€9m twins make premiere

THE most famous babies on the planet, the latest offspring of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, have made their world premiere on the internet, having outfoxed the paparazzi since they were born three weeks ago.

People magazine posted the cover of its upcoming issue, featuring twins Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon and their proud parents, on its web- site, a teaser for a 19-page spread that hit the news stands yesterday.

A smaller photo in the corner showed the couple’s two-year-old daughter, Shiloh, holding her baby sister.

Jolie was quoted as saying that the couple’s family life at a sprawling French chateau was “chaos, but we are managing it and having a wonderful time”.

In addition to the twins and Shiloh, the couple have three adopted children.

Jolie, 33, gave birth to the twins in the French city of Nice. Hordes of paparazzi waited out the process, but were unable to penetrate the hospital’s heavy security.

The organised shoot was conducted by photo agency Getty Images, with People acquiring North American rights to the photos, and British gossip magazine Hello! rights in all other territories. The couple have said they will donate the proceeds to charity.

The sum involved has developed into an international guessing game. Rumoured price tags for Hollywood baby photos are often wildly inaccurate, and Radar magazine recently reported that celebrity publications are not above stoking the hype in order to boost newsstand sales and website traffic.

In the case of the Jolie-Pitt twins, an unsourced report claimed the worldwide rights sold for $14 million (€9m), more than three times the rumoured deal for Shiloh’s baby photos in 2006.

People has said that the rumoured numbers for both deals, as well as those for other famous babies that have adorned its pages, are excessive. But it has declined to elaborate.