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 
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
Angelina Jolie oozes 1950s glamour in a headscarf and shades as she films scenes as iconic opera singer Maria Callas arriving at her married lover's luxury yacht - who was the second husband of Jackie Kennedy
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- Published on Sunday, 22 October 2023 08:48
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie looked every inch the 1950s A-lister as she filmed scenes for her upcoming biopic Maria, based on the iconic opera singer Maria Callas.The Hollywood star, 48, and the crew were shooting in Katakolo, Greece, after they were previously spotted filming in Athens last week.The actress was joined by her on-screen lover and co-star Haluk Bilginer, who plays Aristotle Onassis, as they made their way to his famous yacht, Christina O.Onanssis was Maria's married boyfriend, who designed the boat with his wife, Jackie Kennedy Onassis.The shipbroker was the second husband of Jackie Kennedy, who was previously married to the American President John F. Kennedy until his assassination in 1963.Angelina's character oozed elegance in a white headscarf, which she wore with a pair of retro sunglasses and white gloves. Angelina, who was wearing a black and white striped shirt with a white skirt, could be seen chatting to members of the crew aboard the vintage vessel. The tender was pictured making its way across the water to Christina O, before mooring alongside it as they continued to film.The yacht, which belonged to billionaire Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis, is now available to charter.According to reports, the yacht is the 59th largest yacht in the world as of 2022.Onassis purchased the yacht after the end of World War II as naval surplus, at a scrap value of $34,000 before spending $4million to transforming.He renamed the boat after his daughter Christina and the yacht is said to have 'set new standards' for luxury vessels.The biopic Maria is a film, directed by Pablo Larraín, about the iconic opera singer Maria Callas which will follow her turbulent life and legacy.Angelina is lucky enough to wear some of Callas' real clothes in the film, including vintage fur items from Massimo Cantini Parrini’s archive collection.Maria, who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century, passed away in 1977. The artist was known for her incredible range on stage as well as her turbulent love life that included a romance with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who went on to wed Jackie Kennedy.'I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria's life and legacy,' Angelina said previously in a statement. 'I will give all I can to meet the challenge.'The Tomb Raider star also mentioned the film's director, Pablo, whom she said she 'long admired.'The mother of six added: 'To be allowed the chance to tell more of Maria's story with him, and with a script by Steven Knight, is a dream.'Angelina has played famous people before: In 1998 she starred as tragic supermodel Gia Carangi in Gia and in 2007 she starred as Mariana Pearl in the film A Mighty Heart.The director, who is best known for the bio pictures Jackie (about Jackie Kennedy, played by Natalie Portman) and Spencer (about Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart), said: 'Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream,' Larraín said.'To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift.'
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source : Daily mail
Angelina Jolie enlists son Maddox, 22, to carry her handbag as he guides her off swanky yacht while shooting Maria Callas biopic in Athens
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- Published on Sunday, 22 October 2023 08:49
- Written by Daily mail
She has been transforming into opera singer Maria Callas for the iconic songstress' biopic Maria. And Angelina Jolie, 48, was seen departing a night shoot for the movie on Aristotle Onassis' yacht in Athens on Sunday, with her son Maddox, 22, in tow. Her 19-year-old son Pax was also seen on the set just days before. In diva style, she enlisted her son, who she adopted in 2002 when he was seven months old, to carry her Celine handbag while she wrapped up in a padded jacket. The following morning, Angelina touched down to shooting on the yacht alone, where she warmly greeted cast and crew on the vessel. The biopic Maria is a film, directed by Pablo Larraín, about the iconic opera singer Maria Callas which will follow her turbulent life and legacy.Angelina will be wearing an array of Callas' real clothes in the film, including vintage fur items from Massimo Cantini Parrini’s archive collection. The previous evening, when heading home from the shoot, Angelina looked to still be in full costume from the set as she stepped off the vessel while her son was holding a Gucci satchel and wearing a baggy T-shirt. Maddox is often seen with his other at official engagements and on-set, having studied biochemistry at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, before returning home during the pandemic to complete the course remotely. On Monday, Angelina went low-key in a loose-fitting black jumper with a large handbag and oversized sunglasses as she greeted the crew. Maria, who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century, passed away in 1977. The artist was known for her incredible range on stage as well as her turbulent love life that included a romance with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who went on to wed Jackie Kennedy. 'I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria's life and legacy,' Angelina said previously in a statement. 'I will give all I can to meet the challenge.' The Tomb Raider star also mentioned the film's director, Pablo, whom she said she 'long admired.' The mother of six added: 'To be allowed the chance to tell more of Maria's story with him, and with a script by Steven Knight, is a dream.' In one sneak preview of Angelina as Maria, the actress goes make-up free and wears thick brown rimmed eyeglasses and a chunky knit as filming gets under way. In another photo, the Mr And Mrs Smith star looks much more glamorous with winged eyeliner and a plush fur trimmed coat. Jolie has played famous people before: In 1998 she starred as tragic supermodel Gia Carangi in Gia and in 2007 she starred as Mariana Pearl in the film A Mighty Heart. The director, who is best known for the bio pictures Jackie (about Jackie Kennedy, played by Natalie Portman) and Spencer (about Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart), said: 'Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream... 'To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift.'
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source : Daily mail
Angelina Jolie transforms into the iconic opera singer Maria Callas on set of new biopic Maria film in Greece
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- Published on Tuesday, 17 October 2023 06:06
- Written by Daily mail
Angelina Jolie looked worlds away from her usual self as she got stuck into character on set of new biopic Maria film in Greece on Saturday. The actress, 48, transformed into the iconic opera singer Maria Callas while filming scenes for the upcoming movie in Athens. Angelina oozed glamor as she styled her black tresses into Maria's renowned 50s hairdo with elegant jewellery.On set of the upcoming biopic, Angelina could be seen arriving on a boat while wearing a glamorous blue satin robe, holding a designer handbag. The Hollywood scarlet looked happy and relaxed as she chatted to crew members between takes. Te biopic Maria is a film, directed by Pablo Larraín, about the iconic opera singer Maria Callas which will follow her turbulent life and legacy. Angelina is lucky enough to wear some of Callas' real clothes in the film, including vintage fur items from Massimo Cantini Parrini’s archive collection. Maria, who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century, passed away in 1977. The artist was known for her incredible range on stage as well as her turbulent love life that included a romance with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who went on to wed Jackie Kennedy. 'I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria's life and legacy,' Angelina said previously in a statement. 'I will give all I can to meet the challenge.' The Tomb Raider star also mentioned the film's director, Pablo, whom she said she 'long admired.' The mother of six added: 'To be allowed the chance to tell more of Maria's story with him, and with a script by Steven Knight, is a dream'. olie has played famous people before: In 1998 she starred as tragic supermodel Gia Carangi in Gia and in 2007 she starred as Mariana Pearl in the film A Mighty Heart. The director, who is best known for the bio pictures Jackie (about Jackie Kennedy, played by Natalie Portman) and Spencer (about Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart), said: 'Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream,' Larraín said. 'To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift'.
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source : Daily mail
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