Brad Pitt recently spoke with Variety’s Christy Grosz about his work on two best picture Oscar nominees, “Moneyball” and “The Tree of Life,” and collaborating with one of the most reclusive directors in the business.

How did Terrence Malick convey his concepts for “Tree of Life” to you as an actor?

He would come in with three pages of single-spaced thoughts and maybe some dialogue. What he does is he gets up in the morning and just bangs on the typewriter for an hour, ideas for the day’s work. I learned as an actor to pick a few things from that consciousness notebook that he would give me, and I would start to build something around that.

He starts with a very dense script but (uses) that as a spring board to capture those truthful missteps. He would do stuff like push Chivo (cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) before a shot just to put him off balance. We were in the car doing what I thought was a very important scene and all of a sudden he threw the dog in the front seat to create this chaos.

How did that work with the young actors?
I know the dialogue, at least as it is written, and Jessica (Chastain) knows the dialogue, but the boys don’t. He may tell them right before a scene, give them a response to aim for, but it’s very free form.

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eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace, is teaming up with Brad Pitt’s Make It Right to take charitable fundraising to a whole new level with a physical space and interactive bidding. Fans are invited to walk through a gallery featuring one-of-a-kind celebrity experiences and mementos to be auctioned off for charity on eBay Celebrity. Smartphones add a hands-on element to visually innovative displays, enabling attendees to participate in an interactive bidding process via dimensional QR codes by utilizing the eBay mobile app to bid in real time as well as track auction progress.

The elite exhibition brings celebrity charity auction items to life in New York’s famed Chelsea Market, with 100% of proceeds going to Make It Right, a non-profit foundation building sustainable, affordable homes in disadvantaged communities. Launched in November, eBay Celebrity is a unique shopping destination that combines celebrity experiences, memorabilia and merchandise with philanthropic causes.

Read more. Very interesting I think.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie continue to put their money where their mouths are when it comes to charity. Their Jolie Pitt Foundation’s 2010 tax filing just became available. Of the over $2.3 million they gave away in 2010, $1 million went to Doctors without Borders treating patients in Haiti. But sometimes it’s the little things that count, too. Brad paid $3,000 toward a funeral for beloved New Orleans civic leader and his friend, Pamela Dashiell, who died unexpectedly at age 61 in December 2009. Dashiell had been a leader in New Orleans’s famous Lower 9th Ward where the most damage occurred from Hurricane Katrina. Big donation are wonderful, but something like that kind of breaks your heart.

The Jolie Pitt Foundation is also kind of a template for smart giving. For example, under a micro financing plan they loaned 201 needy Cambodians $21,000 for small businesses to purchase crop seeds and agricultural tools– a similar program to Kiva.org. All the money has been paid back.

Read more. Thanks Gabriella.

Angelina Jolie is being honored: Her directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey” is on at this year’s Cinema for Peace gala 13th February 2012 with the “Cinema for Peace Honorary Award for Opposing War and Genocide “excellent.

Jaka Bizilj, founder of Cinema for Peace: “We are proud to George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn now welcome with Angelina Jolie’s leading philanthropist in the world of film as an honorary prize winner may be. These artists prove by their actions that artists can influence our society for the better.”
The director and her team of actors, among whom are Serbs, Croats and Bosnians, the award personally opposed.

Bosnia is the focus of this year’s Cinema for Peace gala. The Foundation has opened an office in November 2011 in Sarajevo, which deals mainly with the investigation of the genocide in Srebrenica.

The gala with 600 guests at the Konzerthaus Berlin, in addition to the guests of honor Angelina Jolie and Madame Catherine Deneuve and Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Christopher Lee, Bianca Jagger, Luc Besson, Jolie’s husband Brad Pitt and a host of filmmakers and Oscar winners expected. Among the German celebrities are expected including Liefers Jan Josef, Anna Loos, Nastassja Kinski, Michael Mitter Meier, Boris Becker, Franziska van Almsick, Mario Adorf and other eminent personalities.

