Angelina Jolie confirms she will reprise her role as Maleficent in third installment of the Disney franchise... after hinting she wants to quit acting
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- Published on Wednesday, 06 December 2023 07:02
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie will reprise the role of her villainous character in Disney's Maleficent 3.The actress, 48, confirmed the news in a new profile with WSJ. Magazine, though she did not give any other details. It comes four years after the sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was released. It's not clear who will star alongside her at the moment. Previous Maleficent movies have starred Elle Fanning as Aurora, Maleficent's step-daughter, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer, Harris Dickinson, Ed Skrein, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, and more. In that same interview Jolie also hinted that she wants to quit acting for good - while revealing that she plans to leave 'unhealthy' Los Angeles and 'spend more time' in Cambodia. Maleficent is the evil fairy in the classic 1959 animation Sleeping Beauty, with Angelina playing her in a 2014 live-action film.Just five years on, Jolie played her again in Mistress Of Evil, still wearing black horns, fighting fairies and sorting out her conflicted maternal feelings towards sweet Princess Aurora (Fanning).The original 2014 film grossed a whopping $758 million worldwide, and brought another successful addition to Disney's series of dark fairy tales. The follow-up grossed $491.7 million. Being the entertainer that she is, when Jolie first landed the role in 2014, she used her scary costume to prank her kids.'I actually pranked my kids when I first did Maleficent and I scared one of my kids! And I’ll never do that again.' 'I won't say which kid it was but, I thought, when I had first put it on and they had never seen it, and I thought it would be fun to kind of, you know. But when you’re little, you don't realize what mom means, to a kid,' she shared in 2019.'I think that's why Maleficent's so scary, is because she's a woman,' she continued. 'So it's almost like a mom. Mom means so much and when mom transforms into something that’s like a demon, it had a really bad effect and I had to kind of peel it off and take everything off in front of my kids to say, "It's me! Its me! It's OK."'
Though she confirmed the upcoming role, Angelina hinted she's ready to say goodbye to Hollywood in her new interview, where she discussed leaving the City of Angels for Cambodia, after 'losing the ability to travel freely' amid her bitter divorce battle with Brad Pitt. The actress spoke out about her dislike of Hollywood in WSJ. Magazine's new December/January issue, explaining that she believes it is a 'shallow' place, and admitting that she would likely never have become an actress if she was entering the industry today.She explained that she wants to move away as soon as she can to instead live in her home in Asia - but not until her ongoing legal battle with her ex finds a resolution.The pair started dating in 2005 and married in 2014, but split two years later, in 2016 - and since then, they have been embroiled in a lengthy, seven-year divorce proceeding over the custody of their six kids.Angelina told WSJ. Magazine that the court battle has lead to her 'losing the ability to live and travel freely.''It’s part of what happened after my divorce - I lost the ability to live and travel as freely,' she said. 'I will move when I can.''I grew up in quite a shallow place. Of all the places in the world, Hollywood is not a healthy place. So you seek authenticity.'Angelina - whose parents, Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, were both actors themselves - added that because 'she grew up around' Hollywood, she was 'never very impressed' with it.'I never bought into it as significant or important,' she told the publication.She admitted that if she were to start all over today, she likely wouldn't choose acting as her profession, because of the 'expectation' to share intimate details about her personal life that comes with being a famous person.She added, 'When I was starting out, it wasn’t as much of an expectation to be as public, to share so much.'
