captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> pelley: how long have you been living in this truck? >> about five months. >> pelley: this is the home of the metzger family-- arielle, 15; her brother austin, 13. their mother died when they were very young. their dad, tom, is an unemployed carpenter. the kids clean up for school at gas stations and study in the library. four years after the start of the great recession, 16 million american children are living in poverty. so you're really not heating up food so much. you're eating out of cans. >> yep. >> so, definitely an aroma, the mandarin dancy tangerine.

>> safer: meet the flavorists, whose mission for the food industry is to create an irresistible craving for everything from chickn soup to soda pop. >> we want, you know, a burst in the beginning, and maybe a finish that doesn't linger too much, so that you want more of it. >> safer: ah. ( laughter ) so i see, it's going to be a quick fix and then... >> have more. >> safer: but that suggests something else, which is called addiction. >> exactly. >> safer: you're trying to create an addictive taste. >> that's a good word. >> simon: you used to be a pretty bad girl. now, you are a u.n. ambassador. you are a remember of the council on foreign relations. do you ever miss being a bad girl? >> i'm still a bad girl. >> simon: every once in a while, you draw the short straw here at "60 minutes." this time, we were told to spend a few days with a woman who is often called "the most beautiful woman in the world," angelina jolie. the vast majority of americans

know you because you're on the cover of magazines every week. what are they missing? >> me. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." >> cbs money watch update. a record number of shoppers spent more thançó $52 billion, an all-time high on black friday weekend, historic cybermonday sales are predicted tomorrow. good news at the pump, gas falling 6 cents last week. and twilight won the weekend box office again, i'm russ mitchell, cbs news.

♪ [ male announcer ] there are over half a million apps and counting on the iphone. apps that can take you anywhere and do anything. you might say there's no limit to what this amazing device can do. so the question to ask is -- why would anyone want to limit the iphone? [ phone beeping ] we don't. truly unlimited data for your iphone, trouble hearing on the phone? only from sprint. visit sprintrelay.com. if you sleep in your contact lenses. lucky for you, air optix brand has a lens approved for up to 30 days and nights of continuous wear. [ male announcer ] that's why they're recommended most for people who sleep in their lenses. visit airoptix.com for a free one-month trial offer.

>> pelley: never has unemployment been so high for so long. and as a result, more than 16 million kids are living in poverty, the most since 1962. it's worst where the construction industry collapsed, and one of those places is central florida. we went there eight months ago to meet families who'd become homeless for the first time in their lives. so many were living day-to-day that school buses changed their routes to pick up all the kids living in cheap motels. we called the story "hard times generation." now, we've gone back to see how things have changed. it turns out some families are losing their grip on the motels

and discovering that the homeless shelters are full. where do they go then? well, they keep up appearances by day and try to stay out of sight at night, holding on to one another in a hidden america, a place you wouldn't notice unless you ran into the people that we met in the moments before dawn. time has carried us into uncharted territory. the great recession began december 2007, almost 1,500 mornings ago. if you were rushing to work this morning in seminole county, florida, it's not likely you'd notice the truck or hear the children getting ready for school. >> arielle metzger: in the clear bin, we have dirty laundry. in that one, there's tools that we might need. >> pelley: all these bank bags are storage of this and that. >> arielle metzger: like shampoo... >> austin metzger: and over here is food... >> arielle metzger: ...food. >> pelley: so, you're really not

heating up food so much. you're eating out of cans? >> arielle metzger: yep. >> pelley: this is the home of the metzger family: arielle, 15; her brother austin, 13. their mother died when they were very young. their dad, tom, is a carpenter, and he's been looking for work ever since florida's construction industry collapsed. when foreclosure took their house, he bought the truck on craigslist with his last thousand dollars. tom's a little camera shy, thought we ought to talk to the kids, and it didn't take long to see why. how long have you been living in this truck? >> arielle metzger: about five months. >> pelley: what's that like? >> arielle metzger: it's an adventure. >> austin metzger: that's how we see it. >> pelley: when kids at school ask you where you live, what do you tell them? >> austin metzger: when they see the truck, they ask me if i live in it, and when i hesitate, they kind of realize. and they say they won't tell anybody. >> arielle metzger: yeah, it's not really that much an

embarrassment. i mean, it's only life. you do what you need to do, right? >> pelley: it's life for a lot of folks. the number of kids in poverty in america is pushing toward 25%-- one out of four. austin and arielle usually get cleaned up for school at gas stations. they find its best to go to different ones every day so the managers don't get sore. >> arielle metzger: good-bye, daddy. >> tom metzger: have a good day. >> pelley: before the bell, they blend in with more than 1,100 other homeless students in the seminole county schools. at casselberry school, we met 15 kids who'd been living in cars. with their parent's permission, they told us you don't get much sleep with your brothers and sisters in the backseat, but that wasn't the worst part. >> we were really scared. so... so we would stay up all night, sometimes, and watch over my mom and keep her safe.

