut 71, which screened this week at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. And then there’s his highly anticipated role in director Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken later this year.The rising young star says he’s not letting all the attention go to his head – he just thinks about what’s next and how he can do the best possible job. “Otherwise I’d just be a one-trick pony. I just got to look forward,” he says.In 71, O’Connell plays Gary Hook, a British soldier lost in the streets of Belfast. For the half-English, half-Irish actor, Northern Ireland’s decades of unrest are a very real part of his family history.“I had to know that the film wasn’t going to try and point fingers and take a biased view on anything, nor portray anyone either side of the divide unfairly,” he said.He even considered joining the military as a teen. “I thought there was an honor in it and I still believe that,” he said.
Luckily for film lovers, O’Connell turned to acting instead and his role in Jolie’s Unbroken, due for release around Christmas, could firmly establish him in Hollywood. O’Connell plays former U S Olympic distance runner Louis Zamperini, who enlisted in the U S Air Force during WWII, where he was shot down over the Pacific and spent two years as a Japanese prisoner of war. He had to lose a lot of weight for the very physical role.O’Connell says he found the experience “maturing”.“It made a man out of me and it broke me, contrary to the title,” he said.The actor described Zamperini, who he met before his death in July at age 97, as a “most extraordinary human being”.“He was so humble,” he added. “He never once considered himself anything extraordinary at all.”O’Connell said Unbroken was his big biggest challenge to date because he was “under the command of one of the most famous people on the planet” – director Jolie.“I think the more I focused on the enormity of the whole project, the more it felt beyond me,” he said.Unbroken is set for U S release December 25, reaching UK cinemas on December 26.
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