Angelina’s diva defence
Sara Hall

NEW YORK—Angelina Jolie has been called many things, from humanitarian to home-wrecker, but tantrum-tossing diva? Not so much. Which is why we were scratching our heads over recent reports accusing the refugee-aiding, mall-dwelling, IHOP-dining mom of two of storming off the set of the animated beastie epic “Beowulf” in a Mariah-esque huff. As the story went, Jolie saw red when she found out that co-star Ray Winstone had speculated to the press about her future with Brad Pitt. “She’s getting married, isn’t she? Yes, she is,” the actor was quoted as saying.
The Oscar-winning bombshell, 30, was supposedly so steamed at the betrayal that she refused to return to her voiceover duties until Winstone issued a sincere mea culpa, causing production delays and leaving director Robert Zemeckis “in an awful position.” While we love a good celebrity feud as much as the next schmo, this one is so much fracas fiction, says Neil Gaiman, who adapted the seminal story for the screen and is exec producing the pic.
In a posting on his Web site, the comic book overlord explains that he had planned to ignore the tussle talk “because it just wasn’t true and I didn’t want to spread it,” but he changed his mind about defending Angelina’s reputation after the story got more pick up than Paris Hilton at a Greek billionaire convention.