>> pelley: how many of you-- show me your hands-- were worried about your safety while you were living in the car? >> to me, it was scary, because i thought something was either going to happen to my mom or my grandfather or my dad or me. >> we weren't staying in a very good neighborhood, like, where the car was parked, and someone came up and robbed my aunt for the little bit of money that we had. >> jade wiley: well, i worried that someone would just break in and steal my mom's purse. >> pelley: jade wiley is eight years old. she spent three weeks living in her car with her mom, her dad, two dogs and a cat. did you think you were ever going to get out of the car? >> wiley: i thought i was going to be stuck in the car. >> pelley: how did you keep your spirits up? >> wiley: by still praying to god that somebody would let us stay in a hotel. >> pelley: and how did you get out of the car? >> wiley: well, there's this nice lady named beth. and then, she gave us a lot of money so we could stay at the

hotel, and now i'm staying at the hotel. >> pelley: she said that a nice lady named beth came and gave the family money. >> beth davalos: well, a nice community came. i just delivered it. >> pelley: beth davalos runs programs for homeless kids in the seminole county schools. this is the video that she shot when she found jade's family. >> wiley: well, we deal with it. every day, we deal with it when we live in the car. >> davalos: we're going to get you a hotel room now. how do you feel about that? >> wiley: happy. >> pelley: when davalos hears of a student on the street, she uses county money and donations to get temporary shelter in a motel. >> davalos: good job. >> pelley: the money she had for jade's family lasted only a month, so the wileys, and jade, are painting the rest of the motel in exchange for a room. but this is rare. of all the homeless families in florida, two-thirds are living

on the street. >> davalos: i hear about it every week, every couple of days. if they're not living in their car right now, they are avoiding it. some of them don't even have cars to live in. or they recently got out of it. >> pelley: why is it happening right now? >> davalos: the longevity of homelessness continues to rise, so people are running out of resources. the unemployment runs out, their savings run out. the family that lent them money does not have it anymore because they're looking at economic hardship. and before you know it, they find themselves living in their car because they just ran out of all options. >> pelley: early this year, when folks heard about the homeless students in central florida, $4 million in donations poured in. beth davalos set up food banks in 41 seminole county schools; they gathered up clothing for the kids, and shelled out cash for motel rooms.

>> i really appreciate it. >> pelley: $4 million is a lot of money, but think of this-- of all the families without shelter in america, one-third are in florida. at casselberry school, we sat down with the coates family. >> victoria coates: instead of three meals a day, we ended up doing two meals a day. and then, there was this one day where we didn't have any more money, and that's how we ended up in the car. >> pelley: last year, the coates left washington, d.c., for a new life in florida, but the jobs dried up. when the savings went, victoria and d'angelo learned how to be homeless. they found out there's a checklist for living in a car. you want security, lighting, a place where you might be welcome, or at least a place busy enough to hide in. wal-mart lots can be good-- it depends on the manager. ymcas mostly look the other way. d'angelo settled outside a

hospital emergency room. >> d'angelo coates: and we knew that, through being there, we could at least brush our teeth in the morning, go to the bathroom if we need to in the middle of the night. and i'm sitting on the cooler in between our vehicle and another vehicle just to make sure they're okay. >> pelley: standing guard all night. >> d'angelo coates: yep. >> pelley: d'angelo, what does a man think about, sitting on a cooler all night with his family in the car next to him? >> d'angelo coates: at that moment, i guess i feel less than a dad, i guess... i guess i can say, or as a husband, because i'm not able to provide for my family. >> victoria coates: going into that car really did something to me. i felt helpless. i felt like i couldn't help my children. >> pelley: i am willing to bet that the whole time you were in the car, you didn't cry once,

did you? >> victoria coates: uh-uh. >> pelley: not in front of these guys. when it came time to put the girls in school, the school must have asked you for an address. >> victoria coates: that... okay, well, you have these boxes to choose and you had one that said "shelter." >> pelley: you checked the "shelter" box? >> victoria coates: yeah. >> pelley: there was no box for "car." >> victoria coates: no. >> pelley: so you lied to them. >> victoria coates: basically. >> pelley: you do what you have to do. >> victoria coates: there was not an option to take my girls away. >> pelley: i wonder if some of these families are hiding from the system, hiding from you because, as one woman put it to us today, she said, "i was afraid that, if they found out we were living in the car, the state would take my children away from me." >> beth davalos: yeah, they're scared. they're very scared. and the reality is, if the state found them in a car, they could... their children could be taken away and put someplace safe for now.