Read more. Thanks Gabriella. (Be sure to watch the SB Calendar on the left of the updates). Congratulations Angelina on behalf of SimplyBrad.com!

If Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill didn’t get to know each other well enough making Moneyball, they sure are getting in a lot of quality time together this award season. Yesterday was a doubleheader for the duo — Brad and Jonah took the podium at the Oscars luncheon and followed it up with a special Moneyball screening and Q&A session at the LACMA. The Oscar-nominated costars have been making the rounds to support their underdog drama, and if it doesn’t walk away with anything at the Academy Awards in a few weeks it’s certainly not for lack of trying on their part.

Read more. Thanks Danielle.

Oscar nominee Brad Pitt made his first TV appearance in an episode of the hit show “Dallas.” Now, 25 years later, he’s a household name for his work in movies — and for his relationship and life with Angelina Jolie.

Charlie Rose recently sat down with the start to discuss why he says his life in the past year is as good as it gets and why he worked so hard to make the acclaimed movie “Moneyball.” The transcript of the interview follows.

Charlie Rose: This is a story of obsession for you…what was it?

Brad Pitt: It was a story of an obsessive character and I was obsessive about getting it to the screen. It was this idea of value and our self worth and how it is often tabulated by a failure. And you look at the Billy Bean character, he had been completely devalued by his sport. He was playing for a small market team and had to rethink the game. And had to question why we had been doing the things we do for so long. And in doing so, found this whole other talent pool of other people who had been devalued, and they started winning games. They got a second chance, and they started winning games. I thought it was a story we’re telling now about success and failure.

Charlie Rose: You felt a kinship with him.

Brad Pitt: Yes, definitely. He was emotional about the games. He couldn’t even watch the games. He didn’t want to cloud his thinking. I understand that to some degree – there were just attributes about him and this push and this need to make things fair, to find a level playing field. If we’re gonna compete, let’s make it fair. And I’m a bit of a justice nut.

Charlie Rose: We’re now in our fourth or fifth week on this show and we showed this movie to our staff at the beginning just to say here’s someone going against the odds and against expectations.

Brad Pitt: And that you can actually win in unconventional ways…

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Eighteen of the 20 nominees in the acting categories will make an appearance at the Feb. 6 event which honors more than 150 Academy Award contenders.

More than 150 Oscar nominees will be honored at the annual Nominees Luncheon on Feb. 6, with nearly all of the nominated actors expected to make an appearance.

Eighteen of the 20 nominees in the best actor, actress and supporting categories have RSVP’ed for the event, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel this Sunday. A press release for the event notes that additional confirmations are expected to come in the next day.

Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Rooney Mara, Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Demian Bichir, George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Gary Oldman and Brad Pitt should all be in attendance, filling out the complete Best Actor and Actress categories. Kenneth Branagh, Jonah Hill, Nick Nolte, Max von Sydow, Berenice Bejo, Melissa McCarthy, Janet McTeer and Octavia Spencer will represent the Supporting categories.

Read more. Thanks Gabriella.

Several months ago it seemed as though this may be Brad Pitt’s year. For some, he’s a movie star who happens to know how to act. To others he is a talented character actor who happens to be a remarkably good-looking movie star. Pitt himself will often say that he has learned his craft over the course of a 20-year career peppered with hits and misses, but he has become known for his humility as well as his willingness to take chances and go against the grain of what could have been a one- or two-note body of work.

For a time in the precursor season, it appeared as though he may be nominated for “The Tree of Life” as well as “Moneyball.” Each would offer particular PR challenges. Neither necessarily represents a no-brainer Oscar win (great historical figure, person facing life-altering trauma or, as Ricky Gervais taught us in “Extras,” a Nazi or a nun). But “Moneyball” is also a film that is notably devoid of the bells and whistles of the traditional “sports movie.” There is no great triumph, no moment of cathartic victory in a neatly wrapped package of money and accolades. What the film does offer is a look at how and why we define ourselves and others as we do, as well as an exploration of a thinking man’s way through a system that is inherently inequitable.

Read more. Thanks Danielle.