Gossip: Couplings and uncouplings


Kim and Kanye did it as flamboyantly as possible, Brad and Angelina may have done it in secret, George wants to do it in a castle, but Beyonce and Jay Z may be about to undo it.

Even more than usual, the gossip mags this week are a catalogue of couplings and uncouplings.

No surprises that the coverage is dominated by the extravagant nuptials of reality television star Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West.

For $20 million they got a wedding ceremony at a historic fort in Florence, Italy, after a pre-wedding dinner at the Palace of Versailles near Paris.

Tenor Andrea Bocelli sang Ave Maria, and the whole event took its inspiration from the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William.

The long-sleeved lace gown worn by Kardashian, 33, may have cost more than $3m, while getting Lana Del Rey along to sing three songs reportedly cost $3.3m.

Woman’s Day features the wedding most prominently, promising to get “inside the wedding of the year” with 28 exclusive photos.

Drama had bubbled beneath the glamorous facade, it said.

Kardashian’s 27-year-old brother, Rob, went to the events in Paris but then insisted on flying home to Los Angeles, apparently in tears.

Having put on 20 kilograms in recent months, he was said to be so depressed about his weight gain that he could not bear the thought of being in the limelight.

Rob reportedly told Kim he was “sickened” by the ostentatious display of wealth, calling it “superficial b…….”.

Also absent was 36-year-old West’s best friend, Jay Z, whose wife, Beyonce, said she and her husband did not want to steal the limelight at the wedding.

Insiders said the real reason was wedding guest Rachel Roy, 40, who may have been behind the celebrated lift attack launched by Beyonce’s sister, Solange, against Jay Z last month.

Solange apparently accused Jay Z of getting “flirty” with Roy.

The way New Idea told it, both Jay Z and Beyonce may have “strayed”.

Beyonce’s other man was her bodyguard, Julius de Boer, with whom, it was claimed, she spent a lot of time behind closed doors.

All the turmoil had led Beyonce to put plans for a second baby on hold.

George Clooney, the one-time confirmed bachelor, is considering marrying hotshot lawyer Amal Alamuddin at an estate made famous as the place where television series Downton Abbey is filmed.

New Zealand Woman’s Weekly said Clooney was making inquiries about the availability of Highclere Castle after his bride-to-be fell in love with the estate. The couple are expected to marry in September.

New Idea believes Jolie and Pitt were secretly married in a Sydney harbourside mansion this year.

The couple were in Australia with their six children while Jolie, who turns 39 this week, directed World War II movie Unbroken.

Whatever Jolie’s marital status, she was still embroiled in a long-running “bitter feud” with one of Pitt’s previous partners, former fiancee Gwyneth Paltrow, Woman’s Day said.

“Angelina has an irrational hatred of Gwyneth and even way back in 1999, when Gwyneth won her Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, Angelina was calling her cheesy and hammy behind her back, saying she didn’t deserve the award,” a close source said.

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A source also revealed that after Jolie and Pitt, 50, got together in 2005, Paltrow, 41, told pals: “He’d come back in a second if I wanted him. I’d whistle and he’d come running.”

Apparently that claim left Jolie “smouldering with anger”.

An insider said Jolie had banned Pitt from even talking to Paltrow.

In the latest broadside, Jolie ridiculed Paltrow’s comments about how hard it was to be away from her children for three weeks at a time while making a film.

In an interview for her new movie, Maleficent, Jolie said: “I actually feel that women in my position, when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn’t complain.

“Consider all the people who really struggle and don’t have the financial means – don’t have the support – and many people are single raising children. That’s hard.”

Another of Pitt’s previous partners, 45-year-old ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, dominates the cover of New Idea with the words “Jen’s Baby Shock”.

There’s also a small inset of someone carrying ultrasound images and the words “Picture Proof”.

Inside the magazine it is revealed that the hand carrying the ultrasound images belongs to model and horror makeup artist Adriane Hallek, 24, who is dating Aniston’s 24-year-old half-brother, Alex, known as AJ.

After years of trying to conceive naturally, Aniston was believed to now be exploring a surrogate option, New Idea said.

While she struggled, it looked as though her much younger brother would be giving her father, John, a much-hoped-for grandchild.

– Stuff

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