but when we find them, we can put them someplace safe. >> pelley: the coates tried to go someplace safe-- they called every shelter in the area, but they were all full. after ten days in the car, the only thing in the bottom of the cooler was an orange. so, victoria started calling again. >> victoria coates: and we called each and every one of them. and then i got to the last one, which was orlando rescue mission. and i called and the lady said, "we have programs for your entire family." >> pelley: you must have thought you weren't hearing right. >> victoria coates: yeah. >> pelley: how close did you come to running out of gas on the way to the rescue mission? >> victoria coates: we had, like, maybe a quarter tank before the "e". >> pelley: so, really, all you had to your names, at that point, was a quarter of a tank and an orange? >> victoria coates: that's right. >> pelley: it wasn't long after the family made it into the shelter that d'angelo found a job. he's manhandling garbage cans, and proud to have the work.

>> d'angelo coates: hard work, but hard work's good for you. i'm thankful to have a job. >> pelley: with help from his employer, they hope to get jamie, jamia, and j'la in a home of their own by christmas. what do you know now that you didn't know before you lived in the car? >> j'la coates: i know to be grateful that you have your family, and that my mom is really, really, really protective. >> pelley: protective because there is a ferocity that comes with being a parent on the street-- hiding the kids from cops and criminals, watching options grow shorter, the days longer, and the nights-- the nights are just stubborn--- sitting on a cooler, waiting for the sun. one threat to a family out here is idleness, so the folks that we met fill the days with every free and normal thing. after school, the metzgers drive their truck to the library. >> arielle metzger: because they've got the computers that

we can use, and light and all that. >> pelley: i wonder what education means to you two? >> austin metzger: it's everything. >> arielle metzger: it is everything to us. i plan to be a child defense lawyer. if i focus on my studies, i have that opportunity. >> pelley: the american dream is durable, and there is something about growing up in a truck that makes you believe in it all the more. as we tagged along with the metzgers, they told us they like the truck better than a motel, and they wanted to show us something they've been doing in the evenings-- they're acting in a community theater, a free and normal thing. on stage, they had a chance to be somebody else, but what struck us most was that they were just as happy in their roles as the metzgers. ♪ ♪ >> arielle metzger: before the truck, i always saw all these homeless people and i would feel so bad for them. and then, as soon as we started living in the truck ourselves,

i've seen even more. and i just feel so bad. and even though i'm homeless myself, i want to do as much as i can to help them get up... back on their feet. >> pelley: you sound very adult to me. >> austin metzger: she is. she likes to take over. >> pelley: and you, too, a little bit, austin. you had to grow up pretty fast. >> arielle metzger: yeah. >> austin metzger: yeah. >> arielle metzger: every time i see, like, a teenager or any other kid fighting with their parents or arguing with them and, like, not doing what they're told, it really hurts me. because they could be in my shoes. and, of course, i don't want them to be in my shoes. but they need to learn to appreciate what they have and who they have in their life, because it may be the last day they might have it. >> pelley: at the end of this day, when the play was over and the kids were ready for bed, tom metzger judged the lighting behind the theater and decided this was as good a spot as any in seminole county to make a home for the night.

>> go to 60minutesovertiime.com to see how scott pelley's team found the families for tonight's story. sponsored by lipitor. i'd race down that hill without a helmet. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol and my risk of heart attack. why kid myself? diet and exercise weren't lowering my cholesterol enough. now i'm eating healthier, exercising more, taking lipitor. numbers don't lie. my cholesterol's stayed down. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. it's backed by over 19 years of research. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications, or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. [ man ] still love that wind in my face! talk to your doctor. don't kid yourself about the risk of heart attack and stroke.

if lipitor's been working for you, stay with it. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month with the lipitor co-pay card. terms and conditions apply. learn more at lipitorforyou.com. tried to deep-fat-fry their turkey. 15 succeeded in setting their houses on fire. at christmas, there was a lot of driving over the river and through the woods. and a little bit of skidding on the ice and taking out grandma's garage door. so while you're celebrating, allstate will be standing by. trouble never takes a holiday. neither should your insurance. that's allstate's stand. are you in good hands? ♪

♪ it's nice to see you [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ in my bed this is zales, the diamond store. take an extra 10 percent off online purchases monday only.

