12 most expensive celebrity baby pictures
UPDATE: Pictures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's newborn twins sold for $14 million.
Can we just step back for a moment and marvel at the news of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt having twins and selling the pictures for an estimated $11 million? Before the birth, paparazzi camped out in front of the hospital, and the mayor of Nice announced the twins' arrival along with the couple's doctor.
There is big price escalation for celebrity baby pictures these days. Consider that in 1989 pictures of Lisa Marie Presley's baby - quintessential tabloid fodder - sold for $100,000. Nowadays that barely covers the catering bill at baby's first photo shoot. But really, what is our fascination with celebrity baby pictures?
There's a ludicrous predictability to them all: parents beam as the little blob looks uncomprehendingly up at the bright photography lights. "We're a happy, normal family" the pictures attempt to project, but the perfectly styled mums and dads end up looking as posed and artificial as the babies look unformed and natural. People in "the business" say the rising prices of baby pictures is fueled by fans wanting to know the "real" person behind the celebrity facade. But these pictures look as plastic as a pacificer. And while ostensibly they are focussed on the baby and the family unit, they seem to be about one thing alone: burnishing the parents' image.
12 celebrity couples and what they sold their baby pictures for:
1. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: Twins Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, sold for $14 million to Hello! and People magazine (figure updated)
2. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: First child Shiloh Nouvel born in Namibia in 2006, sold for between $5-7 million to People magazine
3. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Antony: Twins Emme and Max born in 2008, sold for $6 million to People
4. Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves: Levi, reportedly sold for $3 million to OK!, according to TMZ.com
5. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: Adopted son Pax Thien, sold for $2 million to People in 2007
6. Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead: Dannielynn, sold for a reported $2 million to OK! magazine
7. Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman: Max, sold for a reported $1.5 million to People in February
8. Jessica Alba and Cash Warren: Honor Marie, sold for a reported $1.5 million to OK!
9. Jamie Lynn Spears: Maddie Briann, sold for a reported $1 million by OK! in June
10. Nicole Richie and Joel Madden: Harlow Winter, sold for a reported $1 million to People in February
11. Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale: Kingston, sold for a reported $575,000 to OK! in June 2006
12. Britney Spears and Kevin Federline: Sean Preston, sold for a reported $500,000 to People in November 2005
And three high-profile celebrities who didn't:
* Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, for Sunday Rose, because they said they did not feel that it was right
* Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, for James Wilke. The actress stood outside the hospital with her baby and posed for free.
* Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, for Suri Cruise. The couple reportedly took the pictures off the market after a bidding war. Pictures taken by Annie Leibovitz ran in Vanity Fair.
Source: Forbes.com, The Times archive and agencies
