NAMES & FACES

Monday, March 19, 2007

Pax Be With Her

Angelina Jolie spent a low-key weekend in Vietnam dodging the paparazzi in Ho Chi Minh City, finalizing the adoption of the 3-year-old boy she picked up from the Tam Binh orphanage Thursday.

The actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador, 31, evaded photographers outside her hotel Saturday, while a representative obtained a Vietnamese passport for Pham Quang Sang, renamed Pax Thien Jolie, which combines the Latin word for peace and the Vietnamese word for heaven.

In response to an earlier statement from a Vietnamese official that the adoption was fast-tracked, the U.S.-based Adoptions From the Heart agency, which handled the matter for Jolie, said that wasn't the case.

"Throughout Ms. Jolie's adoption process, she received no preferential treatment from the Vietnamese government or Adoptions From the Heart," said Heidi Gonz al ez, the nonprofit agency's Vietnam coordinator.

The adoption will become final once the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi approves paperwork for the boy to travel to the United States.

A Ford in Blanchett's Future?

Cate Blanchett,37, is in negotiations to star opposite Harrison Ford,64, in the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series, her publicist said Saturday.

Filming on the Lucasfilm production begins later this year, with Steven Spielberg slated to direct.

Blanchett, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2004 for "The Aviator," starred in last year's "Notes on a Scandal" and "Babel." Ford played Indiana Jones in 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1984's "Temple of Doom" and 1989's "Last Crusade."

Sam Waterston, Radical Centrist

Eschewing the sharp partisanship that has characterized political debate of late, "Law & Order" actor Sam Waterston is endorsing a movement that veers to the center.

In an interview yesterday with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week," Waterston said he has joined Unity '08, which aims to draft a bipartisan presidential ticket next year.

"There's a huge majority of the American people who are ready for this, who are not represented in the current system. And this is an opportunity for those people to speak up," the actor said. "I think by its existence it will have a beneficial effect on anybody who's running for president, because they will be obliged to look over their shoulder at the center, and not simply address the partisan factions that have so much sway in primaries."

So remember: This Uncle Sam wants you and you and . . .

Noted . . .

· The murder trial of pioneering rock producer Phil Spector begins today, more than four years after B-movie actress Lana Clarkson was found dead at his mansion outside Los Angeles. The trial will be televised live, starting with jury selection.

· Prince Charles's wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will become a grandmother later this year, British newspapers reported yesterday. Sara Buys, who is married to Camilla's son Tom Parker Bowles, is expecting the couple's first child in September. "We have told our friends and family, and they are delighted," Parker Bowles said. "Mummy is absolutely over the moon at the prospect of becoming a grandmother."

. . . And Quoted

"I think Bush is probably the worst president in the history of the United States."

-- Donald Trump, coaxed into revealing his political views in an interview Friday on CNN's "Situation Room"

-- Compiled by Christian Hettinger from wire reports