1 CELEBRITY STORK = 2 BABIES!
Brangelina's Twins Finally Enter the World

Happy News to report today from the land of the gorgeous and the generous...

After much conjecture, anticipation, guessing, erroneous reporting and tons of bated breath the world over, the arrival of twins to parents Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is now official. OFFICIALLY, official.

At around 8pm local time on Saturday (July 12) near Nice, France, Angelina Jolie delivered twins, a boy and a girl, by caesarean section.

According to Jolie's obstetrician, she and Brad Pitt are doing "marvelously well" after the birth.

In case you still don't quite believe that this birth event has finally happened, here's a photo... not of the babies, but of the next best thing at this point ... a birth certificate!

That's the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, center, holding the birth certificates of one of Angelina Jolie's twins, Knox Leon Jolie-Pitt, with Dr. Michel Sussmann, Jolie's obstetrician, The photo was taken Sunday, July 13, 2008 by Claude Paris of The Associated Press.

Here are alot more details on the babies' birth as reported by the Canadian Press:

NICE, France - The Brangelina twins are here: Angelina Jolie has given birth to a girl and a boy, and dad Brad Pitt took the whole thing in stride. The obstetrician who delivered the twins, Dr. Michel Sussmann, said the actress, the babies and Pitt "are doing marvelously well."

The 33-year-old actress gave birth to a boy, Knox Leon, and a girl, Vivienne Marcheline, by Caesarean section about 8 p.m. Saturday in Nice in southern France. Jolie had a local anesthetic and was conscious throughout, the doctor said.

Pitt was in the delivery room at the seaside Lenval hospital as the babies were born one minute apart, Sussman said, the boy weighing just over five pounds and the girl five pounds.

"He was perfectly calm and everything went well," Sussmann said. "He was very happy ... The emotion was very strong for him," the doctor added.

"Angelina Jolie was speaking, was laughing with her husband. They were happy." "The mother, the babies, the father are doing marvelously well," he said.

Sussmann said the Caesarean was moved forward from its originally planned date "for medical reasons" so the babies could be born "in the best conditions." The doctor did not give details. He said Jolie is expected to stay in the hospital for a few more days and that she now needs rest.

The four other Jolie-Pitt children - Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 2 - have not yet seen their new sister and brother, he added.

The doctor said he believed the baby girl's middle name was chosen in honour of Jolie's mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, who died in January 2007 after a 7 1/2-year battle with cancer.

Jolie had checked into the hospital late last month to rest and be monitored by her doctor before the birth.

Before that, she, Pitt and their children had moved into a large estate, Miraval, in the French hamlet of Correns, which is just a short helicopter ride from the hospital. Correns is about 100 kilometres from Nice, a resort on the Mediterranean.

Though the lenses of the world's paparazzi had been trained on maternity wards across the French Riviera, Jolie managed to slip unobserved into the clinic, which has magnificent views of the Mediterranean, reportedly arriving by helicopter on the hospital's rooftop helipad. Pitt was seen coming and going after Jolie's hospitalization became public.

The first photos of the new twins are expected to fetch millions of dollars. Paparazzi and curious sightseers gathered outside the hospital in Nice on Sunday, hoping for glimpses and shots of Pitt.

Local newspaper Nice Matin, which first broke news of the birth, reported Sunday that the couple have sold rights for the first photo of their newly enlarged family to a U.S. publication, which it did not name, and that the proceeds would go to charity. The newspaper gave no source for that information.

But the doctor said the couple decided to announce the birth to Nice Matin first because of its links to Nice. The newspaper called the twins "the most famous babies in the world."

Earlier in the week, the hospital said it had coated the windows of Jolie's room with a special material to prevent paparazzi from taking unauthorized pictures of the star couple.

Tourists and residents of Nice, a popular resort, welcomed news of the birth. The city's mayor, Christian Estrosi, visited the hospital Sunday to deliver the twins' birth certificates, which spared Pitt the need to go to City Hall himself to register the babies, and run the gauntlet of the photographers waiting outside.

