People Exclusive

Brad & Angelina Donate $100K to Daniel Pearl Foundation

By Mary Green

10/10/2006 at 10:10 AM EDT

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have made a $100,000 donation to the Daniel Pearl Foundation in memory of the American journalist who was kidnapped and eventually killed in Pakistan in February of 2002, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.

The gift, made through the recently formed Jolie-Pitt Foundation, was presented on Tuesday, which would have been the late Wall Street Journal reporter's 43rd birthday.

"On this day our thoughts go out to Danny's family," Pitt and Jolie said in an exclusive statement released by their political advisor, Trevor Neilson, to PEOPLE. "The Daniel Pearl Foundation is celebrating this day, his birthday, with music festivals around the world. The festivals are a great reminder of not just Danny's work as a journalist but of his life and his love of music."

Jolie in her role as Mariane Pearl

Paramount Classics

Pitt and Jolie arrived last week in Pune, India, to film the Pearl biopic, A Mighty Heart, based on the book written by the journalist's widow, Mariane Pearl, whom Jolie portrays in the film.

At the time of his death, Pearl was investigating links between the terrorist group Al Qaeda and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.

Pitt and Jolie formed their foundation last month in order to give away $2 million, to be evenly divided between the Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders, to help families affected by HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty.