Brad has been nominated for a People’s Choice award for Favorite Movie Actor. Inglourious Basterds is nominated for Independent Movie. Read more. Thanks Natlc.

According to several Twitter posts, Brad is enroute to Tokyo and most likely will appear at the Inglourious Basterds premiere and promotional events tomorrow, November 4th. So keep an eye out. Thanks Asanty.

Jay Leno isn’t the only Hollywood celebrity with a hanger full of cars. Los Angeles is full of closet gear heads and, they’re lining up to do 20th Century Fox’s new racing movie, Go Like Hell.

The film is based on recently optioned book called “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans”. Set in the 1960s, the book is the true story of the Ford motor company’s attempt to beat the exotic Euro auto manufacturers at their own game by hiring a crack team to beat them in European racing. It’s the 60s by the way which manes safety took a back seat to speed and race car drivers were as much daredevils as they were professionals. Blowing up halfway down the track wasn’t out of the question.

What’s most interesting about this project are the number of big names who may be involved. Producer Lucas Foster appeared this week on the Adam Carolla Podcast and talked endlessly about his plans for the film, including who might star in it. Lucas says, “I have a lot of interest from big actors. It would shock you the telephone calls that have come in from people.” In particular Foster says, “There’s a lot of conversation with my good friend, Brad Pitt.” He further confirmed that they’ve spoken to Josh Brolin while mentioning that he’s also interested in Russell Crowe, Matt Damon (for the role of Phil Hill), Eric Bana, and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Read more/discuss.

Thanks intothegrinder.

X17online can report exclusively that Brad Pitt fell off his motorcycle after hitting the back of a car in Hollywood just ten minutes ago.

Brad appeared to be uninjured (thankfully he was wearing his helmet), and he picked up his bike and pulled it off the road. Brad then went into a building just next to the scene of the accident, and X17 photogs on the scene tell X17online that the bike he was riding was the one we spotted being delivered to his house just the other day.

Brad’s assistant just picked him and is now taking him home, and they left the bike at the scene of the accident.

Read more/discuss.

UPDATE

Brad was hit from behind by a paparazzo driving a Saturn just moments before the incident occurred. The bump by the photographer’s car caused Brad to lose his balance and hit the car in front of him, but it took a few seconds for the tap to jostle Brad off of his bike. As far as we know, there was no damage to the motorcycle or to the car but as you can imagine, Brad was very upset with the pap.

Our photographers witnessed a visibly upset Brad speaking with the guilty pap as he pulled his bike from the street, but it looks like everything is going to be okay, as Brad was smiling when he left the building to hop into his assistant’s car.

Glad Brad is ok!

Read more/discuss.

As you may have noticed, the previous update was done by my friend La_miga. You may know her from her wonderful spanish Brad and Angelina fansite Brangelina Espanol. Due to me going on a trip to London this weekend, and at the end of the year for a much longer period to Australia, she has graciously accepted my plea to help out. I’m very committed to the website and so it would bug me if the site isn’t updated when grand Brad news is announced lol.

So, La_miga will keep you all up-to-date on everything Brad like I always try to do. Any new pictures will have to wait until I return. For my next trip I will have to see if I can also arrange the picture updates. Since SB is such a huge website with many layers of work and organisation (and me being the annoying perfectionist), this is how it will be for this coming trip. Please give her a warm welcome

Alright, so that’s the staff update. And now we gotta wait for pics to show up as Brad will attend the Los Angeles Inglourious Basterds premiere today!

Human Rights Watch said Friday that Zimbabwe’s armed forces have taken over diamond fields in the east and killed more than 200 people, forcing children to search for the precious gems and beating villagers who get in the way.

The New York-based organization said its call for a ban on diamonds from the region had received an endorsement from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. A statement from the couple’s foundation was expected later Friday.

“Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have issued a call for a ban on any sale or purchase of Marange diamonds … until … the mining is not based on the violent abuse of residents in that region,” said Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch’s executive director.

Zimbabwe’s deputy mining minister, Murisi Zwizwai, has denied the allegations and said the presence of the military is to secure the area.

More than 100 witnesses, miners, police officers, soldiers and children were interviewed for the report entitled “Diamonds in the Rough,” which details allegations of human rights abuses by Zimbabwean armed forces in an attempt to control access to the precious gems.

