About a week ago, I wrote an article about Maddox Jolie-Pitt leaving his school after only six weeks because Brangelina were moving to Los Angeles for Angie’s new movie. I speculated that it couldn’t be great for Maddox to have to leave schools after such a short period of time. Several commenters pointed out that Army kids move a lot, which is very true. I’m under the impression that they generally don’t have to move several times a year, and if nothing else, their parents don’t have quite the same ability to choose not to move as Angelina and Brad do. What I have to say on the issue doesn’t really matter because I’m just some random person, but the New York Daily News has decided to get a professional to jump on board.

BRAD PITT and Angelina Jolie may not be doing their four children any favors by constantly schlepping them from city to city around the world. The nomadic superstars, who have lived in at least a half-dozen cities in two years, may be hurting their eldest son, Maddox, 6, by pulling him from schools and the younger three by “not creating a stable environment outside the family unit,” said Manhattan-based psychotherapist/social worker Puja Hall, who’s been practicing for 21 years. “Maddox is an adopted child, so he already has a sense of abandonment,” said Hall. “Kids that constantly move are like army brats, in that very often they don’t want to open up to people. They feel loss, and there is a problem with attachment.”

So far, the Jolie-Pitt clan has lived in New Orleans, Paris, Namibia, Berlin and, most recently, New York, where Maddox attended the prestigious Lycée Francais for just six weeks. Now they’re in L.A., where Jolie is shooting “The Changeling.” Pitt and Jolie are rumored to have enrolled at least one of the kids at Universal Studio’s child-care center. “With the moves, the kids just don’t invest in relationships, because they’re going to lose them anyway,” Hall told Page Six’s Marianne Garvey. “They think: ‘Why bother? I’m not gonna stick around. We’re gonna pick up and go, and the loss of friends is painful.’ ”

Hall added that before Pax, 3, Zahara, 2, and Shiloh, 16 months, get any older, Angelina and Brad need to decide where to settle down. “It needs to be weighed,” said Hall. “At some point, they will have to make some important choices so the kids can form those bonds and keep them.”

That’s not the only problem – the kids also seem to be skipping the waiting lists at the schools. “We would most likely not take a child for [just] a few months, because we have a waiting list. If we take them for two months and you pay for two months, we lose money and someone on the waiting list loses a spot,” said an employee at Lycée Francais, where the yearly tuition is $18,000 plus a $2,000 contract-signing fee. “You still have to pay for at least half the year,” the staff member said.

[From the Daily News]

So it would have behooved the expert to mention that he’s (presumably) never met nor treated Brangelina’s kids, so everything he’s saying is professional conjecture, though it still carries some weight. I remember hearing a psychologist once say that human beings aren’t nearly as original as we like to think we are – for the most part, we tend to react in pretty predictable ways. Still, if Brangelina manage to instill a love of adventure in their kids from an early age, they could thrive under their unique circumstances. Angelina’s rep also noted that Maddox only attends Lycée schools (which are located throughout the country and the world), which may mean there’s more stability than we thought. It’s possible that if Maddox cycles between the same few schools through the years, he might maintain friendships with kids he meets often enough. One would also hope this means there’s a little bit of similarity between the curricula, so perhaps Maddox’s unique circumstances mean his moves aren’t as jarring as one would think.

I like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt well enough, though I don’t think they’re the second coming like a lot of people, but they’re pretty good, especially as celebrities go. The two have constantly said that their kids are the center of their lives, and considering how many of them they’re racking up, one would hope it’s true. Yet they haven’t curbed their jet setting lifestyle or established any type of clear home base for the kids, and that’s kind of worrisome. Most people agree that kids thrive on routine with a little variety thrown in, and not the other way around. After a just a little over a month at his new school, Maddox has been taken out of Lycee Francais de New York. Angelina is filming a new movie in Los Angeles, so the family is now heading there, and the kids are being yanked around again.

“After a little over a month, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, 5, had his last day at his $18,000-a-year Lycee Francais de New York in NYC yesterday, walking out with a goodbye card as a souvenir as mom Angelina Jolie escorted him home. This is at least the fourth school change for Maddox, who has also been a student in New Orleans, Prague, and L.A.

“Since the oldest member of the Jolie-Pitt brood started classes on September 4, his stay had caused a frenzy. Parents began crowding the school in the morning, taking pictures. The Lycee’s director of operations, Dan Cooke, even penned a letter September 14, urging them to respect the family’s privacy.

“The next stop for the Brangelina clan? L.A.! Jolie begins shooting the Clint Eastwood mystery The Changeling on Monday, while Brad Pitt will start production on the crime thriller State of Play on October 22.”

[From Us Weekly]

It’s hard to say if it would be better for the kids to have one home base and see their parents less, or if they should have tutors that go with them everywhere so their educations aren’t disrupted, or if bouncing from school to school is the best option. None of the options are really ideal. I just remember how the new kids in school were always treated as outsiders and a little weird – now imagine you’re the child of famous parents, and you’re the new kid a couple times a year. That’s got to make it hard to make friends and feel like there’s people you can trust. I really don’t think it’s fair to tell people not to care about their careers, but I think that if you’re going to have kids, you need to be willing to sacrifice a bit. Having to leave a new school after just a month makes it seem like the only sacrifice is coming from Maddox.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s the goodbye card given to Maddox by his classmates today on his last day of school. Images thanks to Splash Photos.

