Angelina Goes Cambodian

Tue., Nov. 22, 2005 10:15 AM PST by Sarah Hall

Passing through Cambodian customs just got a whole lot easier for Angelina Jolie.

The Mr. and Mrs. Smith star was issued a Cambodian passport after she became a citizen of the Southeast Asian country last month, Stephan Bognar, the executive director of the Maddox Jolie project, said Tuesday.

Jolie, who adopted her son, Maddox, from the nation in 2002, was granted citizenship in recognition of the environmental work she has done in Cambodia. She will retain her U.S. citizenship.

Over the past three years, the actress has donated $1.5 million to the Maddox Jolie project, which promotes wildlife conservation and community development in a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla stronghold in northwest Cambodia.

Jolie owns a home in the Samlot district of the northwestern Battambang province that she purchased shortly after adopting Maddox. Parts of her adventure thriller, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, were filmed at the country's famed Angkor Wat temple.

The Oscar-winning thesp, who doubles as a goodwill ambassador for the U. N. refugee agency, has said that she feels a special connection with the country.

"When I went to Cambodia something felt like home to me. I knew someone was there who was meant to be in my family. I don't know any other way to explain it," she told London's Sun in June.

Bognar said that Jolie was "ecstatic and thrilled" to receive her new passport and a copy of the royal decree granting her citizenship.

"Maddox was there and she showed him the passport," Bognar told the Sun. "It gives her a closer link, a stronger bond, with her adopted son's native country."

it remains to be seen whether Jolie will develop a similar bond with Ethiopia after adopting her infant daughter, Zahara, from the African nation in July.

Meanwhile, Jolie and (unconfirmed) boyfriend Brad Pitt are planning to head to Pakistan within the next few days to visit with survivors of the devastating earthquake that rocked the country last month, killing 73,000.

The A-listers made an unannounced visit to Geneva Tuesday to attend private briefings at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

"We'll be on our way to Pakistan in a matter of days," Jolie told Reuters.

Back on the home front, Jolie made her first public appearance with Pitt last weekend, when the twosome attended the grand opening gala for the Muhammad Ali Center together in Louisville, Kentucky.

The celeb duo arrived at the gala in the same car, but managed to elude photographers.

Inside the event, Jolie, wearing a red gown, and Pitt, clad in a black tuxedo, stood side by side and swayed to the music, holding up flashlights with the rest of the crowd for the finale song of "Hold Up the Light."

The couple has been photographed together numerous times by the paparazzi, usually in the company of Maddox and Zahara. However, this was their first joint outing to a red carpet event since their promotional tour for Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Though it looks like the twosome may be moving closer to acknowledging their romantic status, don't count on wedding bells just yet.

Earlier this month, Pitt's rep, Cindy Guagenti shot down British tabloid reports claiming that the Meet Joe Black star and Jolie were in the process of planning a Buddhist wedding ceremony.

"It's not true. It's completely made up," Guagenti told E! Online.