Boy the Jolie/Voight/Haven clan sure like to bring up old anger at least once every few months. It seems to be a seasonal ritual with them. While Angelina doesn’t talk about her father Jon Voight very much, John Voight sure does a lot of talking about Angelina. And why not? She’s a big star and he hasn’t done much of anything lately. If he wants to get into the papers, I can’t imagine a better way to do it that by talking about all their old issues and old hurt and how life sucks for him because Angelina and brother James Haven just can’t get over the fact that their dad was a complete jerk to them growing up. It really annoys me when someone treats someone else like crap, and then gets mad at the person for not getting over being treated like crap. Kind of like, “I should be able to do whatever the hell I want to you, and you should just deal with it and not make me feel badly as a result.” It’s from the Jon Voight school of psychology.

“After son James Haven’s accusations of ‘mental abuse’ in a recent magazine article, Jon Voight is speaking out. The 68-year-old actor, who is also Angelina Jolie’s dad, tells Usmagazine.com in a statement:

“‘I find it very heartbreaking that my children want to paint a bad guy portrait of me. I feel it comes from their inability to let go of years of programmed anger from their mother, who understandably felt quite hurt when we divorced. In all truth, I tried to give him and their mother continuous love and support and large sums of money. God knows, for years I’ve tried to mend this relationship. Perhaps the trauma of their mother’s passing has made it worse.’

“In November’s Marie Claire, Haven says he dedicates himself to helping abandoned women and children due to his own scarred experience as a child. Of his famous father, Haven says, ‘I don’t want to constantly berate my father — I wish him well, and I hope he finds peace — but he put my mom through years of mental abuse.’

“Despite the affront, Voight continues to hope for a relationship with Haven, and Jolie. He tells Us, ‘I continuously send them my heart and love and am always available to them for whatever they may need from me.’”

[From Us Weekly]

Yep, you continuously send them your heart and love, unless whatever they need from you is to take some lasting, permanent responsibility for your behavior and truly do what it takes to make amends. But as long as what they want from you is facile and superficial, you’re totally there for them. And if you can talk to a bunch of gossip magazines about how mean your kids are to you in your old age, all the better, right? Remember that time when Voight (apparently intentionally) referred to Zahara as Shakira to the press? Very grownup and mature, it sounds like you’re a great person and would make a fabulous grandfather Jon Voight. I think Angelina is probably moving on, focusing on making a happy family, and doing whatever it takes to make sure they don’t have to deal with you like she did. So it sounds like the problem is more that your kids don’t need you, and that bugs you.