Earlier this year, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a preventative double mastectomy after genetic testing revealed she had a high probability of developing breast cancer.

The actress candidly discussed the elective procedure in a column for today’s New York Times titled “My Medical Choice.” Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 56 after battling the disease for nearly a decade. The loss of her mother strongly influenced her decision to have the procedure.

Husband Brad Pitt was there “for every minute of the surgeries,” Jolie notes, and said the experience has brought the couple closer together.

Jolie’s role as a sex symbol lends the narrative a special resonance, given how devastating the procedure can be for women’s self-image. “I do not feel any less of a woman,” she writes. “I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.”

Jolie opted for reconstructive surgeries and implants following the mastectomies. “There have been many advances in this procedure in the last few years, and the results can be beautiful.”

Jolie says she was able to carry on with her work during the three months of medical procedures. She’ll next be appearing on the big screen as the title character in Disney’s Maleficent. The film is set for a summer release in 2014.

For those of us  who have had the thrilling pleasure of reading Unbroken, author Laura Hillenbrand‘s epic follow-up to Seabiscuit, there is an unending appetite for more info about the book’s remarkable real-life protagonist Louis Zamperini. Today, that desire can be satiated thanks to Daily Breeze reporter Donna Littlejohn.

Torrance native Zamperini, who lives in the Hollywood Hills, celebrated his 96th birthday last weekend and on Tuesday was honored with the dedication of a hometown sign for an airport bearing his name. At the corner of PCH and a street also named after the World War II survivor and one-time Olympian.

The notion of making a movie about Zamperini’s incredible life story has been kicking around Hollywood for more than a half-century, with Tony Curtis initially envisioned for an adaptation of Zamperini’s 1956 autobiography and more recently Nicolas Cage. Now, thanks to Hillenbrand’s pedigree and barn-burning narrative, there’s a new and most unlikely star attached:

Angelina Jolie, who could not be reached for an interview, beat out several others vying for director rights and is said to be passionate about the project.

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Is there a more logically named reporter to set the record straight about a questionable Brangelina wedding report than a Reuters correspondent with the last name of Love, based in Paris? We think not.

Responding to an unbylined Hello! magazine item this morning that does not directly quote or name the mayor of Correns but still manages somehow to pin the scoop on that office, the right honorable Michael Latz told Reuters’ Brian Love that he is going to pursue Hello for “misleading statements.” He insisted he doesn’t even know who Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are:

“It’s nonsense. I’ve had 50 phone calls and I am telling everyone to get lost because this is tiresome and irritates me.”

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Late Thursday afternoon, Variety’s film editor tweeted out a  biting pronouncement:

This was quickly followed by a tweet from his colleague at variety.com:

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Joe Mathews is certainly not alone in expressing the sentiment that tonight’s big fundraiser in Studio City for President Obama will cause another needless LA traffic nightmare. But the NBC Southern California blogger and Zócalo Public Square associate editor takes it a step further with this headline taunt – “Starmageddon: Obama Could Make Us Hate Clooney”

FishbowlLA thinks it will take something much more cataclysmic for Angelenos to start hating on the Charming-est Man Alive (e.g. like stealing Angelina Jolie away from Brad Pitt). Then again, we’re not planning on being anywhere near the 91604 zip code at rush hour tonight. From Mathews’ Prop Zero post:

It would be one thing if the presidential stop at Clooney’s pad was for a public, governmental purpose. But it’s not. It’s for a fundraiser. When the president and a movie star schedule something like this, they’re demonstrating arrogance: our party and our politics are more important than your life.

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If and when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie sell their south-of-France wedding pictures to the highest bidder (and then presumably donate the proceeds to charity), it will likely fall short of the haul generated by their biological daughter Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. That’s just one of the intriguing tidbits contained in today’s Daily piece by Michelle Ruiz about the celeb shots currently most coveted by Hollywood paparazzi.

