Everybody has chimed in about Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy at this point, and from a celebrity perspective, it’s been all-positive, although I’m waiting to see how the tabloids and/or Chelsea Handler spin this. Brad Pitt issued a statement hours after Angelina’s NYT op-ed came out, and most celebrities have tweeted well-wishes and positive thoughts to Jolie. And now Brad’s mom Jane has issued a statement! James Haven too.

After she revealed she underwent a preventative double mastectomy, Angelina Jolie’s family members are voicing their support.

“We’re so very proud of Angie, this means so much to our family especially our grandchildren. We love her dearly,” Brad Pitt’s mother, Jane Pitt, says in a statement.

Jolie’s brother, James Haven, also spoke out about her decision to undergo the procedure.

“My sister like our mother always put her children first,” he says in a statement. “I am so grateful to be her brother.”

In a New York Times op-ed piece, Jolie describes her difficult choice to have surgery after genetic tests showed her to have a high risk of developing the disease. Her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer at 56 in 2007.

Jolie, 37, also expressed how much she leaned on Pitt, 49, whom she described as “loving and supportive,” and there for her “for every minute of the surgeries.”

Pitt released a statement of his own on Tuesday, saying, “Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for their care and focus.”

[From People]

See? Despite Jane Pitt’s super-conservative politics, she and Angelina still get along really well. Angie and Jane have spent a lot of time together over the years, with Brad’s parents coming out to support Angelina’s films, and Jane in particular coming out for some lovely happy-family photo-ops. There really isn’t any drama (or at least not the kind of drama the tabloids claim there is). As for James Haven… he barely ever issues public statements anymore. I don’t even know what he’s up to at this point. Idly, I wondered why Jon Voight hadn’t piped up in the first hours after Angelina’s announcement, but The Mail claimed (at first) that Voight already knew about the double mastectomy and that he’s “been immensely helpful in the last month.” But they have a new story saying that Voight wasn’t told and that he found out when everyone else did.

Meanwhile, The Mail has an “exclusive” story about how Brad and Angelina are determined to marry “sooner rather than later” after this medical ordeal, but the story is mostly a hodge-podge of older quotes, mostly from Brad. A source claims: “Angie is keen on a wedding and the kids are clamouring for a marriage and keep asking Brad and Angie when it’s happening. Brad has been caught up in production turmoil with his new film World War Z, so there’s been no wedding planning as a result, but Angie has said it will happen sooner rather than later. They are all for all intents and purposes married, but it’s become clear that it’s important to them to make it official.” Apparently, they’re not so sure about getting married at Chateau Mirval, and Angelina is angling for maybe a Bosnian or a Cambodian wedding.

Oh, and I just saw this – Angelina covers the new issue of People Mag (they must have put this together yesterday). You can read the online excerpt here. There’s a piece of new information – sources claim Angelina is going to have her ovaries removed at some point to bring down her chances (50%) of developing ovarian cancer.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

Angelina Jolie’s preventative double-mastectomy op-ed is the story of the day, and it’s all anyone can talk about. Us Weekly has a summary of some celebrity reactions – Sheryl Crow, Christina Applegate (both of whom have dealt with breast cancer and mastectomy issues) both tweeted their support for Angelina. A slew of other celebrities have tweeted and commented about it too, all of the comments positive and praising of Angelina and her informative, educational and inspirational op-ed. And in case you were wondering, Brad Pitt has issued a statement too. And so has UK Foreign Secretary (and Angelina’s latest BFF) William Hague.

Brad Pitt today hailed his fiancée Angelina Jolie as “heroic” after the actress revealed she has undergone a double mastectomy because of her extremely high cancer risk. Jolie, 37, revealed she had chosen the surgical procedure as a preventative measure after genetic tests revealed she had an 87 per cent chance of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent chance of ovarian cancer.

The Oscar-winning actress, whose mother Marcheline Bertrand died of ovarian cancer in 2007 at the age of 56, said she had taken the difficult decision so she could tell her children “they don’t need to fear they will lose me”.

Pitt told the Standard: “Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as so many others like her, absolutely heroic. I thank our medical team for their care and focus. All I want for is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.”

Amazingly, Jolie kept working throughout the past three months, making a high-profile trip to the Congo alongside William Hague and appearing at the G8 Summit in London last month to call for an end to sexual violence in conflict zones.

