Angelina Jolie & Daniel Day-Lewis receive top honors from the Queen
Angelina Jolie and Daniel Day-Lewis have been recognized by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in her Birthday Honors List.
The actress has been named an honorary dame, while fellow Oscar winner Day-Lewis will be knighted.
Jolie learned of the honor in London this week (beg09Jun14), while
she was co-hosting an international summit on sexual violence.
She won't be entitled to use her new royal title because she is not
a British or Commonwealth citizen, but she joins fellow Americans
Steven Spielberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former President
Ronald Reagan, who have previously received honorary titles from
the Queen.
Among the soldiers, charity heroes, civil servants and
entrepreneurs to receive honors, Day-Lewis will be able to add
'Sir' to his name after becoming a knight for "services to
drama".
The Lincoln star admits he was, "entirely amazed and utterly
delighted in equal measure" to discover he had made the list.
There were also damehoods for Booker Prize-winning novelist Hilary
Mantel and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, while beloved actress
Dame Maggie Smith, who portrays the Dowager Countess of Grantham on
TV's Downton Abbey, was made a Companion of Honor, and becomes one
of only 65 people "of distinction" in the U.K., and Homeland star
Damian Lewis has been named an Officer of the Order of the British
Empire (OBE).
He says, "I decided to do the very un-British thing of accepting
the compliment."
Author Hunter Davies, actress Phyllida Law and musician Talvin
Singh also received OBEs, while physicist Thomas Kibble and pianist
Andra Schiff have been honored with knighthoods.
Also making the annual honors list is singer and DJ Cerys Matthews
and actor John Barrowman, who have both been awarded Commander of
the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire medals (CBEs).