Angelina Jolie got internet tongues wagging when she was spotted in a picture alongside rapper Akala – brother of Ms Dynamite – at the Venice Film Festival this week.
The Maleficient actress, 49 – who was famously married to and then divorced Brad Pitt – was pictured alongside the rapper, and fans went wild with dating theories.
X user @voteforhani shared the snaps and wrote, ‘akala x angelina jolie makes absolutely zero sense and total sense at the same time,’ while @MusicConnoiss said: ‘Akala dating Angelina Jolie was not on my 2024 bingo card.’
‘Actually need someone to confirm whether akala and angelina jolie are a thing this is very important to me,’ wrote @milaxmila_, as @blackpowerpuff predicted: ‘angelina jolie and akala dating rumours in 3..2…1.’
However, everyone needs to calm it because a source has shut down rumours about Angelina and Akala – real name Kingslee James McLean Daley – to TMZ, highlighting that they were together in Venice together with his partner, a woman called Chanelle. It is said the trio have known each other for years, and are all friends.
A source told People: ‘She and Akala are not dating. She is friends with him and his partner, Chanelle, who was also there.’
Another source told the US outlet that the Hollywood star – who has Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with her estranged husband Brad – and the rapper simply share similar interests in humanitarian work and are platonic friends as a result.
A source said: ‘They share the same passion when it comes to social and humanitarian causes. They did several collabs over the years that focus on global issues like human rights. Angie speaks very highly of him.’
The Venice snaps come after Angelina became teary during an eight-minute standing ovation at the Italian festival after the premiere of her new film Maria.
The drama, directed by Larraín, follows the life of renowned opera diva Maria Callas – played by Angelina – as the final movie in the Chilean filmmaker’s trilogy about iconic women after 2016’s Jackie about JFK’s wife Jackie Kennedy and 2021’s Spencer about Princess Diana.
The premiere also marked Angelina’s opera singing debut – despite her never having even done karaoke before.
She told reporters including Metro.co.uk at the film festival that ‘the bar in this where I would know if I did good enough are the Maria Callas fans and those who love opera’ and that her ‘fear would be to disappoint them’.
The star added: ‘In my own business if there’s a response to the work, I’m very grateful, but in my heart to disappoint the people who love her and who she means a lot to, and her legacy, I came to care for her – I didn’t want to do a disservice to this woman.’
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Brad is also attending Venice Film Festival this year to promote his new film Wolfs, but they are missing each other by two days, with Angelina reportedly having flown out right after the premiere and her ex-husband arriving two days later on Saturday.
Once Hollywood’s most famous couple, the Brangelina divorce is still ongoing amid bitter disputes over their Château Miraval winery.
They first met while filming Mr and Mrs Smith together in 2005, and welcomed Shiloh together in May, 2006.
The exes tied the knot in 2014 but went their separate ways two years later, before being declared legally single in 2019.
A source recently told People that Brad has found happiness in his budding romance with girlfriend Ines de Ramon.
They also added that he and Angelina’s children ‘dropping’ his name from theirs ‘pains’ him – after Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt filed documents to drop her famous dad’s surname, with Vivienne and Zaharaappearing to do the same.
On the playbill for Vivienne’s new musicalThe Outsiders, credits listed her just as ‘Vivienne Jolie’ – while also Zahara introduced herself as Zahara Marley Jolie when she joined the Mu Pi chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Spelman College in November.
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