Angelina Jolie has apologized for outrageous restrictions placed on the press during her recent publicity activities for her movie A Mighty Heart, including the outright banning of FOX News from the premiere. The actress, who ironically plays a crusading journalist in the film, laid blame at the feet of her lawyers, claiming they were overzealous in protecting her privacy. However, Angelina's efforts at controlling coverage have not ended. Page 6 reports that, during Angie's junket at the Waldorf-Astoria last Friday, the publications US Weekly and Life & Style (the latter of which has become notorious for printing wild speculations about Angie's personal life) were kept out entirely, while notedly pro-Jolie mags People and OK! were given full access. Furthermore, an inside source has shot down Angie's claim that she had nothing personal to do with the FOX News banning and the subsequent requirement that interviewers agree in writing not to ask her personal questions. Said the source:
Angelina is a control freak. She knows everything that goes and is very hands-on. It's unbelievable to me that she wouldn't know exactly what was going on at all times.
Of course no one believes for a second that Angelina would leave all this up to her lawyers and publicity people. She is all about control, especially as regards her image - and lately that image has been coming under fire, especially from gossip mags and blogs. She needs to counter this by manipulating what's written and said about her as much as possible. She simply doesn't want anyone asking uncomfortable personal questions - however, she crossed a line when she started imposing restrictions on the press, and it must've been made clear to her by someone in her camp that antagonizing the media when you're trying to sell a movie is a bad idea. So she backed off. She went on The Daily Show to be "interviewed" by Jon Stewart, who is a personal friend, and he conveniently asked her about the press controversy - setting her up for her oh-so-earnest apology. It's clear however that the apology wasn't sincere - it was just damage control. The pattern has been set by Jolie now - she doesn't want anymore negative coverage, and will prevent it in any way she is able.
This would not be an issue at all, perhaps, if Jolie had not been going around acting as an advocate for press freedom in the wake of her Mighty Heart role. The problem with a lot of these celebs is that they're not content to merely take on a role in a film like this - they must identify personally with whatever message they think the character's story represents, hence acquiring some of the character's nobility. Jolie played this game with the Mariane Pearl role, but failed to recognize the position this would put her in. She set herself up to look like a hypocrite. It's a bit ironic - someone so concerned with image making such an obvious gaffe. Makes you wonder if Angie is actually as smart as she wants us to think she is. Or maybe it's just her own ego at work. She's become so convinced of her unerring rightness that she's unable to see why anyone would object to anything she does. It comes as an actual shock to her when someone criticizes her. Her response, however, is not to sincerely apologize then stop the offensive behavior - it's to re-adjust her strategy in a way that makes her controlling activities less obvious. This whole episode only proves again what we already knew - that Angelina is a conniving, phony bitch.
(source)
