Ten years of Philanthropy, Love, Family and Togetherness.
A Lovely Couple
They did it again! Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie slipped away from paparazzi and public view for a private wedding at their beautiful estate, Chateau Miraval, located in the South of France. Their children were the only attendees and the ceremony lasted only fifteen minutes. Much joy and congratulations to one of the happiest couples in Hollywood!
This love affair is a true Hollywood classic. They are the ultra-glossy, celebrity couple with enviable entourages. Blessed with beautiful faces and gorgeous bodies, they’re rich, famous and madly in love with each other. It seems too perfect to be real but it is! Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have inspired countless millions throughout their ten years of love and togetherness. They’ve proven that true love can exist in Hollywood and can endure the ups and downs of a lifetime.
Both are award-winning actors; stars in blockbuster movies; listed as Hollywood’s highest paid celebrities by Forbes; ranked as the world’s most powerful people and voted as the most beautiful, sexiest couple in the world. Aside from the usual Hollywood hype are their acts of giving and humanitarian achievements. They lend credibility to the fairytale, “Happily Ever After.”
“What’s valuable to me has become clearer as I’ve gotten older. To me, it’s about the value of your time and your day and the value of the people you spend it with.” —Pitt
“I’m with a man who’s evolved enough to look at my body and see it as more beautiful because of the journey it has taken.” – Jolie
Over the years, Pitt and Jolie have raised a family, reached out in love and generosity and have helped the world become a better place to live. Their influence goes far beyond Hollywood, reaching to remote and often overlooked places not covered by entertainment media. They have communicated, especially to those who can help, that help must be given. Indeed, they have made a difference in the world, in the lives of people and in the lives of their children.
“[He made me] a better person. I’ve learned so much from him, as you do when you come together with another person. You both make each other better. You both learn about the best of each other, and recognize the things where you’re failing, or where you need to step up. When it’s a great partnership, you really are patient with each other.” — Jolie
Their spoken words genuinely resonate with deep love, commitment, passion and appreciation for each other. What they say about each other helps people understand just how they treasure this relationship. Their focus is upon each other, their children and their causes. Despite their tumultuous pasts, in a very personal and intimate way their legacy is just like reading a script wherein characters are vibrant, alive and revealing in a best-selling love story. Reading their unspoken language is like hearing actual words being uttered. It can leave you breathless, mesmerized and fully inspired.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met in 2004 on the set while filming a blockbuster, ”Mr. & Mrs. Smith”. Their chemistry came alive during sets and on screen. It was so intense and captivating that there was no mistaking their attraction to each other.
Although Pitt and Jolie never publicly commented on their relationship, entertainment media robustly speculated that they were romantically involved throughout 2005. Hollywood went crazy in search of the convincing proof. Everyone yearned an announcement, but Pitt and Jolie managed to keep their distance and cultivated their budding romance quietly. Their uncanny ability to keep the media out of their deepest connections is a modern day marvel. In a world of tabloid stories, sordid affairs and drama, this Hollywood couple was, amazingly, able to cultivate their love in privacy.
In January, 2006, Jolie finally confirmed to People Magazine that she was pregnant with Pitt’s child, thereby acknowledging their relationship, for the first time, in public. Since then the entertainment media playfully dubbed them as “Brangelina”. It caught on with their fans; they were an oddity to the ever-present media eye. Two people became one in spirit and love, away from the media blitz.
Yet, Pitt and Jolie’s relationship immediately became one of the most reported celebrity stories in the world. Their chemistry and passion was something the paparazzi could neither exploit nor put a finger on. They successfully flipped the media on its back, with a giggle and a wink of the eye. Speculation would have to suffice.
“I’m satisfied with making true choices and finding the woman I love, Angie.”—Pitt
“Neither Brad nor I have ever claimed that living together means to be chained together. We have both been married before so it’s not marriage that necessarily kept some people together.” — Jolie
A Match Made for a Better World
Since the onset of their relationship, Pitt and Jolie have become progressively involved in social issues in the United States and abroad. Their much-expected, glamorous Hollywood celebrity living is accompanied by generous contributions to worthy causes and charities. Truly, many couldn’t comprehend what Pitt and Jolie would do; they’ve impacted the world by making a difference in millions of lives.
