The star repeatedly tried buying the complete works of Hungarian cult director Bela Tarr from a small DVD store in Budapest as a Christmas present for Angelina Jolie, but whenever he called the place, they thought it was a joke and hung up on him. “He tried several times on the phone but had to give up. They just didn’t believe him,” an aide to Pitt tells Britain’s Daily Mail. Finally, he got a friend in the city, opera singer Laszlo Domahidy, to buy the collection for him.
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In the new issue of Rolling Stone (out Friday), Brad Pitt comes to Angelina Jolie’s defense over a recent New York Times article that says she is a master at controlling the press.
“It sounded to me like the story made Angie out to be manipulative in some way,” he says. “She is savvy.”
He continues, “I get defensive. [They're] talking about not only the woman I love, but one of the people on this planet who I have the greatest respect for. I think she’s as honorable as anyone I’ve ever met.”
He adds that Jolie got him into flying.
“She’s definitely more experienced,” he says. “Yeah, she’s badass.”
As for his favorite Jolie film?
Their 2005 action flick Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Why?
“Because you know … six kids,” he says. “Because I fell in love.”
Meanwhile, he says his new fantasy drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button got him thinking about his own mortality.
“Angie and I do not fight anymore,” he says. “What occurred to me on this film, and also with the passing of her mother [actress Marcheline Bertrand in 2007], is that there’s going to come a time when I’m not going to get to be with this person anymore. I’m not going to get to be with my children anymore. Or friends, people I love and respect. And so, if we have a flare-up, it evaporates now.”
Adds Pitt, 44, “I don’t want to waste time being angry at someone I love.”
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were accompanied by two special guests at Monday’s Los Angeles premiere of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Pitt’s mom and dad!
Jane Etta Hillhouse and William Pitt walked the carpet with the couple. Pitt’s father was photographed with his arms around the actress.
As for the clan’s holiday plans?
“We’re feeling our way through it,” Pitt told Entertainment Tonight.
“I’m very, very proud,” Jolie told ET. “Mainly, I have seen everyday he went to work just how hard he worked, how hard the director worked, and Cate [Blanchett] — and just how dedicated they were. It’s been a big process; it’s a very trying film. So, I am just so happy that it came out so beautifully and their work is going to be recognized.”
Jolie then asked Pitt’s mother what she though of the film.
“I cried, it’s so beautiful,” she said. “It’s so touching. It’s lovely; it’s just a wonderful picture.”
Pitt went on to say he is proud of Button (out Dec. 25) because it’s “in the vein of the classics.
“And a kind of classic epic, dealing with life and love, and all that fantastic stuff, so yeah that’s the idea,” he added.
He told ET that director David Fincher took the film to a whole new level.
“You can feel a film when something’s happening off the page,” Pitt said. “And yeah certainly felt it on this one. Fincher’s done an extraordinary, extraordinary job here. I find it quite special.”
Pitt and Jolie weren’t the only A-Listers at Monday’s premiere: Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone and Eva Longoria Parker also turned out to watch the film, which follows the life of a man (Pitt) who is born old and ages backwards as he advances in years.
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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
Brad Pitt on family: ‘I feel rich’
Dec. 2: TODAY’s Ann Curry sits down with Brad Pitt to talk about his family life in New Orleans in this TODAY exclusive.
It was a bittersweet moment for Brad Pitt, walking through the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood where families were preparing to spend their first holidays since Hurricane Katrina.
Those families are moving into the first six houses built through Pitt’s Make It Right foundation. One home was already strewn with green garland, lights, wreaths and red bows.
Still, Pitt is restless.
“I’m really happy for the families that are going to be here, but I can’t help but think about the families that aren’t,” Pitt said Monday. “It’s a push-pull for me. The excitement is that it’s being proven, that it’s working. The frustration is that we have a long way to go.”
Make It Right was launched by Pitt a year ago. The program calls for construction of 150 energy-efficient homes in a section of New Orleans washed away when Katrina broke levees Aug. 29, 2005.