She also joked that she 'doesn't really have a social life' anymore and that all of her 'closest friends are refugees.'The movie star has worked with the the UN Refugee Agency for more than two decades, visiting camps in Cambodia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Pakistan over the years.Angelina has been embroiled in arguably one of the most public breakups of all time, with the entire world watching on as she and ex Brad, 59, have battled it out in court over the last seven years.She briefly spoke out about the dissolvement of her marriage of WSJ, while opening up about why she decided to step back from the spotlight in recent years.'We had to heal. There are things we needed to heal from,' she explained, when the outlet pointed out that she's only appeared in five movies over the course of her seven-year legal fight.If Angelina does take a break from acting, that doesn't mean she will stop working altogether, with the on-screen star sharing: 'I can't stop. I always think there's a fight coming.'Angelina and Brad first started dating in 2005, after meeting on set of the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith.They tied the knot in August 2014 during a secret ceremony in the South of France, and welcomed three children together during their romance - Shiloh, now 17, in 2006, and twins Vivienne and Knox, now 15, in 2008.They also adopted two more, Zahara, now 18, and Pax, now 20, and Brad legally adopted the son that Angelina had adopted before they got together, Maddox, now 22.But in 2016, it came to an explosive end after the pair got into an alleged physical altercation while on a private flight with their six kids.In May 2021, after years of duking it out in court, Brad and Angelina were officially granted joint custody of their six kids - but one month later, the judge's decision was thrown out.Since they split, the two stars have also been fighting in court over the winery that they once owned together.
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source : Daily mail 
Angelina Jolie appears in good spirits as she is seen for the first time since being accused of 'playing games' with ex-husband Brad Pitt by trying to turn their kids against him
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- Published on Wednesday, 06 December 2023 07:08
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie looked in great spirits as she was seen out and about in Milan alongside film mates Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher and director Pablo Larrìn on Monday. The appearance marks the first time the actress, 48, has been seen since those close to her ex-husband Brad Pitt accused her of 'playing games' to turn their children against him. Friends of Brad opened up about the star's devastation over his estrangement from his three adopted children – and blamed his former wife who they claimed has carried out 'textbook parental alienation.'Yet Angelina was seen beaming as she stepped out of the car in the Italian city and seemed undeterred by any family upheaval. The academy award-winning actress cut a chic figure as she donned a black tailored coat which was adorned with pearl buttons. The star's outfit couldn't be seen under the long black coat, but she looked to pair the outfit with some black boots while she wore her golden locks down loosely. Angelina was seen chatting to her film mates and the others in attendance seemingly unaware of the cameras. It has been an explosive time for the star recently after it was recently revealed that the couple's daughter Zahara no longer uses Pitt as her surname and their son Pax called his dad a 'world-class a-hole'. Maddox, 22, Pax, 19, and Zahara, 18 are all believed to be estranged from their adoptive father – with only his three biological children Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15, still seeing him as per a custody agreement. Earlier this month Zahara attended a sorority induction event at Spelman College in Atlanta and gave her name as Zahara Jolie rather than Zahara Jolie-Pitt which is her legal name. Both Maddox and Pax are said to also have dropped the Pitt name in informal contexts 'years ago.' Maddox, who has graduated from college in South Korea, is said to have not spoken to Brad since the incident on a private plane in 2016 which ended the Jolie-Pitt marriage and is apparently openly hostile, saying that he 'doesn't regard Brad as his father' any more. Last week, DailyMail.com told how a bombshell Instagram post from Pax had resurfaced where he called Brad a 'f***ing awful human being' and added: 'You time and time and again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person. 'You have no consideration or empathy toward your four youngest children who tremble in fear when in your presence.'You will never understand the damage you have done to my family because you're incapable of doing so.' Friends of the former couple do not dispute that the teen made the comments, published on Pax's private Instagram account, but say that they were made over three years ago. Some claim that they shine a light on the poisonous things their children have been told. One said: 'The publication of the Instagram is sad and frustrating because it does not make things any better. 'Even when what is said is bad for him, Brad would only ever respect the kids voices. He will never ever speak negatively about any of them and will almost never talk about them in public. 'There is no question that he would hit back at them.' The friend added: 'There is a feeling among their friends that the post is a perfect example of parental alienation – I mean this is a textbook demonstration of parental alienation. 'Brad's team think she has been playing these games for years but they do not want to get drawn into battle with her. 'There have been years and years of her telling and retelling the same poisonous things about him and the reality is that she has alienated the kids, and the reality is that it is upsetting to Brad. 'He cares about all of them. It is devastating.' A source from Angelina's side familiar with the matter said: 'Brad Pitt has nobody to blame but himself. All Angelina wants is to heal their family and move on, but he won't let her go.' Brad's friend added that custody of the six children now only involves the three youngest – Shiloh, who is 17 plus Knox and Vivienne, 15.These children are subject to a joint custody agreement which gives more time with Angelina than Brad.It has been reported that Brad has time with them at weekends and for extended periods during school holidays. Angelina has complained that she would like to relocate but that the family has to stay in America as its where Brad chooses to live.
