You have to give Angelina Jolie some credit. Only she can take a decent film, give a decent performance, but have a film completely bomb because her name is associated with it. This past weekend, A Mighty Heart came in 10th at the box office, making less than $4 million dollars. Looks like A Mighty Heart has joined the ranks of such classics as Howard the Duck, Glitter, Gigli, and Ishtar. How can this happen? Isn’t Angelina Jolie supposed to be the new age Mother Teresa?
The most offensive part about Angelina Jolie’s casting in this film is the fact that Angelina Jolie was put in blackface to play the role (although it has been stated that Mariane Pearl did approve Jolie for the role). Still, Mariane Pearl is part Black. Couldn’t the producers find someone who was biracial to play the role? Where was Halle Berry? What about a Hispanic actress whose skin tone probably matches Mariane Pearl’s the most? I thought Hollywood stood for liberal ideas. Casting Angelina to play a woman who is part African completely brings us back to the 1950s.
But there’s a bigger problem here. In only seven months, Angelina Jolie has turned from Hollywood’s hottest celebrity to Hollywood’s most hated has-been. A star has not fallen this badly in such a short time since Michael Jackson did back in 1993 after the allegations of child molestation. It all started when Jolie criticized Madonna for “illegally” adopting her son David Banda from Malawi (even though Madonna has yet to be arrested). Soon, several people revealed Angelina’s criminal adoption from Cambodia. Then, she referred to her daughter, Shiloh, as a “blob.”
To further the damage, Angelina turned her mother’s death into a publicity-courting event, posing for several pictures as she went to collect her mother's belongings. The pictures soon appeared on covers of all the tabloid magazines. Still not getting sympathy, Angelina adopted an orphan from Vietnam to join her other adopted children from Cambodia and Africa. As expected, she used her latest child for several photo ops. To top it all off, Jolie tried to have reporters banned from asking her personal questions at the premiere of A Mighty Heart, causing several large news organizations to pull out altogether.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Thank you for this article
LOL..it's funny. One more thing which has been mentioned in other sites, SOPHIE OKENADO from Hotel Rowanda should have asked to audition!!!! She looks like Pearl (of course she's mixed race). The woman has been nominated for an oscar too. Why did Brad and Mariane not hold an audition? Black actors read about world politics too you know. They too understand about how screwed up our world is. It is a failure on Mariane Pearl part for having chosen her friend (I doubt this would have been allowed if she chose someone else rather than the producer's lover). It's a mighty tanked. I hope this will teach the bragelina something. You can be too big for your job. Keep it quiet please. We know you are nice, we too are nice but we don't like to talk nonstop about how nice we are. It can come across as vain, you know what I mean?
2 - paul
Even Cannes couldn't save this film. SHAME on you Pearl and shame on you jolie pitt. The story is good but it has been turned into a joke. Sophie does look like Pearl and yes they should have auditioned several black actors. If Jolie were a little more ordinary we would have bought it. She is so (too) grand. A big lesson for hollywood.
3 - daryl d
It's sort of sad because it is a good movie. Yes, the subject matter is harsh, but I do blame its failure on Angelina Jolie, and it's not because of a bad performance.
4 - Brad Schader
I did not think of the "Jazz Singer" aspect to her playing this part. We can only hope wearing black face will do to her career what "Soul Man" did for C. Tommy's.
Not jumping on the "I hate Jolie" bandwagon; I drive it.
5 - urmm
Jolie has to prove she can hold her own without Pitt. His ex struggled with her career (god she was beaten down by all sides) but finally she did it with the break up. Financially his ex has never had to depend Pitt at all, she is still earning a lot from Friends royalty and still get offer handsome money for films. His ex has always had her own money (as a woman that is pure freedom). A lot of money Jolie-Pitt are donating is Brad's money not Jolie. That must bother her a bit since she likes to remind us she's a strong chick. Well I guess karma works in mysterious ways.
6 - Sterfish
While I agree that her popularity is falling, I think you are really underestimating the importance of the timing of the movie's release. Anybody could tell you that releasing an adult drama (that's not an indie) in June is a huge mistake.
