One of the most powerful actresses of our generation, Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie is an adoptive parent, UN ambassador and partner to one of Hollywood’s biggest heartthrobs. She is a celebrated and intense actress, famous daughter of Oscar winner Jon Voight and one-time model Marcheline Bertrand. Named the most powerful celebrity in the world, Angelina unseated Oprah Winfrey on the Forbes 2009 Celebrity 100 list. Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography is a page-turner, at once titillating, scandalous and informative. The biography dives right into Angelina’s famous father’s early career. Jon Voight’s early experience in theatre, his friendship with Dustin Hoffman and golden boy status are well detailed. The Voight portion of the book is quite compelling. Readers could be forgiven if at first they began to feel that the biography read as a tale of the father, not the daughter. However there is meat here. Jolie herself cannot be understood without reflecting on the reasons for the volatile relationship with her father and the strange parenting style of her mother. Morton clearly notes, in the beginning of the biography, how Bertrand was initially unable to bond with the infant daughter she gave birth to right at the same time her famous husband began an affair with Stacey Pickren. There is much speculation and comment on the psychological impact this early abandonment may have had on Jolie. The musings and comments from various doctors and psychologists, within the biography, make sense and seem supported by the behaviour of Jolie throughout life. However, the comments are somewhat diminished by the simple fact that none of these doctors or psychologists ever treated Jolie in person. Their comments are made as assumed insights and are speculative then at best. Both Angelina and her brother James Haven sadly were both made to suffer in the protracted angry divorce between her mother and father. That much is fact. Not exactly an overnight success, Angelina started as a model _ at one time thought to be the next Cindy Crawford _ and slowly gained notoriety. Jolie did time dancing in music videos and was often passed over for roles partly because of her strong looks and personality. She didn’t fit the girl next door or girlfriend roles being offered. Eventually she landed roles in movies like Foxfire and Hackers, not really notable works, but on Hackers she met and later married her first husband British actor Jonny Lee Miller. A turning point came when she accepted the role of a doomed supermodel in Gia. Then a Golden Globe nomination came for George Wallace and the star was in demand. As Jolie’s acting reputation grew, so did her political motivation. She is now a highly respected UN ambassador. Much of this has been written about before, however, as has the highly publicized breakup between Brad Pitt and his former wife Jennifer Aniston. When they met on set, Pitt and Angelina Jolie, cast as husband and wife in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, had immediate chemistry. Jolie had already adopted one child Maddox from Cambodia, a spot she was introduced to through filming Lara Croft. She would soon adopt more. Now parents to six children, some biological and others from various international adoptions, the Jolie-Pitts are as well known for their “rainbow family” as they are for their acting roles. What I found to be even more interesting here than the details of drug use and odd sexual behaviour of Jolie’s younger years, were the questionable details of these various international adoptions. While on one hand celebrity adoptions are celebrated for raising the profile of adoption as a viable and beautiful way to make a family, there are numerous details here in this biography of criminal behaviour, missing information, biological parents turning up alive when once thought to be dead, that really cast a harsh light on international adoption. This is the part of the book that is frankly scandalous. On more than one occasion it is revealed that parents of the children adopted by Jolie turned out to be alive, whereas they were assumed dead. In the case of Jolie’s first adoption, when still married to Billy Bob Thornton, the adoption agent Lauryn Galindo herself fell under suspicion of trafficking. During a two year probe it was alleged that she bought children for American families. She was later convicted and served two years in a federal penitentiary for money laundering and conspiracy to commit visa fraud. After Jolie met like-minded actor Brad Pitt, they searched the world for her next child. In Ethiopia they would find a little girl Zahara, whose mother was reported to have died from Aids. In 2005 they adopted her, although Angelina was on paper the adoptive parent, because the country wouldn’t allow adoptions by unmarried couples. A short time after the child was settled in her new home the biological mother surfaced alive. Andrew Morton is one of the world’s most well known celebrity biographers. He has previously written Diana: Her True Story, revealing the inner world of Princess Diana. Morton lives in London and has also written Monica’s Story and Tom Cruise.

Angelina: by Andrew Morton. An Unauthorized Biography,
St. Martin’s Press, New York, August 2010, $26.99 $31.99 Canadian, 328 pages
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