Brad Pitt is having technical difficulties.

“I normally need my kids to do this,” he mutters, as he attempts to connect my iPod into his stereo. “They’re so beyond me in technology, it’s hard to keep up. Our seven-year-old was searching the word ‘weapons’ on Google the other day and ended up on some white-supremacist site. I’m sure now we’re on all kinds of watch lists.”

Eventually, Pitt gives up and summons an assistant, and soon enough we’re listening to Townes Van Zandt. Pitt has never heard the late, great singer-songwriter before, but he says he digs it. He’s been feeling out of the loop when it comes to music these days. “Last new thing I got into was the Black Keys,” he says. We’re at the legendary Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, sitting in Pitt’s large, heavily guarded trailer. Metropolis, Nosferatu and The Blue Angel were all shot here, along with, more recently, Tom Cruise’s World War II drama, Valkyrie. Pitt has been here since September to film Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino’s own WWII epic, years in the making and loosely based on a Seventies grindhouse knockoff of The Dirty Dozen. In it, Pitt plays a lieutenant from Tennessee who, according to a leaked version of the script, leads a black-ops unit assigned to terrorize the enemy by scalping Nazis. Gleefully, Pitt snatches a prop from the coffee table and shows it to me. It’s an ornate invitation to a movie screening from “Der Minister Propaganda — Dr. Joseph Goebbels.” “All the big guys show up in this movie,” he says with a grin. Continue Reading… »

He adds that the article in question “made Angie out to be manipulative in some way. And he’s totally missing the point. She is savvy.”

The actor, who stars in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, out on Christmas Day, says making a film centered around the theme of mortality has had a positive effect on his and Jolie’s relationship. “Angie and I do not fight anymore. If we have a flare-up, it evaporates now,” he says

Pitt jokes that his previous film Burn After Reading didn’t have such a wondrous effect for the pair: “She saw me in the gym gear and said, ‘This is the first time I can honestly say I’m not attracted to you whatsoever.’”
Source: People.com

It was a bittersweet moment for Brad Pitt, walking through the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood where families were preparing to spend their first holidays since Hurricane Katrina.

Those families are moving into the first six houses built through Pitt’s Make It Right foundation. One home was already strewn with green garland, lights, wreaths and red bows.

Still, Pitt is restless.

“I’m really happy for the families that are going to be here, but I can’t help but think about the families that aren’t,” Pitt said Monday. “It’s a push-pull for me. The excitement is that it’s being proven, that it’s working. The frustration is that we have a long way to go.”

Make It Right was launched by Pitt a year ago. The program calls for construction of 150 energy-efficient homes in a section of New Orleans washed away when Katrina broke levees Aug. 29, 2005.

So far, six homes have been built. Two more are under way, and construction on another 14 begins in early 2009. Pitt smiles, gets a little giddy even, when talking about where the project will be in another year.

“You’re going to see 100 homes here, mark my words,” he said. “It’s nice to see a few, but I’m anxious to see 100, 150, 1,000.”

The homes also have solar panels and other features that help cut energy bills by at least 75 percent, Pitt said. Other architectural elements address challenges of the area, including ventilation and mold- and termite-resistant materials.

“The misunderstanding of architecture is that it’s all about aesthetics,” Pitt said. “It’s not. First and foremost, it’s about function.”

The homes, costing $150,000 on average, are for property owners who can pay insurance and taxes. Monthly payments are based on applicants’ income and subsidized by Pitt’s foundation.

Pitt said his motivation to see this project through stems from a lot of things, among them his “love for architecture, a love for technology, a love for fairness and justice.” But it also stems from his love “for all things New Orleans.”

“There’s just something about this place,” he said.

Brad Pitt is about to crush a dog.

“Hey, that’s a living creature,” David Fincher calls out to Pitt, who is zipping around the director’s cavernous Hollywood office on a Segway, a stand-up, motorized scooter. “Try not to kill the living things in here.”

Pitt has peeled into the converted bank building with Lenny, a playful bull terrier that serves as office mascot, chasing the star. Pitt corners Lenny in a dead-end hall. The dog freezes, startled to go from predator to prey.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button opens on Christmas Day and is directed by David Fincher.