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source : Daily mail
Angelina Jolie says it was an 'honor' to interview imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi: 'A brave Iranian prisoner of conscience'
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- Published on Monday, 27 November 2023 07:37
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie highlighted her interview with Narges Mohammadi for Time by sharing a post on her Instagram account on Thursday. The 48-year-old actress shared a photo of the 51-year-old activist, and she also included a quote from the sit-down with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The performer, whose adopted son Pax is currently embroiled in a feud with his father Brad Pitt, also penned a short message to express her excitement about being able to spread awareness about the Iranian national's work. Jolie wrote: 'It was an honor to interview Narges Mohammadi, a brave Iranian prisoner of conscience. Please read her words to learn more of the courage and spirit of Iranian women and the moral power of peaceful resistance.' Mohammadi is currently imprisoned in Tehran's Evin Prison, where she has been incarcerated since 2021. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been arrested twice before on various charges related to her work as an activist. According to Time, the Iranian national has suffered from both mistreatment and beatings while in prison, and she recently embarked on a hunger strike. The media outlet also reported that she has been barred from communicating with her children. Jolie briefly touched on motherhood during her interview with Mohammadi, and stated that she would not be able to stand being unable to see her kids. 'I imagine myself in your situation—and hope that I would have half of your courage if I did—and cannot imagine how I would bear being separated from my children, and how much I would worry about them, probably more than I worried for myself,' she said. The activist then spoke about being arrested in front of her children and was remarkably open about the effects of being kept away from her family. 'I think my detentions in front of my children, enduring solitary confinement, not seeing their faces and not hearing their voices, was unbearable beyond any word, logic or belief,' she said. Jolie later brought up the topic of meeting women in refugee camps and spoke about their resilience in the face of adversity.'I am amazed usually by their fearlessness and the way they manage to even laugh, and express themselves, and to not get crushed by their experiences,' she said. Mohammadi responded by giving the actress a glimpse into the life of women incarcerated in Evin Prison. 'We gather to celebrate the birthdays of our fellow inmates, even the birthdays of their children. The sound of our singing and joy reaches the male wards, and male wardens complain about what happens in the women's ward,' she stated. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate added: 'This is the sound of our vibrant life.'
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source : Daily mail
Inside the toxic Brangelina family feud: Brad Pitt's pals reveal his devastation at being estranged from his adopted children and blame Angelina Jolie for carrying out 'textbook parental alienation' after son called actor 'a f***ing awful human'
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- Published on Thursday, 23 November 2023 14:28
- Written by Daily mail
Friends of Brad Pitt have spoken of his devastation over his estrangement from his three adopted children – and blame his former wife Angelina Jolie who they claim has carried out 'textbook parental alienation.' Maddox, 22, Pax, 19, and Zahara, 18 are all believed to be estranged from their adoptive father – with only his three biological children Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15, still seeing him as per a custody agreement. At the weekend Zahara attended a sorority induction event at Spelman College in Atlanta and gave her name as Zahara Jolie rather than Zahara Jolie-Pitt which is her legal name.Both Maddox and Pax are said to also have dropped the Pitt name in informal contexts 'years ago.' Maddox, who has graduated from college in South Korea, is said to have not spoken to Pitt since the incident on a private plane in 2016 which ended the Jolie-Pitt marriage and is apparently openly hostile, saying that he 'doesn't regard Brad as his father' any more. On Tuesday, DailyMail.com told how a bombshell Instagram post from Pax had resurfaced where he called Pitt a 'f***ing awful human being' and added: 'You time and time and again prove yourself to be a terrible and despicable person. 'You have no consideration or empathy toward your four youngest children who tremble in fear when in your presence.'You will never understand the damage you have done to my family because you're incapable of doing so.' Friends of the former couple do not dispute that the teen made the comments, published on Pax's private Instagram account, but say that they were made over three years ago. Some claim that they shine a light on the poisonous things their children have been told. One said: 'The publication of the Instagram is sad and frustrating because it does not make things any better. 'Even when what is said is bad for him, Brad would only ever respect the kids voices. He will never ever speak negatively about any of them and will almost never talk about them in public. 'There is no question that he would hit back at them.' The friend added: 'There is a feeling among their friends that the post is a perfect example of parental alienation – I mean this is a textbook demonstration of parental alienation.'Brad's team think she has been playing these games for years but they do not want to get drawn into battle with her. 'There have been years and years of her telling and retelling the same poisonous things about him and the reality is that she has alienated the kids, and the reality is that it is upsetting to Brad. 'He cares about all of them. It is devastating.'
