How Angelina Jolie found domestic bliss

**Palermo** · February 24th, 2007, 04:48 PM

HOW JOLIE FOUND DOMESTIC BLISS
By John Hiscock 23/02/2007
When she and Brad Pitt began their relationship, Angelina Jolie refused to speak about him or their life together. They tried to keep their love affair a secret as they dodged photographers and stayed in remote hideaways.

But mention Brad to Angelina now and she talks happily of their life together, showering him with praise and love.

"He's great, and a really dedicated father," says the 31-year-old actress, whose new film The Good Shepherd is out today. "I'm very fortunate to have him in my life. We take turns working and we both love being with our kids - it's something we're enjoying very much.

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"Before I met Brad, there were many times I'd be up exhausted with my son Maddox in the middle of the night and there was nobody there who appreciated my efforts. When he said his first word, there was nobody that I could look at and explode in excitement with. It made me very close to Mad, but now there's the joy of waking up and sharing the burden

"I think, as a woman, having a partner who appreciates you as a mom and who is going to remember those things about you and your history with the children is very special.

"Brad has a wonderful way with him and he makes the most of every single moment. I tend to move very quickly through things and he slowed me down to really enjoy this time. I guess that's probably the greatest gift he has given me. When I met him I didn't know anything about him as a man except for what people wrote and I found a really kind, funny, down to earth guy. At home, he is just a really wonderful friend and father."

Before she met Brad, 43, Jolie had a reputation as a headline-making wild child. She married British actor Jonny Lee Miller wearing a white shirt bearing his name written in blood. She experimented with selfmutilation. She took at-home courses on how to prepare bodies for burial. She embarked on a torrid lesbian affair. She married Billy Bob Thornton while both wore vials containing each other's blood around their necks. Their first anniversary gift to each other was grave plots... And so the bizarre list goes on.

This was a weird and wonderfully uninhibited young lady who spurned conventional behaviour and cared nothing about what people thought. How things change.

The Angelina of today is elegant, mature, self-assured and, if not subdued, then very much in control. Time, combined with the settling influence of the solid and reliable Pitt, plus her work with the poor and starving of the Third World, has mellowed her.

But maybe the lessons she took in old-fashioned manners and deportment for her role in The Good Shepherd have had their effect too.

Robert De Niro, directing his first film since 1993's A Bronx Tale, made the unlikely decision to cast Angelina as the obedient, stay-at-home wife to Matt Damon's Edward Wilson, one of the founding agents of the CIA.

Playing his conservative wife Clover would seem a bit of a stretch for the exotic Jolie, but she carried it off with such aplomb that the screenwriter Eric Roth commented, "Angelina has made more out of this than I could ever have imagined. I think she's spectacular".

Her appearance in The Good Shepherd is Angelina's first film role since Mr And Mrs Smith two years ago, where she first met Pitt. Since then, they have had a daughter Shiloh, who was born in Namibia last May, and Pitt has become the legal father of both Maddox, five, and Zahara, two, whom Jolie adopted from orphanages in Cambodia and Ethiopia.

Brad and Angelina's hectic existence is eased slightly by the fact that they are both licensed pilots, something Jolie is particularly proud of.

"It gives me a freedom that I don't have on the ground and it's also a real skill," she says. "I know that sounds odd, but I have spent my whole life in an odd sort of job. I interpret behaviour and I tell stories. That's not a practical skill, so it was really wonderful for me to go back to school, to takes tests and to learn a proper physical skill."

Angelina also laughs at reports that she and Brad will soon marry - "I have had two beautiful marriages and I don't feel any need to get married again" - but admits the pair of them would like more children, and soon.

"We shouldn't stretch it out over the next 10 years because we'll be raising kids forever. So we've thought about it and I'm sure we won't wait forever to build our family."

Mirror.co.uk

**Voodoo Child** · February 24th, 2007, 04:55 PM

The *timing* of her talking couldn't be better I am sure!

**effie2** · February 24th, 2007, 06:16 PM

What a perfect way to describe a nanny.........

**bite me spidey** · February 24th, 2007, 06:21 PM

Their relationship is just odd to me.

**ediebrooks** · February 24th, 2007, 06:50 PM

It seems strange to me, too. I've read that she feels she and Brad Pitt are "committed to the children", not to each other. So they're free to walk at any time. I don't see how that kind of relationship could make a child feel very secure.

**lalala** · February 24th, 2007, 07:32 PM

She's a bore - all the leading actors are repeatedly questionned on their private life - you can't expect the most imaginative journos to do this job - the others manage to find tangents and lead the discussion somewhere or expand on the matter....but AJ keeps ploughing on the boring details of her private life...

**Palermo** · February 24th, 2007, 07:46 PM

Even though I posted this article, I can never get very interested in either one of them.

**CherryDarling** · February 25th, 2007, 12:19 AM

Is this article old since The Good Shepherd came out awhile ago (at least it did in the States)?

Anywho, I like Brangelina.

Don't know how long the so-called "domestic bliss" is going to last, they are a Hollywood couple after all.

**pinkberry** · February 25th, 2007, 12:35 AM

This chick bugs the fuck out of me.

**scarlett** · February 25th, 2007, 05:52 AM

Originally Posted by prnjcq7

Is this article old since The Good Shepherd came out awhile ago (at least it did in the States)?

Anywho, I like Brangelina.

Don't know how long the so-called "domestic bliss" is going to last, they are a Hollywood couple after all.

the mirror is a uk paper and the film only came out here on the 23rd

**TheMoog** · February 25th, 2007, 07:41 AM

Originally Posted by Palermo

HOW JOLIE FOUND DOMESTIC BLISS
"Before I met Brad, there were many times I'd be up exhausted with my son Maddox in the middle of the night and there was nobody there who appreciated my efforts. When he said his first word, there was nobody that I could look at and explode in excitement with.
Mirror.co.uk

Well, I'm sure Maddox DID appreciate your efforts, Ange. Maybe he couldn't give you the fawning feedback and adoration you've come to expect as a Hollywood star, but I am sure he at least smiled or settled down and cuddled with you. Wasn't that enough in itself?

You adopted Maddox when you were with Billy Bob! You're telling everyone you though HE was in it for the long haul and selfless father material? It was always going to be a matter of time when you found yourself a single mother to him.

(You only have to look at all Ange's past attention whore behaviour to see that she is the very type of person who'd be upset that there's no applause or flashbulbs going off when she gets up to her kid at 3am.....)

**burnt_toast** · February 25th, 2007, 08:02 AM

Although I doubt they will make it for the long haul - I can't help but root for them. It sounds like they have an unconventional marriage, non-traditional - and I can TOTALLY respect that (since I do too). Sometimes from the outside a marriage can look too hard or too independent or anything - but from the inside it works....that's all that matters.

Also, I couldn't imagine not having a 'father' to share the first words with. That would be hard (granted she brought it on herself, but that doesn't make it any easier).