I read this in the local Swiss newspaper, and I haven’t read it anywhere else yet, so it’s a sort-of exclusive. Organizers of the World Economic Forum regret inviting Brad and Angelina to last year’s event in Davos, Switzerland. They say that everyone paid attention to the pretty celebrities and no one reported on the important issues they covered. As a result, they’re only inviting Bono and all the paparazzi-targets have to stay away.

Two years ago, Sharon Stone had a spectacular appearance, a year ago, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were the big attraction. That was a mistake, the organizers of the WEF now say.

The director, Andre Schneider, says Angelina Jolie was invited because she was actively working for refugee causes. In that area, she had something to contribute as well. Unfortunately the media almost exclusively presented the famous actress. The participation of Angelina Jolie at the open forum became a people [celebrity]-event, which we never intended. The World Economic forum is not a people [celebrity] or glamour event…

Schneider says in this case the media prefers to present Hollywood stars over complex topics which make up about 99% of the meeting in Davos. Obviously that was to the regret of some WEF participants…

As a consequence, this year’s WEF will be practically Hollywood free, with the single exemption of U2 singer Bono. Schneider says that hopefully the position of the decision-makers on the important problems in the world will be the focus.

[Roughly translated from German from the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, print version. January 24, 2007]

The NY Times has an article about this year’s WEF and who is invited. It has a careful quote from the organizer about how the event was hijacked by the celebrities last year, but doesn’t really get into it.

Davos also says it is shunning Hollywood celebrities, even though they have lent this sober event a dash of sex appeal. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who stopped moguls and ministers in their tracks last year, will not be here, leaving Bono, the Irish rock star who has assumed a statesman’s mantle, to twinkle on his own.

“We noticed there was undue publicity given to the attendance of those celebrities at the last meeting,” Mr. Schwab said. “We have to be careful that we are not hijacked by the celebrity world.”

It seems that the organizers made a conscious decision to exclude the secret agents this year. Indeed, Angelina was annoyed that she was the focus of all the attention instead of the issues. She asked participants in one of last year’s roundtable discussions to concentrate on the situation in Dafur instead of staring at her.

Here’s Angelina picking up Maddox at school in New Orleans. Pictures from I’m Not Obsessed.