A source from Jolie's side familiar with the matter said: 'Brad Pitt has nobody to blame but himself. All Angelina wants is to heal their family and move on, but he won't let her go.' Pitt's friend added that custody of the six children now only involves the three youngest – Shiloh, who is 17 plus Knox and Vivienne, 15. These children are subject to a joint custody agreement which gives more time with Jolie than Pitt.It has been reported that Pitt has time with them at weekends and for extended periods during school holidays. Jolie has complained that she would like to relocate but that the family has to stay in America as its where Pitt chooses to live.He's said to be on close terms with Shiloh, who is keen on dancing, and she has made some attempts to act the peacemaker between Pitt and her older siblings. In interviews last year while promoting the film Bullet Train he mused about his 'beautiful' girl who had grown up and talked about how talented she is at dance unlike 'Mr Two Left Feet here.' He also spoke of his admiration and love for Zahara and pride in her academic achievements. Friends of Jolie said that the family had been taken slightly by surprise by Zahara's move at the weekend, but pointed out that she and her mother are extremely close. One said: 'It was a very significant day for her and she let them know that that was what she wanted to do.' Zahara has been advising Angelina on her clothing range for the about-to-launch fashion venture, Atelier Jolie. She also came with her on a lobbying visit to Washington last year and was present at meetings with lawmakers where Jolie suggested various judicial reforms. Pax meanwhile is also involved in Atelier Jolie and has sketched the design for its logo. He and older brother Maddox have also been working with Jolie on the film Without Blood which she directed earlier this year in Europe. Both were handed jobs as assistant directors, according to People magazine although they are not credited on IMDB. Jolie commented: 'We work well together. When a film crew is at its best, it feels like a big family, so it feels natural.' A friend of Pitt's said: 'As far as custody goes the legal team continue to be patient it is just frustrating because people keep on focusing on wrong things. In terms of custody nothing has changed.' The pal added of Pitt, who has been dating jeweller Ines de Ramon for a year: 'He is doing great on many levels. People seem to be excited about the Formula One film and that is back in production. His film company Plan B is doing great. There are many things in his life which are good. Obviously they are not all good because of the family stuff. It is obviously very upsetting. He really cares about the kids.'
The romance with Jolie always involved his potential role as the stepfather and father to her children. When they first met on the set of the film Mr and Mrs Brad Pitt, (and he was still married to Jennifer Aniston), he was introduced to Angelina Jolie's toddler son Maddox. At the time sources on the film said that Jolie would show up at Pitt's trailer and tell him: 'Maddox would like to say 'Hi.' Pitt, then 42, was enchanted – by the boy and his mother. Angelina Jolie had started her family in 2002. Having filmed Tomb Raider in Cambodia she decided that she wanted to adopt an orphaned Cambodian baby although her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton was already rocky. She later said: 'Our marriage was falling apart before I adopted and by the time Maddox came home, Billy and I were apart.' As the scandal over Brad's marriage break-up raged in 2004, she was spotted playing with Maddox in Central Park, looking the picture of loving motherhood.Adoption was the path chosen by Jolie. 'Having a child of my own would make me feel that there was a child out there who did not have a home because I had chosen to have a baby,' she told an interviewer in 2005. In that year she adopted Zahara, a baby from Ethiopia – aided by Brad Pitt. The last adoption came in 2007 when Pax, aged three joined the family. Pitt legally adopted all three. By the time Jolie was a mother, her own mother Marcheline Bertrand was engaged in a long and devastating battle with breast cancer. She died in 2007, aged 56, after being diagnosed in 1999. She was close to her mother but never to her father, who had left when she and brother James were young and had been unfaithful, leaving emotional scars on all of them. Voight, around the time she adopted Pax, begged her to seek help for the 'serious symptoms of real problems' he thought she showed. He added, bluntly: 'She has never been normal. She and Brad built perhaps the ultimate dysfunctional household for their six children. Both of them worked periodically, and the whole family spent years criss-crossing the globe. They settled at one time in New Orleans, and in France, and called a myriad of hotels a temporary home. Brad struggled with the relationship and the spotlight; he would drink heavily and said more than once that he would wake up still drunk from the previous night. His friend Quentin Tarantino alluded to his pot-smoking habit, which Jolie disapproved of. (He gave up alcohol in the wake of his split from Jolie).
