ET's Mary Hart discusses the confusion over Angelina Jolie's twins' births

Still no word on -- and no photos of -- Angelina Jolie or the twin girls that "Entertainment Tonight" reported the actress gave birth to on May 30. And no further information on the mysterious fake Holly Goline (Angelina's pregnant assistant), who responded affirmatively to ET producers' e-mails asking for confirmation of the rumored births.

But ET isn't ready to say uncle, according to host Mary Hart.

"No one has seen Angelina in the last two weeks," Hart told the L.A. Daily News at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Foundation fund-raiser honoring Motown founder Berry Gordy on Saturday night.

“I hope that the babies were born when we said they were and that we had our facts straight,” she added. Hart, who had some “girl talk” with Angelina at the “Kung Fu Panda” premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, said: “I have never retracted a story in 26 years, but all I can do now is wait and see.”

Hart also told the Dish Rag: "We're trying to get to the bottom of it. We don't want to be inaccurate and Angelina's camp doesn't want to mislead us. But there is definitely some confusion and we want to make sure that our sources are right. It's definitely become a major new story because it's Angie and Brad."

Photo: Mary Hart is all smiles at the "Kung Fu Panda" Cannes premiere in May. Credit: WireImage

Comments

[Molly]

Who cares? I am so sick of constantly hearing about how great these two are. My first question would be: Hey,
Brad, what about your vows to Jennifer? And for her: You started a relationship with a married man. Shame on you. Shame on them.

[raye]

What is wrong with ET, why are they trying to blame the confusion arising from their blunder to Angelina? Angelina did not create the confusion, why does she have to show herself for them to know that they made an error by stupidly picking up the birth news from that fly by night blogger.

Geez, and they have the guts to bait Angelina to show herself up, how idiotic their logic is!

[Kate]

If I were Angelina I would not show myself up just because tabloids want me to. If she shows up everybody will know where they are along with a million of paparazi. They will have no peace during her last month of pregnancy.

They should just leave them alone. Whenever they want to give any news - they will.

[Stephanie]

I agree with Molly!
Angelina has either had the babies prematurely & is waiting until they are bigger to "announce" the birth, or she is playing passive-aggressive games with her fans. Either way, everything that comes out of her mouth is a big fat lie.

[mary]

What if any legal steps can ET take to prove themselves right?
Do you see it ending with ET suing them?
I cannot imagine this couple has that much interest left-okay,she buys babies and gets pregnant.
Are media outlets waiting to expose the couple?

[yoco]

So ET is right and People,US ,Access Hollywood Extra and all the tabs have been duped. ET claimed the babies were born May 30 yet I read a blog saying they were born MaY 25 written by a "friend of the nanny" Also there were born May 30 and Brad takes Madd to a motorcycle race in Italy June 1st and he attends an art sale in Switzerland on June 3rd THe pics of Brad and Maddox at the race are in People US and OK so he left his preemie twins. Come on people

[Joan]

While Paul Allen was allowing them to rent his place, the couple had delivery runs, practicing to get her to the helicopter and waiting limos etc. Have they done that since relocating to the new home? It is farther away from the old place, right?

[leann]

These babies are BOTH Angie's and Brad's, not ET/Mary Hart's to lie about. Shiloh's birth was announced right away, THEY will announce THEIR twins births right away. ET crossed an ethical line in deciding when babies will be born and refuses to be honest about lying as ET/Mary Hart did when retracting the false NOLA marriage story. ET is trash.

[ursula]

Why is anyone here blaming Angelina for something ET lied about? Neither Angelina nor Brad have said a word about the babies birth, and Angelina and Brad have every right to privacy at this time in her pregnancy. They certainly don't owe ET or Mary Hart anything. Leave this family alone.

[peyton]

Brad and Angie are living a quiet life in France awaiting the birth of their twins. They have said nothing to the press. ET lied, Mary Hart lied as she has had to retract stories. The most recent was ET saying that Brad and Angie had married in NO which ET copied from Star, just a big lie like false twins births and names. ET is a joke.

[andy]

Why is ET/Mary Hart still talking about this as if Brad and Angie lied to them? This is idiotic, ET printed a story without doing any research by copying a bogus blog post and won't fess up that they made a mistake like all do at times. Come on ET/Mary Hart do the right thing!!

