Angelina Jolie stepped away from the front of the camera, and decided to create a movie instead. Angelina’s “In The Land of Blood and Honey”, marks her debut as a writer and director.

The film takes place in the mid-90′s during the Bosnian war, telling the love story of a Serbian rape camp administrator and a Bosnian-Muslim woman and war victim. The sensitive subject matter drew protests from Bosnian women, and temporarily halted Jolie’s filming. Ultimately she was allowed to continue after the full plot was revealed.

The film uses local actors, including stars Goran Kostic and Zana Marjanovic, who play the two lovers. It filmed in both English and Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian.

“All information was hidden,” Kostic recently told Vanity Fair. “It was obvious it was somebody big. You’re an actor, you audition, and they don’t tell you who it is, you know it’s somebody from the top. I had no idea. Nor did I want to speculate. I did what I had to do. Later, when they told us Angelina Jolie wrote the script, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see how she was able to put all of it together.”

The film hits theaters on December 23rd, right in the middle of the busy, prestige movie season.

Check out the trailer below!

It seems Jennifer Aniston has found the love of her life, after the one that got away, in actor-screenwriter, Justin Theroux. Since meeting in May 2011, the lovebirds have meshed really well and are now living together in Jen’s penthouse duplex in New York and it seems while Jen is in nesting mode, Justin is feeling the pressure to pop the question, but he is simply not ready.

Justin revealed to a friend that: “He doesn’t want to ruin it, he’s happy how things are right now and he wants to enjoy the moment.”

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The UN refugee agency honored Angelina Jolie and Yemeni humanitarian aid group Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) for their outstanding work for refugees over many years.

Before an audience of 200 government officials, diplomats, donors and aid workers, Jolie was recognized for completing 10 years as UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, while the founder and 290 staff of SHS received the prestigious Nansen Refugee Award for their live-saving work helping tens of thousands of desperate boat people arriving on the coast of Yemen from the Horn of Africa.

“This award motivates us to increase our effort to helping those who are in need,” said SHS founder Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy, while Jolie told the audience, “It is an honour to work on behalf of refugees and I look forward to the next 10 years.”

Lauding Jolie, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said, “She is the very best of the goodwill ambassadors that exist in the humanitarian world.”

In a slick ceremony presided over by former British politician and broadcast journalist Sir Martin Bell, Norwegian musician Sivert Hoyem warmed up the audience with two songs before a tribute to Angelina Jolie and her work for UNHCR was screened in Geneva’s distinctive 19th Century Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, a former water pumping station on the River Rhone.

Angelina said, “I’m so grateful to the many refugee families that I have had the honour and privilege to spend the last years with. From them I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned to become a better person, a better mother. They’ve inspired me by showing me every day the unbreakable strength of the human spirit.”

She looks beautiful in white!

Source, Photos: Fame

Oh to be a fly on the wall in Gwen Stefani’s house! Gwen had Angelina Jolie and her children over for a playdate at the singer’s London home yesterday afternoon. The two have been friends since 2006, when they gave birth within a day of each other.

I wonder what they talk about. Do they hire people to play with their kids? Do they talk about Jennifer Aniston? I like to think it’s all Angelina talks about. Do they gossip about Jen’s new boyfriend?

Angelina Jolie and Gwen Stefani bonded in 2006 after giving birth within a day of each other. And it seems their low-key friendship still runs strong. The Tourist actress was spotted taking some of her brood for a playdate at the pop star’s London home today.

The 36-year-old, who is in the city while her partner Brad Pitt shoots his new film World War Z, arrived at the Primrose Hill abode with Zahara, 6, Shiloh, 5, and 3-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox in tow.

She gently encouraged her tentative charges out of the car and inside the property and later sent her security guard off to collect dinner from the local Wagamama noodle restaurant. The No Doubt star’s son Kingston was born the day before Shiloh, while her youngest Zuma is now the same age Angelina’s twins.

The Hollywood mothers are said to have a firm friendship, which has largely played out away from the cameras. Gwen, 41, joined Angelina and Brad for a celebratory dinner in May after the premiere of his film Tree of Life at the Cannes Film Festival.

And Brad and Gwen’s husband Gavin Rossdale have bonded too – in 2006, soon after the births of Shiloh and Kingston, they spent the Fourth of July weekend jet skiing and riding quad bikes together.

Gwen’s family split their time between the U.S. and U.K. while Angelina is expected to stay in London until Brad’s film wraps up.

Check out all the pictures below!

Photos: Fame

Angelina Jolie, who is a licensed pilot, took her son Maddox (not pictured) for a ride in England! She looks so happy!

Up, up and away! Angelina Jolie treated son Maddox to a taste of the high life when he accompanied her during a flying lesson in Hampshire, England on Friday.

Rocking a grey maxi dress topped with a black jacket, the mom-of-six, 36, flashed a huge grin while her eldest son — toting an iPad — strapped into the rear of the plane before takeoff.

But Maddox, 10, isn’t the first kid to join Jolie in the friendly skies. Shiloh, 5, went for a ride in a small aircraft last year in L.A. And In 2008, the star even flew her plane while pregnant with twins Knox and Vivienne, 3.