The first photos of Shiloh were sold to People magazine for a staggering $6 million, while pictures taken in Africa that confirmed the couple-status of Jolie and Pitt went for around $1 million. Ruiz estimates that Brangelina wedding day pics will net approximately $2 million:

“That’s going to be the wedding of the century,” Gary Morgan, CEO of Splash photo agency, told Flash of the nuptials. He bets the shots will be closely guarded and sold to the highest bidders in the U.S. and abroad. “They’ll revive the industry — for that week, anyway.”

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Irene Zutell, who once covered the Hollywood red carpet for People and US Weekly, says this weekend’s Oscars reminded her how deathly dull it is to ask celebrities who they are wearing. The author and CBS game show co-creator says she’s happier than ever to have left the silly, superficial awards show trenches.

But what makes her angry is how her media successors on Sunday celebrated a woman, Angelina Jolie, who in Zutell’s opinion looked like a poster child for anorexia. While many Tweeters and some commentators brought up the point of how skinny the actress looked, the Sunday night red carpet crew did nothing but gush. Writes Zutell on the iVillage site lifegoesstrong.com:

What was more shocking—Angelina Jolie’s frail, sickly appearance or the fact that those covering the event seemed completely oblivious to it? And she was right in front of them. I was watching Angelina on television—which allegedly adds ten pounds to your body. I can only imagine what she looked like up close…

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After nearly 20 years in business, the Laemmle Sunset 5 movie theatre is closing its doors. Once the city’s preferred destination for independent cinema, business has faded, and the Laemmle chain now deems it financially prudent to allocate resources elsewhere. From the press release:

A mainstay of the Los Angeles exhibition scene since its opening in 1992, the Sunset 5, was vitally important in launching a wave of new directors. Filmmakers such as Todd Haynes (SAFE), Lisa Cholodenko (HIGH ART), Doug Liman (SWINGERS), Catherine Hardwicke (THIRTEEN), Bryan Singer (THE USUAL SUSPECTS), Todd Solondz (WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE), and Bill Condon (GODS & MONSTERS) saw their films premiere to sell-out crowds at the Sunset.

This fishie recalls seeing a few of those movies at the Sunset 5, not to mention several awesome film festivals and events. It was more than a movie theater, it was a cultural destination, and it’s sad to see it go. It seems likely that the demise of the Sunset 5 was helped along by the closing of once thriving businesses in the same shopping complex, including the Virgin MegaStore and the Wolfgang Puck Cafe.

Subsequently on FishbowlLA:
Robert Redford Rides Into Laemmle’s Sunset 5

As Seattle Times business reporter Melissa Allison so aptly puts it today in her article lede about Corbis Images’ acquisition of 21-year-old LA outfit Splash News, Bill Gates now owns a piece of Angelina Jolie. Or at least a piece of her luscious lipped photographic image.

The two biggest consumer photo licensing companies, Corbis and Getty Images, are both now headquartered in Seattle. To a certain extent, the decision by Corbis to purchase Splash for an undisclosed amount is just one more example of the “TMZ-ization” of the media. Per today’s press release:

””We are thrilled to join Corbis and will continue to do what we do best–deliver the authentic, breaking content that connects the media with its audience,” said Splash CEO Gary Morgan. “We look forward to providing our global network of photographers the ability to expand beyond their current reach through Corbis’ global footprint.”

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She didn’t invent it, that was Angelina Jolie. And she didn’t base a career on it, that was Tila Tequila. But Evan Rachel Wood has made good use of the bisexuality strategy to gain a bit of media attention. The following remarks in an interview with Esquire were all it took to land her a mention in damn near every publication in the country:

She says she’s feeling free and genuinely happy these days. “I’m up for anything. Meet a nice guy, meet a nice girl…”

This is the third such hint in the conversation, after that androgyny comment and saying she’d “marry” her Mildred Pierce costar Kate Winslet if she could.

You date women?

“Yes,” she says proudly, as if she was waiting to be asked.

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