Shock jock Howard Stern may have picked a BlackBerry over the Palm Pre, but the unreleased device has captured the heart of actress Angelina Jolie.Device manufacturers have been handing out phones to celebrities before their release to the general public for some time now. Singer/songwriter John Meyer is famous for being spotted with pre-release hardware, such as BlackBerries.

Now it's Angelina Jolie's turn. According to PreCentral, she was spotted on a movie set with the Pre in hand. A conversation between Jolie and a production assistant went something like this:

"I asked her how she likes the phone," a production assistant on the set of Salt told me. "She went on about it for about two minutes. She basically said she likes the software better than the iPhone, she likes the thumboard for texting (although the keys aren't big enough), and thinks the screen is beautiful but can be too easily scratched.

This is a major endorsement for the Palm Pre, which was recently panned by Howard Stern. He didn't like some of the Palm's mobile email features, and preferred the BlackBerry. Jolie hasn't said that she'll buy the Pre, or continue to use it forever, but getting it into the hands fo an A-list celebrity -- and having her gush about it -- lends some more cred to the device.

Now that developers and celebrities are coming around to the virtues of the Pre, will the general public snap out of their malaise toward the device?