Speculation is rife that Christina Aguilera and that guy she’s married to were paid $1.5 million for the first pictures of new son Max. Harlow Winter Madden is worth about half that, although no figure has been put on what the price might have been if the babies had appeared on the cover together.

Jennifer Lopez is set to make $4-6 million for her twins, which is similar to the high sum paid for Shiloh Jolie-Pitt’s debut, which earned a whopping $4.1 million. Her adopted sibling was not considered as cute at age four as a baby, and was worth about half that.

Why do babies make so much money for magazine covers? Is it because celebrities demand that much compensation for losing their private life? (Not that this stops them complaining later when paparazzi try to take pictures of the same child.) It’s because their covers sell.

“We just do tremendously well on the newsstand when we’ve got celebrity babies on the cover,” says Caperton (Kate, OK! magazine deputy editor), “because people love being with their favorite stars in these really important moments in their lives.”

Setting up a safe shoot with a guaranteed paycheck works out well for the parents, too.

“It’s more beneficial for celebrities to cooperate with a company like us to do their baby pictures versus not doing it, because then paparazzi will chase them and will not stop until they get the picture of that celebrity with the baby,” (Roxanne, Getty Images) Motamedi says. “But once the pictures are out, there is really no value of paparazzi chasing them and trying to get the baby shot.”

New York Daily News

Is it because we love to see how mum’s looking post-birth? They usually look way better than anyone else. There is a reason new mothers rarely send out pictures of mother and baby together in those first few days – the baby looks cute and they look like they’ve been through Hell. Probably because they have.

Or is it just because we all love babies?

Of course, babies don’t have to be fodder for checkbook journalism. Vanity Fair didn’t pay anything for rights to the first photos of Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. But that September 2006 issue still sold 60% more copies on newsstands than the average for that half of the year. The sell-through was such an anomaly that the title was forced to warn against comparing September 2006 sales with the abnormally successful issue a year prior.

Plenty of editors say paying up will pay you back. “It depends on what the cost is, but it’s a nice positive antidote to the more crazy celebrity stories that go on,” said Sarah Ivens, editor in chief of OK, part of Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell empire.

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Oh, I like that idea. I’d much rather see a baby than Britney Spears looking like a train wreck. Interestingly, Britney the train wreck must sell more magazines than her son Sean Preston, when he featured on the cover of People sales were down 15%.

Interestingly, I love babies more than ice cream, but actually couldn’t care less about a picture of one. That could be anyone’s child, one baby is pretty hard to tell from another. That’s why they are so careful putting name tags on them in the hospital. Partly because they can’t talk, but mostly due to the fact it’s hard to tell them apart.

So, I’m sensing a business opportunity here. I have a particularly cute baby at my place. Blue eyed, smiles lots, has a reasonable amount of dark hair, but not like the crazy mop Suri Cruise had. Wanna hire her? Just in case your ugly celebrity baby isn’t up to the pictures. The bidding starts at $1 million – that should pay for her and her siblings to go to college.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Remember these baby pictures of Shiloh? They were a big deal when they came out in June, 2006 and were featured in People and Hello!.

I like to think that these blurry shots of the Jolie-Pitts are actually paintings done by an impressionist from long ago. To me, they are Monets, but they could be by Renoir or Degas. Or, if you hate all of that artsy mumbo jumbo, you could just squint your eyes really hard. That seems to work too.

Brad, Angelina, Maddox, Zahara, Pax and Shiloh all left for a trip to Santa Barbara. It takes about an hour and a half driving without traffic, but these kids won't have to worry about being stuck in an economical car together for that long. They get to ride in a huge Range Rover. I can only imagine all the fun gadgets that would be inside that vehicle. Individual seat back DVD players, wireless Internet, personal chef...

I love how Zahara is lugging around a suitcase half her size. That girl already knows how to pack like a celebrity!

Photos: Flynet Onilne

8 more photos of the Jolie-Pitt's are after the jump.

