Brad Pitt Injures His Knee
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Steve Granitz/WireImage
A cane – and it's not just for show.
The actor, 48, walked the red carpet at the 23nd annual Palm Springs Film Festival awards gala with the cane on Saturday, and told reporters he has an injured ACL, a ligament in the knee that connects the femur with the tibia.
"I was carrying my daughter [Vivienne] down the hill and I slipped," Pitt said. "It was either her or me."
Though Pitt says he won't need surgery, he may need that cane for a while.
Not that his partner, Angelina Jolie, minds.
"I like the cane," she told reporters on the carpet Saturday, adding that the injury hasn't slowed him down much at all. "He's not that kind of guy. He does everything still."
Jolie also said that Vivienne, 3½, wasn't hurt in the tumble.
"Vivie's okay," she told reporters. "She was absolutely fine."
• Reporting by SCOTT HUVER
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Other Desert Campaigners
By BROOKS BARNES PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — The glass trophies were designed by Dale Chihuly. The appetizer was diced green beans and carrots. A press advisory had warned that after 4 p.m. “no media will be allowed to use the bathrooms.”I had an uneasy feeling about this.
So it’s not the Golden Globes. Or the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Or even the … well, you get the idea. But the Palm Springs International Film Society’s annual prize dinner, held Saturday night here in a bedazzled convention hall, has nonetheless become a major stop in the annual campaign for little gold men.
Chris Pizzello/Associated PressAngelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the gala on Saturday.
Held while ballots for Oscar nominations are still out, the Palm Springs awards are considered crucial for the fingers-on-the-ledge contingency — solid Academy Awards contenders but those who could still stand to pick up a few more votes from the older showbiz types who have decamped to the desert.
So the crowd from “Young Adult” was there – Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt, Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody — to collect the creative ensemble prize. Glenn Close accepted the Career Achievement Chihuly while pitching “Albert Nobbs.” Gary Oldman, snubbed by the Screen Actors Guild, accepted the International Star Award for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”
Palm Springs, partly because it announces the winners of its awards ahead of time, draws a megawatt crowd. Among the A-listers this year were Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Clooney were both given trophies for their work.
(Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie, guarded by a team of private security operatives, politely put up with nonstop pawing from attendees armed with camera phones during the four-hour dinner. “I’ve never seen such rudeness,” said Robert Stafford, a Palm Springs retiree seated at a nearby table. “Let those poor people eat their green bean salad in peace.”)
The event, hosted by the ever-chirpy Mary Hart, raised $1.6 million for the Palm Springs International Film Society. The convention center, decorated with every purple tulip west of Rotterdam (some 14,000 in total), was packed with 1,900 guests, who ate a dinner of short ribs atop a hash brown patty.
Octavia Spencer, picking up the Breakthrough Performance Award for her feisty maid in “The Help,” kicked off the evening with an emotional acceptance speech capped with a joke about the producers of the film, which centers on black maids in the 1960s. She said that a higher power “sent me two white knights — very, very white.”
Michel Hazanavicius, who accepted the Sony Bono Visionary Award for writing and directing “The Artist,” gave a gracious speech thanking the society. “I don’t know who you are, but thank you very much,” he concluded. (He’s French — cut him some slack.)
And Mr. Oldman, who drew a standing ovation from parts of the room, was equally gracious, thanking the society for focusing attention on his espionage drama. “And, of course, for my Chihuly,” he said.
Angelina Jolie Talks Brad Pitt's Injury: "Proud of Him Every Single Day"
But being injured is worth it if it means his children are OK...
Pitt told reporters at last night's Palm Springs International Film Festival gala that he hurt himself when he took a fall while carrying daughter Vivienne.
Angelina Jolie said it's not the first injury of its kind at the Jolie-Pitt household.
"When [Maddox] was younger, I took a fall and cracked my elbow because I wanted to make sure he didn't have the fall," Jolie said. "Every parent has injured themselves. Every parent will stand in the line of fire for their kids so it's a normal thing."
Jolie said Pitt isn't milking the injury at home. "He's not that kind of guy," she said. "He does everything still."
"I'm proud of him every single day," Jolie said of her hubby, who last night was presented the Desert Palm Achievement Award by his Moneyball costar Jonah Hill.
Jolie told me she's likely to direct again after making her debut earlier this year with In The Land of Blood and Honey.
"It's such a weird thing. I sat down to try to write something and I can't even believe it's become a film," she said. "I do have a pile of things I haven't shown anybody, including one on Afghanistan."
PHOTOS: 2012 Palm Springs Film Fest
READ: How Many Glasses of Champagne Will Be Poured at the Golden Globes?
Pitt, Clooney trade barbs at Palm Springs Film Festival
By Andrea Mandell, USA TODAY
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – It's going to be a fun road to the Oscars this year.
One look at the A-list crowd at Saturday night's Palm Springs International Film Festival gala confirmed it, as Hollywood favorites including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Tom Hanks and Michelle Williams descended on the festive night to officially open awards season.
"It's
quite a way to start," said Williams in the desert air, as a crowd of
fans cheered behind her. "It's pretty overwhelming, actually."
"It's a little like Cannes," mused Gary Oldman on the red carpet, speaking against a backdrop of palm trees and mountains.
The evening was also an early chance to see what good-natured ribbing Golden Globes
category-mates Pitt and Clooney had in store for each other. (Indeed,
Clooney referenced their two-time Sexiest Men Alive status from the
stage.)
