Angelina Jolie and the cast of Salt were in Washington DC today for the junket. Salt opens on July 23. I hear tracking hasn’t been great. But I also hear no one counts out the Jolie. And will the Jolie show up at Comic-Con the day before Salt hits theatres just to tweak the geeks? Word is there is an outside shot at a Brange appearance as both Jolie and Pitt have projects being featured at the convention.

Ummmm...

I’m going to Comic-Con for etalk. And I’ve already been warned about the crowds and the smells. A Brange stampede sounds dangerous. You know those Brangelunatics.

They’ve been all over my inbox today about the additional excerpts coming out of Angelina’s interview with safe Parade. I already complained about her irritating gush earlier this week – click here for a refresher. Her uber-fans keep yelling at me via email that think that the new quotes are so insightful, that they demonstrate her intelligence. I don’t doubt the Jolie’s insight or intellect. But there’s nothing illuminating about a one-way conversation with sycophantic publication that doesn’t have the balls to talkback.

You can read the article here. Angie goes on, as usual, about family, religion, her relationship, and the industry, in airy fairy platitudes. Note that her responses are offered without prompt so that we don’t even know the questions that elicited them. In that sense, she may as well have written this sh-t out on her own the day before – a series of premeditated responses that touch on all the right things with the security of knowing there won’t be a challenge.

I find it terribly unsatisfying. And it’s not simply directed at her. It’s all of them, most of them, celebrities in general, especially the most famous ones. Because what can you learn from a one-sided conversation? And how often do they engage in a two-sided conversation?

This is the problem. There is never a proper discussion. If you’re sitting on the opposite side, you’re never allowed to press. You can press with a politician, a lobbyist, a conventional newsmaker, a business man, a civilian – that’s when interviews have a shot at being somewhat more authentic, that’s when it becomes engaging. But this interview? With Angelina Jolie? Please.

Take for example these words on Brad Pitt:

"Brad is a wonderful man. He's extraordinary, because he really, really stepped out on his own away from what he knew growing up. It's just such a natural transition. When you really love someone, you evolve. Love trumps everything. It's like when you have a child. It's not that you consciously put them before yourself -- it's that doing it is what you instinctively want because you have to come from a place of love. When I think about Brad, there is a lot of love."

He really, really stepped out on his own away from what he knew growing up.

Now THERE’s an interesting statement. Something you care about. Something that, during a normal conversation, would provoke a follow-up. What does that mean? What did he know growing up that he stepped away from? Why? And how?

No follow-up is allowed. In other words this interview is simply a series of pretty sounding statements tossed out there with no context and one purpose only: think well of me, and therefore go see my movie.

That might work for someone less formidable because our expectations are so low, but that’s not going to cut it for Angelina Jolie. Because we know she can reckon. And we know she will come. And this, this pathetic pussyfooting, it seems so beneath her.

I love Angelina Jolie. I love her because she can handle being challenged. THIS is not challenging. We haven’t seen her challenged in a long time. And she won’t be challenged, at least something new then. We’ve heard her say these things over and over, all over again, for the last two years. It’s really not the right strategy. Not for a movie like Salt anyway.


Photos from PAPS FIRST/Splashnewsonline.com