She's a world-renowned actor, director and humanitarian, and now Angeline Jolie has a scientific effect named after her after breast cancer awareness increased as a result of her double mastectomy.
In a serendipitous turn of events, researchers in Austria conducted an online poll of 1000 women about breast reconstruction a month before Jolie's announcement of her preventative surgery and did the same poll a month after.
The results are documented in the latest edition of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
In 2013, Jolie decided to have both her breasts removed because she carries the BRCA1 gene mutation which put her at increased risk of breast cancer.
The story gained worldwide media attention and it seems to have a positive effect in raising awareness for breast cancer and reconstruction.
Dubbed the "Angelina effect", the research team led by Dr David Lumenta of the Division of Plastic, Aesthetic, and Reconstructive Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the Medical University of Graz, in Austria, found 4 percent more women were aware reconstructive breast surgery is possible after the removal of one or both breasts.
There was also an 11 percent increase in awareness a person's own tissue can be used in reconstruction, and a 19 percent increase in people knowing it can be done during the removal operation.
One fifth of those in the second poll attributed media coverage of Jolie's procedure made them "deal more intensively with the topic of breast cancer".
"This is the first prospective report to prove the media's effect on the healthcare-related issue of breast cancer among the general public," Dr Lumenta says.
"Since individual choice will become a driving force for patient-centred decision-making in the future, cancer specialists should be aware of public opinion when consulting patients with breast cancer."
The team says media coverage can be a "tipping point" for improving the public's general knowledge about health.
There will be an event held at Auckland Medical School at 6:30pm on October 20 for Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day.
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