"It's a happy day for Mrs. Angelina Jolie and all the citizens of Nice," said Estrosi.

The mayor previously has said that the twins will always be considered honorary citizens of the city, regardless of whether they opt to obtain French citizenship.

Wow - I would imagine it's gonna be *quite* awhile before Angelina Jolie is physically able to strike a pose like the one above ;-)

I do hope that the "best conditions" referred to by the obstetrician were achieved and that mama and her babies are able to remain in strong health from this point on.

Marcheline is a beautiful second name to give to the baby girl, and certainly a beautiful tribute to Angelina's late mother.

It's interesting to note that her father, actor Jon Voight, is as yet unmentioned in all of this. It's no public secret their relationship is strained, but with the birth of two new additions to their family we can only hope that new life may give new inspiration for Angelina and Jon to come together somehow.

As expected, I'm really glad to know that the exorbitant sum to be paid for the first photos of babies will be donated to charity. That's really good news. As a hilarious aside to the baby pics aspect of this story, check out this LOL quote from a photo agency honcho:

"I've never known a set of pictures to be worth this amount of money," said Darryn Lyons, owner of Big Pictures, a celebrity photo agency in London. He estimated that the twins' official photos will be worth between $15 million and $20 million.

The only other photos that "would possibly come that close is Britney Spears giving birth to an alien," he said.

Hardy-Har-Har!!! Love, Love, LOVE it!

I wonder if Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have already selected a recipient for the money through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation? When they established the foundation in 2006, they kicked things off by donating 1 million dollars to each of Doctors Without Borders and Global Action for Children. Who knows where the money from the first pics of twins will go? Oddly, there's no website for the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

Is it not kinda hilarious and mind-boggling that the hospital is just a short helicopter ride away from their home in France? The lifestyle and lengths gone to in order to ensure privacy are toooooooooooootally amazing! I really cannot imagine living that kind of life. Zoinks!

I guess that after a few requisite days of joyous rest and relaxation at the hospital, Angelina and the new twins will be able to re-join the rest of the family at their Chateau Miraval estate in the south of France which, unbelievably, has a 3-mile driveway and its own forest!

Check this place out!!! Freakin' byooooooooooooootiful, indeed...

Photo Credit

Here's a news report with details on their French home (and their other homes, too):

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are buying a new home in the south of France. The couple has spent a reported 70 million U.S. dollars for a 1,000-acre estate in the European country, which even comes with its own title -- Chateau Miraval.

The estate, located in a village called Brignol near the Aix-en-Provence, comes complete with a three-mile long driveway, a private lake, moat and for ultimate privacy, its own forest.

Inside the lavish home are 35-spacious rooms, many of which featuring balconies offering amazing views of the surrounding valley. On the grounds of the estate, 13 different varieties are reportedly harvested, and sprawled across the acreage are 20 fountains and a stream which runs through hidden tunnels, filling the moat and the lake.

Photo Credit

The Pitts, who banked a combined 55 million dollars last year, already own a multi-million home in Berlin, and Angelina also owns a 4 million dollar converted farmhouse in Buckinghamshire, England.

In the United States, the couple owns a 9 million dollar oceanfront home in Malibu, California, and another home in Santa Barbara. They also paid the full asking price of 3.75 million dollars for their home in New Orleans.

There you have it, 3 homes in Europe and 3 homes in the USA. Even though their family just got bigger by two, they clearly have the space to get around and raise their kids with likely the best of everything.

These two brand new babies, along with their 4 siblings, are poised for a very, very interesting life. And with the ongoing and very public humanitarian commitments made by their parents, it looks like the world now has half a dozen youngins that will grow up learning how to live a kind and generous life.

Plus, it stands to reason that their lives will also be very, very interesting since they're going to wind up looking like a combination of their ridiculously beautiful parents.