Pitt breaks ice with China visit after Tibet row

SHANGHAI: Movie star Brad Pitt is visiting China with his partner, actress Angelina Jolie, effectively ending an unspoken ban after he angered communist authorities by appearing in the 1997 film “Seven Years in Tibet.”
Jolie was in Shanghai on Tuesday to promote her latest film “Maleficent,” a modern retelling of the life of Sleeping Beauty’s arch-nemesis, along with three of their children, but Pitt seemed intent on keeping a low profile.
Right at this moment, they (the children) are in dim sum classes with their dad,” Jolie said, referring to the popular southern Chinese cuisine.
The family visited a contemporary art museum and took walks in the commercial Chinese city, she said, but made no mention of the earlier controversy.
“It’s been a wonderful experience for our family,” she told journalists at Shanghai’s luxury Peninsula Hotel, where the family is staying. Pitt did not appear at the news conference.
Pitt previously played Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber who became friends with the Dalai Lama at the time of China’s takeover of Tibet in 1950.
China considers Tibet part of its sovereign territory and has accused Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who now lives in exile, of seeking independence for the region.
The Hollywood Reporter said the controversy already appeared to be easing as Frenchman Jean-Jacques Annaud, who directed the Tibet film, was making the movie “Wolf Totem” backed by the state-run China Film Group. Jolie said she and Pitt won’t tighten their security policies during publicity events after he was accosted on the red carpet in Los Angeles.
“People like that are an exception to the rule,” she explained. “Most fans are just wonderful. We’ve had a wonderful experience over the years, and we’re very grateful for their support, and it will not change the way we behave.” “
She also said Pitt is a “strong man” who handled the situation “perfectly” after he was accosted by a former Ukrainian television journalist at the film’s premiere last week. Vitalii Sediuk pleaded no contest to battery on Friday and was ordered to stay away from Pitt, Jolie and Hollywood red carpet events.
The ex-journalist said Monday he was merely trying to give the actor a hug and didn’t mean him any harm.





He said he was in a fan area of the event that was open to the public when he went in to give the actor a hug. Sediuk, 25, has gained a reputation for outlandish pranks on red carpets in Moscow, Los Angeles and last month, at the Cannes Film Festival when he crawled underneath America Ferrera’s dress at a film premiere.
His contact with Pitt, which caused the actor to lose balance while he was signing autographs at the “Maleficent” film premiere on Wednesday, led to Sediuk’s arrest. He spent two days in jail, where he said he watched television coverage of the incident, before pleading no contest to battery and unlawful activity at a sporting or entertainment event Friday. He was sentenced Friday to three years of probation, a year’s worth of psychiatric counseling and ordered to stay away from Pitt.
“I’m a normal guy,” Sediuk said. “I’m not crazy.”
The 6-foot-2 (1.87 meter) native of Boryspil, Ukraine said he initially wasn’t near the front of the fan area where Pitt was signing autographs last week, but saw paparazzi leave one area and headed for it. He said he stood on a metal railing and reached over to give Pitt a hug, toppling onto the carpet area as security grabbed him.
Sediuk was attempting to grab Pitt’s crotch and the actor gave him a couple of hits to the back of the head, the actor wrote in a statement to People magazine after Sediuk’s interview.
“I don’t mind an exhibitionist, but if this guy keeps it up he’s going to spoil it for the fans who have waited up all night for an autograph or a selfie, because it will make people more wary to approach a crowd,” Pitt wrote. “And he should know, if he tries to look up a woman’s dress again, he’s going to get stomped.”