Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with their kids | Photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk
Angelina Jolie and son Maddox landed in Vietnam earlier today to complete the process of adopting a three-and-a-half-year-old boy. Jolie is scheduled to appear at an adoption ceremony with Vietnamese officials tomorrow morning, though some sources suggest the UN rep may be able to pick up her new son as early as tonight. Once the child is in her custody, Jolie's application must be reviewed by the U.S. consulate before a passport can be issued for the boy. The head of Vietnam's offical international adoption bureau admits Jolie's application was fast-tracked because "a celebrated person is certainly treated a little bit different from others." The Tomb Raider actress filed papers as a single parent because she and Brad Pitt are not married.
Angelina Jolie can expect to welcome a three-and-a-half-year-old Vietnamese orphan into her home sometime in the next few weeks. Adoption officials in Ho Chi Minh City are reportedly reviewing Jolie's application quickly and expect to have her adoption processed by the end of the month. The director of the Tam Binh orphanage says the little boy Jolie has applied to adopt was abandoned at a hospital as an infant and has lived at the orphanage ever since. "He is in good health," said the director. "He is a little bit shy." Jolie recently spoke to Newsweek about her humanitarian work and said of her new home of New Orleans, "Brad was doing a film here and so we were going to spend a month here. [We] realized it was a place we liked, we liked the people, I liked the school for the kids. They're very diverse. I liked the other parents. I feel very comfortable with them. We're happy having our children here. Brad is working on rebuilding here... But for me, just as a mom, I love the other parents and the kids and the schools. I'm starting to work on the education ehre and the school system here. There's a lot of work to be done."
Angelina Jolie told a British paper that she avoided an attempted abduction in a foreign country she won't name. "It was in a small village. I won't say where, or with whom, but some gangsters planned to kidnap me and extort a massive ransom," the UN ambassador said. "I was warned at the last minute, and managed to escape, luckily." Jolie said of her humanitarian work, "I don't want to act like the Mother Teresa of Hollywood. But I want to help where there is poverty and destruction. I love Brad very much and our trips we pull together as a team. Things only get difficult when it affects our children." The Tomb Raider actress credits her role as a mom with rounding her out as a person. "It made me feel like complete woman," she says. "At times in my life I was lost, without a purpose, now I'm more grounded."
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's decision to add to their brood was a "process that began shortly after Shiloh was born [last May]," according to a source. Adoption officials confirmed yesterday that Jolie is adopting a boy between the age of 3 and 4 from the Tam Binh orphanage on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Jolie told Good Morning America in an interview last December that she hoped to "balance the races so there's another African person in the house for Z [and] another Asian person in the house for Mad." The adoption procedure will likely take no longer than four months, according to the deputy head of Vietnam's International Adoption Department.
It's official - Angelina Jolie has filed papers to adopt a Vietnamese child. "She just filed the papers this week," said a top adoption official in Vietnam, confirming the rumors that have been circulating for the past few days. "They have to follow all procedures like any other American. They will have to work with the American side. No priority will be given to them, that means they will be treated equally as any other people." Jolie applied to adopt as a single parent, though partner Brad Pitt has officially adopted Jolie's other adopted children, 5-year-old Maddox and 2-year-old Zahara. Pitt and Jolie first visited orphanages in Vietnam on a trip over Thanksgiving last year, and Jolie made another visit to the country in January for a meeting about the Maddox Jolie-Pitt project, a charity for her son's homeland of Cambodia. Pitt said in January that the couple intended to expand their brood, saying, "Always, of course. We'll let you know when we get there."
In an article for the Washington Post, Angelina Jolie has issued an urgent call for relief funds on behalf of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. After a tour of refugee camps close to the Sudanese border, Jolie warned that the UNHCR and NGO aid agencies are in "a race against time before the rainy season comes" later this month. "There has been a groundswell of public support for action," the actress writes. "People may disagree on how to intervene - airstrikes, sending troops, sanctions, divestment - but we all should agree that the slaughter must be stopped and the perpetrators brought to justice... It has become clear to me that there will be no enduring peace without justice. History shows that there will be another Darfur, another exodus, in a vicious cycle of bloodshed and retribution. But an international court finally exists. It will be as strong as the support we give it. This might be the moment we stop the cycle of violence and end our tolerance for crimes against humanity... What the worst people in the world fear is justice. That's what we should deliver." Read the full article here.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have moved to New Orleans. "We love it there," Jolie told US mag at last night's Golden Globes. "The kids are going to go to school there. We're really looking forward to it." The superstar couple moved in to a $3.5 million six-bedroom mansion in the French Quarter on January 11. Jolie plans to continue her humanitarian work. "Angelina has asked for places she can do charity work," said a source. "She interested in befriending normal moms so she can do things with the kids." Pitt is currently filming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the region, and construction will start later this month on 20 eco-friendly homes commissioned by the actor in partnership with Global Green USA.
It seems once Angelina Jolie starts talking, she just can't stop. In the February issue of UK Elle mag, the Good Shepherd actress continued her recent commentary on life with Brad and the kids.