>> safer: as the thanksgiving weekend comes to a close, you may feel as overstuffed as that turkey you ate. and if you're overweight-- and the chances are you are-- it's probably because you eat too much, too much of the wrong stuff. most of the wrong stuff we eat comes in a bottle, a can, or a box-- food that's been processed. much of that food has been flavored. the flavoring industry is the enabler of the food processing business, which depends on it to create a craving for everything from soda pop to chicken soup. it is willy wonka and his chocolate factory as a multi- billion-dollar industry, an industry cloaked in secrecy. but recently, givaudan, the largest flavoring company in the

world, allowed us in to see them work their magic. >> jim hassel: so, definitely an aroma, the mandarin dancy tangerine. real mild, though. not in your face. >> safer: these are "super sniffers," "super tasters"... >> andy daniher: and more bitter. >> safer: ...on the prowl; the special forces, first responders to the call for the next best taste. >> daniher: the mandarin notes are fantastic. >> safer: they are braving the wilds of a citrus grove in riverside, california, where jim hassle, whose nose and palette are legendary, leads a givaudan team on a taste safari, big game hunters in search of the next great taste in soft drinks. their inspiration-- the greatest flavorist of them all, mother nature. >> hassel: seeing everything that's available really just drives the whole creative process. >> safer: like an artist going to rome or something? >> hassel: correct. correct. >> safer: but the ultimate

purpose is to sell more soft drinks or whatever. >> hassel: that's what... we're in the business of selling flavors. >> safer: let's go sniffing. our perception of taste is largely located in the nose, but described in the language of music. >> dawn streich: do you get, like, a tropical note? a little bit of papaya potentially? >> daniher: cotton candy note? >> streich: cotton candy, a little bit. >> safer: they are plotting how to move the flavors they find in this grove to your supermarket shelf, and then on to your stomach. >> hassel: i could see it in a sports drink, i could see it in a... water, flavored water. and i also could see it in... in a twist on an orange carbonated beverage. >> safer: when they find something they like, they extract its flavor molecules from the fruit on the tree. then back in the lab, they mimic mother nature's molecules with chemicals. essentially, what you do is you take whatever this smells like... >> right. >> safer: ...and copy it? >> right, exactly. >> safer: and then i suppose you could... if you chose to, you

could, quote unquote, "improve on it." >> yes. >> hassel: exactly. >> we... all the time. >> safer: the holy grail, a flavor so good you can't resist it. >> streich: in our fruit flavors, we're talking about we want, you know, a burst in the beginning, and maybe a finish that doesn't linger too much, so that you want more of it. >> hassel: and you don't want a long linger, because you're not going to eat more of it if it lingers. >> safer: ah. ( laughter ) so i see, it's going to be a quick fix and then... >> hassel: have more. >> safer: ...and then have more. ( laughs ) but that suggests something else? >> hassel: exactly. >> safer: which is called addiction. >> hassel: exactly. >> safer: you're trying to create an addictive taste. >> hassel: that's a good word. >> streich: or something that they want to go back for again and again. >> safer: food companies know that flavor is what makes repeat customers. so they commission givaudan to create what they hope will be a mouthwatering taste. givaudan may be the biggest multinational you've never heard of. the swiss company employs almost 9,000 people in 45 countries,

providing tastiness to just about every cuisine imaginable. there's a lot of secrecy involved in your profession, correct? >> hassel: our intellectual property are our formulas. so without that, we have nothing. so there's a lot of secrecy. you really don't want anyone to know. >> michelle hagen: my world is making things taste good. ( laughs ) >> safer: soda pop and chewing gum flavorist michelle hagen has helped givaudan and the food companies make billions with her secret formulas. >> hagen: i create thousands of flavors, so i need somewhere to put them. and i have a lot of flavors in here. >> safer: what are these? >> hagen: here are some oranges and tangerines. >> safer: 750 flavors-- orange, tangerine, mandarins. >> hagen: raspberry's one of my favorite. i can't even fit all my raspberries on here. >> safer: how different can raspberries be? >> hagen: oh, very different, very different. oh, yeah. you can make them jammy. you can make them sweet. you can make them floral. you can make them seedy. it's endless, really.

>> safer: and the flavor ingredients might not have ever met a raspberry. >> hagen: i have butyric acid artificial and then i have butyric acid natural. >> safer: all flavors are combinations of chemicals. artificial flavors are largely manmade. natural flavors come from nature, but not necessarily from what the label implies. >> safer: for example... >> hagen: our strawberry creations. >> safer: ...strawberry and vanilla flavor can come from the gland in a beaver's backside. >> hagen: so what we do is just manipulate them and create with them to give the impression of the papaya or the strawberry. >> safer: hagen is an illusionist. she has even created a flavor that mimics the taste and smell of an old oak tree. >> hagen: to give whiskey a little bit more depth, sometimes-- a young whiskey. >> safer: oh, to give the taste of the barrel it was supposed to have been aged in. >> hagen: yeah, yeah, in a younger whiskey. yeah, you can add some cask notes, some oak notes.

