Look Back on Angelina Jolie’s Oscar Kiss With Her Brother James Haven 21 Years Later
The smooch seen ‘round the world. Twenty-one years ago, Angelina Jolie kissed her brother, James Haven, on the lips at the Academy Awards, a moment that instantly left a mark on the history of pop culture.
The siblings attended the 2000 ceremony to celebrate Jolie, then 24, and the nomination she received for her role as Lisa Rowe in the psychological drama Girl, Interrupted. At the time, she was a relative newcomer to the film industry, although she already had a Golden Globe win and an Emmy nomination under her belt for her portrayal of the late model Gia Marie Carangi in the HBO biopic Gia.
That night, Jolie added an Oscar to her résumé when she picked up the Best Supporting Actress trophy. After taking the stage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, she stood before acting greats such as Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. Jolie started her acceptance speech by joking, “I’m surprised nobody’s ever fainted up here” before giving a shout-out to Haven, then 26.
“I’m in shock, and I’m so in love with my brother right now,” she said, followed by a nervous laugh. “He just held me and said he loved me, and I know he’s so happy for me. And, um, thank you for that.”
Later in the evening at the Vanity Fair afterparty, Jolie posed for photographers with her award in hand and her brother by her side. At one point, they shared a kiss on the lips, a split-second move that made it to the front pages of several newspapers the next morning and the covers of magazines in the days that followed.
“It was a moment that people hadn’t seen at the Oscars — a blatantly sexual moment,” Melissa Rivers, who cohosted E! Live From the Red Carpet that night, recalled to Bustle in February 2020. “Here are these two beautiful people who literally looked completely different than anyone in the sea of glam and beauty. [They were] glam and beauty in a completely dark, very sexual way.”
In June 2000, Jolie addressed her eyebrow-raising night out with Haven, telling Entertainment Weekly that they had nothing “more than brotherly” love for each other.
“My parents really loved that moment, and that’s what will always matter,” she said at the time, referencing fellow actors Marcheline Bertrand and Jon Voight.
The attention on the kiss followed the siblings for a while, to the point where they were asked about it during interviews many years later.
“I did not give Angie a French kiss. It was something simple and lovely,” Haven insisted to the Daily Mail in March 2007. “She was about to go off to Mexico to finish filming Original Sin with Antonio Banderas. I congratulated her on the Oscar win and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. It was snapped and became a big thing.”
Eventually, Jolie settled down and started a family with her third husband, Brad Pitt, following brief marriages to Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton. Brangelina, as the power couple became known, had six children together, Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and twins Knox and Vivienne, before separating in September 2016.
Through it all, Jolie has maintained a close bond with Haven. He attended her August 2014 wedding to Pitt as well as the October 2019 premiere of her movie Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Haven is also close with his nieces and nephews; a source told Us Weekly exclusively in October 2016 that he was “playing manny” to the Jolie-Pitt kids as their parents worked out the terms of their divorce.