One hotel employee, Anna Kowalski, alleged that Angelina and Brad habitually slept in separate rooms as long ago as 2010 and had little to do with each other, with Angelina sitting alone drinking wine in the bedroom of the suite, and Brad sitting in another room with a beer.As the kids grew older, Jolie found a passion for charitable missions, and would bring them along. Zahara and Shiloh were taken to Ethiopia to scout locations for a medical centre, Maddox went to Iraq as a birthday treat. At home there were no rules, except that the children weren't encouraged to make any friends outside of the family circle – and the kids ruled the roost. For instance, from an early age, adopted son Maddox had an interest in guns and knives, and was reportedly bought a knife from a martial arts shop by his mother for his seventh birthday. Soon afterwards he drew a picture of a machine gun on her mother's day card – and Pitt apparently had the image made into a gold trinket to hang on a chain. Angelina said in an interview: 'He's all into war and guns. So for Mother's Day he drew a machine-gun, and Brad had it made into a necklace, which is really sweet. It's really cute.' She added: 'My mum took me to buy my first daggers when I was 11 or 12, and I've already bought Maddox some.' For a time Maddox liked to speak French, even though the rest of the family, with the exception of his mother and brother Pax, struggled with the language. Shiloh for some time only answered to the name of John and dressed in boy's clothes, including neckties and fedora hats. The habit arose because of her passion for the Peter Pan movie. One former nanny, who quit in despair, reportedly said that the children insisted on breakfasting on items like pizza or chocolate, and enjoyed a diet of junk food, particularly Cheetos. It was suggested that the nannies varied in number between six and nine, each having one child as their key responsibility. When Shiloh was three and Zahara five both would carry comfort blankies, even on a trip to the grocery store. As the marriage entered its final year, her brother James moved in with Angelina and Brad, having been hired as the chief nanny. He was her great support - who can forget their unsettling kiss on the Oscars red carpet in 2000 – and it is indicated that having James around stoked the tensions which ended the marriage.
I was even told by one source that relations were so sour between the two men of the house that Brad used to make James fly economy when the rest of the family were in first class. Some magazines suggested that the younger children had fallen into the habit of calling James 'Dad' by the summer of 2016. And then came that shattering – and disputed – incident on a plane. In legal documents, Jolie said that Pitt hit and choked the children as well as attacking her, and punching the roof of the plane when drunk. At one point, it was claimed, he poured beer on his wife, while he also poured beer and red wine on the children. Pitt denies the claims. The allegations were investigated by the FBI at the time but no charges were brought Five days later, Jolie filed for divorce — just after the second anniversary of their wedding — requesting sole physical custody of the six children. A lawyer for Pitt said he had accepted responsibility for some things in his past but that he would not accept responsibility for things he did not do. Another source close to the actor dismissed Jolie's account as 'bulls***' and claimed her story was 'constantly evolving'. The source added: 'She continues to rehash, revise and reimagine her description of an event that happened six years ago by adding completely untrue information each time she fails to get what she wants.' Sources in the Pitt camp described the release of the information as a 'media stunt to inflict pain.' Since the split there has been years of court-appointed therapy for the children, who shuttle between their warring parents in their respective LA homes via chauffeur cars, accompanied by security. Angelina has primary custody, Pitt sees them for a certain number of hours on a school day, and every other day of weekends or holidays. Maddox, 15, at the time of the split, reportedly declined to see his father when a first meeting was brokered between Pitt and his children. 