Sunday, December 23, 2007

Brangelina: Working To Rebuild New Orleans

As briefly mentioned in yesterday’s article on Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s family bicycle outing, the Mr and Mrs Smith co-stars took the time on Saturday to attend a charity press conference in New Orleans.

Partnering with the Children’s Health Fund, Jolie and Pitt are using their celebrity status to help publicize the need to aid 46,000 children still displaced two and a half years after Hurricane Katrina.

"This is the largest displacement of children in my own country so I want to learn as much as possible,” Angelina told reporters at the event.

“Many families are distressed about how long and difficult the recovery has been,” told Dr Irwin Redlener, president of the CHF. “We’re concerned that this issue has fallen off the radar screen and that, nationally, people are losing interest, saying this is a ‘local’ issue. We dispute that. This is a national problem and one that requires an intense and focused effort to fix.”

Meanwhile, Brad is helping the group effort through his Make it Right foundation, which is a recovery project to rebuild 150 homes in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

“We’re focused on community building,” Pitt said. “It’s not just about homes. It’s not just about building. It’s about the lack of focus on education and health care too.”

Gossip Girls

Enjoy the pictures of Brad and Angelina at yesterday’s charity event (December 22).