Poor Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. They’ve been seriously inconvenienced lately when dropping off their oldest son Maddox at Manhattan’s ultra-posh Lycee Francais school. People are asking them for pictures, autographs, or just having the general nerve to say their names. But if nothing else, these are random street hooligans, right? Well, no. They’re other Lycee Francais parents. A little embarrassing. Considering how fancy the school is, you’d think the parents would be a little more annoyed by the Brangelina hubbub than the other way around, but sadly that’s not the case.

“The New York Observer reports that the Lycee’s director of operations, Dan Cooke, had to ask parents to leave Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie alone. He wrote in a letter, ‘Regretfully, I have seen some parents taking pictures, asking for autographs, talking to the media and even shouting at Ms. Jolie and Mr. Pitt for recognition. Therefore, in the best interests of the school and safety of your child(ren) I must ask for everyone to please respect the family’s privacy and discontinue these practices.’

“Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have made concerted efforts to ensure that the chaos [sic] that surrounds them is kept to a minimum when dropping son Maddox, 5, off for classes. Cooke explains in his letter:

“‘I’m sure you are aware the school has received much media attention recently during the arrival and dismissal times because of the presence of celebrities Ms. Angelina Jolie and/or Mr. Brad Pitt. I want to make you aware that before the first day of school I met with their security team to discuss the best manner in which for them to drop off and pick up their son. Our foremost goal was to cause the least amount of disruption to the school and to ensure the security of all of our students and families.’”

[From US Weekly]

I expected Upper East Side parents to have a bit more decorum about them, just not give a damn, or if nothing else be righteously annoyed by the Brangelina spectacle. Turns out they’re just a bunch of screaming girls at a Beatles concert like the rest of us. Too old a reference? Okay, turns out they’re just a bunch of screaming girls at a Justin Timberlake concert. That could really make those parent open houses awkward. Someone says hello to Brad Pitt, Brad’s security team knocks the parent over and confiscates their cell phone… and their camera… and their binoculars… okay I guess these people really are freaks.

It actually is enough of a problem that Maddox has become afraid of the paparazzi and all the screaming at school lately.

“A source tells the Observer that the constant attention of the paparazzi (and eager parents) has already had an effect on adopted son Maddox. The normally happy Mad got scared and started to cry when his kindergarten class was asked to bring in a picture of themselves.”

[From US Weekly]

Maybe he’s just crying because he’s got that silly Mohawk in all those pictures and he’s too embarrassed to bring one in? I’m kidding, the Mohawk is adorable. He’s probably actually crying because all of the family photos are in Us Weekly.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Angelina and Brad picking Maddox up from Lycee Francais. You can see that it looks like there’s a lot of students lined up to look at them, though no visible parents. Images thanks to the Daily Mail.

I have publicly admitted that I really prefer to write about celebrities being bad to being good. I try to cover all the stories equally, but the bad stories get sooooo many more comments. So, in an attempt to point out the positive, I’m going to start posting a “Good Celebrity” article a day. Unless I get yelled at a lot for doing it, in which case I’m going to slink away and go back to posting 18 Lohan articles alone. So be nice. Our first celebrity is…. hold your breath… Shakira!

Shakira has been secretly (and by secretly, I mean not bringing X 17 along) taking classes at UCLA this summer. While the rest of us have been sweltering at our offices – or if we’re lucky, sweltering at the beach – Shakira has been studying the history of Western civilization. Just because.

“Shakira has been using her free time to study at UCLA. For the past month, the Colombian pop star has been attending a class at the University of California, Los Angeles, titled “Introduction to Western Civilization: Ancient Civilizations from Prehistory to Circa 843.”

Shakira’s manager Fifi Kurzman told the Associated Press the 30-year-old singer started attending classes August 6 following the conclusion of her latest tour. Classes ended September 13, although instructor Robert Cleve said Shakira didn’t attend the last few sessions. He said he hadn’t known she was a celebrity and was astonished to find out her identity.

“‘She told me she was visiting from Colombia and that she was just doing this for her own enlightenment and enjoyment,’ Cleve said. ‘She looked just like an ordinary student. She wasn’t flamboyant…she didn’t act like a big celebrity or anything.’

“Cleve said Shakira, who sat in the third row in the lecture hall, would often discuss material with him after class. ‘I was really impressed with how intelligent she was,’ he said. Kurzman said Shakira has for years studied on her own, also taking tutorials on the history and languages of the countries she visits.”

