Angelina
and her newly adopted 3-year-old son left Vietnam in a private jet on
Wednesday, en route to the boy's new home in the United States.
The superstar adopted Pax Thien Jolie in Ho Chi Minh City last week, but
they later came to the capital city of Hanoi to pick up a visa allowing
him to enter the United States. Jolie left a pack of disappointed
paparazzi in her wake, fleeing from them before boarding the awaiting a
Gulfstream jet at Noi Bai Airport.
During her week in Vietnam, Jolie spent her time cooped up in luxury
hotels, shielding Pax from the photographers that trailed them
everywhere.
On the few occasions they came out to do adoption paperwork, they
travelled in cars with darkened windows and only emerged after parking
in basement garages that were sealed off from the media horde.
Jolie and her partner, Brad Pitt, made a surprise trip to Vietnam last
November, when they visited the Tam Binh orphanage on the outskirts of
Ho Chi Minh City. Pax had been living at the orphanage since he was
abandoned as an infant.
Jolie filed adoption papers as a single parent because she and Pitt are
not married.
Next
People Magazine:
The actress and 3-year-old Pax Thien Jolie, whom
she adopted from an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, left Hanoi's Noi Bai
Airport in a private jet on Wednesday, bound for home – and, for Pax, a
new life – in the U.S.
Jolie, 31, understands the challenges her new son will face as the
latest addition to the world's most famous multicultural family. "You
can imagine what courage it takes to be in all new surroundings, with
new people and a new language," she tells PEOPLE in its new issue. "He
is very strong."
But she is committed to making his transition as smooth as possible. "It
will take him a while to realize he has a family," she says, "and that
his new life is permanent and that it won't keep changing."
The boy with the sweetly shy smile and the big brown eyes joins big
brother Maddox, 5 (adopted from Cambodia), sister Zahara, 2 (adopted
from Ethiopia) and 10-month-old Shiloh, the daughter born to Jolie and
Brad Pitt, 43, in May.
As for Dad, because Vietnamese regulations don't allow unmarried couples
to co-adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent while Pitt remained in
Los Angeles, where he is filming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
"He has specific days on the movie that couldn't be changed or
production would run over," says his rep.
But Jolie still made sure to bring a welcoming committee: Joined by
Maddox and Zahara – Shiloh has been on the Button set every day with her
father – the new mom used her first few days with Pax to begin gently
bonding with him and to allow her other kids to do the same.
Angelina Jolie arrives for the screening of the
film "Ocean's Thirteen," at the 60th International film festival in
Cannes, southern France, on Thursday, May 24, 2007. (AP Photo/Jeff
Christensen)
Canadian Press
Published: Friday, June 01, 2007
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Angelina Jolie's son Pax Thien now has the Jolie-Pitt
family name.
Jolie traveled to Vietnam in March to adopt Pax from a Ho Chi Minh City
orphanage. The 31-year-old actress filed adoption papers as a single
parent because she and partner Brad Pitt aren't married.
The three-year-old boy is now Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, according to a
decree signed Thursday by Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg.
Jolie filed legal papers in April to include Pitt's last name.
