AUTHOR:
CLIENT:
Angelina Jolie
PHOTOS:
YEAR:
LINKS:
Marco Di Lauro tells us when Angelina Jolie called him to be accompanied in Afghanistan with the aim of collecting money to give to charity.
Angelina Jolie with UNHCR – Photo: Marco Di Lauro
Can you tell us about your experience with Angelina Jolie?
I was at home in Rome when I heard the phone ring; the voice on the receiver says that she is Angelina Jolie and without much ado I hang up on her. After a while the phone rings again and it is the same girl who asks me to give her time to explain. I find out that it’s not a joke and that she contacted my agency because she wanted to do a story on Afghanistan with me. Angelina’s goal was to sell our service to various newspapers and donate the proceeds to charity and given the purpose of the service I accepted a more modest sum than usual. We spent a week together, visited some places and met many people, but none of them recognised her. All this surprised me a little, because she is very famous even in those places, but maybe nobody expects a Hollywood star to be completely anonymous in countries like this.
Angelina Jolie with UNHCR – Photo: Marco Di Lauro
The fact that Hollywood stars commit themselves to humanitarian causes seems like a good thing to me.
Yes, there are some who do it in one way and some in another. In Angelina Jolie’s case, I can tell you that she behaved in an authentic way, with the sole purpose of helping others. At the same time, I can tell you that I have had to deal with other equally famous people who were in those places for the most disparate reasons, and helping others didn’t appear to be one of them.
