Children get kick out of Jolie

Suan Phung, Thailand Oscar winner Angelina Jolie flew by helicopter Sunday into Western Thailand to witness living conditions at a refugee camp and make donations for thousands of refugees from neighboring Myanmar.

Jolie, who has been in northern Thailand filming a romantic adventure about relief workers, traveled to the camp in her role as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The actress tossed plastic soccer balls to the throngs of children who greeted her at the Tham Hin refugee camp in Ratchaburi province, about 60 miles west of Bangkok.

Wearing a blue U.N. cap and sandals, Jolie toured Tham Hin’s classrooms and job training facilities. Later she put on a traditional ethnic dress given to her at the camp.

She said refugees at Tham Hin were “really taking care of and taking responsibility for themselves … this camp is a real example of a working camp.”

The camp was established in 1997 and houses about 9,000 predominantly ethnic Karen refugees.

Wetland crusader

Los Angeles Actor Beau Bridges wants to preserve the sandy fringe of a wetland in southern California.

Bridges, who is president of an environmental group called Ventura Coast Keeper, urged the state Coastal Conservancy to buy 265 acres of land near Oxnard that is being sought by a petroleum company.

“This wetland extended for miles,” Bridges said Friday. “It would really be a shame to lose what little we have left.”

His plea came less than a week before the Coastal Conservancy is to decide whether to acquire the land that also is being sought by the Occidental Petroleum Corp. for the West Coast’s first liquefied natural gas receiving terminal.

Occidental’s plant would provide some of the natural gas that runs the machinery producing the state’s electricity.

Robert Blake’s killer instincts

The TV program “Extra” said it has obtained an interview with Robert Blake in which the actor, recently charged with murder, admits to having tendencies to kill and expresses empathy for death-row inmates. The interview is more than 30 years old.

The multipart segment will air on “Extra” beginning today, featuring an interview Blake gave in 1968 while promoting his film, “In Cold Blood.”

When asked whether he possessed killer tendencies, Blake said, “I’ve had those all my life now.” He then asked the interviewer, “You never wanted to kill anybody?”

Blake, who visited condemned criminals while researching his role of killer Perry Smith, conveyed an affinity for the inmates.

“I’ll tell you something, and this might come as a surprise. I didn’t meet any criminals,” Blake said. “A guy goes along in this world, and all of a sudden he gets a little bit of bad luck and he finds himself behind bars and they put a label on them.”

Blake is currently awaiting trial for the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. “In Cold Blood” was considered Blake’s breakthrough movie and is Truman Capote’s classic true story of two young drifters hanged for murdering a Kansas family of four in 1959.