Gender Watch: Tourist's Jolie Talks to Vogue, Black Swan's Portman Writes

- Angelina Jolie is Vogue's December cover girl (photos by Mario Testino), which, as usual, coincides with the release of her latest, The Tourist with Johnny Depp, out December 10. The woman doesn't have an agent, and why would she? The mold or model doesn't apply to her, and yet The Tourist's director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) confirms to Vogue that “she gets every single script that has a female role aged between eighteen and 40—every script. And she just follows her feeling, holds her own counsel. She’s probably the only global megastar that doesn’t even have an agent—she doesn’t even have a publicist.” Vogue's Vicki Woods was taken in and distracted by her famous face but says once you "clear away the craziness and tabloid clatter that swirls around the Jolie-Pitt family (or “brand”)…you find a practical woman with terrific forward-planning skills." Jolie, on playing the role that was originally written for Tom Cruise in Salt:

“I felt it was a weird thing that every time you ask for a strong female role, it’s written in this strange way where it uses sexuality far too much. Or it’s all about being a woman and beating a man. So it wasn’t a surprise to me that the only way to do a strong female role properly was to not have originally written for a woman.”

And from her UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador perspective, regarding what Wood's refers to as Pakistan's "pretty unlovable" Zardari-led government:

“The president is not the people!…If you are concerned about security in the world, the last thing you want to do is not give your support to Pakistan and Afghanistan, because that’s the most dangerous thing. That’s the least intelligent thing, as far as I’m concerned, to do.”

- Natalie Portman, heading for a best actress nomination after her Black Swan scored at its LA premiere Thursday night as AFI's festival closer, is wasting no time amping up her other projects. In addition to her upcoming rom-com with Ashton Kutcher, No Strings Attached---the antithesis to Black Swan---she is also shopping around a co-written script, BYO, that has been dubbed the woman's version of Superbad, centering on two young women who resort to a "bring your own" man party after lots of bad love luck. The script is co-written with Portman's Harvard buddy Laura Moses, and Portman and Anne Hathaway could play the two leads should financing come along. Trailers for Black Swan and No Strings Attached are below.

Black Swan trailer

No Strings Attached trailer