Mr Hague said today: “This is a brave choice by a remarkable woman. The courage it must have taken not only to go through this treatment but then to speak about it to help other women is truly inspiring. Throughout it all her humanitarian work has not missed a beat. This is a courageous decision by one of the bravest people I know. I wish her and her family the very best.”

[From The Standard]

God, I love Brad. I can just feel how this really did bring them closer together. And I think this is probably why we haven’t heard much about their wedding plans too – they wanted to get all of this stuff sorted out before they officially tied the knot. They are in it for the long haul – the fact that Brad was there every step of the way says that.

People Magazine has a story about how Brad and Angelina kept their schedules “normal” and how they’ve really just been focusing a lot on their kids, like always.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Angelina Jolie wrote an op-ed, published in today’s New York Times, in which she discusses her medical decision to have a double-mastectomy. Angelina’s mother Marcheline battled cancer for a decade – Marcheline was diagnosed when Angelina was in her early 20s. I think Marcheline’s cancer battle and death in 2007 was one of the most devastating things that has ever happened to Angelina, and it gave Angelina the sense that she would probably die young like her mother. She’s always said variations of “The women in my family die young” and that’s why she always said she chose to have so many kids so fast – she wanted to be able to enjoy motherhood while she could. Well, Angelina’s doctors told her that she has/had a very high risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer, so she underwent the double mastectomy over the past three months. Here’s her NYT op-ed:

MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.

We often speak of “Mommy’s mommy,” and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a “faulty” gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman. Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1 have a 65 percent risk of getting it, on average.

Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex.

On April 27, I finished the three months of medical procedures that the mastectomies involved. During that time I have been able to keep this private and to carry on with my work.

But I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.

My own process began on Feb. 2 with a procedure known as a “nipple delay,” which rules out disease in the breast ducts behind the nipple and draws extra blood flow to the area. This causes some pain and a lot of bruising, but it increases the chance of saving the nipple.

Two weeks later I had the major surgery, where the breast tissue is removed and temporary fillers are put in place. The operation can take eight hours. You wake up with drain tubes and expanders in your breasts. It does feel like a scene out of a science-fiction film. But days after surgery you can be back to a normal life.

Nine weeks later, the final surgery is completed with the reconstruction of the breasts with an implant. There have been many advances in this procedure in the last few years, and the results can be beautiful.

I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.

It is reassuring that they see nothing that makes them uncomfortable. They can see my small scars and that’s it. Everything else is just Mommy, the same as she always was. And they know that I love them and will do anything to be with them as long as I can. On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.

I am fortunate to have a partner, Brad Pitt, who is so loving and supportive. So to anyone who has a wife or girlfriend going through this, know that you are a very important part of the transition. Brad was at the Pink Lotus Breast Center, where I was treated, for every minute of the surgeries. We managed to find moments to laugh together. We knew this was the right thing to do for our family and that it would bring us closer. And it has.

For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options. I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices.

I acknowledge that there are many wonderful holistic doctors working on alternatives to surgery. My own regimen will be posted in due course on the Web site of the Pink Lotus Breast Center. I hope that this will be helpful to other women.

Breast cancer alone kills some 458,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization, mainly in low- and middle-income countries. It has got to be a priority to ensure that more women can access gene testing and lifesaving preventive treatment, whatever their means and background, wherever they live. The cost of testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2, at more than $3,000 in the United States, remains an obstacle for many women.

I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer. It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options.

Life comes with many challenges. The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of.

[From The NY Times]

Damn, she made me get all teary first thing in the morning. Man. I think this is beautifully written and beautifully thought-out. Angelina has always feared that she would not be around to see her children grow up, and I think this will give her peace of mind for a while. She makes it sound like she’s going to undergo some preventative measures for her ovarian cancer risk as well – what would that involve? A partial or total hysterectomy? I think it’s lovely that Brad was there to support her every step of the way, and I like how she explained the surgeries (because I didn’t realize that it was such a multi-stage process). God bless her.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Last week, we discussed that photoshoot Angelina Jolie did with David LaChapelle back in 2001, and how one of the “never before seen” photos was going up for auction? You may remember, these are the photos where Angelina was getting her freak on with a horse? Yes, you remember. The photos were done for a Rolling Stone cover shoot, and while the auction house claims that the shot (of a horse nuzzling Angelina’s boobs) has “never before been seen,” everybody had already seen it. The horse photos have been floating around for years. Still, I guess LaChapelle wanted to sell a special copy (maybe it’s signed or something) and Christie’s wanted to attract Brangeloonies to their auction, so this thing was over-hyped. And now Brad Pitt is mad/hot. He’s so mad/hot that he’s determined to buy the photo – no matter the cost! – so that he can be the only one to own the photo. Except for all of those websites using the photo, I guess.