'He doesn't really see himself as Brad's son,' a source told US Weekly at the time. Another added more bluntly: 'He never wants to see Brad again.' As the divorce has dragged on, every issue involving the children has been a flashpoint. At one point in their judge issued a 'cellphone protocol' saying that Pitt needed to know the children's phone numbers so that he could speak to them or text them, without her intervening or supervising. Angelina was warned of serious consequences if she created a distance between him and the kids. There was also wrangling about the bona fides of experts and witnesses called during custody hearings. Its understood that Jolie wanted the children to testify about alleged domestic violence. The ruling did not go her way. Judge Oudekirk said her testimony: ' 'lacked credibility in many important areas, and the existing custody order between the parties must be modified, per Mr. Pitt's request, in the best interests of the children.' This was, though, overturned later as the judge had a business relationship with one of Pitt's attorneys which was found by the California appeal court in July 2021 to cast doubt on his impartiality. Pitt's lawyers decried the move as 'crafty.' There have been no further motions over custody since that point. The legal skirmishes now concern the sale of Jolie's share of the Miravel vineyard to the Stoli group. Last week, Pitt's lawyers were given the nod to proceed in a suit against Jolie for the sale. The war, then, continues.
source : Daily mail
The brutal way Aristotle Onassis betrayed Maria Callas with Jackie Kennedy was the equal of any operatic tragedy. No wonder Angelina Jolie is obsessed with her story, writes DAISY GOODWIN
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- Published on Wednesday, 22 November 2023 09:13
- Written by Daily mail
When I first heard Maria Callas sing, I was only eight years old. My mother had bought an album of the soprano's most famous arias in the Oxfam shop and she put it on the record player, excited by her find. The first track was Casta Diva, from Norma, which I now know is about a priestess singing to the goddess of the moon, but back then I just knew it was a magical piece of music that made everyone in the room — my restless mother, my ferocious stepfather, my annoying little brother — go quiet, as we all fell under Callas's spell. Her voice is one I would recognise anywhere; it has an urgency that defies you not to listen. There are opera singers with more beautiful voices, but Callas makes you believe in the music.The face on the album cover was as full of drama as the music. Large, dark eyes, a magnificent nose and a wide, generous mouth. It was not a pretty face, but in it you could see both sorrow and majesty. It was the face of a queen. Maria Callas stayed with me through my stormy adolescence. Her voice could always stir me from my juvenile self-pity. There was something in the way she sang that was fearless.Other girls found solace in Gloria Gaynor, but it was Maria Callas who made me feel I'd survive my dumpy teenage years, the taunts of the girls at school who knew my mother had left us to run off with her lover, and the stepmother who slapped me for insolence. With Divinites du Styx (one of Maria's punchiest arias from the French opera Alceste) as my theme song, I knew I could be the heroine of my own story. As I grew up, I learnt about Maria's extraordinary life. It was as dramatic as any of the roles she played on stage. I am fascinated by how strong women deal with their destiny — I have spent the past few years bringing the life of Queen Victoria to the screen in the ITV series Victoria — and I am not alone in being intrigued by Callas. Angelina Jolie is to play her in a new movie, Maria, currently shooting in Athens and Paris. Jolie has said, 'I will give all I can to meet the challenge' of documenting Callas's final days in Paris in the 1970s, before her death of a heart attack at the age of 53, and already shots of her looking utterly fabulous — in some of Maria's own clothes — have made it one of the most anticipated films of 2024.Meanwhile, marking the centenary of the Greek soprano's birth, the artist Marina Abramovic is currently on a world tour with her operatic tribute, The Seven Deaths Of Maria Callas, which is a sell-out wherever it plays.As for me, I could never quite reconcile the voice I knew with Callas's story, so I decided to write a novel, Diva, about the woman behind the legend, which will be published in Britain next year. No one under the age of 60 has heard Callas sing live, yet she remains Warner Classics' best-selling artist: I was clearly not the only one who caught the Callas bug when young. Even people who know nothing about opera will know something of her story.
