The news wires are all abuzz with desi-related gossip about the couple we love to hate, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Pitt and Jolie, along with their three children, are in India to shoot scenes for the upcoming movie A Mighty Heart, in which Jolie stars as slain journalist Daniel Pearl’s widow, Mariane. Pitt’s Plan B production company is coproducing the film…Relentless paparazzi coverage of the Jolie-Pitt clan’s visit has led the couple to remain holed up in Pune’s Le Meridan Hotel almost nonstop since they arrived by private jet late last week. [link]
Brangelina starring in The Great Rickshaw Escape
Brangelina in India has created all the frenzy that the Hindustan Times Page Six thrives on. First, we had Angelina Jolie wishing she were filming in Pakistan instead, where Daniel Pearl’s abduction had originally taken place.
Meanwhile, Jolie says she and Pitt are disappointed they are not shooting the film in Pakistan. Security concerns there caused officials to suggest they work elsewhere. So with the exception of a few background scenes shot in Pakistan, A Mighty Heart will be made in Pune.“I am disappointed that we could not shoot the film in Pakistan, a country that I love and have visited three times,” said Jolie in a statement issued on Saturday by Trevor Neilson, an adviser to the couple.
“They talked with people from all levels of the Pakistan Government and there’s certainly no hard feelings. But it became clear that it was preferable to film in India,” Neilson said. [link]
<
p>Now, we have Brangelina’s security with an (almost) killer choke hold…
A bodyguard for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie manhandled a British photographer as he tried to take their picture at a hotel in western India, an incident caught on video by an Indian television station. On Saturday afternoon, when Pitt and Jolie tried to leave the hotel, one of their security guards caught a British photographer trying to take their photo, grabbing the man by his neck and verbally abusing him. [link]
<
p>And the infamous rickshaw escape…
The couple were chased by photographers, cameramen and reporters, forcing them to turn back after a 20-minute ride that took them past stores in downtown Pune, in western India.[…] Several traffic signals slowed their short rickshaw ride. At every red light, security men traveling in a rickshaw behind jumped out and surrounded the three-wheeler to prevent the media from snapping pictures of Pitt and Jolie. [link]
Oh, Brangelina. Welcome to the motherland. I’m placing bets that the next baby in their internationally adopted clan is going to be desi. Any takers?
Update: You can watch The Attack of the Brangelina Security Guard here! (Thanks, Manish!).
a movie about daniel pearl huh? pitt and jolie aren’t what they seem to be. i hear they’re going to do a film version of atlas shrugged. really. maddox looks like jolie.
Angelina is an odd choice to play Marianne Pearl as she has no resemblance to her. I am looking forward to seeing Angelina in Sin City 2 though. I thought the first one was one of better films of 2005.
You know, the funny thing is that I saw the clip of the photographer being grabbed and I didn’t even realize that they were in India since both the photographer and the bodyguard were white.
I thought Indian adopt-ers now have to be of desi origin…will be interesting to see if laws are broken to accommodate Brangelina
Ok, humor me for a second folks. In the picture where they are in the rickshaw don’t Pitt and Jolie look like Harrison Ford and Kate Capshaw in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Really. The part of Short Round is being played by Maddox.
See here. Re-make!
i think pearl is better looking than jolie. i also thought malcolm x was better looking than denzel. am i the only one? but i digress.
You’re totally right, Abhi. Genius! Pure, evil genius!
Dharma Queen – haven’t you ever seen a photo of Angelina in a Salvar-Kameez? She can pass 🙂
angelina “gori gori“, brad bhayia chori chori
Don’t you listen to your uncles and aunties? Isn’t everything essentially originally Indian?
I thought Indian adopt-ers now have to be of desi origin…will be interesting to see if laws are broken to accommodate Brangelina
Not really. A lot of adopted children have non-Indian ethnicity parents – Sepia Mutiny has covered multiple times, or check out Delhi airport.
True, it is not easy for non-Indian ethnicity parents but they do consitute significant %.
[quote]Angelina is an odd choice to play Marianne Pearl as she has no resemblance to her.[/quote]
Who even knows what Marianne Pearl looks like?
Who even knows what Marianne Pearl looks like?
Rip Van Winkle Uncle,
Marianne Pearl became a very public figure, during DP’s abduction, and after his death.
No.
That workshop that Desidancer ran for adopted kids – weren’t some of their parents non-desi?
Angelina Jolie is not that odd of a choice to play Marianne Pearl. Although it’s tough to tell with all the flashbulbs that go off when she is around, Jolie has a tan complexion, thanks to her French Canadian mother. Pearl is a multiethnic mix, but she is part Cuban.
I think this desi adoption rule is quite recent, but have no facts…
Malcolm was ten times sexier than Denzel is. Malcolm had nerd chic going, man. He was intense.
Indy! Cover your heart! Cover your heart!
Angelina is a better choice to play Marianne Pearl than the original person slated to play her – Jennifer Aniston.
unless it was passed as law in the last month, I’ve heard nothing about it, and frankly doubt it’s true. do you have any links to substantiate this? I know that the indian government has asked for contracts/committments from non-desi parents adopting children from India, stating that the parents will give their child X number of cultural-based experiences per year. It’s not a bad thing, IMO. EIHC is one such option… But as to limiting adoption from India to Indians is news to me.
