It’s always interesting when celebrities jump into a discussion involving politics, religion, terrorists or all of the above. And then you wonder, should we really care what they have to say on a particular topic?
Does Sean Penn have all the answers to fixing things after a natural disaster? Should we take notice of who Barbra Streisand votes for? And why do we even care about Mel Gibson’s pofanity-laced anti-semitic rants?
I think it’s because celebrities’ voices are heard on a world level, and it makes it easy for us to either agree with their view or denounce it as ridiculous. Now Angelina Jolie is jumping into the discussion about whether Florida pastor Terry Jones should be able to burn the Koran – the Muslim holy book – on September 11.
“I have hardly the words,” she told reporters, to describe actions “that somebody would do that to somebody’s religious book.” Jolie is in Pakistan highlighting the plight of flood victims there, and when asked if she supported Jones’s plan to burn the Koran, she answered, “Of course not. Of course not.”
What I do love about Jolie, though, is that she uses her celebrity status and her role as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador to bring attention to people across the globe suffering through a crisis. Millions of folks in northwest Pakistan have been forced from their homes due to flooding.
“It’s clear this crisis is far from over,” said Jolie, 35. “People have lost everything – their homes, their belongings, their crops and cattle, and their livelihoods.”
Image: Jason Tanner/UNHCR
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