okay, here we go. >> safer: hassel and hagen let us in on the alchemy of inventing a new flavor, this one inspired by a hong kong kumquat that the team found, not in hong kong, but back in riverside. it's a process using hundreds of different notes until they've created a symphony of taste. >> hagen: i mean, with a name like "hong kong kumquat," you need to really have something going on, i think. >> hassel: curious that... to see the carrot on top of the kumquat. >> hagen: that is interesting. that is very interesting. >> hassel: you get the citrus, but yet the... the carrot poking its head out. >> hagen: yeah, it's very complex. >> hassel: but not overpowering. >> hagen: that's really exciting. this is a home run. >> safer: there's no shortage of metaphors in the flavoring business. givaudan goes to the ends of the earth scouting for new flavors. in hong kong, givaudan convened their annual conclave of top chefs from restaurants around the world to demonstrate their latest creations.

the goal-- to turn those creations into new commercial flavors. the chefs mixed, chopped, mashed, steamed, sauteéed, and smoked for a week to create irresistible, cutting edge cuisine. hong kong chef alvin leung didn't disappoint. >> alvin leung: it makes you want to eat this again, and again, again, okay? it's like sex, okay? you know, you want to do it over and over again until you get a headache. >> safer: the givaudan team didn't just taste the food; they sniffed, photographed, analyzed and debated it. then, they distilled the best into flavor powders, applied them to beef and noodles, and voila, a frozen dinner. >> this is a translation into a frozen ready meal that you can buy in the supermarket to really deliver a different eating experience. >> safer: givaudan chef stefan strehler demonstrated how convincing these translations can be compared to the real thing. >> stefan strehler: we have here

the whole lineup of some of the chicken flavors. so that's a roasted chicken flavor. >> safer: it sure is. the... it absolutely matches it. givaudan makes flavors that match almost every kind of chicken imaginable. this is crusty, fatty chicken. >> strehler: we just take a little skin here, and then you smell like that now, you get much more of those fatty, crusty notes. and when you smell that flavor... >> safer: yes, it sure is. now, what is this? is this actually chicken? >> strehler: it... i can be, yes. a lot of what you have in front of you is the chicken that has been translated into a flavor. >> safer: translated on a grand scale in the givaudan plant in kentucky... >> this is a chicken flavor as a liquid in the tanks.

>> safer: ...an endless stream of brown liquid-- part chicken, part chemical, all flavor. >> this is the chicken we looked at in the tank right here. this is the chicken in the hose. >> safer: chicken in the hose? >> chicken in the hose. we'll stretch this hose out, and we'll actually load the liquid into these individual trays. it gets vacuum dried in the oven, and it comes out in a dried cake form. we'll grind that into a fine powder. >> safer: chicken, just like grandma used to make. it's used in soups, stews, sausage, noodle and rice dishes-- chicken by the ton, chicken for every taste. our old friend, crusty, fatty. chicken for vegetarians. yes, chickens without chicken. ground zero for the food and flavor industry is the supermarket. givaudan won't reveal which

brands contain their flavors, but in this aisle, almost every product on the shelves has been enhanced artificially or with so-called natural flavors. and not only that, virtually everything edible in a package, in a jar, in a can is intensified with either fat, sugar or salt, or all three of those little devils. >> david kessler: we're eating fat on fat on sugar on fat with flavor. and much of what we're eating with these flavors, you have to ask yourself, "is it really food?" >> safer: dr. david kessler is the former head of the f.d.a. he is "dr. no." he's bent on getting america to kick its bad habits. >> kessler: we're living in a food carnival. these flavors are so stimulating, they hijack our brains. >> safer: kessler believes flavorists are accomplices, the hired guns of the food industry.

>> kessler: they make food super palatable. >> safer: what's wrong with that? don't we want the richness of good taste? >> kessler: of course, food has to be pleasurable. it has to be desirable. but look around, morley. look around this country, and what do you see? ask the rest of the world how they view americans, and they will say, "we don't want to look like them." >> safer: are you saying that the food industry and the flavoring industry together are trying to make, and succeeding in making us, addicted? >> kessler: did the industry do this deliberately? no. it learned what stimulates. it learned what people want. >> bob pelligrino: there's no question we're trying to create an irresistibility and a memorability. i think, though, that there's then a leap to get to that leads to over-consumption. >> safer: bob pelligrino is givaudan's flavor czar, as vice president of global strategy and

