By Ben Gruber

NICE, France (Reuters) - Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has given birth to twins, a boy and a girl, her doctor at a hospital in southern France said on Sunday.


Oscar winner Jolie, 33, had the twins by caesarean section on Saturday evening at the Lenval hospital on the glamorous Promenade des Anglais waterfront drive in Nice. Actor Brad Pitt, the twins' father, was believed to be at her side.

The girl, named Vivienne Marcheline, weighed 2.27 kg (5.0 lbs) while her brother, Knox Leon, weighed an almost identical 2.28 kg, according to Jolie's doctor, Michel Sussmann.

"The parents and the babies are in excellent health. Everything is fine," Sussmann told Reuters. He said the c-section had been planned for a long time but the date was brought forward "for medical reasons."

Marcheline was the name of Jolie's mother, also an actress, who died of cancer last year. Marcheline Bertrand raised Jolie and her brother, James Haven, after divorcing their father, actor Jon Voight, when Jolie was a toddler.

U.S. representatives for the couple could not immediately be reached for comment, but Sussmann told People magazine that Pitt, 44, was at Jolie's side.

Jolie arrived at the Lenval hospital in late June by helicopter from the Provence villa where she and Pitt had been staying with their four other children -- Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh.

A crowd of photographers and camera crews gathered outside the building on Sunday morning, braving the hot and humid conditions in hope of a glimpse of family and friends arriving to congratulate the parents.

Newspaper Nice Matin, which broke news of the birth on Sunday, reported that the couple had sold exclusive rights to the first photographs of the twins to an unnamed U.S. magazine for $11 million and would give the money to charity.

Nice Matin said Jolie, who had become weary of being indoors for so long but did not wish to be seen by paparazzi, had taken a walk on the roof of the hospital to take the air just two days before the birth.

The A-list celebrity couple, known in the media as "Brangelina," moved into a 17th century villa in Provence, France, earlier this year, with paparazzi descending on the village of Correns when news of their arrival leaked out.

Jolie, star of current hit movie "Wanted," and Pitt, of "Ocean's Eleven" fame, went public with their relationship after they acted together in the 2005 film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

Jolie confirmed she was expecting twins during an interview at the Cannes film festival in May. Later that month Pitt's manager was forced to deny a television report that Jolie had given birth.

(Additional reporting by Pierre Thebault in Nice, Crispian Balmer and Evelyn Sayan in Paris, Mike Collett-White in London; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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