Brad Pitt doesn’t want anyone else to see Angelina Jolie horsing around. Brad is desperate to buy up a photo of Angelina posing topless with a noble steed nuzzling her chest. The photograph, titled “Horseplay”, was never published after being snapped by David LaChapelle in 2001 for Rolling Stone Magazine. But it’s not set to headline a sale at London auction house Christie’s where it’s expected to fetch between $38,071 and $53,330.

“Brad is prepared to pay whatever it takes to get the photo,” a source close to Brad told The Enquirer. “Brad finds the photo of free-spirited Angie very sexy, although he’s not wild about the Billy Bob tattoo on her shoulder… he wants to keep the photo for himself but he’s also out to protect Angelina’s new image as an A-list actress, doting mother and UN human rights crusader.”

[From The Enquirer, print edition]

I think it would be sweet if Brad bid on it and if he got it. I think he knows perfectly well that Angelina had a wild, rebellious youth and that she let horses get to second base (and that’s not even the ninth freakiest thing she did in 2001). Maybe Brad even wishes he saw more of that in Angelina. I know I certainly miss her wild streak. I’m glad that she’s become so serious and such a passionate advocate, etc, etc. But I miss 2001 Angelina. That girl knew how to party.

Photos courtesy of David LaChapelle (all images from the 2001 photoshoot) and WENN.

Remember when Angelina Jolie used to let horses motorboat her? Good times. We’ve seen another version of this particular David LaChapelle photo before – I believe it was for a shoot she did with Rolling Stone back in 2000 or 2001. I used some of the photos in a 2010 post about Angelina owning a horse-hair purse (go here to read that story). And now the Horse Photos have come up again! LaChapelle has given this never-before-seen image from the photo shoot for the “The Wild Side of Photography” Christie’s auction in May. This isn’t even the only Angelina Jolie photo being sold in the auction! Steven Klein also put up an image from his 2005 shoot with Angelina and Brad for W Magazine.

A beautiful picture of a carefree Angelina Jolie posing with a white horse will lead a sale of photographs at London auction house Christie’s next month. The never-before-seen image by celebrated photographer David LaChapelle is expected to fetch between £25,000 and £35,000 when it goes under the hammer as part of The Wild Side of Photography sale.

The colour snap from 2001 features the actress as a 25-year-old throwing back a mane of brunette hair and showing off some of her many tattoos, including a ‘Billy Bob’ drawing on her arm, a homage to her then husband which has now been erased.

The photograph of the 37-year-old actress will go on sale alongside a black and white print of Angelina and Brad Pitt posing as husband and wife for Steven Klein in 2005. The black and white image was taken as part of a shoot that the couple appeared in for W magazine before they were officially an item and is expected to to fetch £8,000-12,000.

Both pictures are part of the Contemporary section of the sale that is highlighted by four works by controversial American photographer LaChapelle.

Christie’s claim that this is ‘an opportunity for discerning collectors around the world to acquire photographs with remarkable provenance.’

[From The Mail]

I love some Jolie (especially when she’s old school and getting freaky with a horse), but I wouldn’t pay that much for these photos. Maybe if it was one of the sexier images from that W Magazine shoot. But even then… yeah, well maybe as an investment piece. You know Brangeloonie stuff will probably increase in value. But if I’m going to spend thousands of dollars on a photograph, it’s going to be a photo of Angelina Jolie getting crazy with a horse. Here’s the Klein shot going up for auction (it’s the most boring one).

Here are some additional LaChapelle photos from the same shoot:

Photos courtesy of LaChapelle and Steven Klein.

Angelina Jolie! Maddox! God, he’s getting so big. These are some photos of Angelina and her oldest kid at LAX on Friday. I’m not sure if they were coming or going, but if I had to guess, I would say they were arriving at LA from London? Did Madd get to go with his mom to the G8 conference? Does Maddox think London is cool? Does he have cool London friends? So many questions.

