Over the weekend, the world was shocked (shocked!) to see Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt hanging out in Venice with Angelina’s dad, Jon Voight. Voight and Jolie had been estranged for nearly eight years, although Angelina had claimed in a few interviews over the past few years that she and her dad were working on their issues. It seemed that we had photographic evidence that the hatchet was buried, or whatever, and those of us (me) who have been wary of Voight for a while simply decided to bide our time, waiting for him to f-ck up again. What’s that? Oh, yes. You see, Jon Voight loves to talk about his daughter and her life, even doing so when they were estranged. Voight loves to talk about everything, honestly, and the man is kind of crazy (something about apples falling from trees, et cetera).

So Voight is back in the US, and of course he’s talking. But he made a valiant effort to keep from weeping hysterically on camera, or announcing dramatically that Brangelina will adopt any minute, or sputtering out something about “Shakira”. When paparazzi approached him at LAX, he only said that the trip was “wonderful” and saying something about “everything Brad does is terrific.” Then Grandpa Voight muttered “I don’t want to talk about it so much.” Damn. Empress Zahara must have been like “Keep your crazy in check, Gramps.” However, you can’t tamp down Voight’s need to talk about his fragile reunion with his daughter! He gave an exclusive interview to Us Weekly on Wednesday, and he played it out like a maestro:

They are family! In an exclusive phone interview from Venice, Italy, Jon Voight raved to UsMagazine.com about his “holiday” with his daughter Angelina Jolie, her partner Brad Pitt and their six children.

“It’s nice to have something that’s positive!” Voight, 71, told Us of getting together Sunday in Venice with his once-estranged daughter. He says their boat ride down the ancient city’s Grand Canal was “lovely…the weather wasn’t so bad for the journey. It’s a very beautiful trip. A lot of fun.”

And among his half-dozen grandkids, one blonde, blue-eyed beauty stood out: “I have baby pictures that are very resembling of Shiloh,” he noted. “I don’t know about all the resemblances, but obviously there are some because of the genes.” (Shiloh, 3, is Jolie and Pitt’s first biological child; her siblings are Maddox, 8, Pax, 6, Zahara, 5, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 19 months.)

The actor would love to pay a repeat visit to Venice during the brood’s stay there (Jolie, 34, is shooting The Tourist). “I love the possibility of spending time with the family. It’s a very beautiful thing.”

Oh yeah: and Jolie and Pitt are doing fine, yes? “Exactly right,” Voight assured Us, poo-pooing recent split rumors. “Of course they are! You can see!”

[From Us Weekly]

I wasn’t sure about the “baby pictures” reference. Is he saying that when he was a baby, he looked just like Shiloh? Or is he talking about baby photos of Angelina? I think he’s talking about his own baby photos. Which is weird, because I think Shiloh looks so much like Brad. Although Brad looks sort of like Jon Voight. So around we go…

E! News also had an interesting little behind-the-scenes look at what it took to get Angelina and Jon in the same room together. The Voight stuff isn’t that interesting, but there’s some cool stuff about James Haven, Angelina’s brother. I had been wondering what James was up to lately – it turns out he’s born-again and studying to be a minister! Oh, James. I heart your crazy ass too!

Being partners with Brad Pitt sure does have its advantages. We just never thought his mediation skills would be one of them. But it turns out the actor is more than just a pretty-faced Basterd, and we have his powers of persuasion to thank for Brangelina’s most recent European vacation photo op, last weekend’s reunion of Angelina Jolie and her formerly estranged father, Jon Voight.

Between Pitt and Angelina’s brother, James Haven, the frosty relationship has thawed considerably. Here’s how their Venetian meet-up went down:

Everyone (who follows these sorts of things) knows that things first went south between father and daughter (and son) during Jolie’s Tomb Raider days, when Billy Bob Thornton’s throat couldn’t appear on a red carpet without Jolie’s tongue firmly rammed down it.

A source close to the actress tells E! News that Papa Voight didn’t take too kindly to the PDAs, even writing a letter to his daughter telling her how “disgusting” her behavior was. The then made the media rounds suggesting his daughter needed an intervention. That also led to Haven to sever ties with Voight and align himself with his sister.

Eventually, however, Voight tried to make amends, mailing Jolie a gold necklace as a peace offering—that she promptly returned to sender.

Then, roughly a year ago, Haven became a born-again Christian and began training as a minister, at which point he successfully resumed and maintained contact with his father. Haven soon tried to get his sister to follow his lead by making nice with their dad, though she routinely rebuffed his olive-branch advances.

Enter Pitt. The insider tells E! News that Pitt thought Voight “deserved a second chance and so he stepped in.”

It apparently did the trick, as it was Jolie who invited her father out to Venice last week.

“The visit actually went really well, and Angie’s thrilled he got on really well with all her kids. She’s grown up a lot, and forgiving Jon is a huge step,” the source says.

The well-photographed trip marked the first time Voight had met with all six of his grandchildren. And not a moment too soon. We were beginning to worry he’d never meet Shakira Zahara.

[From E! News]

If that’s the way it went down, good for them. I wonder why James didn’t come for a visit too? He was probably studying. I also wonder if Angelina truly did all of this “rebuffing” of all of Voight’s efforts. That’s pretty hardcore, to send back jewelry from your dad. You can keep the jewelry and still not talk to your father, you know, Angelina!

Jon and Angelina in Venice on February 21, 2010. Credit: INFphoto.com. Vintage James Haven at the ‘Mighty Heart‘ premiere in NY on June 13, 2007. Angelina in Paris on February 24, 2010. Credit: WENN.