ANGELINA JOLIE & BRAD PITT THE DIVORCE THAT WON'T END

EIGHT YEARS AFTER FILING FOR DIVORCE, THE EXES ARE STILL EMBROILED IN A BITTER BATTLE WITH EACH OTHER EVEN AS BOTH SIDES INSIST THEY DESPERATELY WANT TO MOVE ON

- PERNILLA CEDENHEIM, ELIZABETH ROSNER and PRAXILLA TRABATTONI

With its gondolas and glamour, the Venice Film Festival launches the fall season in high style as stars head to Italy to showcase their much-anticipated movies. For Angelina Jolie that meant kicking off serious Oscar buzz as she tearfully welcomed an eight-minute standing ovation after the Aug. 29 premiere of her biopic Maria, about opera singer Maria Callas. Asked during a press conference how she identified with the legendary diva, Jolie, 49, told reporters that she related "to the part of her that is extremely soft and didn't have room in the world to be as soft as she truly was and as emotionally open as she truly was."

Three days later (well after Jolie jetted off to attend the Telluride Film Festival) her ex-husband Brad Pitt, 60, electrified the crowd of screaming fans when he made his red carpet debut with his girlfriend of two years, Ines de Ramon, 34, to celebrate his new thriller Wolfs alongside longtime friend and costar George Clooney. The night before the premiere, Pitt and de Ramon, who have been together in Europe while the actor shoots his racing film F1, joined Clooney and his wife, Amal, for dinner at Ristorante da Ivo, where they happily joked with fellow diners. As Clooney pretended to be a waiter, "his sidekick was Brad Pitt," says a guest. "Who will ever believe us?"