The Financial Times and the New York Post are having a ball with news globetrotting actress Angelina Jolie could become a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Post apparently jumped the gun with the “BABE AMID BRANIACS” headline atop its Feb. 25 story claiming CFR has “decided to admit” Jolie, who’ll “soon be rubbing elbows with other club members such as Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and Alan Greenspan.”
FT explained on Feb. 26 that CFR has merely decided “to accept the 32-year-old to be considered for a special five-year term.” Note the more careful choice of words: “to be considered.”
A spokesperson at CFR headquarters in New York told World Politics Review Monday: “We’re not commenting on it because nothing is official yet.”
Jolie has served as a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2001. Her 20 or so advocacy trips around the world have drawn media attention to the plight of refugees, AIDS orphans and disaster victims.
She’s also going out with Brad Pitt and last year posed naked in bathtub full of turquoise-colored water for Vanity Fair.
CFR confirmed Jolie has applied for “term membership,” a special type of affiliation designed for people under 35, and set up by the organization “to reach out to the next generation of leaders.”
According to CFR’s website: “The selection process for term membership is nearly identical to, although separate from, that for life members.”
The Post meanwhile, reported that Jolie will bring a “jolt of sex appeal” to the exclusive think tank, and that many current members see her as “qualified and support her induction”:
Member Carol Adelman, former head of U.S. foreign-aid programs, said, “It’s not like Paris Hilton is being nominated.”
Since we’re talking Hollywood, it should be noted that last night was — at least according to host Ellen DeGeneres — a celebration of “the most international Oscars ever.”
Perhaps, but in the best picture category, the two films that concerned themselves with international relations got shut out, with “The Departed” beating out “Babel” and “Letters From Iwo Jima.”
“Babel,” a picture whose scope was truly global, could be called the night’s big loser, coming up empty-handed in the best picture and best director categories. Two “Babel” cast members were also nominated in the best supporting actress category — Adriana Barazza and Rinko Kikuchi.
Neither won.
However, Forest Whitaker won best actor for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland.”
Two nominated films about Iraq, “Iraq in Fragments” and “My Country, My Country,” both in the best documentary category, got steamrolled by “An Inconvenient Truth,” the Al Gore-backed juggernaut about global warming.
“The Blood of Yingzhou District,” about AIDS in China, took top honors in the “best documentary short subject” category.
Here’s the record of all the nominees and winners.
Those seeking Oscar commentary more intellectually simulating than the typical analysis of the best and worst dressed might visit the New Republic’s Oscar Wild.