The human rights group said esearchers had gathered evidence of mass graves and accounts of an incident last year when military helicopters fired at miners, while armed soldiers on the ground chased villagers from the area. Read more.

At a time when expensive adult dramas keep striking out at the box office, it appears not even Brad Pitt and director Steven Soderbergh can entice a Hollywood studio to spend about $57 million on a baseball movie.

Pitt and Soderbergh, who were given a short window to set up their adaptation of the 2003 bestselling book “Moneyball” at a rival studio after Sony Pictures unexpectedly killed the project just three days before production was to begin today, have been turned down by Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, which shared concerns about the film’s high budget and limited commercial appeal.

Sony movie chief Amy Pascal had given them the weekend to try and set the movie up at the two studios where they have the closest ties. Pitt’s production company is based at Paramount, and the actor and Soderbergh have made the “Ocean’s 11″ movies at Warner.

On Friday, as first reported by industry trade paper Daily Variety, Sony’s Pascal pulled the plug on the production after Soderbergh turned in a rewrite of the script by Steve Zaillian that she found unacceptable, according to people close to the situation. A person informed about the matter said that Pascal had liked Zaillian’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book about Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, but when Soderbergh’s rewrite came in last Wednesday, she was surprised that there were “substantial changes.”

Pascal met with Soderbergh in her Culver City office to see if he was willing to revise his take, but the two couldn’t agree on a vision for the film. They also disagreed over Soderbergh’s plan to shoot the film in a more improvisational documentary style, the person said.

She then made a last-minute decision to scrap the production, shocking those who were about to start shooting, said one individual involved in the project.

By Monday, Paramount and Warner Bros. had already decided to pass. Read more. Thanks Gabriella.

Columbia Pictures has dropped the ball on “Moneyball,” the Steven Soderbergh-directed Brad Pitt-starrer that was supposed to begin production Monday in Phoenix. On Friday, Columbia Pictures topper Amy Pascal placed the picture into “limited turnaround,” giving the filmmaker the chance to set it up at another studio, with Warner Bros. and Paramount the prime targets.

The move came after Pascal read the final draft delivered last week by Steve Zaillian and Steven Soderbergh and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how Steven Soderbergh’s vision had changed that she applied the brakes.

Soderbergh and Pitt’s CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get another studio to play ball in a game that will play out until Monday. If a new financier doesn’t emerge by tomorrow, Columbia will re-examine options that include replacing Soderbergh (and hoping that Pitt doesn’t ankle), delaying the film until she and the filmmaker find themselves in synch on the script, or pulling the plug. Read more. Thanks Intothegrinder and Gabriella.

The votes are in; now watch your favorite celebrity win Spike TV’s coveted Mantlers at the 2009 Guy’s Choice Awards on June 21st at 10:00 pm. The Guy’s Choice Awards is the only awards show where guys pick the winners; it’s “all that’s important to guys everywhere”. Some of today’s hottest celebrities will be there including Jason Stratham, Halle Berry, Rosario Dawson, Clint Eastwood, Mickey Rourke, Brad Pitt, Katy Perry, Quentin Tarantino, and Ben Stiller. This is a night you don’t want to miss.

In the meantime check out Guy’s Choice, for exclusive backstage coverage, photos, and video footage of the awards. Thanks Clare.

Brad Pitt’s new baseball movie is hitting Phoenix in the next day or two for a couple of days of filming.

Pitt plays a baseball executive in the film “Moneyball,” an adaptation of a best-selling book.

So will Pitt be here for the filming? Probably, says the film’s publicist, Spooky Stevens.

“Yes, but it’s not written in stone,” she said.

Stevens wasn’t willing to say much about what’s happening here. She said the production doesn’t disclose locations and wants to slip in and out of town quietly to keep down crowds that might slow their work. She said most of the shooting will take place in Los Angeles but the first two days are in Phoenix.

“Moneyball” is an adaptation of the book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.” It chronicles Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s major league baseball team. The book portrays him as obsessed with unusual statistics that help find overlooked players who produce contending teams with a cheap payroll. Read more.

They’re between film shoots, but Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have kept busy.

