Brad Pitt was entering into the spirit of the Venice film festival, taking time to sign autographs and take snaps with screaming (mainly) female fans as he left the Casino building where he attended a press conference for his latest film “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”.

All was going smoothly until a young girl in a pink top broke ranks from behind especially erected metal barriers and threw herself around his neck. A scrum of burly security personnel in dark suits crowded around and wrenched her from the Hollywood star before taking her away, the police in attendance.

Brad, wearing a cream suit and dark shades, took it all in his stride and went back to signing those signatures, all right below the window of the Reuters office. To cap it all, partner Angelina Jolie joined him on the red carpet in the evening ahead of the movie’s world premiere. Hundreds of fans screamed and scrapped for autographs amid a blaze of flash photographs. “Brangelina” really must be the world’s most glamorous couple at the moment. We’ve seen at least three of their four kids in Venice. Jolie was photographed today in the canal city carrying Zahara in one hand and holding an ice cream in the other.