So far, six homes have been built. Two more are under way, and construction on another 14 begins in early 2009. Pitt smiles, gets a little giddy even, when talking about where the project will be in another year.
“You’re going to see 100 homes here, mark my words,” he said. “It’s nice to see a few, but I’m anxious to see 100, 150, 1,000.”
Pitt said that by December 2009, the Lower 9th Ward should be one of the nation’s largest “green” neighborhoods.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “This place that suffered such injustice and so much death can become one of the primary examples of a high-performance neighborhood. It really is amazing.”
Inez Converse, 71, isn’t concerned about her area setting any records. She’s just happy to be back in the neighborhood she lived in for more than 35 years before Katrina. And she said she was glad she had the chance to thank Pitt personally.
“He didn’t have to do this,” she said. “I’m just grateful he is doing it.”
Monday was a busy day for Pitt and partner Angelina Jolie, who appeared at a screening of Pitt’s new film “The Curious case of Benjamin Button.” The couple – Pitt in a suit and tie and Jolie in a form-fitting cream L’Wren Scott dress – was the highlight of the red-carpet event.
The film, which also stars Cate Blanchett, opens Dec. 25. But because it was filmed in New Orleans in 2006 and 2007, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. held a special screening here.
“It’s a gorgeous, gorgeous film,” said Pitt, who in the movie plays a man who begins life as elderly and grows younger with time. “It’s a film that makes you want to hug your kids and call your folks.”
Pitt also described the movie as “a love letter to New Orleans.”
“There’s a sense of magic here, so it made this fantastic story almost believable,” he said.
Pitt said his fondness for the city led him and Jolie to buy an early-1830s masonry mansion in the French Quarter. Pitt said the home was recently renovated to accommodate the needs of the couple and their six children. He quashed recent rumors that the couple had sold their home.
While the homes built by Pitt’s project are more contemporary than the Creole cottages and shotgun-style homes typical of New Orleans, they incorporate some elements used in the area for generations, such as high ceilings and shaded porches.
The homes also have solar panels and other features that help cut energy bills by at least 75 percent, Pitt said. Other architectural elements address challenges of the area, including ventilation and mold- and termite-resistant materials.
“The misunderstanding of architecture is that it’s all about aesthetics,” Pitt said. “It’s not. First and foremost, it’s about function.”
The homes, costing $150,000 on average, are for property owners who can pay insurance and taxes. Monthly payments are based on applicants’ income and subsidized by Pitt’s foundation.
Pitt said his motivation to see this project through stems from a lot of things, among them his “love for architecture, a love for technology, a love for fairness and justice.” But it also stems from his love “for all things New Orleans.”
“There’s just something about this place,” he said.
Don’t expect Angelina Jolie to whip up a fancy dinner for her six kids and beau Brad Pitt.
In the new issue of chef Jamie Oliver’s eponymous magazine, Pitt, 44, admits the best meal Jolie has ever cooked for him was “cereals,” according to the U.K. Guardian.
The entire Q&A will appear in the famous cook’s first issue, which hits WH Smith stores on Thursday.
Pitt and Oliver have been pals for a long time. The actor flew Oliver (and his wife, Jools) to his and Jennifer Aniston’s L.A. home to cook for his 40th birthday in 2004.
The Jolie-Pitts had a low-key Thanksgiving weekend in New Orleans. Pitt was spotted riding his motorcycle around town, while Jolie took their 7-year-old son, Maddox, shopping.
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BRAD Pitt and Angelina Jolie are just as annoyingly amazing in real life as they al ways say they are. Pitt caught some flak after going on “Oprah” and claiming to be very hands on with his children. But a source at the Ocean Club in the Bahamas, who saw the Brangelina clan on vacation recently, told Page Six, “They were so adorable with their kids.” The hotel guest added, “Brad and An gelina spent a lot of time in their private villa but would take the four kids out of the room to play.” Our spy didn’t see them with their new twins, “but they spent lots of time with the older kids doing arts-and- crafts proj ects and playing on the play ground. It was a great picture.”
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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