[From Voice of America]

Um, I love Shakira now. That is so cool. I only took Western civilization because it was required and all I remember about it was that the professor looked like a pedophile. Yes you can look like a pedophile… and if I wouldn’t get sued, I’d put his picture up so you all could understand. Unfortunately I mentioned that to a few classmates who all agreed, and I found out years later that students still call him that. That’s why you shouldn’t call people names, kids. Anyhoo, let’s give Shakira some points for doing something good. In the wake of all the other pop-tarts’ drinking, boozing, sleezing, and DUI-ing, Shakira is taking college classes just for fun. While I’m sure Paris got quite an interesting education in jail, I doubt she could tell you all about Gilgamesh. She’d probably tell you that it was some new kind of undergarment.

Dr. Drew Pinsky from the radio show Loveline and his partner psychologist Mark Young had 200 celebrities that appeared on their show fill out a psychological questionnaire called The Narcissism Personality Inventory. The results show that celebrities really are more full of themselves than the average person. They’re more concerned about their appearance and have an inflated sense of self importance. The less real life skills they have, the more likely they are to be off the charts narcissism-wise.

Two Los Angeles psychologists have produced the first scientific evidence that many celebrities sincerely believe that they are better than the rest of us. The psychologists’ forthcoming book suggests that many pop culture icons are heading for disaster.

Mark Young and Drew Pinsky used a mathematical formula to measure the traits, including exhibitionism and vanity, that make up narcissism. Psychologists believe that in general men are both bossier than women and show off more. However, in the “celebrity class” women are far more narcissistic than men and up to a third are more manipulative and vain about their appearance than the typical woman in the street, according to the psychologists from the University of Southern California.

Young and Pinsky have had rare access: celebrities queue up to appear on Loveline, Pinsky’s nationally syndicated radio show, where he has been compared to Professor Anthony Clare, the BBC psychiatrist, for his revealing interviewing style.

They asked 200 celebrities who appeared on the programme to fill out a standard questionnaire called the Narcissism Personality Inventory. They were asked how they felt about themselves, including whether they felt they deserved compliments or were embarrassed by them and whether they insisted on being “respected” at all times.

Participants remain anonymous but interviewees featured on Pinsky’s website include Renée Zellweger, Jessica Simpson, Jim Carrey and members of Duran Duran, the British pop band.

“It was people like that — actors, comedians, musicians and reality TV contestants — who emerged as the most narcissistic of all,” said Pinsky. “The fewer real-life skills they had, the louder they tend to be in their attempts to hold on to attention.”

The article goes on to say that crotch-baring may be a sign of their extreme narcissism. People who are full of themselves “crave attention, are over-confident… lack empathy and can behave erratically,” but are often charming in person.

Keep in mind that Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears never went to college. Paris Hilton has a GED, Lindsay Lohan graduated from high school on Long Island, and Britney Spears was home-schooled and attended a performing arts school. I cannot figure out if she earned any kind of degree. Nicole Richie attended college for two years at the University of Arizona but didn’t earn an associates as far as I could tell. What kind of jobs could these women get if they were forced to fend for themselves like average people? I have a feeling Paris might do well out of sheer persistence.

It’s not surprising that celebrities are full of themselves. Is that a symptom or a cause of their fame or a bit of both? Why bother to learn anything else when you can earn big bucks just by showing up and being yourself?

In what sounds like an item from our Celebrity Futures wish list, Kirsten Dunst has vowed to quit acting and go to art school in order to widen her horizons:

That’s great for Kirsten and I won’t make fun of the tiny snaggle-toothed actress for once. If she follows through on this pledge she’ll be setting a great example for young people about what’s important in life. It’s more fulfilling more to focus on one’s education and go after a goal than to get wasted and go out every night. (*cough* Lohan *cough*)

66 year-old “West Wing” actor Martin Sheen has made a life change and is currently studying English literature, philosophy and theology at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

Natalie Portman is another actress who values education. She was a straight-A student at Harvard University and graduated in 2003 with a psychology major.

Here’s Kirsten at Sony Global Marketing Partners at the end of September. [via]

In what sounds like one of those nightmares where you realize that you signed up for a class you never went to and are about to miss the final, Brad Pitt says he got antsy to start his acting career just as he was due to graduate college, and said “screw it” and drove off to LA:

That takes a lot of nerve, but there’s more to that story I’m sure. You don’t just drop out of college a week before you graduate when you’re doing well in your classes or if you even gave it some effort. It doesn’t matter now, though. There are plenty of success stories starring people who did poorly in school, never went, or dropped out. Just look at the president of the US – ok, don’t look or listen to him for that matter, and it’s a better story.

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to work on the burgeoning Microsoft. Angelina Jolie took night classes at New York University in theater, but I can’t find out much more and I doubt she got a degree. Paris Hilton only has a GED, which should surprise no one.

Stay in school, students, but if you’re good looking, really smart, and/or ballsy you may as well drop out and follow your dreams. (Or, let’s be realistic, you could win the lottery, because that’s slightly more likely statistically than reaching Brad’s level of success.)

There’s an excellent interview with Brad, in which he says he wants a whole team full of kids, and talks candidly about his love of flying and activism, available at Gossip Rocks, and published originally in the Phillipine Inquirer.

Here’s some random classic Brad Pitt photos, thanks to Simply Brad. Check out those piercing blue eyes.