business development. your critics say that you provide the means to seduce people into eating too much salt, too much fat, too much sugar, and responsible, partly, for the obesity in this country. >> pelligrino: our business is to make taste experiences pleasurable ones. so, i... i don't think that the flavors create an overeating problem. i think that's a different issue. >> safer: but is it a different issue? because, surely, what you clients want... the food industry wants is to provide the kind of flavor that will make people want more. >> pelligrino: i don't think it's creating a desire for more-ness, as well as it's a desire for memorability so that people will repeat the purchases of the product and enjoy them. >> safer: but given the obesity epidemic, the food industry is beginning to respond to pressure for "less-ness"-- if there is such a word-- of fat, salt and

sugar. and that's opening up a whole new business opportunity and another challenge for these alchemists of flavor. >> hassel: everyone, everyone, everyone is working on health and wellness. how can you get a consumable, acceptable product that's better for you? and the challenges now is, how do you make them taste good? >> hagen: not enough. >> hassel: so, when you lower the salt, what can we put in that will make it taste like it did without salt? when you lower sugar, how can you make it taste sweeter without adding calories? so it's a whole new world that didn't even exist ten years ago, but the consumers are interesting. as much as they want to be healthy, right, if it's not as sweet, then i don't want it. >> safer: people are still going for the tried and true-- heavy on sugar, heavy on salt, heavy on fat? >> hassel: yeah, so i guess the real question-- is obesity going down? and i guess the answer would be no. as the years go by, some questions loom large.

are you prepared for your retirement years - 25 or more of them? do you have a financial plan for you family that works, in good times and in bad times? having the right perspective can help you answer the big questions. for more than 140 years, pacific life has helped find answers for those navigating the path to financial security. ask a financial professional about pacific life - the power to help you succeed.

♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday. ♪ this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills.

>> simon: every once in a while, you draw the short straw here at "60 minutes." this time, we were told to spend a few days with a woman who is often called "the most beautiful woman in the world," angelina jolie. she may well be the most photographed, the most recognizable, and the highest- paid actress in hollywood. she is certainly the number one target for paparazzi everywhere. and that's how many americans know her-- from the tabloids as wild, weird and eccentric. but the angelina we met was quite different from all that. for starters, she just wrote and directed a film about a very serious topic. it'll be released next month, and she doesn't even appear in

it. for the first time, angelina has moved behind the camera, where, she says, she feels more comfortable. we linked up with her in the indisputably beautiful city of budapest, which is where she shot most of her film, "in the land of blood and honey." >> angelina jolie: we came here to budapest for logistics and financial reasons, because we're a tiny movie. >> simon: it may be a tiny movie but look at it, it's about a heavy subject-- the war in bosnia, which was fought in the early '90s, killed at least 100,000 people, and brought ethnic cleansing to europe for the first time since hitler. what did your friends and colleagues say when you said, "hey, i'm going to direct a film about the war in bosnia." >> jolie: i think people that really know me weren't surprised. but i think they all thought it was a bit crazy. i think everybody still thinks it's a bit, you know... it's not... i still think it's crazy. >> simon: you could have done a light comedy or an action flick. >> jolie: i think i'd be terrible with a comedy.

( laughs ) >> simon: there's certainly no humor in this movie about a muslim woman named ajla who starts to fall in love with a serb named danijel. after the war breaks out, bosnians are rounded up and locked up by the serbs, and danijel, a serb captain, becomes ajla's jailer. it's a gorgeous building. >> jolie: it is a gorgeous building. is this... there are gorgeous... >> simon: you made horrible things happen inside here. >> jolie: and beautiful things. >> simon: angelina shot the jail scenes in this budapest museum, and she relied heavily on her actors. they all come from the former yugoslavia. she let them rewrite scenes, and they speak their native language in the film, which will be released with english subtitles. angelina said she wanted to make the film as realistic as possible. >> jolie: we all spoke about every speech, every scene and made sure that it was right and true. so everybody helped to educate me, and we all adjusted the script together. >> can you see? >> uh-huh.

>> simon: while we were there, angelina gave the cast a sneak preview of the film's trailer. >> zana marjanovic: wow. >> simon: and they thought it reflected the reality of their war. goran kostic and zana marjanovic play the two lovers. >> marjanovic: people i know, and my friends and their families never thought in their life that everything they had could be taken away from them. >> goran kostic: it goes to the core of who i am and where i am and what we are, i suppose. it's very personal. >> simon: others might find the plot implausible, an affair between a muslim prisoner and the serb commandant of the prison where women are getting raped every day. some bosnian women who'd been through that found the film objectionable. the bosnian government temporarily withdrew angelina's permit to shoot there. you walked into a minefield, and when you were writing the

script, did you realize that every step you took, there was a mine in your way? >> jolie: i didn't know it was going to be as... as sensitive. everything... everything was something to be very careful about and sensitive. >> simon: but angelina says, "remember, it's a movie, a love story, not a documentary." there's a lot of heart, there's also a lot of brutality. >> jolie: there's a lot of brutality. >> simon: a lot more than there ever was in a film that you acted in. >> jolie: yeah, that's true. >> simon: she's acted in more than 30 films, and her first ones, like "gia," about a drug- addicted fashion model, felt edgy and real. angelina, whose actor parents broke up before she was one, experimented with drugs and a few other things early in her life. she says she used those experiences to get into her roles. >> jolie: it's good to be home. >> simon: she won an oscar for her chilling portrait of a schizophrenic in "girl, interrupted."