She was born Maria Cecilia Sophia Anna Kalogeropoulos in New York, the youngest child of Greek immigrants. Her mother, Litsa, always preferred her elder daughter — the blonde, petite Jackie — to the ungainly, shortsighted, brunette Maria. But when she realised Maria had the potential for greatness, she became the ultimate stage mother. In 1937, she took her daughter, then 14, back to Athens to study music, leaving her husband in New York. It was a strange decision, given New York was not exactly a musical desert, but Litsa hadn't learnt to speak English and she knew that if Maria studied in the U.S. she'd lose control of her career.It was unfortunate timing. During World War II, Greece was invaded first by the Italians, then the Germans. Maria would recount how the family hid a British airman during the occupation. A neighbour betrayed them, and a troop of Italian soldiers came to search their flat. Maria sat at the piano and started to sing Vissi D'arte from Tosca, and the opera-loving Italians were entranced. The airman escaped, so the story goes.Like many of the tales told by and about Maria, one has to remember that neither she, nor her friends, ever let facts stand in the way of a good yarn. But it is quite true Maria never forgave her mother for her domineering ways, later saying that having lived through the German occupation, she thought her mother was 'worse than the Nazis'. There is no shortage of first-hand accounts of Maria's life: her mother, sister, ex-husband and pianist all wrote books about her. One of the reasons I decided to write a novel rather than a biography was that I wanted to try to see the world through Maria's eyes. In the course of my research, I went to the places that resonated in her story — including Maxim's, the restaurant in Paris where she and the love of her life, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, dined; and La Scala in Milan, where she had her operatic triumphs. (I was lucky enough to see the fabulous headdress she wore in Turandot.) I went to the ancient Greek amphitheatre at Epidaurus where she gave a seminal performance of Norma. I discovered she and Marilyn Monroe were on the same bill at the infamous concert for President J.F. Kennedy's 45th birthday, and I imagined what their meeting might have been like. In the early years of her career, Callas was famous for her extraordinary voice but, overweight and badly dressed, she was not yet an icon. It was only after she was cast as Violetta, the consumptive heroine of La Traviata, that she decided to change the way she looked.After seeing Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, she'd found her role model... and lost 60lb on a diet of steak tartare and salad.
All kinds of rumours have circulated about her dramatic weight loss, including plastic surgery and iodine injections, the wildest being that she had swallowed a tapeworm, but I like to think Maria was simply a woman with iron self-discipline who was prepared to starve herself to look the part. Callas was media-savvy enough to understand she had to look the part off-stage, too, and she put herself in the hands of Italian designer Madame Biki, who created the Callas 'look': the hair in a tight chignon, the hard-won waist displayed in elegant, fitted suits and frocks. Even off-duty, Maria took every aspect of her performance seriously. By the late 1950s, Callas was not just the most famous opera singer in the world, she was also one of the most famous women. She was on the cover of Time magazine and her every appearance created the kind of frenzy reserved these days for the likes of Taylor Swift. One of the reasons I admire her so much is that she was never cowed by the men who ran the opera world. She knew her worth, and demanded and got huge fees, shocking the classical world by asking to be paid the same as world-famous conductor Herbert von Karajan. But her confidence in her abilities did not endear her to her contemporaries, who began to leak stories that she was difficult and capricious. I think she was simply a perfectionist, a quality that would be admired in a man. When Callas pulled out halfway through a performance of Norma in Rome because there was a problem with her voice, a mob gathered outside the opera house, calling her a witch.It was at this point, when she was both the most loved and the most hated singer in the world, that she met the man newspapers called the Golden Greek, the multi-millionaire Onassis. He invited Maria and her much older husband and manager, Giovanni Battista Meneghini (a man who wore a hairnet in bed), to spend three weeks cruising the Mediterranean on his yacht. Other passengers included Onassis's wife, Tina, and Winston and Clementine Churchill. By the end of the cruise Onassis, 53, and Maria, 35, were lovers. In my novel, it's clear that Maria falls for Ari because he is the first man she believes is interested in Maria the woman, not Callas the great singer.
