(October 8, 2006) — Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, in India to shoot scenes for a movie about the slain journalist Daniel Pearl, went on an autorickshaw ride with their 5-year-old son on Sunday.
The celebrity couple were chased by photographers, cameramen and reporters forcing them to turn back after a 20-minute ride that took them past shops and department stores in downtown Pune, in western India.
Several traffic signals slowed their short rickshaw ride. At every red light, security men traveling in a rickshaw behind jumped out and surrounded the three-wheeler to prevent the media from snapping pictures of Pitt and Jolie.
They then returned to the Le Meridian hotel where they have been holed up since arriving on Thursday.
Security for the star couple has been tight since their arrival in Pune by private jet along with their children Maddox, 5, Zahara, 18 months and 4-month-old Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt.On Saturday, one of Pitt’s and Jolie’s bodyguards manhandled a British photographer as he tried to take their picture at the hotel, an incident caught on video by an Indian television station.
When Pitt and Jolie tried to leave the hotel, a security guard caught the photographer trying to take their photo, grabbed the man by his neck and verbally abused him.
Video of the incident was broadcast on India’s CNN-IBN news channel, and the Hindustan Times newspaper identified the photographer as Sam Relph of Barcroft Media.
The newspaper reported that the security guard had shouted at photographers to stop shooting the couple and moved for Relph when he refused to put down his camera.
“He said if I took his pictures he would kill me,” the Times quoted Relph as saying. “I couldn’t breathe. He had his fingers on my windpipe and he knew what he was doing.”
Two Indian journalists also complained that they too had been threatened by the same security guard, who was not identified in the report.
A weekend call to the office of Pitt’s publicist in Beverly Hills, Calif., was not immediately returned.
The couple are reportedly scheduled on Monday to start shooting scenes for “A Mighty Heart,” in which Jolie plays Pearl’s widow, Mariane.
The movie is based on an adaptation of Mariane Pearl’s book, “A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl,” and will be co-produced by Plan B, a production company founded by Pitt and his ex-wife, actress Jennifer Aniston.
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