>> jolie: hmm. >> simon: later, she switched gears as lara croft, a character from a video game in "tomb raider"... ...and played a spy, mrs. smith, to brad pitt's mr. smith. ( gunfire ) you were once asked if you wanted to play a bond girl and you said, "nope, you wanted to play bond." well, you didn't play bond, but you played a bond-like character in "salt." is that one of your ambitions, to punch through these gender stereotypes? >> jolie: it's not something i intentionally did, but when it comes my way, it's... and i'm aware of it, it was really fun to do, especially because i just had kids. i just had my twins, and i'd been in a nightgown for about seven months. and i felt like... i felt like getting up and punching something. >> simon: her favorite movie was not an action flick but a tragedy, based on a true story. in "a mighty heart," angelina plays marianne pearl, the widow of daniel pearl, the "wall street journal" reporter who was beheaded by terrorists in pakistan.

( screaming ) that was a moment i'll never forget. >> jolie: that was the hardest thing, yeah. as an actress, that was the hardest thing. >> simon: many of her films earned her more money than praise. critics have often been tough. but some directors rave about her. clint eastwood said she's a great talent hampered only by the fact that she has "the most gorgeous face on the planet." that face has sold a lot of handbags and magazines, but early on, angelina jolie flirted with a very different career. you wanted to be a funeral director. >> jolie: uh-huh, i did. >> simon: and you even took courses to prepare yourself. >> jolie: mm-hmm. it sounds like this very strange, eccentric, dark thing to do. but, in fact, i lost my grandfather, and i was very upset with his funeral. and so, we discussed that maybe there are ways where this whole

idea of how somebody passes and how a family deals with this passing and what death is should be addressed in a different way. if this acting thing didn't work out, that that was going to be my backup. >> simon: she can joke about it now, but there were other times- - scary and dangerous times-- that she told us were not funny at all. >> jolie: i went through heavy, darker times, and i survived them. i didn't die young. so i'm very lucky. there are other artists and people that didn't survive certain things. >> simon: you talk about heavy, darker times. what are you referring to? >> jolie: i was hoping you'd miss that. nothing i want to go into a lot of detail about. but i think people can imagine that i did the most dangerous, and i did the worst, and i... for many reasons, i shouldn't be here. >> simon: that's a very provocative phrase, "for many reasons..." >> jolie: well, sure, you just... >> simon: "...you shouldn't be here." >> jolie: ...you just think that... those too many times where you came close to too many dangerous things, too many chances taken too... too far.

>> simon: her odd behavior was out there for everyone to see-- the intimate way she kissed her brother in public, the vials of blood she and her second husband, billy bob thornton, wore around their necks. angelina acknowledges she's taken quite a walk on the wild side, but says she's moved on. >> jolie: i'm angie. >> simon: in recent years, she has been traveling the world as a goodwill ambassador for the u.n. she's visited more than 20 countries, primarily to work with refugees. you used to be a pretty bad girl. now, you are a u.n. ambassador. you are a member of the council on foreign relations. >> jolie: uh-huh. >> simon: you're a humanitarian activist. do you ever miss being a bad girl? >> jolie: i'm still a bad girl. >> simon: yeah? >> jolie: ( laughs ) you know, i still have that side of me that is... it's just... it's in its place now. it belongs... it... you know, it belongs to brad, or it belongs to our adventures. >> simon: angelina and brad pitt

have had three children together. she also adopted three from three different countries-- cambodia, ethiopia and vietnam. the tabloids have the couple splitting up one week, getting married the next. angelina told us they have no plans to get married. the vast majority of americans know you because you're on the cover of magazines every week, and every time they go to a supermarket, they see you. what are they missing? >> jolie: me. i don't see those things, and i don't know what they are, but i assume... >> simon: sure you do, you know what they are. >> jolie: ...i assume they're not me. i assume they're not me. they're... they're not who i am, they're not what i spend my day caring about. i find them quite shallow and often very wrong when i do hear about what they are. >> simon: but they make it impossible for her to do anything in public. even in budapest, we could only lunch with her in the private room of a restaurant. when you're angelina jolie, though, there's no such thing as private. take her tortured relationship with her father, the actor jon

