Brad and Angelina ‘over’? No way, say friends

Is the 'Brangelina dream' over or not? Despite a denial from friends of Hollywood's golden couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, there were continued reports on both sides of the Atlantic last night that the most glamorous couple in Tinseltown - until he decided to grow a straggly grey beard - have agreed to break up.

Although they were never married, their assets and interests - including six children, three of them adopted, and nine homes spread across several continents - are so intertwined that they needed to call in divorce lawyers to manage the split, according to reports, which began with an "exclusive" in yesterday's News of the World.

Such was the press enthusiasm for the break-up that the Independent began its report today: "The rumour hasn't been confirmed ­ but, tellingly, so far it hasn't been denied either..."

Actually, it has been denied - if not officially, then by many friends of the couple contacting People.com and saying "everything is fine", while a source told the normally well-informed gossip site TMZ.com that the report was bullshit.

The tabloids have insisted many times in recent months that the couple's relationship was on the rocks. The "evidence" for the News of the World story claim appears to be a heated exchange over dinner at Alto's in New York earlier this month.

According to the National Enquirer, Pitt demanded Jolie sought pyschiatric help for the depression she has suffered since her mother's death three years ago. Why anyone would go out to dinner at a well-known Italian restaurant to bring this up, rather than saying it in the privacy of one of their nine homes, was not explained.

Then there was the remark made by Jolie in a German magazine interview before Christmas when she suggested that fidelity was over-rated. "Neither Brad nor I have ever claimed that living together means to be chained together," Jolie told Das Neue. "We make sure that we never restrict each other. I doubt that fidelity is absolutely essential for a relationship."

Fanning the flames was the news on Saturday morning that Pitt took part in George Clooney's Hope for Haiti Now telethon without Angelina - while his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston was there.

The fact that Aniston gave Pitt the brush-off at the event - she was with her boyfriend Gerard Butler - was not allowed to spoil the story.

Brad and Jolie began an affair when they starred together in the 2005 film Mr and Mrs Smith. Jolie was best known for her pneumatic appearance in the first Lara Croft film. According to biographer Ian Halperin, "Brad had never had such incredible sex. My sources say that they sometimes spent 18 to 20 hours a day in bed. But sex eventually wears off." ·