Brad to become a Dad?
2005-12-06 08:03
Los Angeles - Hollywood beauty Angelina Jolie has filed a request to make fellow star Brad Pitt the foster father of her children, confirming months of speculation about the couple's budding relationship.
In Santa Monica, California court documents made public on Monday, Jolie, who starred this year with Pitt as a married assassins hired to kill each other in Mr and Mrs Smith, named Pitt as the "adoptive father-to-be" of her children Maddox, four, and Zahara, 11 months.
The documents were a petition to change the children's family name from Jolie to Jolie-Pitt.
"We're confirming that Brad Pitt is in the process of becoming the father of both children," said Evan Spiegel, Jolie's attorney.
However, Spiegel refused to comment on any other aspect of the couple's relationship.
Judge Linda Lefkowitz will hear arguments on the request in her court on January 19, Spiegel said.
Keeping mum on their relationship
Ever since the filming of Mr and Mrs Smith, which was a global box-office success this summer, media has speculated on a relationship between two of Hollywood's most popular actors.
Neither Jolie, 30, nor Pitt, 41, would confirm that they were a couple, despite frequent sightings of them together. During a promotional tour for Smith, both refused to take questions on their relationship.
During the summer this year People magazine quoted a "close source" to the couple denying reports that they wanted to have a family together.
But in November they travelled together to Pakistan, where Jolie was making a tour of earthquake-devastated areas in her role as an ambassador for Unicef. They were also spotted together in late summer in Canada, where Pitt was filming a western.
If Jolie's court petition is approved, Pitt will become the foster father of two children Jolie herself adopted - Zahara Marley, an Ethiopian infant girl Jolie adopted in July, and Maddox, a Cambodian boy she adopted in 2002 around the time she filmed Tomb Raider.
Jolie's track record
Now twice married and divorced, the actress adopted Maddox while she was married to one of her previous co-stars, actor Billy Bob Thornton. But she was single when she adopted Zahara.
Jolie, who has appeared in some 30 films and is considered one of Hollywood's most beautiful women, is the daughter of film star John Voight, who played in Midnight Cowboy.
She earned an Oscar for her supporting role in 2000's Girl, Interrupted, but gained more world fame for playing action-girl Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. She now rates as one of the film industry's top actresses, pulling in $10m to $15m per film, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Pitt, with over 40 films, and an Oscar nomination for 1995's Twelve Monkeys, is more than a match for Jolie in terms of stardom.
He divorced former Friends star Jennifer Aniston earlier this year after five years of marriage.