In fact, Onassis didn't like opera much, but he appreciated Maria's celebrity, and they had much in common: they were both Greek and both self-made. They understood each other in a world where everyone around them had been born privileged and wealthy. And they certainly had a physical connection. Although Maria had spent her life singing about passion, I don't think she experienced it until she met Onassis. She didn't love Ari for his money; she was scrupulous about paying her way, even buying her own tickets on Olympic Airways which Onassis owned. There is some evidence she had a child by Onassis early in their relationship that was still-born. I don't think Maria had been interested in having children before, as her career was all important, but to have a child with him would have bound them together for ever. Her voice was beginning to fail and she hoped that her relationship with him would sustain her in a life without applause.But to Maria's dismay, Onassis never proposed. She knew he had been unfaithful to her with Lee Radziwill, the socialite sister of former First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and when she found out about the affair, Maria took an overdose. (I suspect that it was more of a cry for help than a serious attempt to end her life.) What she didn't know was that after JFK's assassination in 1963, Onassis began his pursuit of the ultimate prize: Jackie herself. Maria discovered Jackie and Onassis were to marry only three weeks before the ceremony was due to take place on the Greek tycoon's private island of Skorpios in October 1968. It was a betrayal to equal anything in an opera. On the night of the wedding, instead of taking pills or retreating to her bed, Maria gave the performance of her life. She went to the theatre in Paris with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and then to Maxim's, and had a very public dinner at the table where she usually sat with Ari, smiling gaily throughout. The photographs of a radiant Maria ran alongside the picture of Jackie marrying Onassis on front pages around the world. Maria would not give the Press and the public the satisfaction of knowing that Onassis had broken her heart. But he soon realised that marrying Jackie had been a terrible mistake.
She had married him for his money and the security he could offer her and her children. He had thought marrying the most famous woman in the world would give him an unbeatable advantage in the world of business. But both of them were miserable, and within weeks Onassis was trying to see Maria again. And though she still loved him, she could not forgive him for having humiliated her so much.One of the many myths surrounding Callas is that her death in 1977 at the age of 53 — four years after Onassis died — was from a broken heart. But I think the real tragedy of Maria's life wasn't her unhappy love affair with Onassis, but the premature decline of her voice. Like ballerinas and footballers, opera singers know they have only a finite number of performances in them. Today, young singers are careful to pace themselves so that they can go on singing until they are into their 50s. But Callas was so talented that she could sing everything, and conductors and directors never stopped to think what the effect of those constant performances would have on her voice and the longevity of her career. There was one season in Venice, when Callas sang Bellini and Wagner in the same week, which in athletic terms would be like competing in a marathon and a 100-yard sprint on successive days. The result was that her voice began to falter in her mid-30s, right at the peak of her career. For a perfectionist such as Callas, this was a disaster. She wasn't happy unless every note she sang was flawless. Her voice was her superpower, and when it was gone, I think she struggled to find meaning. The irony was that it wasn't just the voice that made Callas the greatest opera singer of her time, perhaps for all time, but the quality of her acting.Unlike the statuesque divas of the past who would simply 'park and bark', Maria gave a great dramatic as well as musical performance. Even when she wasn't singing, it was impossible to take your eyes off her. Her immersion in the role was total. I don't know how Angelina Jolie will play her — and already there is criticism that the film's creators have given Callas's friends and family the cold shoulder. But after three years immersed in her extraordinary life, I think Callas should be remembered not as a tragic heroine, but as a musical genius whose great gift meant that she had to live her life under the most intense public scrutiny. The idea that someone of her indomitable spirit would fade away because she had been betrayed by a man works as the plot of an opera, but it does not do justice to the real Maria Callas — the musical genius who has left a legacy that still speaks to audiences all over the world, 100 years after her birth. Powerful and vulnerable, perfectionist and passionate, Maria Callas, for all the tragedy in her life, knew her worth. Perhaps that is why women, including me, are still entranced by her. Diva by Daisy Goodwin will be published by Head of Zeus on March 14, 2024. You can pre-order a copy.
source : Daily mail
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