I’m kind of obsessed with Angelina’s outfit here – it’s like she’s wearing her Catwoman suit under that sweater. At first I thought she was wearing some kind of new-fangled leather pants-boots, like it was all one thing and you slide into your leather pants and there are boots attached. But she’s wearing leather pants and leather boots with some kind of high heel (as opposed to the leather riding boots which she wears often). Think about that – Angelina is wearing heels and Maddox is still THAT tall. Without the heels, he must be just a few inches shorter than his mom now. Also note the presence of the Louis Vuitton bag, the only spot of color in an otherwise goth mother-and-son photo-op. Is LV still paying her?!

As for Maddox’s style… he reminds me of both of his parents. He gets his love of black clothing, skulls and the macabre from his mom. He gets his laid-back swagger from his dad. I feel like Madd is even walking like Brad!

PS… According to Us Weekly, Angelina was wearing her engagement ring for this appearance. I forgot to look. I always forget to look. Because I loathe Ring Watch. It’s the worst.

PPS… Brad is supposed to present an award at tonight’s MTV Movie Awards. That should be interesting.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Yay! I’m deliriously happy that we finally got some photos of Angelina Jolie in London yesterday, at the G8 Summit. Angelina went to the G8 probably at the invitation of her new BFF, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague. Angie and Secretary Hague recently traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo together (and Rwanda too) to raise awareness of warzone rape. They also spent time together last year working on the same issues and initiatives – rape, sexual abuse, women’s rights, etc. I think it’s a very smart collaboration for both of them.

Before he traveled to South Korea for an emergency diplomatic mission, our new Secretary of State John Kerry was also at the G8 conference and here’s a weird/funny shot of Secretary Kerry and Angelina looking at a spider or something. I think she’s like, “Dude, you kill it.” And he’s all, “Girl, you’re the Tomb Raider, you kill it.”

To get serious, Angelina is doing such wonderful work and she’s such a wonderful, well-spoken and effective advocate for her causes. I know that sounds so fan-girl-y, but seriously. I just watched the video of her speech, and I think she’s a better and more effective speaker than most professional politicians. Plus, she looks great in pearls.

PS… In the video, who is the dude standing behind Angie’s left side in the blue tie? He’s checking her out.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

In Touch sends us nice email heads-up with information on their upcoming stories, and when I saw the photos of Octomom Nadya Suleman as Angelina Jolie I actually cringed. I’m not even an Angie-loonie (like Kaiser) and I found these photos terribly offensive. That’s probably because I actively dislike Octomom at this point, whereas at some point I just found her crazy. (Although that was an awfully long time ago.)

Anyway this was pretty much a genius PR move on either In Touch or Octo’s part, since it’s led us to talk about her again. They had her pose as Angelina Jolie at the 2012 Oscars doing her iconic Leg and as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. It’s hard to find the right words to capture how disturbing and ridiculous she looks. Their Photoshop artists were working overtime on this one. In terms of Suleman herself, her life is such a mess of debt, scamming, mental illness and now addiction that it’s futile to try and keep up. The last thing that we reported on her was that she’s being investigated for welfare fraud. This is a little filler interview with Suleman and her supermommy delusions, but the photos are much worse than what she says, which is pretty typical for her.

Nadya Suleman instantly became known as “Octomom” when she gave birth to octuplets as a single mother of six in 2009 — and she’s become infamous in the ensuing years for her questionable judgment and controversial life choices.

Now, the mother of 14 channels her inner Angelina Jolie — another mother to a big brood — for an exclusive shoot in the new issue of In Touch, dishing about parenting, her future, and why she doesn’t have it as easy as famous celebrity moms.

“I do a lot!” Nadya tells In Touch of her hands-on mommy-ing. “I’m a cook, a chauffeur and a nanny,” she says, adding that she doesn’t have the perks of fame like other famous mothers of big broods — including her idol, mother of six Angelina Jolie.

“I admire her,” says Nadya, dressed as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. “She saves children’s lives.” And despite comparisons to the actress and idol, she doesn’t think they have that much in common. “I get that we both have a lot of kids, but I don’t think I look anything like her.”

Nadya — who lives in Palmdale, Calif., with 4-year-old octuplets Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jonah (plus her other kids, Elijah, Amerah, Joshua, Aidan, and twins Calyssa and Caleb, all of whom were fathered by the same donor) — says she’s going full-throttle, 24/7.

