The remarkable reinvention of Angelina Jolie http://t.co/HRAZhEDMqm
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 14, 2014
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On the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, the name stood out from those of charity
workers, teachers and civil servants: Angelina Jolie – Honorary Dame
Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George, for
her campaigning work “for services to UK foreign policy and the campaign to
end war zone sexual violence”. This means that the Hollywood A-lister has
become one of a tiny group of US citizens to be honoured by the British
establishment (though they can’t use their titles).
It was an extraordinary accolade – doubly so when you consider that the demure
Jolie, who last week hosted a London summit dedicated to ending war rape in
her capacity as special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, is the same Jolie who, not long ago, was making headlines for her
tattoos, hard-drug use and intimately kissing her brother in public.
......
Indeed, so drastic has been her rehabilitation that Jolie’s status is now among the tiny section of Hollywood stars deemed untouchable. According to US pollster Q Scores, which determines celebrities’ likeability factor, Jolie’s score is 23 – meaning 23 per cent of US adults consider her “one of [their] favourite personalities”, while 85 per cent of adults know who she is. This compared with a 15 per cent likeability score and 46 per cent awareness for the average actress.
.......
She’s Hollywood royalty, a megabrand,” says one film insider. Indeed, a recent poll named her, along with Pitt, as the celebrities most sought-after for endorsements. “Jolie has formed a strong emotional bond with American consumers, which is on the rise,” confirms Henry Schafer, executive vice-president of Q Scores.
Perhaps her appeal comes from her chameleon-like qualities. She has a sex-bomb persona (she is regularly named the world’s most beautiful woman by magazines such as Vogue) but is simultaneously a “madonna”, the mother of six children, three of whom are adopted.
“What’s remarkable about Jolie is she’s the best at everything she touches,” says Christina Hopkinson, author of The A-List Family. “When she was in her bad-girl phase, she was the baddest imaginable. Now she’s a mother, she’s the ultimate earth-mother of three boys and three girls – even her twins were the perfect boy-girl combination.
.....
Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future, uses Jolie as a prime example of reinvention. “Because her negative brand attributes centred around too much predatory sexuality,” she says, “motherhood and her clear devotion to her children showed a different, gentler side and balanced out her reputation.”
The couple’s fame rose as they travelled the world with their huge “rainbow family”, alternatively making films or doing good – be it campaigning to help New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, or working in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Many suspect that Jolie has brilliantly manipulated her narrative so the husband-stealing/wild-child persona has been airbrushed by the human saint. Whatever the motives, for more than a decade she’s travelled frequently to some of the most insalubrious corners of the world, bringing huge publicity to previously unfashionable causes.
“Frankly, if a celebrity isn’t genuinely interested in poverty and is simply trying to get good press, there are better ways to do it. Travelling to Darfur or Congo is dangerous, expensive and uncomfortable, and the outhouses have bats, scorpions and camel spiders,” says Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, who spoke with Jolie at a 2008 session at the Council on Foreign Relations about justice in Darfur.
While she plays the celebrity game, it always seems to serve a higher purpose than personal vanity or greed. Pictures of her newborn twins were sold for a $14 million donation to her Jolie-Pitt Foundation. Those who have worked with her say her behaviour is strikingly un-divalike and professional.
Still, a suspicion persists that her youthful eccentricity (her father once tearfully described her as having “serious mental problems”) has never gone away, but that her restlessness is now being channelled to positive ends.
Now Jolie is reinventing herself again, as a director. Her latest, second, film Unbroken, about a Second World War hero, is hotly tipped as a 2015 Oscar contender. But before picking up another golden statue, there is the matter of a visit to Buckingham Palace to collect her gong.
......
Indeed, so drastic has been her rehabilitation that Jolie’s status is now among the tiny section of Hollywood stars deemed untouchable. According to US pollster Q Scores, which determines celebrities’ likeability factor, Jolie’s score is 23 – meaning 23 per cent of US adults consider her “one of [their] favourite personalities”, while 85 per cent of adults know who she is. This compared with a 15 per cent likeability score and 46 per cent awareness for the average actress.
.......
She’s Hollywood royalty, a megabrand,” says one film insider. Indeed, a recent poll named her, along with Pitt, as the celebrities most sought-after for endorsements. “Jolie has formed a strong emotional bond with American consumers, which is on the rise,” confirms Henry Schafer, executive vice-president of Q Scores.
Perhaps her appeal comes from her chameleon-like qualities. She has a sex-bomb persona (she is regularly named the world’s most beautiful woman by magazines such as Vogue) but is simultaneously a “madonna”, the mother of six children, three of whom are adopted.
“What’s remarkable about Jolie is she’s the best at everything she touches,” says Christina Hopkinson, author of The A-List Family. “When she was in her bad-girl phase, she was the baddest imaginable. Now she’s a mother, she’s the ultimate earth-mother of three boys and three girls – even her twins were the perfect boy-girl combination.
.....
Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future, uses Jolie as a prime example of reinvention. “Because her negative brand attributes centred around too much predatory sexuality,” she says, “motherhood and her clear devotion to her children showed a different, gentler side and balanced out her reputation.”
The couple’s fame rose as they travelled the world with their huge “rainbow family”, alternatively making films or doing good – be it campaigning to help New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, or working in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Many suspect that Jolie has brilliantly manipulated her narrative so the husband-stealing/wild-child persona has been airbrushed by the human saint. Whatever the motives, for more than a decade she’s travelled frequently to some of the most insalubrious corners of the world, bringing huge publicity to previously unfashionable causes.
“Frankly, if a celebrity isn’t genuinely interested in poverty and is simply trying to get good press, there are better ways to do it. Travelling to Darfur or Congo is dangerous, expensive and uncomfortable, and the outhouses have bats, scorpions and camel spiders,” says Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, who spoke with Jolie at a 2008 session at the Council on Foreign Relations about justice in Darfur.
While she plays the celebrity game, it always seems to serve a higher purpose than personal vanity or greed. Pictures of her newborn twins were sold for a $14 million donation to her Jolie-Pitt Foundation. Those who have worked with her say her behaviour is strikingly un-divalike and professional.
Still, a suspicion persists that her youthful eccentricity (her father once tearfully described her as having “serious mental problems”) has never gone away, but that her restlessness is now being channelled to positive ends.
Now Jolie is reinventing herself again, as a director. Her latest, second, film Unbroken, about a Second World War hero, is hotly tipped as a 2015 Oscar contender. But before picking up another golden statue, there is the matter of a visit to Buckingham Palace to collect her gong.
