For me, Angelina Jolie has always gotten extra points for being a rare Hollywood star who doesn’t have a “team” of sycophants and handlers “managing” her every whim. She’s always had a manager – Geyer Kosinski – who she’s been with for probably 15 or 16 years. She has a lawyer or two, and that’s it. When she started up with Brad in 2005, she took meetings around Hollywood to see if she could/should sign with an agency, and she ended up hiring CAA. It was not a good fit, and Jolie ended up firing CAA in early 2006 – some say she quit the agency in a fit of pregnancy hormones and because she’s never liked to be micromanaged, which CAA is famous for. Since that 2006 fit, Jolie has just stuck with Kosinski as her sole representation in Hollywood – no agent, no publicist, no “team”.

That’s just changed, though. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jolie just signed on with Ilene Feldman at IFA Talent because she wants to get more diverse work. Interesting.

Angelina Jolie has added a talent agent to her team of representatives. The actress-filmmaker has signed with Ilene Feldman at IFA Talent, who also represents Ryan Gosling, among others.

The last time Jolie had acting representation by a talent agency was in 2006, when she was with CAA (a stint that lasted 13 months). In March, she signed with UTA to rep her as a writer and director but not as an actor. She continues to be with her longtime manager Geyer Kosinski at Media Talent Group and attorney Robert Offer of Sloane Offer Weber & Dern.

Sources say IFA will help Jolie, arguably the biggest female star in the world, find roles in smaller, independently financed films, not studio tentpoles or franchises.

The move comes just over month before the release of Jolie’s directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, which she also wrote. Jolie has spent the past several years acting in big studio movies such as The Tourist, Salt and Wanted, and has lent her voice to the mega-grossing Kung Fu Panda movies.

Her last dramas were 2008’s The Changeling and 2007’s A Mighty Heart, the former earning her an Oscar nomination. She won the best supporting actress statuette for 1999’s Girl, Interrupted.

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Part of me is disappointed. Part of Jolie’s appeal (to me) is that she proves that someone with intelligence and talent can excel in Hollywood without having some epic “industry” of people working on her behalf. I mean, what’s next? Will Jolie hire a publicist? Nooo!

But what this is probably really about is Angelina aging in the industry. She knows that she’s not always going to be getting the biggest and best scripts in Hollywood, and although she’s one of the few female stars who can single-handedly get a film financed and made, Jolie is smart enough to know that this too shall pass. She’s looking into the future and she sees fewer roles where she’s jumping off of overpasses onto moving vehicles and more work where she’s the supporting player in a medium-sized ensemble, or the lead in a small film. It’s smart, sure. But I wonder if she would have been able to make that transition without an agent?

Photos courtesy of WENN.