voigt. he actually went on television and said his daughter had serious mental problems. that even shocked hollywood. for years, angelina refused to talk to her father. after her mother died, she started seeing him again. but she gives her mother, marcheline bertrand, all the credit for where she is today. your mother is a beautiful woman. >> jolie: yeah, she is. >> simon: you're pretty chubby as a kid. >> jolie: i was all cheeks, yeah. >> simon: big lips. >> jolie: big lips. ( laughs ) >> simon: angelina also says it was her mom who taught her how to raise her own kids. at the house angelina's renting in budapest, we weren't allowed to film her children, unless you call jacques one of her kids. he seemed to love the camera almost as much as the camera loves angelina. >> jolie: he likes you. >> simon: you're here because brad is shooting a film here? >> jolie: uh-huh. >> simon: you're not shooting a film? >> jolie: no, we never work at the same time. >> simon: what's better, when brad is working and you're with the kids... >> jolie: yes. >> simon: ...or when you're

working and brad is with the kids? >> jolie: when i'm home with the kids. >> simon: bet a lot of full-time parents would love to be shooting movies. >> jolie: yes, they would because it's easier. ( laughs ) my mother was... was a full-time mother. she didn't have much of her... her own career, her own life, her own experiences, her own... you know, everything was for her children. >> simon: and do you try to be the same kind of mom that she was? >> jolie: i will never be as good a mother as she was. i will try my best, but i don't think i could ever be. she was... she was just grace incarnate. she was the most generous, loving... she's better than me. ( laughs ) >> simon: it's clear that you can talk about anything but your mother without... without welling up. >> jolie: yeah. that's my... that's my soft spot. yeah. yeah. yeah. >> simon: angelina's biggest regret is that her mother won't be there for the premiere of "in the land of blood and honey," a film she suspects won't have the

commercial appeal of anything she's done. it's going to open soon. >> jolie: yeah. >> simon: nervous? >> jolie: i am nervous that people are going to not understand it. >> simon: right now, if you had to decide that, in six months, you are going to either act in a film or direct a film, what would you do? >> jolie: i'd prefer directing. >> simon: yeah? >> jolie: yeah. i loved having the spotlight on somebody else, and i would much prefer it. >> simon: angelina's already writing and planning to direct another war film, about afghanistan, and she knows, as a director, her beauty and her acting skills won't be worth a nickel. >> jolie: it's nice. it's nice for all of that not to matter. >> simon: it's also risky. >> jolie: is it? i mean, i think what's risky is living your life and... and never trying for anything and never doing something brave and never getting yourself scared and... >> simon: are you scared? >> jolie: in a good way.

>> hello, everyone, welcome to the cbs sports update presented by follow the wings. i'm james brown in new york. new england maintain a two game lead over the jets in the afc east as both were winners. cincinnati kept pace in the afc north, houston won its fifth straight but may have+ lost a second quarterback. tennessee won to stay two games back, atlanta a half game out in the south. oakland remains a game ahead of denver in the west. the broncos tim tebow is 5 and 12. nor more sports news and information go to cbssports.com follow the wings. ♪ [ aj ] i'm an expert on every single one of these jackets. i know the tests they've been through. i know the temperatures they can withstand. i even know why this little mesh pocket is mesh. the way we make gear, it's not just guaranteed to last.

it's guaranteed to make a whole lot of sense. we hear from a lot of customers that this is the best place for a cell phone. [ aj ] and after warmth, that's the first thing i look for. my name is aj curran. i'm the director of outerwear and accessories, and the holidays are made here at l.l.bean. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates.

earn points you can use for travel on any airline,

and last chance at medicare open enrollment, too. what do you mean? it ends december 7th. if you haven't reviewed your medicare plan choices yet, well, it's getting late. medicare gives you free cancer screenings and wellness visits, and 50% off brand name prescription drugs when you're in the donut hole... it's all part of the health care law. december 7th? i better get goin'! [ male announcer ] medicare open enrollment ends soon. call 1-800-medicare or visit medicare.gov to learn more. an investment opportunity you didn't see before. fidelity's next-generation ipad app lets you see what's trending around the world, as well as what over a million fidelity customers are trading throughout the day. and advanced charting lets you customize your views and set up your own comparisons. our ipad app can help refine your strategy, or even find a new one. i'm velia carboni, and i helped create fidelity's next-generation ipad app. it's one more innovative reason

serious investors are choosing fidelity. open an account today and get a $500 apple gift card. yeah. it's electric. i don't think so. it's got a gas tank right here. electric tank, right over here. an electric tank? really, stu? is that what you pour the electricity in? it's actually both, guys. i can plug in and go 35 miles gas free, or i can fill up and go a whole lot farther. is that my burger? oh. i just got bun. i didn't even bite any burger.