For 17 glorious years, those smoky eyes and blood red lips held sway over our hearts. And just as we were prepping up for an encore of Salt, Angelina knocked us for a six by declaring that she’s ready to quit acting, leaving us to find solace in our old Lara Croft DVDs. Without Angelina Jolie around, just who is going to bash up the baddies and take down errant robots? And we shudder to think how dreary those red carpet events will be without her slanting legs to create headlines.


However, like her fiancé Brad, she has decided to cross the chequered finishing line and spend some quality time with her admittedly large family instead. Indeed, in a recent interview with a news channel, the 37 year old diva conceded that her acting days are numbered. “I think I'm going to have to give up the acting as the kids hit the teenage years, anyway, too much to manage at home. I have enjoyed being an actress.”

“I have had great experiences and I have even been able to tell stories and be a part of stories that mattered and I have done things for fun. But if it went away tomorrow I would be very happy to be home with the children. I wake up in the morning as a mum and I turn on the news like everybody else and I see what's happening and I want to be part of the world in a positive way,” she divulged with a rueful grin.

Which begs the question, hasn’t she been semi – retired for the past couple of years now? Angelina was last seen in 2010’s In The Land of Blood and Honey and Kung Fu Panda 2 - Both of which may be remarkable films in their own right but still remain a far cry from her indomitable Lara Croft. As one media expert rightly pointed out, “It's now either hopelessly dumb, borderline-direct-to-DVD action fluff or aggressively middlebrow issue cinema that alienates most mass audiences. If Angelina is to bow out in style she'll need to steer a course between the vapid action fluff and middlebrow issue movies she's favoured lately.”

With her eldest son Maddox, aged 11, it shouldn’t be hard to do the math. With just a year or two ahead of her before she follows suit in her fiancé’s wake, Angelina is sadly in the process of signing her last Hollywood film ever. And as dedicated fans, we refuse to settle for anything less than the Angelina we saw in Lara Croft and Changeling. She made a grand entrance in the industry, and it is with a bang that she must exit!