Friday, September 22, 2006

The Brangelina Money Mystery



After repeated inquiries over the past three days about the fate of the millions in People-magazine money Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt promised to donate to childrens' charities last June, the couple made a surprise announcement ... to the Associated Press.

Yesterday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the couple told AP about the hastily formed (and inventively named) Jolie/Pitt Foundation, saying it had pledged $1 million to Global Action for Children and $1 million to Doctors Without Borders. The news more or less resolves any lingering questions about what the pair actually planned to do with their Shiloh windfall, reported to be $4.1 million (though People disputes that figure.)

Back in June, reports said the money was destined for Unicef, but officials there told Radar they had not received a pledge of any kind. As for the UN High Commission on Refugees, where Jolie is a goodwill ambassador, spokesmen there referred all calls to Jolie's Geneva-based "handler," Shannon Boyd, a UN employee "who looks exclusively after Angelina Jolie," and who never returned any calls.

While the global obsession with the world's most beautiful and selfless couple seems to be a boon for charities, Brangelina isn't above making a bit of change on the side. "They've made tons of money through Getty," crows a high-level magazine editor, describing how the couple recently tried shopping photos of themselves leaving a restaurant to the photo agency for $150,000.

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