Are photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s new twins worth $20 million?

What happened

With her husband Brad Pitt in the delivery room, Angelina Jolie gave birth in a French hospital on Saturday to their twins—a boy and a girl—named Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline. French newspaper Nice Matin has reported that the celebrity couple has already sold the rights to the first photos of their newborns to an unnamed U.S. publication, and values the shots at $11 million. But Darryn Lyons, owner of photo agency Big Pictures in London, estimates that the shots are worth between $15 and $20 million. The only other photos that “would possibly come that close is Britney Spears giving birth to an alien,” he said. (AP)

What the commentators said

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It’s not surprising that these photos might fetch so much money, said Liz Kelly in The Washington Post blog Celebritolgy. Although “Brangelina set a record when People paid $4.1 million for the first pix of baby Shiloh” just a few years ago, “prices have risen steeply in the celeb baby pic game” since then. Matthew McConaughey just got $3 million for shots of his new son Levi, and even Jamie Lynn Spears made $1 million for the “first pix of little Maddie Briann.”

And we’re talking about photos of the “world’s most famous children” here, said Ian Johnston in The Independent. But still, it seems a little ridiculous. “From the hordes of paparazzi, camera crews and satellite trucks” camped outside of France’s Lenval hospital, one would think “that a matter of great international importance” was taking place. “But this was no medical breakthrough, no cure for cancer”—just the birth of Brangelina’s twins.

It’s amazing how “Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline are barely three days old but are already worth a fortune,” said Babble.com’s blog Fame Crawler. And the money earned from the sale of the photos could buy a lot of “mink diapers and diamond pacifiers.”

That’s why it’s nice to hear that “the exorbitant sum to be paid for the first photos of the babies will be donated to charity,” said the blog Gimme Never Gets. Brad and Angelina started the Jolie-Pitt Foundation in 2006, and although they haven’t named a recipient for the money from the twin’s photos yet, in the past they’ve donated to Doctors Without Borders and Global Action for Children.