First, it was the creation of the Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center, named after Brad’s mother, in his hometown of Springfield, Mo. And Wednesday, in support of Jolie’s eight-year relationship with the UN Refugee Agency, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation gave $1 million to help displaced people in Pakistan, a country she has visited three times.

The head of the agency, António Guterres, thanked the foundation for its assistance, calling Pakistan’s plight “the most challenging humanitarian crisis of the past decade,” as more than 2 million people are currently displaced in the country. Read more.

TEEN CHOICE 2009 will celebrate the hottest teen icons in film, television, music, sports and fashion in the choicest, star-studded two-hour event airing Monday, Aug. 10 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

Related nominations:

- Choice Movie Drama (Benjamin Button)
- Choice Movie Actor: Drama: Brad Pitt (Benjamin Button)
- Choice Celebrity Activist: Brad Pitt

Go cast your vote @ Teen Choice Awards. And I’ve a feeling he will be presenting an award, hopefully, maybe. Read more.

It’s a big deal that’s about to get better for families in the Ozarks. On Saturday, St. John’s Hospital announced its children’s hospital will become a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital affiliate.

For families in the Ozarks, this means:
- As an affiliate, many treatments that are administered at St. Jude will be administered at St. John’s, meaning families won’t have to be away from home for weeks, months or years.
- For St. Jude patients treated at St. John’s, their family will not pay for any treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance will not have to pay.

For other pediatric cancer patients who are not St. Jude patients, the hospital will work with their family concerning payments, said Mike Peters, president of St. John’s Foundation for Community Health. “We provide a lot of charity care based on a family’s ability to pay,” Peters said.

Other major announcements Saturday:
- St. John’s Auxiliary has pledged $1 million, over the next four years, to help fund the children’s hospital and other projects.
- St. John’s is expanding its children’s hospital services and hiring the region’s first pediatric hematology/oncology physician.

To make this possible, the Brad Pitt family, Doug and Lisa Pitt and Rob and Julie Neal donated $1 million to establish an endowment fund from which cancer specialists will be paid. In honor of their mother, the center will be renamed St. John’s Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center.

When Mike Peters announced the new name Saturday at a dinner, Jane Pitt wiped away tears. Doug Pitt patted his mother on the arm before getting up to make a speech on his family’s behalf. Pitt referred to his mom as the “pretty one” in the back. “My mom is everything good,” Pitt said. Read more/video. Thanks Gabriella.

Actor Brad Pitt briefly sent camera phones on fire earlier today at the Art Basel art fair in Basel, Switzerland, when he lingered before Neo Rauch’s rainbow-colored racetrack painting, “Etappe,” at the booth of New York dealer David Zwirner.

The 1998 painting depicts a swirling view of a driver behind a red, Formula One-style racecar, with workers nearby carrying candy-colored hoses.

After eyeing the 9-foot-wide work for several minutes, Pitt rubbed his goatee, fiddled with his tweed driving cap, and walked away. Zwirner, looking slightly anxious, said, “He’s on the fence. Nothing wrong with that, I guess.”

Pitt returned minutes later with Eli and Edy the Broad, the major Los Angeles collectors. Pitt and Broad conferred and then the group left.

Broad, hours later, says he gave the actor a friendly nudge. “I told him we had four Rauchs and if he didn’t buy it, we probably would.”

The peer pressure worked: Pitt soon after agreed to buy the oil on linen Rauch for just under $1 million, the gallery confirmed. Source. Thanks Gabriella.

When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie left Namibia with their newborn baby three years ago, they left behind a legacy.

Today, in Ondangwa, their generosity will see 73 bicycles specially designed for rough terrain donated to school children.

After Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt was born to much media attention on May 27 2006 in Swakopmund, her famous parents donated N500000 (R500000) to the Michelle McLean Children’s Trust.

The charity, run by the Namibian-born beauty since she won Miss Universe in 1992, managed 10 projects with the Jolie- Pitt donation. “The money was a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the first picture of Shiloh with her parents,” said McLean.

The bicycle handover is the second consignment of two- wheelers.

The Jolie-Pitt donation was also used to train pre-primary teachers to prepare children for grade 1, equipping children with financial skills, running a basic first-aid development programme for teachers and care- givers at pre-primary schools, and donating food and clothes to the San people in the Tsumeb region. Source. Thanks Gabriella.