Angelina Jolie mobbed by fan in chaotic TIFF appearance

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Angelina Jolie’s highly anticipated return to the Toronto International Film Festival was nearly derailed when an overzealous fan managed to break through security to embrace the actress.

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In videos shared to social media, the Oscar winner was seen being approached aggressively by a fan when she touched down in Toronto earlier this week to promote her revenge thriller Without Blood, which stars Salma Hayek and Demian Bichir and centres on an adult woman who confronts her father’s murderer.

Jolie, 49, was joined at the premiere by her 20-year-old son Pax, who was injured in July in an e-bike accident.

As Jolie, clad in a Dolce & Gabbana and matching opera gloves, signed autographs for fans, one supporter eluded the actress’ ring of security and hugged her.

As a gaggle of onlookers gasped, Jolie’s team quickly intervened and pulled the interloper away as the Maleficent star pleaded with them to “be nice.”

On Reddit, viewers called the incident “terrifying” and questioned TIFF for holding such a high profile screening at its Lightbox theatre instead of one of the larger venues utilized by the festival.

“That was very kind of Angelina but also holy flip that was terrifying,” one person wrote.

Postmedia has reached out to TIFF organizers for comment following the episode.

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Jolie was also feted by the festival at its annual Tribute Awards, where she was honoured with the Impact Media prize for her work connecting social issues and cinema.

But according to Variety, Jolie, who has also directed Unbroken and First They Killed My Father, refused to stop on the red carpet ahead of her appearance for photos and did not want her speech recorded.

A message from TIFF programmers read: “Angelina Jolie’s team has requested that there be no photography or videography of Angelina during the Tribute Awards. This includes all photography and videography by TIFF, our sponsors, our partners and our guests. Please let your teams know that to accommodate this, there will be a dip in the live feed during the presentation of the Impact Award.”

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Jolie did participate in some limited press, telling Deadline in an interview that she was inspired to direct Without Blood after falling in love with Alessandro Baricco’s novel of the same name.

“When I read the book, I hadn’t read something in a long time, not in my memory, which was addressing that very complex gray area of human beings. Where it wasn’t defining who was good, who was bad, what was absolute,” she said. “It felt so true to what it is like for the many people that I know who’ve gone through war. When I read it, I thought it would go one way, I was surprised that it didn’t, and I was surprised that I was happy it didn’t.”

Prior to TIFF, Jolie visited the Venice Film Festival to promote her upcoming biographical drama Maria, in which she plays opera singer Maria Callas.

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While there, organizers had the unenviable task of making sure she didn’t cross paths with her former husband Brad Pitt, who she has been locked in a divorce dispute with for the past eight years.

But their appearances went off without any drama, with Jolie’s film premiering days before Pitt’s.

“There is no way that they can cross each other at the Lido (where much of the film festival takes place),” the festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera promised Vanity Fair.

Jolie was effusive when she talked to press about the upcoming film, saying that playing Callas was “the therapy I didn’t know I needed.”

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