Between making lunches and bath times, Nadya clips coupons and spends “a couple hundred dollars a week on groceries” — and laundry: “I do several loads every day — there’s always clothes in my washer.”

Though she says she’s staying in the entertainment industry to pay her bills, Nadya — who claims she’ll get her master’s degree in psychology “when my kids are in college” — believes things are starting to look up.

She recently bought a new house and says the kids (the older ones are in public school; the octuplets start preschool soon) are enjoying their big new backyard. “We’ve hit rock bottom,” she says, “but our struggles are what shape us.”

[From In Touch Weekly]

Every home that Octo has lived in since she became famous has gone into foreclosure, even her parents’ home. So this detail at the end that she got a new home is news to me, and it was probably made possible by the state of California. She filed for bankruptcy last year, she trashed the last place where she was living and never paid rent and yet she now bought a new home somehow. I don’t want to try and figure it out.

Getting back to the ridiculous comparisons to Angelina Jolie, who has less than half the number of children than this woman, a partner, a career and more than enough means to care for her family, Octo may say she doesn’t “look like her,” but you know she’s tried to. In 2009, Life & Style reported that she was “obsessed” with Angelina and the Chicago Sun Times claimed that Suleman sent Jolie “multiple letters” which “creeped her out.” There was another story that Suleman used to work as a stripper using the stage name “Angelina.” Oh and this is what she used to look like before she had a ton of plastic surgery. She got a thinned out nose and big puffy lips.

Life and Style cover from February, 2009:

In Touch’s upcoming issue:

As we learned last week, Angelina Jolie flew to New York City to make an appearance at the annual Women In the World Summit. She gave a moving speech about Malala Yousafzai and she was the first to pledge money to the newly formed Malala’s Fund, committed to providing education for Pakistani girls. What I didn’t know was that Angelina had brought her sons Pax and Knox to NYC too, and on Friday, she took them to FAO Schwarz.

First, can we have a word about Pax’s amazing goggles? I always get the impression that Angelina and Brad are the kinds of parents who are like, “You want to wear that? In public? Sure. Why not?” Like, they’re not obsessed with how their kids “look” in public, their focus is just on letting the kids be kids, and if the kid wants to wear goggles (snow goggles, maybe?) in New York in April, why not?

As for Angelina’s outfit… I think she’s worn most of this stuff before. Like, Jennifer Garner almost always wears jeans and a flannel when she’s out with her kids, and Angelina’s default style is “modern witch”. I think the flared coat is throwing me off and giving me such a witchy vibe. The boots aren’t helping either. But the belt thing is kind of awesome, right?

As for Knox… I look at him and he just reminds me so much of Brad, even though I can see some Angelina in his face. Even though Knox is only four-and-a-half, he just carries himself like his dad. He seems so laid-back, like a little dude. I also believe Knox is close to being a ginger – his hair seems reddish-brown. I want to believe he’ll grow up and look like Michael Fassbender. PS… his gold shoes are amazing. I wouldn’t mind having an adult pair just like those.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Here are some photos of Angelina Jolie at the 4th Annual Women in the World Summit in New York City last night. Her Lord of the Rings ensemble is Saint Laurent Spring 2013. It’s very much “the style of Jolie” which is to say Angelina loves a baggy sack dress, she loves black and muddy, unflattering, boring colors, and she loves an insane amount of layers. When she was at the Women in the World Summit last year, she wore a lovely black-and-white suit, so it’s not like she didn’t know that a suit would have been perfectly acceptable. I don’t understand this. Ugh. It’s like she’s still in character as Maleficent.

During her appearance at the summit, Angelina gave a speech about Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Pakistani girl who was targeted by the Taliban because she spoke out about the state of girls’ education. The Taliban shot Malala point-blank in the head last year, but Malala was taken to England for treatment, and she survived. Here’s Angelina’s speech (this made me cry, just FYI, so if you need to get your tissue ready, go ahead).

Angelina says in part, “Here’s what the gunman and the Taliban accomplished on that day. They shot her at point-blank range in the head – and made her stronger. The brutal attempt to silence her voice made it stronger.” Then Malala appeared, via video link-up, to say: “Today I’m going to announce the happiest moment of my life,” she said, revealing that money from the charity fund set up in her name would go towards building a school for 40 girls in Pakistan. “Let us turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million girls.” Angelina committed $200,000 to the new “Malala’s Fund” for Pakistani girls’ education.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.