"I'm just glad George is going to be around because there's no one more fun," said Pitt backstage, after Jonah Hill, who flew in from the East Coast for the evening, presented him with the Desert Palm Achievement award for his work in Moneyball and Tree of Life.
On the red carpet, Clooney, who arrived with girlfriend Stacy Keibler, threw out some skepticism over Pitt's latest skiing injury, which resulted in a twisted knee and forced Pitt to arrive at Palm Springs with a cane.
His
plan to thwart Pitt? "I don't have any great plans yet, but I'm going
to work on it. He's in a cast so he's already hobbled. He's going for
the sympathy vote," Clooney joked. Pitt's rebuttal? "Absolutely. I'm
going to work it for all I can get," grinned Pitt backstage. "By the
way, I told him that. He took my line."
Pre-show, Jolie arrived hand-in-hand with Pitt and was equally chatty, excited to bring her directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey
to screen in Washington soon. With both she and Pitt nominated for
Globes, does it change the awards experience for her? "It's fun either
way," she said. "It's fun when it's just one of us and it's fun when
you're (there as) a family."
Good spirits were
in abundance as awards were handed out. When Melissa McCarthy (who has
plenty of Oscar buzz for her performance in Bridesmaids), arrived, she admitted to her own fan moment.
"I'm geeking out a little," said McCarthy. "We just saw The Artist and we just saw the lead actors pass. I literally gasped."
Meanwhile, Tom Hanks, who presented the director of the year award to his Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close director Stephen Daldry,
was hoping to find a former co-star. "I've gotta find Charlize at some
point because I cast her in a movie I directed about 16 years ago called
That Thing You Do," he said.
Later, Clooney, accepting his chairman's award for his work in The Descendents and The Ides of March, spoke of his love of his job, a sentiment echoed by many who took the stage that night.
Octavia Spencer grew emotional accepting her breakthrough performance award for The Help, speaking of her 16-year journey to the Palm Springs stage. And prolific newcomer Jessica Chastain shed a few tears after Al Pacino, who cast her in her first film, presented her with the Spotlight Award, calling her a "prodigy."
But there were cracks, of course.
Onstage
Williams disclosed that when she was starting out, an agent tried to
persuade her to change her name to Michelle Montana. "Or Michelle
Montaigne. I always think I came this close to a career as a porn star,"
she joked.
And Spencer threw a line out to
her fellow male award winners. "I'd be remiss if I didn't say — I'm
single, gentlemen," she grinned from the podium.
Before Jeff Goldblum presented Glenn Close with the career achievement award, she spoke on the red carpet of bringing her indie film Albert Nobbs
to life. "I struggled all those years and suddenly it seemed like it
was the right time and it started to take on a life of its own,' she
said. "I'm just so proud and wonderfully relieved and (have) a great
sense of closure."
Kenneth Branagh, who presented Williams with the desert palm achievement award for My Week with Marilyn,
discussed why the film, in which he plays Sir Laurence Olivier, has
struck a chord with audiences. "It appeared to be one thing on the
surface, a kind of biopic in miniature, but in practice it was quite a
revealing piece about celebrity and about what you might call the price
of fame," he said.
Meanwhile, before Patton Oswalt accepted the vangaurd award for creative ensemble (presented by Olivia Wilde) for Young Adult with Theron, director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody,
he marveled that "a major studio put out a movie that was — it wasn't
even that the movie was so dark, it was that it was not trying to get
the audience to love it. And because of that it becomes more
fascinating. For a studio to get behind that, especially these days,
it's kind of miraculous."
Oldman also shared some news about his latest hit, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. A second installment, he says, based on John le Carré's third novel Smiley's People,
is in talks after the success of the film. "It's an artistic endeavor,
and it's an indie movie, but it's actually making money," he said.
"People are seeing this movie and that makes me very proud."
With the Globes only a week away, many of the stars said they were excited.
"I
love this time of year, I love it," said Spencer. "I love getting all
the magazines and flipping through and seeing who thought what was the
best (dress). And now I'm a little worried!"
Clooney planned on bringing Keibler, and has no qualms with the no-holds-barred returning host Ricky Gervais.
"I
really like him, he makes me laugh," Clooney said. Plus, "It's always a
fun show because everybody gets a little smashed, so you never know
what they'll say."
Palm Springs Festival Attendee Dies of Heart Attack
A man suffered a heart attack in the crowd when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrived on the festival's red carpet and was later pronounced dead at Desert Regional Medical Center.
A man attending the red carpet event before the 23rd Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Awards Gala on Saturday collapsed and was pronounced dead after being taken to Desert Regional Medical Center, according to local reports.As Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrived on the red carpet, hordes of fans crowded the couple, taking pictures and asking for autographs. Pitt and Jolie happily stopped to oblige, despite Pitt walking with a cane due to a recent accident.
Amidst the chaos in the crowd, an older male collapsed to the ground. In video posted of the red carpet arrivals, one man can be heard yelling, "Everybody back away from him! Back away from him!" while someone else yells "Back up!"
As THR reported last night, the Palm Springs Fire Department received an emergency call for medical aid during the opening ceremonies for the gala. The fire department originally reported the spectator to be female: "While responding, the Fire Department got an update of CPR in progress," a release from the Fire Department reads. "Fire unit arrived on scene and found CPR in progress on a female spectator of the Film Festival." Local news source My Desert later confirmed that the victim was male.
