There sure are a lot more photographers inside (and especially outside) Council on Foreign Relations events when new member Angelina Jolie shows up.
The plump-lipped pinup added some A-list appeal to a CFR panel discussion Tuesday on “Iraq, Education and Children of Conflict,” which had to be outsourced from CFR to the nearby Washington Club in order to accommodate the demand for seats.
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The brunette beauty sported a floor-length, sleeveless, silky black dress that could just have easily been at home at a formal function (it also obscured her baby bump, but exposed her newest upper-arm tattoo, a list of the longitude and latitude coordinates where her children came into her life).
That all eyes would be on Jolie was not lost on panelist Safaa El-Kogali, an economist at the World Bank. She began her remarks by reading a poem from a 12-year-old Sudanese girl, only to reveal that the girl was her, earlier in life. “I thought I’d share that poem with you, knowing that I’m in the presence of Miss Jolie, to get some attention to what I’m going to say,” she said.
But far from stealing the spotlight, former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, himself a recently minted CFR member, told us on the scene that it’s “really helpful whenever you have a celebrity who’s well-informed” behind your issue. As someone who’s worked with Bono as well, he said “it’s great, as long as they do their homework.” Besides, he added, it’s not as if there’s “too much attention” on humanitarian issues.
When we asked if he’d like to write Jolie’s speeches, he replied, “That’d be nice.”
As for Jolie’s remarks, she recalled spending the night in a Burmese camp on the Thai border. “All the teenagers were breaking in, and trying to get into my room,” she said. “They were knocking. I had no idea what they wanted to talk about. I thought maybe something to do with … you know, questions I’m used to from teenagers.” But, in fact, they asked her if she could get them pens, textbooks and dictionaries (God knows what the American teenagers ask her).
“I won’t give my troop withdrawal strategy,” she later joked, prompting moderator Gene Sperling, a former economic adviser in the Clinton White House, to say, “That’s for next month’s CFR meeting.”