“If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is…When I started to travel…I got out of myself and saw how other people struggle in the world.” – Jolie
Within this statement lies the blueprint to the boxes she’s built, literally all over the world, for struggling masses.
Jolie first encountered a humanitarian crisis while filming “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” (2001), in war-torn Cambodia. It was an experience she later credited as having instilled into her heart a greater understanding of the world. She was so deeply affected by this encounter that it literally changed her life.
“We cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering. I honestly want to help. I don’t believe I feel differently from other people. I think we all want justice and equality, a chance for a life with meaning. All of us would like to believe that if we were in a bad situation someone would help us.” – Jolie, on her motives for joining UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) in 2001
Over the next decade, Jolie traveled around the world seeking to make a difference in the lives of suffering people. She met with refugees and “internally displaced persons” in more than 30 countries. Her travels tested her brevity as she ventured into dangerous, volatile areas: Sudan’s Darfur region, Sierra Leone and Tanzania, the Syrian-Iraqi border, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq to assess the situation of refugees. Syria and Afghanistan were targets of her passion to make a difference. She met Afghan refugees in Pakistan and donated $1 million in response to an international UNHCR emergency appeal. It would be the largest donation UNHCR had ever received from a private individual. She covered all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as UNHCR field staff on all of her visits. In 2006, she created Asia’s first Millennium Village.
On the other side of the globe, she met Columbian refugees in Ecuador; She supported the Millennium Village in Africa Western Kenya), in accordance with UN development goals and funded initiatives to build schools elsewhere in the world. Because of Angelina’s contributions, there is now a school and boarding facility for girls at Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, a school for girls in Tangy, Afghanistan and another girls-only school in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan.
“One of the first camps I went to had 400,000 people. It was a sea of human misery. In Sierra Leone, I saw tens of thousands with their arms and legs cut off [by rebels], orphaned children. I felt completely overwhelmed. I cried constantly. I felt guilty for everything that I had. Then I realized I wasn’t doing these people any favors by crying. I kept getting angry at the injustices until I couldn’t think straight. I took a deep breath and focused on how I could help. I discovered that I was useful as a person. When I met suffering people, it put my life into perspective. It slammed me into a bigger picture of the world.” – Jolie
Brad Pitt also utilized his celebrity status to support political campaigns, public funding for embryonic stem-cell research, AIDS and poverty in developing nations. He is one of the founders of “Not on Our Watch”, an organization that focuses global attention toward ending “mass atrocities”. He founded the “Make It Right Foundation” in 2006 and contributed $5 million in donations toward organizing housing professionals in New Orleans. His generous donations led to the financing and construction of 150 sustainable, affordable homes in New Orleans’s Ninth Ward, devastated by Hurricane Katrina
In September 2006, they combined their efforts and established the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to aid humanitarian causes around the world. With initial donations of $1 million each to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders, followed by an October 2006 donation of $100,000 to the Daniel Pearl Foundation, there was no question this lovely couple were far more beautiful than “skin deep”.
In May 2007, Pitt and Jolie donated $1 million to three organizations in Chad and Sudan for those affected by crisis in the Darfur region. Altogether, they invested $8.5 million into the foundation in 2006. This investment resulted in donations of $2.4 million in 2006 and $3.4 million in 2007. In January 2010 the foundation donated $1 million to Doctors without Borders for emergency medical assistance to help victims of the Haiti earthquake.
During these years of philanthropy, Pitt and Jolie still manage to act in highly successful Hollywood movies as they foster love and dedication to their growing family. Amazing love and intimacy, combined with their uncanny ability to thwart the media and boundless dedication to numerous causes, truly make Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie a force of love that extends far beyond Hollywood.
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brad-Pitt/105960549434629#
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Angelina-Jolie/108395679184728
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/angelina_jolie.html
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/brad_pitt.html
