27273: Hermantin(News)Brangelina's Haiti visit far from just a photo-op (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Leonie  Hermantin

Miami Herald



Posted on Tue, Jan. 17, 2006



Brangelina's Haiti visit far from just a photo-op




While Brad Pitt's pregnant girlfriend, Angelina Jolie, rested in a 
Port-au-Prince hotel, he promised the hosts of the couple's whirlwind visit 
last week that they would return to help poor Haitian children.

Pitt and Jolie arrived in Haiti minutes before noon Friday at the invitation of 
Haitian-born hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean, of The Fugees' fame, who was there 
celebrating the one-year anniversary of his Yéle Haiti foundation and its work 
with Haiti's youths.

Jolie is among a handful of high-profile celebrities -- others include Jonathan 
Demme and Meryl Streep -- who have lent their name and time to Jean's cause.

After a tour of Yéle Haiti's various programs that included a visit to a jail 
for children, the couple stayed the night at the colonial-styled Montana hotel 
in the tony suburbs of Petionville.

They were supposed to appear at an invitation-only reception in their honor on 
a hotel terrace, but an exhausted Jolie passed on the cocktails and stayed in 
her suite, said one of the guests.

As a curious Pitt mingled, guests -- who included Jean, his fashion designer 
wife Maria Claudinette Pierre-Jean, along with his mother -- were treated to a 
traditional Haitian scene with fried goat, sugar cane and a traditional Rara 
band, which is heavy on the drums.

''He was very interested in Haiti and he said he would keep coming back,'' said 
Maryse Kedar, president of the foundation's Haiti branch. ``He was very moved 
by the children in jail . . . He wants to do something. He was not like a 
tourist accompanying his girlfriend. I was touched by their simplicity.''

Jolie, she said, was equally moved by the Haitian people and said ``she liked 
the country very much.''