The actress — who received her pilot’s license in 2005 — confessed at the time that her favorite hobby was inspired by her eldest son. “Every time Mad sees a plane, he’s amazed,” Jolie has said. “If I could actually fly a plane. . . I’ll be like Superman to him.”

Maddox’s dad, Brad Pitt, 47, is currently stateside promoting his new flick Moneyball.

Source, Photos: Fame

Obviously, that has to be what’s going on, right? Brad Pitt was driven to say such awful things about Jennifer Aniston in the first place! Who put him up to it? Angelina did!

In Touch Weekly reports, “That is her exact opinion of Jen. She thinks she is a boring person. It’s as if Angelina specifically told Brad to say those things in the interview.” Angelina forces Brad to do this stuff because Angie is “calculating” so “she gets Brad to do her dirty work.”

And according to OK! Magazine, Angie is pissed that Brad had to go back and “clarify” what he said about Jen. “In her mind, he had no business groveling and apologizing to Jen. It’s clear that he still loves her. Why else would he go on and on about how wonderful she is? If Angie has one vulnerable spot, it would have to do with their staying in contact. Angie’s very cut and dry. When she moves on, she moves on. She doesn’t speak to [ex-husbands] Billy Bob Thornton or Jonny Lee Miller. And she expects Brad to do the same with Jen… Brad and Angie are not in a good place.”

Brad taped a segment with Matt Lauer for the Today Show, and here is a clip from the interview, which will air tomorrow.

“All I know is that my point was, the best thing I’d done as a father is be sure that my kids have a good mother. … That’s all I was, or am, trying to say. It has no reference to the past. And I think it’s a shame that I can’t say something nice about Angie without Jen being drug in. You know, she doesn’t deserve it.”

“I don’t wanna be encumbered by any of that. I know my intentions, and I know what I believe, and I know things get misconstrued, and I know there’s a good cycle and a good story to say we’re splitting up. And then when we don’t, they say we’ve come together again, it’s another new cycle, and then there’s a secret wedding. ‘No, that was put on hold because they’re upset.’ It’s, you know, that’s– I live outside of that, and it’s much healthier.”

When Lauer asked Pitt about the statement he released to The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets clarifying his comments, Pitt says, ” I don’t want them to say anything bad like that about Jen. She’s a dear friend of mine.”

He denies that Aniston called him after his quotes came out. “She’s also a seasoned veteran and she knows. You know, and she’s a valuable person. We spent seven years together. Come on.”

Brad will also appear on Ellen Degeneres this afternoon, and while talking with Ellen – he opens up about whether or not he’s going to marry Angelina.

Pitt will appear on Thursday’s episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show and answered the age-old question of ‘Will he and Angie ever tie the knot?’

“I’ve said that we would not be getting married until everyone in this county had the right to get married,” Brad told host Ellen DeGeneres.

“We live in this great country that is about freedom. It is defined by our freedom and equality and yet we allow this discrimination to go on everyday and that’s not what we’re about — that’s not what makes us great.

“Until that is reversed, I just don’t get it,” Pitt said, launching into an Italian accent. “It’a make’a no sense to me!”

DeGeneres said, “Thank you: So that means if like, next week if it’s legal for everyone to get married that you would then be getting married the very next day?

“It seems,” Pitt said.

Yesterday the press got a hold of an interview Brad Pitt gave Parade Magazine. In the article Brad opened up about his marriage to Jennifer Aniston – and basically how he’s so much happier and fulfilled with Angelina Jolie. He claimed to have been “pretending” in his marriage with Jen. Here’s a recap of what he said:

“I spent the ‘90s trying to hide out, trying to duck the full celebrity cacophony. I started to get sick of myself sitting on a couch, holding a joint, hiding out. It started feeling pathetic. It became very clear to me that I was intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn’t living an interesting life myself,” he continues. “I think that my marriage had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn’t.”

“I put much more emphasis on being a satisfied man. I’m satisfied with making true choices and finding the woman I love, Angie, and building a family that I love so much. A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss. … That’s the trade-off. But I’ll take it all.”

“One of the greatest, smartest things I ever did was give my kids Angie as their mom,” he tells Parade. “She is such a great mom. Oh, man, I’m so happy to have her.”

Well, this morning Brad Pitt released a statement on the interview, claiming he never meant to insult anyone. He was just giving his own feelings on the matter of his first marriage.

“It grieves me that this was interpreted this way. Jen is an incredibly giving, loving, and hilarious woman who remains my friend. It is an important relationship I value greatly. The point I was trying to make is not that Jen was dull, but that I was becoming dull to myself — and that, I am responsible for,” Pitt said in the statement.

Do you think that Brad and Jen really truly are great friends? I find that so strange! How could Jen be friends with him!? I understand having a respect for someone, but c’mon, really?

And also – I think Brad has the right to talk about whatever he wants – but c’mon. Isn’t it like beating a dead horse at this point? He has so much more to talk about. I haven’t heard Jen bring it up in a while. It’s called MOVING ON PEOPLE.