How Angelina Jolie killed my love of cinema!

I'm a Pisces... the so-called "dreamers" of the current Zodiac (y'know, before some mad person tries to add an extra star sign that might see me being dubbed a *gasp* Aquarius *gasp*)... so fantasy is my realm... I love to read, I love to write, I love to draw, I love imagery and until Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan began being dubbed "A-Listers", I also REALLY loved going to the cinema to watch movies... ANY movie to be honest... Thanks to them, I now watch films... the kind that don't win awards for being spectacularly glitzy, but the kind that have a story and manage to tell it in under 2 hours... From the Hollywood red carpet to Cannes... almost like moving from being a cocaine addict to smoking mom's lawn...

I "listened" with amusement as friends of mine .... no names... harped on about the Golden Globes.. who won what, who wore what and "Oooh I can't believe Ricky Gervais said THAT"... I was, however, happy to hear that one of Angelina Jolie's movies was a resounding failure - not only at the box office, but also according to the Hollywood Foreign Press (the people who supposedly know everything about movies and whose opinion result in the Golden Globes)..

So, what's my beef with Angie? Last year, after watching a trailer or three of her movie "Salt", I decided that maybe she had redeemed herself since the flop that was Mr & Mrs Pitt... ooops, I mean Smith! So off to the cinema I went. I must admit that a friend had told me that I should probably wait for it to show on Welfare TV, I still went! I don't want to make this a review of the movie so I'll just say this: There's something about a woman fighting crime, but STILL managing to have flawless makeup & lipgloss that makes one think it's a 1 hour 30 min long ad for Revlon... Never mind that the cinematography was terrible and the glaring inconsistencies...

But don't get me wrong, Angie does provide entertainment - on and off screen... and she does it better than Lindsay Lohan... but next time she releases a movie, I'll read a book instead. (I did exactly that when The Tourist was released... and it seems I made the right decision)

Can the Cameras Roll Back to Darfur?

OK, first things first, my heart bleeds for the people of Haiti, after living for centuries in abject poverty they had the terrible misfortune of falling victim to a massive earthquake (AND aftershock!) that has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions without food or shelter. An atrocity occurred there.. the world needs to do something. quick.

BUT! With all the world's attention on Haiti, people seem to have taken a break from caring about the rest of the world... shame on you CNN! I direct my disdain at CNN because not so long ago it was them that made Darfur so damn popular that even Angelina "I-want-to-save-the-world-by-adopting-as-many-cute-little-poor-kids-as-I-can" Jolie went there with her poodle of a Brad and had a few "glamour" shots taken... I hear Madonna got lost on her way to Darfur and ended up in Malawi.. too late Madge, Tomb Raider beat you - along with hundreds of German couples... but let's clap hands for you, at least you watch a "news" channel!

People continue to die every single day all across the African continent (yes, not just Darfur... it just made for a catchy title)... These people are dying from preventable disease, famine, hunger, pestilence... EVERY SINGLE DAMN DAY... Do we care? I guess we can sort of say we do... if ofcourse we sit through the images of these hungry and dying Africans which are made available to us on our flat-screens just after dinner, while we drink some blood coffee... Hmmm, maybe I should sms that number.. I hear I can donate R7.50 to help feed a kid in Port-au-Prince! Done. That is it. "We care". Oh how very dare we? We sit and watch as our continent rots... and yet we jump at the prospect of "saving" people in Haiti! I'll have my hypocrite coffee with no sugar, thanks.

Lest people think that I don't care about Haiti, allow me to reiterate: I do. I get that Haiti seriously needs help and I congratulate all those who have done their bit to aid the country (which btw is the poorest in the Western hemisphere, and after this quake could very well become the poorest worldwide)... What I don't get is people who act like they care or offer a "helping hand" just so they can smile at the camera. Can the cameras please roll back to Darfur? Or did that stop being glamorous around 2006? Yeah. I thought so. Even Somalia's off our TV screens... at least now we can see "Africans" suffering elsewhere, right? It's not all that bad...