Mar 16, 2007 HO
CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - Actress Angelina Jolie hugged and spoke a
few words in Vietnamese to comfort the crying boy she is adopting
to live with her family in America, newspapers reported on
Friday.
Reports said the almost three-and-a-half year-old boy, renamed Pax
Thien Jolie, cried when he first saw his adoptive mother at the Ho
Chi Minh City orphanage where he has lived since infancy.
Jolie was quick to hug him and told him in Vietnamese "Khong sao
dau, khong sao dau" (No problem, no problem) and immediately
started playing with him, Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper
reported.
Oscar-winning actress Jolie kept out of public view after receiving
the Vietnamese boy, but her photograph was on front pages of
several of Friday's newspapers, which are all state-run in
communist-ruled Vietnam.
The boy's caregiver said his favorite dishes included fried noodle
and yoghurt and that he can count from 1 to 10 in English, the Tuoi
Tre (Youth) newspaper reported.
Jolie fetched the boy from the orphanage on Thursday and signed
adoption papers with authorities in the southern city, which is
Vietnam's largest urban area with 8 million people.
The adoption will be final once U.S. embassy officials in Hanoi
approve the paperwork for the child to travel to the United States,
Vietnamese officials said.
Reporters, photographers and TV crews outside the hotel where Jolie
was staying have not seen her since a car took her from the
government building where she signed adoption papers on
Thursday.
Jolie, 31, has two adopted children and a biological daughter with
partner actor Brad Pitt.
She flew into Ho Chi Minh City by chartered plane on Wednesday
night from Japan. Her son Maddox and daughters Zahara and Shiloh
Nouvel accompanied her.
Jolie visited Vietnam in November and filed papers in early March
through an unidentified U.S. adoption agency without Pitt because
under the law in Vietnam an unmarried couple cannot adopt a child,
while a single person can.