Pitt, Jolie careful to keep apart during appearance in Mexico City

Thursday, June 9th 2005, 10:48 am

By: News On 6

MEXICO CITY (AP) _ Gushing praise for one another _ but ducking questions about a possible romantic relationship _ ``Mr. and Mrs. Smith'' co-stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie briefly visited Mexico's capital for the premiere of their new film.

The pair flew into an airport 35 miles west of Mexico City and a fleet of black and white sport utility vehicles drove them for more than an hour Wednesday to a sprawling, upscale shopping center in the Santa Fe district.

Several hundred screaming fans filled bleacher seats underneath a tent set up outside the shopping center's movie theater complex. Hundreds more waited for hours to catch a glimpse of the couple in the parking lot.

Sporting stubble, short blond hair and a short-sleeve shirt, Pitt posed for photographers, signed autographs and called Jolie ``a firecracker.''

``She's dear to my heart,'' the 41-year-old actor said. ``You never know what she's going to say.''

Jolie, who wore a low-cut black top and dark slacks, called Pitt ``a great person.''

``He's very down-to-earth and very funny,'' she said, but when asked if he's marriage material, the 30-year-old actress just giggled _ and moved on.

Jolie took the stage first. When photographers called for Pitt to join her, he briefly ducked behind a massive movie cutout. He didn't move toward the stage until Jolie was gone.

Tabloid speculation of a romance on the set of the film was fueled when Pitt and his wife, Jennifer Aniston, separated in January after 4 1/2 years of marriage. Aniston filed for divorce in March.

Jolie said in the July issue of Marie Claire that she ``thinks the world'' of Pitt, but never slept with him. Pitt has called reports that Jolie played a role in the breakup of his marriage ``a good story.''

``Mr. and Mrs. Smith,'' which opens Friday, is about husband-and-wife assassins who are clueless about each other's occupation _ until each is hired to kill the other.

When asked about a shortage of steamy love scenes in the movie, Pitt smiled and said, ``It's PG-13. What are you going to do?''