Yes, I know, these photos are super blurry but it's been so long since we've seen the whole Jolie-Pitt crew together so we just had to share them. One by one the six-piece group filed onto their private jet in LA on Saturday — seems like a lot of kids to wrangle in, but I'm sure they've got the routine down by now. Plus we all know that there may even be another one on the way. All the little kiddies are looking so much bigger, especially Maddox in his camo outfit and Shiloh's longer blonde hair. The little tow-headed cutie looks like she's grown up a lot since we last saw her in December. Speaking of longer hair, check out Pax's 'do. Such a little rock star already. Hopefully we'll get a clearer picture of the family soon, but until then it's always nice to get a glimpse of the whole family.

Flynet

I’ve been ignoring this hoping it will go away on it’s own, but US Weekly is covering it now on their website and I may as well mention it. This was all over the tabloids this week and we didn’t cover it because we try to tread lightly on any of these Brangelina stories, especially one that specifically mentions Aniston. (She inevitably gets brought up even if the story has absolutely nothing to do with her, but this one does.)

So Angelina and Aniston are both slated to host the same charity event before the Oscars, which US notes is “press free.” It is thought to be their first run-in since Angelina hooked up with Brad three years ago. That means that the tabloids will be able to go wild with speculation and hype about every minor exchange between the two, if there is any, following the event. If they even glance at each other it will be a big deal. At least it will be around Oscar time and there will be plenty of other shit to report that week too.

Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie are among the A-list hosts of this year’s Night Before pre-Oscar bash, Us Weekly reports in its latest issue, on newsstands now.

The press-free charity event promises to be the first time Aniston and Jolie have met since Pitt left Aniston in 2005 and started a family with Jolie a short time later.

“Jen wants to go but knows it would be a disaster waiting to happen,” an Aniston insider tells Us.

A source tells Us that Aniston will be at the event as long as her filming schedule allows. The minimum entrance fee is $25,000 for four tickets, with proceeds benefiting the Motion Picture and Television Fund.

[From US Weekly]

Aniston and Pitt broke up in 2005 after five years of marriage. That’s not really that long ago in the scheme of things. My last boyfriend before my husband was five years ago, and although there was no cheating or anything I would actively avoid him if we were still in the same social circle. There are exes that I’m cool with, but he’s not one of them. It’s only natural for people to say that Aniston probably doesn’t want to meet Angelina, and I know I wouldn’t want to meet my ex’s wife if it was that particular ex.

We don’t know their situation, but even if Aniston has long since moved on, it’s got to be a bit annoying if not mildly painful that people say she hasn’t moved on. If you were hurt in a relationship it would be much easier to forget about it if it wasn’t plastered on all the magazine covers at your local drugstore for the last three years.

My advice to Aniston is not to go. Why bother? You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Come up with a way to gracefully bow out, and don’t show up. This is what I would personally do if I had to deal with my ex’s new wife. Am I a coward? Definitely, and I am lucky enough to never have to deal with people talking about my love life in the press. I know it’s a charity event and all, but she can send a donation or contribute in another way, they won’t suffer because she’s not there. Don’t give the gossip rags anything to talk about.

In related overhyped and probably fabricated news, Angelina and Brad are said to be planning a Spring wedding. These stories come up every few months so I’m doubting it. The ever-reliable British press is also reporting that an unknown suitor has been leaving roses on Aniston’s doorstep every day for a month.

Aniston also celebrated her 39th birthday this week with 20 friends. They had dinner and cake at an Italian restaurant in Vancouver where she is currently filming.

Please go easy and be respectful in the comments. It’s Valentine’s Day, show some love.

I just saw this spot on TV while I was watching Germany’s version of American Idol. It’s a new commercial for all in one telephone and Internet service in Germany. The scenario is that Brad Pitt’s bike runs out of gas and he goes to this family’s house to use the phone. The mom tries to get him to stay by telling him how great their phone service is and getting him to check his e-mail too.

Let me just say that we signed up for Alice and it took about 2 and a half freaking months to install. It’s a lot cheaper than Deutsche Telekom and the service is good, but Deutsche Telekom controls the phone lines and they drag their feet hooking up any of their competitors. It’s been a bit of scandal here how long it takes to get phone service if you don’t go with DT.