It is a film project that changed her life and introduced her to the joys of eating fried frogs on a stick.

The romantic adventure about relief workers set against the backdrop of some of the world's most dangerous political hot spots, opened in the United States on Friday.

The film script presented to Jolie five years ago opened her eyes to the plight of millions of refugees around the world and set her on a course light years away from her much-publicised wild, reckless days.

The 28-year-old actress, now the single mother of an adopted Cambodian boy, Maddox, was given the UN Correspondents Association's Citizen of the World award last week by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The menu for a UN dinner in her honour did not feature the cuisine Jolie has sampled - and grown fond of - since buying a home in Cambodia to better bond with the two-year-old she calls Madness.

"You eat the side of a cow, you eat a bug.

I don't see a huge difference.

I like those whole frogs on a stick like a puppet, small and stretched out.

With a beer and some beetles and a few crickets, they're actually quite good".

Jolie, who won the Oscar as best supporting actress in 2000 for 'Girl Interrupted', said her life shifted dramatically after first reading the 'Beyond Borders' script.

"I was really moved by it," Jolie said in an interview.

"I knew nothing about the subject matter".

The project, originally pitched by director Oliver Stone, met with delays, but Jolie was stirred to action.

"When the film didn't go, I was disappointed.

I wanted to take that journey".

Jolie, who once scrawled the name of her first husband, actor Jonny Lee Miller, in blood across her shirt and who wore the blood of second actor-husband Billy Bob Thornton in a pendant, made arrangements to travel to Sierra Leone where she met the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

She travelled with relief workers to Cambodia and Pakistan the following year and in 2001 was asked by the UNHCR to become its goodwill ambassador.

Since then, the actress has visited refugee camps in Namibia, Thailand, Ecuador, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Ingushetia and Congo.

After she became a real-life champion for refugee relief causes, the film project was revived with Martin Campbell, director of 'GoldenEye' and 'The Mask of Zorro' at the helm.

Jolie said once they began making the film about a socialite drawn into humanitarian work by a charismatic relief doctor played by Clive Owen, she felt it had to be as accurate as possible about conditions in the field.

The response so far has been gratifying, she said.

Annan, who sat beside Jolie at last Monday night's premiere, introduced the movie.

"The story told in the film we are about to see should serve as a reminder that real life is often stranger - and even more moving - than fiction.

"It helps bring us closer to the lives of people caught in the world's conflicts, and those who try to help them".

SERIOUS BONDING Jolie has another indelible connection to the film.

During the filming she took custody of the then seven-month-old Maddox in Namibia.

As Jolie focused on her new role as a mother, she said she made a conscious decision to become celibate.

After a year of abstinence, she said she has relaxed that stance.

"I'm over that now," she said with an impish grin.

"But I'm not in any kind of a real relationship.

I wanted to remember what it's like to be a woman after just being a mom for a long time".

Jolie plans to adopt more children.

"I have a dream of having kids from different countries with different cultures and religions all under the same roof and learning from each other".

She said the UN award was something to feel proud about.

"I really respect the work they do, and this makes me feel like I've done well in that job," she said.

- Nampa-Reuters

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