Swaddled in tight security, the newest member of Hollywood royalty was said to be doing fine Monday tucked in an African hideaway with her superstar parents, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, born late on Saturday and instantly one of the hottest celebrity stories of the year, is being shielded from the prying lenses of paparazzi eager to score some extremely valuable baby pictures.
“They are both healthy, the mother is healthy and the baby is healthy,” said Samuel Nuuyoma, governor of the Erongo region in Namibia, the southern African nation where the baby was born.
“They are just fine, they are enjoying their lives,” Nuuyoma, who has reportedly built a close relationship with the couple, told Reuters.
The new baby joins the couple’s adopted children, Maddox and Zahara, rounding out a family that People magazine has already dubbed “the most beautiful in the world.”
The Jolie-Pitts have kept their distance from the media, and no pictures have so far been released.
Gossip columns said the child had Jolie’s dark hair and Pitt’s nose and that Jolie had a Caesarean section after a minor complication, though none of this could be independently confirmed.
The couple — dubbed “Brangelina” by the tabloids — sparked a media frenzy when they arrived in Namibia seven weeks ago. Their bodyguards and Namibian officials responded with a major security operation that involved beach and road patrols around their luxury resort in the tiny village of Langstrand.
Green cloth screens mask the resort, and bodyguards have hounded some journalists out of town.
Hefty finesReporters said security was tightened even further around the resort after the birth, announced in the United States late on Saturday, with additional vehicles driven by security casing the area.
Photographers from all over the world have come to the area hoping to capture the first pictures of the baby, which could garner a multimillion-dollar price tag.
The couple is said to have sold the rights to the first snaps to an American weekly magazine for more than $5 million, with the money to be donated to the children’s charity UNICEF.
Jolie and the baby remained in seclusion on Monday, with staff at the two local private hospitals tight-lipped after having been warned they could face a hefty fine for divulging any information.
“All I can confirm is that they are not at the lodge,” one source said.
Their vehicles were seen parked outside the Welwitchia Hospital in Walvis Bay early on Sunday, but security was uncharacteristically light. Nearby Swakopmund has one private hospital, the Cottage.
Jolie’s decision to have the baby in Namibia has been hailed as a tourism coup that should help boost interest in a country mostly famed for its massive sand dunes.
“It is great ... they have honored Namibia with their presence,” Namibia’s Prime Minister Nahas Angula said, adding that the child was entitled to Namibian citizenship.
“We hope that this young Namibian that was born here when she gets older she will take Namibia as her homeland.”
Jolie, 30, is a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, apparently took a shine to Namibia while filming the movie “Beyond Borders.”