Why Angelina's leaving the jollies for later

Angelina Jolie has banished any celebratory party for the film about the search for Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal journalist who was kidnapped, and later murdered, in Pakistan five years ago.

In A Mighty Heart, Angelina portrays Pearl's widow Mariane, who at the time of his abductionwas pregnant with their son Adam.

The film's having its world premiere on Monday night at the Cannes Film Festival and, from what I can gather, director Michael Winterbottom has brought a raw and sensitive touch to the story.

Angelina saw the film recently and declared that it would be inappropriate to have 'dancing and singing and carrying on' after it is shown in Cannes.

Instead, the cast, which includes British actress Archie Panjabi with Dan Futterman as Daniel Pearl, will have a quiet dinner with Winterbottom, producer Andrew Eaton and Brad Pitt, whose film company backed the picture.

They will be joined by the real-life Mariane Pearl, who will be travelling from her home in Paris. She has already seen the picture, as have Pearl's parents in the U.S..

Mariane and Angelina have become firm friends since Mrs Pearl gave her approval for the Oscar-winning actress to portray her.

However, I notice there has been a lot of spiteful internet chatter asking why a Caucasian actress was chosen to play a non-fictional woman of Cuban heritage.

I guess it comes down to a director picking the best actor to do the job, and race shouldn't come into it - and as I said, Mrs Pearl has no worries about it.

Still, I'm intrigued it has become the topic of such heated - and sometimes nasty - debate on the web.