Entertainment Tonight did it! They finally did it! After weeks of refusing to retract their false report that Angelina Jolie had given birth to her twins, they’re owning up to the fact that they got it wrong.
Sort of!
None of this would’ve have been such a big deal if exec producer Linda Bell Blue admitted the bogus Internet rumor their story was based on was total bunk, but now it’s just an embarrassing stain on their, ahem, reputation. CONTINUED »
It’s too bad the tabloids’ sources on Angelina Jolie aren’t as strong as the leak-y doormen at Madonna’s New York City apartment building — this whole “Did she give birth? Is she giving birth? What’s up with those heroin rumors?” mystery could finally be put to rest. But it hasn’t been! So we find it to be our civic duty to bring you up to speed on where we are in The Longest Pregnancy In The History of Humanity: CONTINUED »
Inevitably, the report from French magazine Closer — that Angelina Jolie had finally unloaded the most talked about sets of DNA ever — is wrong. Ms. Jolie has, in fact, checked into a hospital in Nice, France, but just so she can get a head start on making her army of handlers go on ice trip runs. Somehow, Jolie’s camp let hospital spokeswoman Nadine Bauer talk to the press, and she is still living, having told the media, “There’s no urgency. It’s been planned for a long time. She’s very well. Everything is fine.” Or maybe she just sent assistant Holly Goline — who looks very much like her and was at the center of Entertainment Tonight’s false birth report — to the hospital as a body double, and is actually in Switzerland with OK!’s photographer waiting outside the delivery room.
If you won’t believe Entertainment Tonight, might you believe French magazine Closer that Angelina Jolie has given birth? They’re reporting the twins were born Wednesday morning after Jolie went into labor Tuesday night (mind the time difference!). Who knows if it’s true! But maybe ET will finally be able to return the headline to its homepage.
And heeeeeere we go. Yesterday we forecasted that In Touch’s photos of Angelina Jolie looking very pregnant in France while playing with Zahara and Shiloh would be met with the requisite skepticism, especially since Entertainment Tonight reported Ms. Jolie already gave birth, and they’re standing by their story. And it’s happening. “Some remain unconvinced,” reports Rush & Molloy, that Jolie is still carrying the twins inside her. That photo of her with the belly? “Prosthetic tummy!” So where are the babies? If they were born, they were premature, which means they are “being secretly cared for in a French hospital” until they’re strong enough for People or OK! to pay eight-figures to take their photo.
This week In Touch made Los Angeles Times blogger Liz Snead — who’s been calling on Angelina Jolie to SHOW YOURSELF!!! – a very happy woman: At last, since Entertainment Tonight first falsely reported the superstar mom had given birth to her twins, there’s photo evidence that … she hasn’t. CONTINUED »
Sad, bitter old man Billy Bob Thornton cannot be happy for one-time love Angelina Jolie, who he describes as doing through a “high school phase” by going steady with dreamboat Brad Pitt, who she met by the lockers after free period. Thornton, who married Jolie in 2000 and was gone three years later, says, according to AskMen.com, “You know dating the quarterback of the football team with Brad Pitt over there. She’ll be waking up from that dream in no time.” Naturally, that involves returning the comfort of his soul patch and gettin’ hog wild to the tunes of his new album with The Boxmasters. Oh, we didn’t mention that Thornton is going on this rant while promoting a new album?
Update: It turns out the quotes from AskMen.com may have been completely made up.
As the mystery behind Entertainment Tonight reporting Angelina Jolie had given birth reaches its climactic buzzkill, new questions emerge!
Namely: Where are Brad Pitt and Angelina now? They haven’t been seen in days, which is like, forevs in paparazzi years.
Oh, and this: Jolie’s assistant, Holly Goline, is said to have never had a BlackBerry email address, according to AP reports. But here she is with Jolie (that’s her in the back, wearing sunglasses, and also pregnant), at the Cannes photo call for Kung Fu Panda, on May 15th, with a BlackBerry in hand.
So maybe ET’s claims that they were emailing with the real Goline, at holly@tmo.blackberry.net, have some foundation? Or, more importantly, how did Goline score the first-name BlackBerry email? Because we’d love david@tmo.blackberry.net, please.
Los Angeles Times blogger Elizabeth Snead has a simple solution to ending all this madness about whether Angelina Jolie actually gave birth: Show yourself!
“So where is Angelina? It’s her 33rd birthday today,” Snead wrote yesterday. “If she would only show her face — and her bump — all these birth rumors would be instantly put to rest, without having to waste money paying expensive lawyers to write threatening letters to news organizations.”
Yes, Angelina, feed the beast. That’s some brilliant advice, Snead. This, from the same supposed Hollywood expert who thinks it’s coincidental that Jolie and Gina Gershon, along with every other Hollywood talent, hired the big-mouthed law firm Lavely & Singer.
JOSSIP REPORTS
So how did the “ANGELINA GAVE BIRTH!!!” rumor – that got Entertainment Tonight in a giant cauldron of boiling shit for its fake world exclusive – even get started?
As all terrible things in life do: On a blog.
It all started May 26, four days before ET’s since de-bunked report, when someone, identified only as “Jenah” and supposed from New York City, posted to famousbabesblog.blogspot.com (since disappeared from the web) claiming to be “the best friend to one of Brad & Angelina’s nannies, I believe I can report this before any other news outlet: THEY HAD THEIR TWINS!”