I think Dharma Queen is getting confused about the extra hoops, a non-Indian origin person has to go through for adoption. Excertps from US Department of State:
I can understand the safeguards.
All from Department of State
Will this bodyguard be prosecuted??? Its all on tape? Has Indian territory become Okinawa where phoren goons can manhandle and still go scot free?
well jolie and brad get some taste of india.they have to come from their security circle to feel real india.they will never forget it. and wish to come again.the culture diversity and uniqness they will not find anywhere.i hope they must also learn some lesson of loyalty to their partner too.
You cheat Docta Jones! Even my cousins in India have been sending me e-mail updates of Brangelina’s Indian exploits.
Celebrity gossip and Sepia Mutiny – two of my favorite things.
I think with her international work and experience she is grounded enough to be able to pull it off. Makeup and hair changes can do wonders. Also she has been doing research for this film a very long time and spent a lot of time with Marianne Pearl getting to know her.
I was very touched by his story and the book by Levy and am looking forward to the movie.
BTW I don’t condone violence but the paparazzi are out of control and sometimes I want to choke them for the sake of the celebrities. They are disrespectful and especially where vehicles and children are involved totally out of line and unsafe.
wtf! Why do you hope this? Why do you care if they are loyal to each other or not? What do you know about loyalty to spouses in India vs. US? Swallowed the party line, have we?
put me in the pool (if there isn’t one already) jolie being the UN ambassador has this calling out to her.. i want a united colors of bentetton family for the jolie-pitts…
I am not much into celebrity gossip, but I have to say that these two are a real cool couple.
On a second note, how could Brad Pitt not have fallen for Angelina Jolie? Not only is she beautiful and talented, but she is a UN ambassador to boot. Poor Jennifer.
i hope they must also learn some lesson of loyalty to their partner too.
LOL!
well jolie not only took anistons hubby away from her..but also took the prized role playing pearl’s wife
A couple of degrees of seperation: I’ve been following this story from a slightly different perspective – My cousins had just gotten out of the richshaw that picked them up from the basement entrance of the Meridien … and my aunt and uncle were in the rickshaw directly behind them, trying to figure out why they were being chased by the paparazzi! So in the end, both sets of people were really close … but didn’t see any of them
That’s a shoddy attempt at justifying the whole episode. PS: If she dumps him,I’d say it serves Brad-the-Pitts just right.
*Attempt to justify Better?
Oops, I typed too fast. I meant “separation”
DD – it’s hearsay, a couple I know who can’t have kids went to an adoption agency and were told they had to be of Indian origin – they’re now trying to adopt a Chinese baby. I suspect I got the shortened version of the whole story, which was probably a summary of those guidelines Kush referenced.
And Vince Vaughn is way hotter than Brad Pitt.
Adopting a desi kid is to obvious for a hollywood couple. I would say they adopt an eskimo kid.
Aslo remember Jolie wants a race that fits well with the other’s and desi’s being the most racist people on earth, that aint going to happen.
DQ #36- depending which country your friends live in, unfortunately there are some shady adoption organizations. Some of them push a religious agenda, which includes but certainly isn’t limited to the tactic of not giving clients access to particular countries for adoption, because they don’t fit the religious agenda (and thus, those countries aren’t deserving of help, they imply). Also there are a lot different rules out there, and they vary greatly agency-to-agency it can be tricky to get a child of a different race than the parent, if that’s the agenda of the agency. Some agencies impose rules about the age gap between the child and parents, they may have requirements as to how long the parents are married before adopting, they may care about the couple’s ideology/religion, and some agencies require that the woman is infertile… as opposed to adopting because you want to. -there are kooks and rules everywhere, one just has to be smart in picking an agency. Luckily most of them will tell you their rules/agenda up front.
A friend at one of the bigger agencies, who specializes in adoptions from India, tells me that India has not halted adoptions or rewritten laws to only grant indian kids to Indians. There are, as Kush outlined, some other (often ridiculous) hoops that non-desis have to jump through, but adopting from India is not off-limits to non-desis.
Dancer, Kush True, but last I heard, there is a lot of red tape involved.
Abhi,
They do, except for the lack of any expression.
They need to adopt a central/south american kid before adopting a desi kid. You know, to make sure all “impoverished continents” are covered first.
I think the extra hoops placed by adopting agencies does come from past experiences. A friend of mine who takes care of many children back home, found that the longer the couple who are adopting are married, the better chances that they dont abandon the child (not legally, but socially) etc. He cares for those children and he is ready to take care of them – giving away those children is a painful emotional exercise. It is only fair that he is looking out for the best interests. He also prefers Indians within India for his own reasons.
For those wondering if Angelina can look like Mariane.
I am not disappointed but not too happy that the movie is being shot in India. It just feeds misconceptions about India. According to statistics 90% of Americans cant locate asian countries like India on the map and 50% think India is an Islamic state.
Wow!!
Video clip
Sheesh I can’t believe the amount of fuss being created over a bunch of shallow, mediocre-at-best actors who are beyond their shelf-life in Hollywood.
On the adoption front: Madonna ‘adopts child in Africa’
“I am disappointed that we could not shoot the film in Pakistan, a country that I love and have visited three times,”
That quote makes it sound like she really dislikes India. I’m offended by that. Home wreckin Jolie with her love for…ok ill skip the racist pakistan comment.