In 'Changeling' she's grounded, but in real life, Angelina Jolie is a citizen . . .

Angelina Jolie appeared at the double-wide doorway of a penthouse suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel unsmiling and peering warily from behind a curtain of dark hair. Attired in an opalescent, knee-skimming silk dress, she seemed grave -- imperious and businesslike enough to give German Chancellor Angela Merkel a run for her new ranking as most powerful woman in the world. The actress was flanked by her manager, publicist and two burly security guards; together the pack had come from an adjoining suite where Jolie's team of hairstylists and makeup artists had just finished plying their trade.

She was here to talk about her critically acclaimed performance in "Changeling," which reached theaters last month and has predictably placed Jolie within a hive of Oscar buzz. She was also here to present an award at the Hollywood Film Festival Awards Gala. Unbeknown to a panoply of Hollywood bigwigs, who were packed into the hotel's ballroom, Jolie had flown in under the celebrity radar to hand "Changeling" director Clint Eastwood a director of the year statuette. (It would be widely reported later that the crowd "gasped audibly" when Jolie was introduced.)

However, less than an hour before she was to take the stage with Eastwood, Jolie claimed to be in the dark about the night's agenda. Whom had she come to honor? "I can't say. I never know how these things work. I don't even know what I'm doing."

You could excuse the Oscar-winning actress for being a bit unfocused. She had gotten back into the country only three days earlier from a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan, where Jolie met with poverty-stricken families as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. The lack of sustainable infrastructure in that war-torn country and the need to repatriate some 3 million refugees was still very much front of mind. And such Hollywood concerns, she explained, pale in contrast to the issues that really matter. Like the world beyond the Thirty Mile Zone. And family. Hers includes a veritable Brady Bunch of adopted and biological children she shares with domestic partner Brad Pitt.

"I woke up at 3 in the morning with four kids with jet lag and two babies," said Jolie, 33. "I put myself together for a few hours and go out. And then I go home. This is my job."

She didn't want to sound ungrateful about Hollywood. "I don't dislike it here," Jolie continued. "I just really do love to travel. I love other cultures. And I love raising my kids in the world. I'm so fortunate that I get to do that."