What Angelina Jolie Could Encounter at the Council on Foreign Relations

During a week when a former vice presidential candidate and policy wonk strode into the Kodak Theatre and won an Academy Award, it is only fitting that a famous actress may walk through the door of a prestigious policy institute in New York. Actress Angelina Jolie, another Oscar winner, has been nominated to join the Council on Foreign Relations, an elite uptown club of policy mavens.

If approved, the star of "Tomb Raider" will join the likes of Alexander Haig, Brent Scowcroft, and Henry Kissinger at the august organization, which may be loosening its straight-laced image a tiny bit.

The brunette bombshell will add star power to a group more used to hushed halls and high-brow discussion in mahogany-paneled drawing rooms than Hollywood red carpets and velvet ropes.

To be sure, Warren Beatty, Michael Douglas, and Ron Silver are already among the group's members, who are drawn from the echelons of business and public sectors, law government, journalism, nonprofit, and the academy. But no actresses appear among the roster of more than 4,000 members, though Glenn Close has attended briefings.

"Will members stare? You bet," the founder of Public Affairs Books, Peter Osnos, said. He said the definition of the establishment has clearly changed. There were many ways to qualify for the Council, and being a humanitarian was certainly one of them

Ms. Jolie grew aware of refugee crises while filming in Cambodia and has since visited more than 20 countries as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees. A member of the council, Noel Lateef, said Ms. Jolie is someone who has a demonstrated interest in international affairs.

What might she wear at the council, whose dress code requires "business attire?" Perhaps the traditional suit she wore in an advertisement for the fashion label St. John. She may not show too many of her tattoos, though the one that reads "know your rights" could relate to policy.

Describing two layouts in Vogue, the senior features editor at Style.com, Laird Borrelli, said Ms. Jolie wore off-the-shoulder, flowing dresses that were "Grecian" and "goddess-y."

"She has a certain panache," Mr. Lateef, who is also the president of the Foreign Policy Association, said. "There's no doubt she will add to the glitter of the events." Newsweek's editor, Jon Meacham, concurred: "I think it is safe to say that Ms. Jolie would indeed add a certain élan to meetings – though multilateralism has its own kind of sex appeal."

"She has been nominated for term membership. The council is considering her nomination," a spokeswoman for the council told The New York Sun. Term memberships are five-year stints for those under age 36. The nomination will be considered at the council's next board of directors meeting, the spokeswoman said. If accepted, she may then apply for full membership at the end of her term membership.

Mr. Lateef said the council has a careful selection process and those nominated have already been vetted. The council was begun in 1921. Prominent members included Elihu Root, Averell Harriman, and John Foster Dulles. In 1922, the council launched its flagship quarterly, Foreign Affairs. Today, women comprise about a quarter of the council's membership.

Walking up the marble staircase to the council's traditional second-floor rooms, the actress might encounter journalists (Brokaw, Rather, Couric, Walters) or a gaggle of university presidents (Sexton, Brademas, Oliva, Bollinger, Rupp, Sovern). She could chat about banking with Felix Rohatyn, art with Tom Krens or Glenn Lowry, or politics with a former president who especially loves Tinseltown, William Jefferson Clinton. She might talk about film with agent Michael Ovitz, Hollywood attorney Bertram Fields, or a former president of Time Warner, Gerald Levin.

"Angelina gets along with everybody," the deputy head of public information for UNHCR, Jennifer Pagonis, said.

No daycare at the council may be a let down for Ms. Jolie, who gave birth to a child, Shiloh, last May, and is also raising two adopted children with actor Brad Pitt.

In addition to policy papers and ambassadorial addresses, the council occasionally shows documentaries with a foreign policy content. Ms. Jolie herself made a documentary about western Kenya with a Columbia professor and council member, Jeffrey Sachs.

Mr. Holtzman, who works for the firm Brown Lloyd James, said it was natural for the council to consider someone like Ms. Jolie. He said culture has become a major force in international affairs. A Newsweek senior editor, Jonathan Alter, said she is as qualified as, or more so, as other term members — many are bankers and lawyers with less actual experience overseas than she possesses.

The program director of National Committee on American Foreign Policy, Daniel Morris, gives Ms. Jolie credit for humanitarian work, but cautioned that it would take more than a Hollywood actress to effect the kind of change needed to solve complex issues facing Africa.