The last time I spoke with Angelina Jolie, she spent half our time talking about her husband, Billy Bob Thornton, and her father, Jon Voight. Soon after she went to Cambodia, where she found the new man in her life, a baby boy she adopted and named Maddox. The baby wasn’t part of Billy Bob’s plan for the two of them, and that very public marriage soon dissolved. Jolie’s relationship with her father also went publicly south before long. When she set off to make Laura Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, her father announced that he thought his […]

In a year marked by a triumphant Oscar win and a sudden marriage, the actress seems to have undergone a startling transformation.  She comes around the corner from the bank of elevators in the discreet London hotel where she’s been living for four months, and steps tentatively into the narrow lounge – which is almost empty. A young, handsome hotel employee points her in your direction, and she takes a few more steps into the room, her head tilted to the side, curiosity growing soft in her eyes.  She sits down beside you and expresses some regret that you’ve got […]

“I am so sorry I’m late.” I’ve only been at Johnie’s – a L.A. diner so low-rent they don’t even include the second n in the name – for about 10 minutes. This is where I’m to meet Jolie, the 24-year-old actress whose considerable talent is frequently overshadowed by both her beauty and her eccentricities. I turn around to tell her not to worry about being late, and for a long couple of seconds, nothing comes out of my mouth; now I know what they mean by stunned silence. I was not prepared for this woman. Angelina, The Actress Acting […]

Angelina Jolie used to play the hard girl. This fall, she goes vulnerable and ladylike – and twice as tough. Angelina Jolie does not like to be touched. “I like to be felt or invaded or confronted,” she says, “but I don’t like to be touched.” Jolie is adamant on this point, and as she speaks her blue-green eyes blaze with intensity. It’s very simple, she says: “I don’t like to talk about nothing, and I don’t like to just kind of be touched.” She smiles, though, widely, and has a firm handshake. Occasionally she hugs – with intent and […]

Angelina Jolie is in the front room of her apartment in New York, giving what has become the obligatory tour of her tattoos. “OK,” she says, standing up and showing her left arm. “That’s my dragon, upper left.” She presents the inside of her wrist: “That’s an H — there are two people in my life who have this letter who I’m very close to and who I sort of love and cherish. And this is the newest one. I got this with my mom, actually — she came with me. It’s a Tennessee Williams quote: ‘A prayer for the […]

Angelina Jolie gazes out into the Royalton lounge. The six-day shoots for The Bone Collector have her shuttling from New York to Montreal on the Canuck red-eye. She looks sad. Someone with as fully realized a presence as Angelina should not be unhappy. “Listen,” I offer, “you wanna do something really cool?” “Sure,” she smiles. “Hey, you ask me some good questions, I’ll answer them.” “What’re good questions? There are no good questions.” “New questions.” “Nah, there are no new questions. What? Did you love your director? What was your motivation? What brought you to this role? That’s dreck – […]