While she appeared in London's Leicester Square to promote her new action adventure flick Salt, last night, the press reported Angelina Jolie had a whole different kind of project in the pipeline...
According to reports, the 35-year-old star was set to play Marilyn Monroe in a film about the Some Like It Hot! icon's life... told from the point of view of her dog, Maf.
Based on Andrew O'Hagan's book The Life And Opinions Of Maf The Dog, And Of His Friend Marilyn Monroe, the movie would apparently co-star George Clooney as Frank Sinatra.
Maf was a Maltese terrier gifted to Monroe by Sinatra - his name being short for Mafia, a joke reference to the My Way singer's alleged crime connections.
However, Jolie later denied the reports and it was apparently all a load of hot air (and great publicity for O'Hagan's new book...). Yet it was interesting to see how the story divided internet opinion on whether Jolie would be the right person to play Monroe...
This also raises other questions: how will memorabilia attached to a star like Jolie compare to Monroe's collectibles in years to come? And should you consider investing in it?
Appraising a star's future investment potential can be a mixture of facts and intuition. For starters, here are the facts...
Jolie is already an Oscar winner for her role in 1999's Girl Interrupted and has appeared in Robert De Niro's second directorial effort, The Good Shepherd, among her many high-profile roles.
Like Monroe before her, she attracts mixed publicity for how she looks and acts on and off screen (believe it or not, Monroe also had her fair share of detractors during her lifetime).
And, if you're looking for a modern equivalent to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, then look no further than the press's ongoing infatuation with Jolie's relationship with Brad Pitt.
But what about the intuition? Well, whether or not Angelina's image and roles resonate in popular culture like Marilyn's remains to be seen.
 Cross the Hollywood profile of Liz |
Although there is another point that's also worth considering...
Outside of her film roles, Jolie has worked as an envoy for the UN High Commission, and donated millions of dollars into Afghanistan and Cambodia.
According to Hollywood writer Lawrence Grobel, Jolie's life changed direction in 2001 when the actress' role in Tomb Raider caused her to travel the world and become more aware of global issues.
"She's Hollywood's Mother Theresa. She'll be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize some day," Grobel goes as far as to write in an article for Autograph Collector magazine.
So, just as Bianca Jagger is a world-renowned human rights advocate and former actress today, perhaps the same will be said of Angelina Jolie in future years - a key difference being that Jolie also has an Oscar trophy in her cupboard....
And there is another star with highly bankable memorabilia to whom Jolie can be compared. She's a former bad girl who's courted controversy, grown up over and stayed current well into middle age...
The person we're thinking of is Madonna, whose early antics, including posing for risqué nude pictures, are in a similar vein to the knife collecting, drugs 'n' tattoos antics of Jolie in her younger years.
So is it wise to invest in the collectibles of someone who's a cross between Liz Taylor and Madonna?
She's might be no Monroe, but as Grobel writes: "We've only just begun to hear about Angelina Jolie."
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