Entertainment Tonight aired a story about Angelina Jolie giving birth to her twins despite being repeatedly told that the report was based on false information told by someone impersonating Jolie’s assistant.
ET claimed Wednesday that it knew nothing about the impersonator before the broadcast. The identity of the impostor has remained unknown.
According to an ET executive the report of the twins birth started with ET producer Sharlette Hambrick, receiving a BlackBerry e-mail address that was supposedly Jolie’s assistant, Holly Goline’s. An e-mail was sent to the address asking if the swirling reports that Jolie had her twins was true. An e-mail was returned to the producer saying “Yes she did. I was actually in the room with her. They are doing fine and so is mom.”
So on Friday morning, the show posted on it’s Website and sent out e-mail alert to media outlets saying it had confirmed the birth of Jolie’s twins. The Associated Press picked up the report and the rumor spread. Entertainment Tonight did not name its source at the time. It later revealed that the report was based on e-mails from someone it thought was Jolie assistant Holly Goline.
Shortly after the story was posted, Goline told Entertainment Tonight that she was not the one corresponding with the news network. The account was confirmed by someone else close to Jolie.
“Entertainment Tonight was told before the broadcast that their information came from an impostor,” said the second person. There were several conversations on Friday by e-mail, via text message, and by telephone between ET and Goline. Meanwhile the story was challenged by other celebrity news outlets.
The TV show stood by its story and Friday night, with host Mary Hart saying on the air, “Just this morning, a source who says she was inside the delivery room tells us yes, the babies were born and yes, mother and babies are fine.”
The show said in a statement Wednesday that they didn’t learn about the impostor until a letter was given to them from Jolie’s attorney Monday- three days after the broadcast. They then also supposedly learned that Goline doesn’t have a BlackBerry address so she couldn’t have made the baby comment.