And as these things are wont to do, the item got circulated all over celebrity message boards, before winding up on the French website PurePeople, which noted the report came from a blog, and thus shouldn’t be treated as fact. (BLOGS LIE!!, after all.) That item got picked up by JustJared, which cited “media outlets in France” but noted, “This rumor has not been confirmed by any reps of the Jolie-Pitt clan.”
From there, Entertainment Tonight got wind, claimed the exclusive as their own (and even copying the babies’ names given in the original report). Then the tabloid magazines posted the news on their blog, until word arrived that the report was false, everyone backtracked and debunked the rumor, while ET remained its source was reliable. Cue Jolie’s attorneys at Lavely & Singer to begin circulating letters explaining how somebody was impersonating Jolie’s assistant Holly Goline, all the while ET has sat idly by pretending the whole thing never happened, even though they knew their source was bad.
All of which brings up two big questions: CONTINUED »
Entertainment Tonight, which wrongly reported Angelina Jolie gave birth to her twins when, in fact, they’re still inside her womb, is now said to have known all along that their information was bunk.
On Friday, the show, headed by exec producer Linda Bell Blue and long-rumored to have sacks of cash waiting for sources, reported Jolie had given birth to the twins and that everyone was happy and healthy at the hospital. Except after that story was posted online, and before ET aired that night, Blue and her team were notified that their source was an impostor.
All along, they thought the source was Holly Goline, Jolie’s assistant. Except communications between Goline and ET after the tabloid show reported the story online revealed Goline was not the actual source, and the show had been duped by an imposter pretending to be Goline, as Jossip was the first to report.
Not that it kept Mary Hart’s report from airing hours later: “Just this morning, a source who says she was inside the delivery room tells us yes, the babies were born and yes, mother and babies are fine.”
Now begins the fallout. CONTINUED »
… are the people bidding $22 million on her baby photos? If Entertainment Tonight really wants to confirm its story, perhaps they should touch base with People and OK! and find out why a deal hasn’t been wrapped up yet. Because if those kids are outside the womb, certain magazine editors are going to be eager to schedule the photo shoot for, like, this afternoon.
Is this even news? Five days later, and ET’s Linda Bell Blue still isn’t retracting its story. Shall we keep updating everyone as each day passes? CONTINUED »
The week began with reports that bidding on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s baby twin photos was skyrocketing past a $15 million mark; today brings word the final sum could hit $22 million, as the tabloids feed the human trafficking frenzy. (What’s an ultrasound worth?)
No matter that the two magazines still in the bidding for the photos, People and OK!, claim those figures are wildly out of touch with the actual dollar amounts being tossed around.
But make no mistake: This sale is on track to break all previous records, including the estimated $7 million Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony scored for selling U.S. and European rights to their twins.
As for who’s going to end up on top, the smart money is on CONTINUED »
Entertainment Tonight isn’t yet ready to retract its (said to be early, said to be false) story on Friday about Angelina Jolie giving birth to twins. Taking its website offline, for “technical difficulties,” was not, actually an admission of error.
Yesterday Jossip broke the news that ET might’ve been duped by someone impersonating Jolie’s assistant Holly Goline, using a fake BlackBerry email address — that’s been used to dupe media outlets for at least the past year.
But now the show says they were not made a fool. CONTINUED »
Only People and OK! are the remaining contenders. And, joke of all jokes, the proceeds will supposedly go to charity. [TMZ] Time to, once again, revisit the economics of paying ridiculous sums for these type of photos.
JOSSIP REPORTS
How to explain how Entertainment Tonight so very badly bungled the EXCLUSIVE!!! story about Angelina Jolie giving birth last week? (And then their website “crashed“; maybe they were hiding from their screw up?)
Well, it wasn’t entirely their fault.
Jossip hears that somebody has been impersonating Angelina’s assistant Holly Goline, using a fake BlackBerry email address and sending erroneous reports to the press. Jolie’s attorneys at cease-and-desist happy firm Lavely & Singer are said to be circulating a letter among entertainment outlets explaining the situation.
And the worst part? This impostor has been sending fake information to the media for the past year. Time to start counting up all those outrageously untrue items!
Says the letter: CONTINUED »
Despite what Entertainment Tonight was reporting, and what Us Weekly picked up, People insists Angelina Jolie has not given birth to her twins. But Us Weekly does claim to have their names: Isla Marcheline and Amelie Jane.
So we’ve gone a little crazy with People’s archive of covers — 34 years X 52-ish issues a year = too much content — and one of the better searches we’ve done is “Sexiest Man Alive.”
There have been the classic choices — ZOMG Brad Pitt!! — but also some incredibly bad choices. For example:
• Nick Nolte (a-hem)
• Sean Connery at 60 (”Older, Balder…and Better!”)
• L.A. Law’s Harry Hamlin (quote: “Certainly when I look in the mirror, I don’t get turned on.”)
• JFK, Jr., who is dead, which makes us sad, but okay, he’s still incredibly attractive
So what can we learn by perusing the archive of People’s sexiest men?
First off, we learned they didn’t name a sexy fella in 1994. And also: CONTINUED »
Brad Pitt is said to be taking a break from publicist Cindy Guagenti because he “wants to not deal with media.” Um. That’s what a publicist is for. [P6]
Editorial Director
