She's known for her expressive eyes, full lips and voluptous figure. So when Angelina Jolie visited the Hendon RAF Museum on VE Day, there was no mistaking who she was.

Wearing a black T-shirt, trousers and jacket, the Tomb Raider star was looking fairly demure as she escorted her adopted son Maddox around the museum in Grahame Park Way, Colindale.

"She looked absolutely brilliant. Apparently all the wardens were watching her," said Ajay Srivastava, the museum's PR manager.

"I wasn't there, and was so gutted to have missed her, but one of the girls who worked in the interactive area confirmed it was her, with her kid Maddox and a bodyguard.

"She was here between, say, 4pm and 5.30pm, and she went to the shop."

The celebrity, who is reknowned for her odd tastes she used to carry a vial of her ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton's blood around her neck and has at least a dozen tattoos, including "know your rights" emblazoned across her shoulder blades went on to spend around £60 in the museum shop. She invested in gadgets, propellers, spinning tops and models of aircrafts, including a big Corgi plane from the Second World War.

The Oscar-winner (for her role in Girl, Interrupted) has been in the news recently over showbiz gossip-column allegations of a relationship with actor Brad Pitt.

And on Saturday, she was discussing the plight of Afghan refugees with the president of Pakistan in Islamabad, in her capacity as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. So RAF Museum employees were surprised at her sudden appearance in Barnet.

Mr Srivastava said: "We were wondering about whether she had an interest in aviation, and why she chose to come here, rather than celebrating VE Day in Trafalgar Square, if that's what she was doing. We just don't know."