[suzi]

What will ET or Mary Hart say if the twins are not 2 girls but 2 boys or a boy and a girl? After all ET said twin girls and gave their names did they not? ET, advice for you, lies equal more lies if not retracted.

[diane]

If lawyers contacted ET before they ran the story and said it was false and that the twins had not been born yet, and if Brad's manager also told ET the story was false, then why did ET run the story? ET knew the story was false but they went ahead with it anyway. Why?

[neil]

Enough of this nonsense. How about you do some real journalistic work and explain how various Hollwood agencies get away with putting the screws to Angie and Brad because of their refusal to use the the PR services of those agencies. All those 'Ari Golds' pissed off because some actors are daring to say, "thanks but no thanks" And yet no one says a peep. What, are these guys some sort of sacred cows?! Or maybe it's all all a lot of 'nod nod wink wink' between everyone on that side of the business including the so called celebrity journalist. Pretty sad and despicable if so. Stop asking stupid questions and do some real work.

[jane]

"Brad and Angie are living a quiet life in France awaiting the birth of their twins. "
Actually Brad left two weeks ago.
Agencies do have some rights in this matter. the couple is selling their babies pics to the highest bidder, so agencies have the right to ask for proof.
Has the couple ever thought of having the magazine that is the highest bidder present check(s) to the charities the couple plans to donate to?

[andy]

Jane, no decent person would lie about Brad leaving a pregnant with twins Angie and their 4 age 6 and under kids 2 weeks ago. Brad and his oldest son Maddox were pictured at a motorace in Italy 9 days ago, and People said Brad was in Basel 6 days ago for one day, flying in from France and back to France that same day. If you must lie because you are immoral try to make your lie conform to the truth.

[diane]

Only tabs are saying pixs have been or will be sold of the Jolie-Pitt twins. Anyone who believes anything in tabs that pay people to steal medical records is a fool. What will tab believers do if no pixs are sold? Repent for being fooled by tabs? Or rant about other lies? Time will tell.

[andrea]

Brad and Angie had the check from People for $500,000 for the Shiloh pregnancy article donated directly to the Hele charity in Haiti. They later established the Jolie-Pitt Foundation and have made a number of donations of millions$$ and it is monitored by the IRS.

[Helena]

Andrea: They received much more than 500K for that photo. I know they do some donations but the Jolie-Pitt foundation did not give away that much if you figure in the rest of the photo money and the 1/3 she promised to donate each year.

The amount they donated doesn't approach nearly that amount.

[Jane]

Andy: He went from Switzerland to Texas to film a movie.
Also, please stop the personal attacks. I did not call you immoral or anything b/c I disagree with your opinion. Now you look silly b/c Pitt is not in France and has not been in France and will not be returning to France any time soon due to movie obligations.

[MIng]

Jane, he wasn't in texas. The person involved in the official Tree of Life production denied it and said that Brad's filming was done.

Helena, between Brad and Angelina, IRS reports show that they put 8 million dollars into the Jolie Pitt Foundation. Now, assuming Brad and Angelina's average income and state tax rate is 30% flat, gross income between them would have been about 34m. Deduct 30% for taxes leaves them a net after tax income of 24m. Pay 30% of that which is 8m into a charity.

Also, you don't know if the money used to support the Maddox Jolie Pitt Project and the Maddox Chivan Children's Home were paid out of the Jolie Pitt Foundation. It may be that they didn't because these are non US Charities. the Jolie Pitt Foundation is a US charitable foundation.

In any case, despite what you guys say, they don't announce every charitable gift they make. They certainly don't announce the on going support of the Maddox Chivan Children's Home but they continue to do so. If you bother to google, you'll see it for yourself.

If only people, including journalists, bothered to google and read and research and analyse instead of jumping into quick and snarky conclusions, they might actually be better, kinder people.

[ELIZABETH SNEAD]

To MIng:

Wow. you really did do your homework! and you make a very good point.

thanks for your astute comment!

Elizabeth

[lover]

Can't we talk about Mary Harts butter face and not the twins births, it's a better story.

[Jane]

I posted that b/c I live in Houston-guess who I saw in Houston a few days ago-Mr. Pitt.

