Pitt, Jolie--and Permission Slips
The visa application for Namibia doesn't mention Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, but it may as well.
Any journalist wishing to travel to the African republic to cover the pending birth of the celebrity couple's first child together must include a letter of consent--from the celebrity couple, the Namibian embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed Wednesday.
It was not known if Pitt and Jolie had actually drafted any missives on behalf of reporters. It wasn't even known who'd been drafted to draft the missives. "I don't know anything about it," Pitt publicist Cindy Guagenti said Wednesday. An email inquiry to Jolie's manager was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Some 200 journalists are currently in Africa on the Pitt-Jolie beat, Namibian embassy official Selma Ashipala estimated.
"There are so many," Ashipala said. "We have never seen so much attention given to Namibia."
Asked Ashipala of the reporter interviewing her: "Are you going to Namibia?"
Pitt, 42, and Jolie, 30, arrived in Namibia last month, reportedly taking up residence at the luxury Burning Shore Beach Lodge, where, per NamibWeb.com, "the dunes rise like the crested back of a monstrous serpent." Their much anticipated joint production is due any day.
Namibian officials have been solicitous of the expectant and camera-shy couple, with police helping keep reporters, and even locals, at a distance.
John Liebenberg has learned the hard way--twice--about the consequences of crossing the line. The photographer, arrested last week for trespassing in the act of staking out a local hospital, was arrested again on Wednesday. This time, he was nabbed while trying to get a look at Jolie at a beachside restaurant, Reuters reported.
Chapter 3, Article 13 of the Namibian constitution states "no persons shall be subject to interference with the privacy of their homes," or, apparently, beachside restaurants. The provision was cited by the Namibian embassy as to why Pitt and Jolie essentially were being allowed to sign off on which journalists get visas, and which don't.
Namibia is a country of 2 million, bordering Angola, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe. A recent online poll conducted by Radio Wave, "Namibia's Number One Hit Music Station," found that 48 percent saw Pitt and Jolie's decision to have their baby there as a "major PR boost for the country." Only 16 percent saw it as "a chance for sycophantic losers to seek fulfillment."
Still, there is a limit to Namibians' reverence. In the current Radio Wave poll, the idea that Jolie's birth day be declared a national holiday was being rejected Wednesday by a 53-48 percent margin.
And there is a limit to Namibians' patronage. A Namibian governor vehemently denied to the Associated Press Wednesday that he was going to name the Pitt-Jolie child himself.
On Tuesday, Pitt announced that he was remaining in Namibia and skipping the Cannes premiere of his new film, Babel, owing to the "imminent arrival of the newest addition of our family."
Jolie is presently the mother of two, a son and daughter, both adopted. Pitt's surname was formally added to the children's in January.
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