Angelina Jolie Is ‘A Cool Mommy’

There’s no doubt that meeting Angelina Jolie can be nerve-wracking – but her Wanted costars say the superstar mom is incredibly down-to-earth.

“It’s a little intimidating, someone like her who is presented as a goddess. [But] it takes, like, 30 seconds and you figure out she’s just a cool woman,” Wanted actor Thomas Kretschmann said at the film’s press day Monday.

The German actor, who plays an assassin in the action flick out June 27, also described Jolie as “a cool mommy.”

Kretschmann’s kids and the Jolie-Pitt youngsters “played together from time to time” on set, he said. “She knows exactly what she wants and she’s extremely smart.”

But Jolie isn’t the only “cool” person in her household. Costar Common calls Brad Pitt “a good dude.”

“We hung out and he was a cool cat,” said the rapper-turned-actor.

And Jolie? “She’s an incredible mother, a beautiful mother,” Common said. “She has so much realness to her.”

Queen Latifah Achieves Weight Loss Goal

After signing on to be a Jenny Craig spokeswoman in January, Queen Latifah has shed a few pounds and is continuing her mission of encouraging others to lead a healthy lifestyle.

The Mad Money star, 38, who is known for embracing her curves, said her weight loss goal wasn’t “about getting skinny.”

“My intention was to lose five to 10 percent of my body weight because it makes a difference with health related issues, and I achieved that goal in a couple of months,” she said at the first annual National Awards & Recognition Luncheon for The League recently. “I’m excited about this weight loss.”

In addition to following the Jenny Craig program, the singer-actress hit the gym five to seven days a week, switching between the treadmill or elliptical machine for an hour.

“My jeans are looser, I feel more energetic,” she said of shedding the weight. “People dig it. They come up to me and say ‘I’m glad you’re talking about the health side of it.’ People get that message, which is important too.”

Even though she’s slimmer, Latifah said her fans know she’s still one of them.

“They see that I’m doing this for the health reasons but also say, ‘She’s still representing for the big girls. She hasn’t abandoned us!’ ” Latifah said. “This is me doing something for me, but if I am going to be a role model I hope people can catch on.”

Giving Back to the Community
Queen Latifah isn’t just serving as a role model for healthy living, but she’s also inspiring others to contribute to their communities by teaming up with The League, a youth service organization that empowers students to give back.

“I’ve been giving back since I was a teen, handing out turkeys at Thanksgiving and handing out toys at toys drives for Christmas. It’s very important to give back as a youth,” Latifah, who hosted the luncheon, said. “It’s as simple as helping an old lady across the street or giving up your seat on the bus for someone who is pregnant. Those things are about respecting other people and taking care of them even if you don’t know them.”

Ali Larter Fights to Stay Fit

Keeping heroically fit doesn’t come easily to Ali Larter – despite some noticeable physical advantages.

“When I’m in really good shape, I like my butt. It’s juicy – that’s what my fiancé says,” the Heroes actress, 32, referring to actor Hayes MacArthur, tells Allure for its July issue.

“I’m an indulger, but then I have to be good,” Larter says over a large lunch of dumplings, scallops with ravioli and a burger with salad, fries, ketchup and mayo. “I’m also going to get my butt out and go for a run tomorrow.”

Once, before a photo shoot, her thighs needed to be duct-taped on account of “they were a little too round,” she recalls. On another occasion, while on a movie, she packed on some pounds – and that’s when being unfit really hit the fan.

“The faxes went out from the producers and the director to my agents to my manager to call me and ask me to lose weight,” she says. “I just remember sitting in my trailer hysterically crying from the embarrassment I felt about myself, my body – and that no one could talk to me directly.”

But she realizes that it was nothing personal – only business. “This is what I signed up for,” she admits. “What I do for a living puts me in the spotlight. They pay me for it.”

Kimora Lee Simmons Says She is Not an Extreme Diva

Kimora Lee Simmons has a lesson to share about married life – and it’s not all fabulous.
“When you get married, you’re forced to drink the milk long after it’s spoiled,” the designer, 33, tells Giant magazine for its June/July 2008 issue.

Simmons – who in March filed for divorce from her husband of 10 years, Russell Simmons – is now dating actor-model Djimon Hounsou, and is never one to shy away from knocking down tabloid talk when it comes to her personal life.

“I hear the craziest things, like, ‘She has to have a champagne glass filled within a quarter inch of the lip,’ ” says Simmons, who dismisses any notion that she might be an “extreme diva.”

“The reality, is I’m a dedicated mother [to daughters Ming Lee, 8, and Aoki Lee, 5] and a very kind, funny and hardworking person,” she says. “My reality-TV show helps to shed a bit of light, but even that’s glamorized.”

Ultimately, she says, she doesn’t care what others think of her, though “sometimes people who don’t know me say really cruel things that are way off base. But you can’t care too much about what people think of you. You have to establish your own set of core values and live by them”

And those core values? “Honor, respect, tenacity, intelligence and humor,” she says, adding, “Do your best, and live with the repercussions of your choices – good or bad.”