[Elizabeth Snead]

To Jane:

You saw him? that's big news! Where was he? any specifics or description would be fantastic!. Wanna be a celebrity spotter for The Dish Rag?
thanks for your comments!
Elizabeth

[jane]

As of Monday, Pitt was staying at the Hilton Americas Downtown in Houston. It's also being reported by the press down here.

[jane]

Ming: I was not rude to you. I expect the same respect.
The Maddox Jolie Project was ended some time ago. If the rich paid anywhere near 30% in taxes, they would flee the US. You are not taking into account some of their investments that yield a yearly return.
34m is way too low.

Ms Snead:
Is there two stories here: One concerning the birth of the twins and the other concerning the fake assistant?

[Nanea]

Just because a gossip blogger in Vancouver/Canada said Pitt was in Houston when he was photographed in Basel/Switzerland doesn't mean Pit actually was in Houston, especially as that gossip blogger often gets other facts wrong too.

And had Pitt really been in TX for days, there'd have been photos eventually.

Other than that, why don't people get that it takes two to break up a marriage? Why do people believe everything they read, just because it's printed somewhere? Paper doesn't talk back, and of course the internet is a reliable source. *rolls eyes*

[MIng]

Jane, I don't believe I was rude to you. If you thought I was, I apologise.

Incidentally though, you might recall that it was ANGELINA who said that she donates 1/3 of her income, spend 1/3 an save 1/3. Brad never made such a commitment. They remain 2 separate individuals with different ideas of what is an appropriate donation. 4m from Angelina may well be more than 1/3 of her net income. She was not paid much either for TGS or for AMH.

Also, as I've pointed out, we do not necessarily know of all their donations. We know for example that the Maddox Chivan Children's Home and the Maddox Jolie Pitt Project remains funded by the Jolie Pitts. If the Funds did not come from the Jolie Pitt Foundation, it must have come from their on BEFORE TAX income.

As for paying a 30% tax rate - it is true that it high for Investment Earnings (ie, rental income, dividends, capital gains etc) for which the rich can afford tax shelters and move their money into other jurisdictions..

But their earnings as actors is not so easy to shelter. There's a limit to the sorts of tax shelters individuals can build for their sweat of the brow earnings. The top marginal tax rate in 2008 is 35% cutting in on annual earnings of 357,700. As their earnings as actors are in their milliions, it's arguable that most of their earnings are taxed at 35%. My statement that their earnings as actors at 30% already assumes that they can shelter some of their earnings as actors. But there are limits or the IRS will be after them. I

Now, Angelina said that she would pay 1/3 of her income to charity, save 1/3 and spend 1/3. She is not obliged to donate 1/3 of her income derived from her savings (such as interest and dividends) because in a sense, that's like double dipping. That's what she is saving for herself when one day, as we all know, she will cease to be an actress - which is what happens to beautiful young things by the time they reach 40. Just ask Meg Ryan and others.

Interestingly enough you might want to note that FORBES who just published their top 100 influential celebrities list indicated that Angelina earned 14 million last year and Brad earned 20 million. Total 34 m which is bang on my estimates which I derived working backwards from the declared donations to the JOlie Pitt Foundation.

BTW, you'd be interested to know that I've dropped in on the Maddox Chivan Children's Foundation whilst visiting Ang Khor Wat. The money is being put to wonderful use there. Many of the Children there have aids and would be dead without the financial support given by Angelina and Brad.

[jane]

Ming-
thanks! I know that Jolie earned way more than 14m last year.
I'm sure the money donated to the foundation does good. I would never presume otherwise.
She did cut the funds to the Maddox Jolie Pitt Project. It's cool you got a chance to visit the home.
I know you are not posting with her being some all-knowing goddess-my mistake with making that assumption.
I'm focused more on the big picture.
Look into how the adoptions happened and the stories with the birth parents-not with Pax that was different nonsense-and why Pitt has not officially adopted those children outside of a name change.
Money is not always given out of goodnes, even if the end is positive. Start comparing her interviews and you find there is no real truth to her with the adoptions-just what works at the time.
Peace!

[Jessica Johnson]

YOU ALL ARE TO INTERESTED IN OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES.LEAVE THE JOLIE-PITTS ALONE.