Brangelina donate $1 mln to Human Rights Watch and roughly $1 mln to projects in Cambodia

Power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated $6.8million to charity last year. Photo Credit: Splash News

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie donate $6.8m

November 24, 2009, (Splash News) - Power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated $6.8million to charity last year.

The Hollywood Reporter obtained the pair's income tax returns for the year of 2008 which show they gave away $6.8million of their combined fortunes.

The A-listers rank among Hollywood's highest-paid stars and keep several residences around the globe. Jolie is passionately committed to her causes in Africa and elsewhere. Pitt has joined her in her chosen campaigns and taken a major philanthropic interest in the post-Hurricane Katrina city of New Orleans.

According to one estimate, Pitt and Jolie gave 10 times the amount other celebrities donate. The Jolie-Pitt foundation made donations of $2million to Global Health, $1million to Human Rights Watch, $1million to the Make It Right Foundation, $500,000 to the Armed Services YMCA of the US Army, $50,000 to the Springfield, Missouri Public Schools [Pitt's hometown], and roughly $1million to projects in Cambodia.

Maddox Jolie-Pitt [aka Rath Vibol], Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's oldest son, turns 8

Maddox with mom Angelina (AP photo)

August 5, 2009
Examiner

August 5 is Maddox Jolie-Pitt's 8th birthday, if you can believe it. Almost since the minute he was adopted by Angelina, Maddox has been in the tabloids and has certainly been leading a pretty cool life. Let's see what he's been up to for the past seven years, shall we?

Born in Cambodia, Angelina spotted him in an orphanage while as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She had previously been in Cambodia while filming Tomb Raider and was taken with the country. Upon meeting Maddox, who was known as Rath Vibol, she applied to adopt him and it was made official on March 10, 2002.

At the time, Angelina was married to Billy Bob Thornton, but the two divorced and Angelina was granted sole custody. Angelina famously went on to meet Brad Pitt in 2005 and the two actors forged a relationship. It wasn't long before Brad adopted Maddox, along with Zahara, Angelina's adopted daughter from Ethiopia. They Jolie-Pitt clan has grown steadily since then, and now Maddox has even more siblings: Shiloh, Pax, Knox, and Vivienne.

Maddox has toured the world in his short life. Some of the exotic locales include India, Jordan, Namibia, France, Spain, Italy, Cambodia, the UK, and even recently went to Iraq. He spends part of his time in the Jolie-Pitt homes in New Orleans, France, Los Angeles, and New York. As such, he speaks French and Angelina has stated before that she wants him to learn about his Cambodian culture and plans to take him there frequently as he grows older.

Happy birthday, Maddox!

Australian research helping Angelina Jolie's work in Cambodia

June 19, 2009
Herald Sun (Australia)

AUSTRALIAN researchers are helping Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie improve the lot of Cambodia's farmers.

Work is underway to expand an SMS-based information network developed by the University of Canberra, which provides market updates to ensure remote Cambodian farmers get a fair price for their produce.

While these farmers live in areas which often lack basic infrastructure, Cambodia does have 85 per cent mobile coverage and text messages cost as little as US3 cents.

"We wanted to help farmers access the price of maize or soybeans on demand, so they were in a stronger position to negotiate the sale of their crop," says Dr Robert Fitzgerald.

"Some traders and farmers knew some price information but that was not always shared, so the only way the farmer could find out about the price was to travel to town or ask nearby friends.

"Now farmers can text the agricultural information server and straight away find out about the prices."

Working with the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP) - named after the Hollywood couple's adopted son from Cambodia - the scheme will be expanded on a trial basis to also offer health and pest warnings and other important information.

Only Zimbabwe and South Africa had higher rates of tuburculosis infection than Cambodia in 2007.

"We need, therefore, to find effective tools to quickly disseminate information to isolated and rural communities," says Stephan Bognar, Executive Director of MJP.

The project, also with involvement from the University of New England, is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.

The celebrity couple have also donated $1 million to a UN refugee agency to help Pakistanis displaced by fighting between troops and Taliban militants.

Jolie, the star of 2008 movies Changeling and Wanted, has visited Pakistan three times to witness United Nations relief operations since becoming a "goodwill ambassador" for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2001.

The agency said it was grateful for the donation from Pitt and Jolie, and added that more than 2 million people in Pakistan had been uprooted this year as a result of the conflict in the northwest part of the country.

Most Pakistanis forced from their homes are living in government buildings or with host families, but 260,000 of them are in camps run by UNHCR, the agency said.

The Hollywood power couple, who gave the $1 million through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation, donated $2 million in September to help children in Ethiopia stricken by disease.

Famous Cambodian citizen Angelina Jolie gave birth to twin: one boy and one girl

Jolie's newborn twins named

2008-07-14
Agencies

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has given birth to twins - a boy called Knox Leon and girl called Vivienne Marcheline - and the first photos of the tots have been sold for $15 million.

Oscar winner Jolie, 33, had the twins by caesarean section on Saturday evening at the Lenval hospital on the glamorous Promenade des Anglais waterfront drive in Nice.

Actor Brad Pitt, the twins' father, was at her side.

The girl, named Vivienne Marcheline, weighed 2.27 kg while her brother, Knox Leon, weighed 2.28 kg.