Even though Angelina Jolie is well-known, she hasn't really starred in a lot of hits. Her last non-supporting role before this film was Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which had Brad Pitt and came during the height of the Brangelina rumors. Before that, there's Taking Lives, Beyond Borders, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, and Life Or Something Like It. Not exactly blockbuster films or even critically acclaimed ones.
So, an adult drama in the middle of summer with a star who is well-known but not necessarily a real box-office draw? How was this going to be anything other than a disappointment in some way?
7 - more irresponsible journalism
As noted, there is a small core of really fanatical Jolie-haters out there. For whatever reason, some people really cannot get over their obsession with a woman who they neither know nor have been hurt in anyway by.
Unfortunately, because it sells magazines, or papers or generates internet clicks, many journos have climbed aboard the bandwagon.
All you have to do is read some of the forums to realize that some crazies out there really do think she is the devil. They claim that her children would be better off without her, and that Pitt would magically return to Aniston if she weren't around (because they are experts on someone elses private lives presumably).
PLEASE stop feeding this mania. I'm sure there is money to be made, but encouraging this fanatasism is extremely dangerous - all it would take is one crazy to take it to the next level for a tragedy to occur.
8 - dear more irresponsible journalism
If you are too good for this they why are reading this more irresponsible journalism? You make me laugh. Nobody has forced jolie pitt to place themselves into the spot light! They threw themselves and their kids inside it. Now is has backfired and we're to be blamed for their own fault?
9 - dear more irresponsible journalism
We aren't saying we hate Jolie here, this is not jolie's bashing. For the first time since she has been with Pitt she's failed and everybody could not help but notice how you can be too big for your job. It's fab lesson for hollywood. There is no relation between tabloids and the box office. And there is no relation between humanitarian work and the box office. There is a strong relation between how much you reveal about yourself and the box office. People do get turn off when you reveal way too much!
10 - Brad Schader
Dear MIJ,
People say that are often fans and do not mind the wall to wall coverage. I try explaining to my co-workers the same thing about AMerican Idol. I hate that show to and they say "don't watch it." I don't watch it, but that does not stop me from hearing about it every day in the news so naturally I begin to detest it. Same with Jolie. I do not watch her movies. I do not buy those magazines, but here I am at Blogcritics reading movie reviews and seeing her. I goto the store to buy milk and while waiting in line I must see 10,000 different stories about her and her children on every cover. There is no escape. I tried ignoring people like her and Paris, but they will not let us ignore them. The hate is the only option we have left.
11 - my words
Casting a white chick as a black woman is ridiculous. I think when paramount vantage has chosen to release the film has little to do why it has tanked, they did Cannes!!!!, hello the lead and the producer were plastered all over the world when the mighty heart was first shown to journalists in france! You can not ask for more publicity to help with the film than that. People don't like jolie! Secondly she's been talking too much and thirdly the PR of this film which they've managed to piss journalists off was a disaster.
12 - my words
Fourtly Marine Pearl should not have asked her friend to play her and the producer should not have allowed his lover to play a black chick. Use a black actress please. Black people understand international relations also.
13 - ALIST
Like someone else has mentioned SHAME ON YOU MARIANE AND SHAME ON YOU PITT!
14 - Judy
Angelina is a wonderful actor and people should be ashamed of saying the things that they are about her. I have read that she should be an Oscar nominee for this. Why do people dislike her so? We like her alot along with Brad. Please do not be so mean to her and their family. Remember that what we say or do comes full circle. We cannot wait to see the movie. Thank you very much.
15 - Deano
I suspect, given the fact that the movie in question is a serious drama based on real-world events, the primary reason for its lack-luster box-office probably lies less with Jolie's tabloid presence and more with the summer movie season.
The film is getting fairly solid reviews from most critics (77% on rottentomatos.com). Given the Pirates, F4, Spider-Man3, Shrek 3 etc. are all dominating the number of screens, I find it unsurprising that the film is not producing. Drama's, even good ones, do not typically fare well at the summer box office where escapism and big budget blockbusters tend to rule.
As for having Jolie play Pearl, Newsweek quoted Pearl as saying "This is not about skin color. I wanted her to play me because I trust her. Aren't we past this?"
Maybe you should take her advice.
16 - lurker deluxe
What a seriously unresearched piece, Daryl. It's laughable, really, but what's to be expected from much of today's 'journalism'.
17 - Jennifer
Perhaps part of the reason people are so reviled by A. Jolie is how she has repeatedly played out her sociopathic disregard for anything regarding morals, ethics, etc. The author brought up her illegal adoption. 'I see child I want - I get it - NO MATTER WHAT'! This was the same MO she used with Billy Bob (who had a fiancee) and then most notably Brad Pitt, successfully breaking up a most publicly beloved couple. Women think, "She would have done this to me." They do not like her. She is a treacherous predatory woman who acts out her issues with her parents' marriage by being the 'powerful' other woman who destroys. Women don't like her, and men are getting her number. She bragged about knife collections, cutting herself, wearing vials of blood; posed provocatively with a farm animal and then we, the 'stupid American public' are supposed to conveniantly forget all of that - at her command - and submit to her driven attempts to promote herself as Princess Diana/Mother Theresa/The Return of the Goddess/The New Messiah. It's too much, and in diametric opposition of the facts of what has been put out and seen since the late 1990's. Now she wraps herself in the role of saintly wife and humanitarian. It's nauseating, and it just does not work. She should play villains and vixens, and then maybe people would watch. She is horribly manipulating of the public, so they do not like her. People don't like to be forced and manipulated. Her manner is like Das Komisar. She forgets. We can still choose not to buy.
18 - More irresponsible journalism
Brad Schader
Then you should reserve your hate for those responsible for the wall to wall Jolie-Pitt coverage - the tabloid press and the people who buy them (like Jennifer above, who detests Jolie but has absorbed every thing ever written about her). The trash magazines wouldn't fill up with made-up stories about them if it didn't generate sales.
There was even video out there of Pitt begging the photogs to back off for a day or two after Jolies mother died, but the pictures were too "valuable" for them to do so. If the cameramen weren't following them relentlessly, there wouldn't be all of this coverage of their every move.
The reason I posted here is because I knew someone who was subject to these kinds of relentless personal attacks and scandalmongering. It bothers me because an unhinged individual shot and killed him thinking he was doing good. He left a wife a widow and children fatherless.
The frenzy of ridiculous hate so evident here in some of these posts reminds me of what that individual was subjected to and I would hate for someone to take the leap from fantasy to reality. Half of the original article is unsubstantiated rumour and opinion. It might sell. But what about those people who take this stuff seriously?
19 - carole mcdonnell
There's one blog I visit, a blog dedicated to black women "Evolved Black Women" which went on a massive campaign against the film because of Angelina's black face. They must have sent info to every black women's organization to ban that film. Am not sure if black women are that powerful...but I KNOW we would've seen the movie if a black woman had been cast as the lead. Don't we black women have mighty hearts too?
20 - Ray Ellis
If we follow that train of thought to its logical conclusion, then Jessica Alba, a Latina, should not be playing an oh so Aryan Sue Richard in the Fantastic Four. Jeez, people--give the race thing a rest.
21 - Alex
This is not the 50's and we should not be thinking in BLACK AND WHITE. I raise my children to see people not colors! My son would say that is a nice girl, not that is a nice black girl, or Chinese girl etc. WE NEED TO SET THE EXAMPLE FOR THE FUTURE GENERATION. Start not by criticizing a white woman for playing a black woman - after all we all bleed red. WAKE UP! WE ARE HUMANS....
Alex
-Biracial woman
22 - jane
Brad -
I get the same feeling hearing about Paris Hilton. I just wish all of that coverage would go away.
23 - Jennifer
Mr. Schader,
Angelina Jolie is simply not a product the American people want to buy. We have seen enough, and enough flip-flop double-speak. The numbers speak for themselves.
24 - Here Here
Maybe Jolie should take lessons from Tom Cruise and go into hiding for a long time and quit bragging about her good deeds that are trying to hide her immoral values. This could be a way to save her Hollywood career.
25 - Ray Ellis
Thank you, Alex. I was beginning to almost think I was a voice in the wilderness. If we could just see ourselves as humans,stripped of political and cultural agendas, we might make progress in saving the planet. Maybe. . .