Pitt and Jolie denied any monkey business, with Jolie remarking she wouldn't be attracted to a man who would cheat on his wife. But their chemistry was undeniable, and when the pair were snapped on a Kenyan beach with her son Maddox three months after his separation from Jen, Brangelina was born. Aniston, in turn, wryly remarked that seeing those pap shots of the pair "was not one of the highlights of my year."
Eight months and another adopted baby later, Jolie confirmed she was pregnant with Pitt's child, whipping the media up into even more of a frenzy. Almost three years later, the pair are still going strong with four kids in tow, two Hollywood careers and a bevy of charitable works. But will anyone ever forget the suspicious way the pair hooked up?
What can you say about Michael Jackson? The man epitomizes the word gossip. Hell, we could fill the hole in the ozone layer with all the newsprint devoted to ‘Wacko Jacko' over the years. Shall we reminisce?
Aside from years of sex abuse rumours, one settlement and one huge trial that ended in an acquittal in 2005, MJ is a wealth of weird gossip.
There were the rumours he slept in a hyperbaric chamber to halt ageing, and was trying to buy the bones of the Elephant Man. There was the gross-out marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, then the weird one to his dermatologist's nurse. There are still whispers about his children's paternity, owing to their fair skin and blonde hair.
There was the dangling incident with Little Baby Blanket. There's calling a baby Blanket in the first place. Then there's Bubbles, MJ's chimp and constant companion throughout the 1980s. Bubbles and Michael had matching outfits, Michael took him to awards shows, and then the pair had a sour breakup a few years down the line. Rumours Bubbles testified against Jacko for the prosecution are as yet unfounded.
Woody Allen is a bona fide Hollywood legend, but 'bona fide Hollywood perv' was more the term being bandied about in 1992 after it was revealed the film maker was in a relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his partner of 12 years, Mia Farrow. He was 57, she was 22.
Understandably Farrow was mortified when she came across nude photos that her boyfriend had taken of her daughter, and her relationship with Allen ended amidst allegations of child molestation and all other sorts of nastiness. He, however, took a more pragmatic approach, referring to the whole episode in Vanity Fair as "one of the great pieces of luck in my life."
Woody and Soon-Yi married in 1997, and are still together with two adopted kids.
In the summer of 1995, British golden boy Hugh Grant had it all - wealth, fame, and a suitably foxy girlfriend in the form of actress Elizabeth Hurley on his arm. Which is why the gossip networks were ablaze in June that year, when Hugh was busted off Sunset Boulevard for lewd conduct in a public place with a Hollywood hooker. Let's just say she was tooting a horn, and it wasn't the one of the car they were in.
Hugh offered no excuses for his behaviour, won a few fans for his honesty, and stayed with Hurley another five years. In 2007, he would get in trouble with the law for the very macho act of flinging baked beans at a paparazzi photographer.
The hooker in question, Divine Brown, earned almost $2m from the incident, enough for a four bedroom house and to put her kids through private school. And twelve years later, Elizabeth Hurley is still wearing a variation on the same dress.
While we're on the subject of Englishmen away from home, the British tabloids had a field day in 2004 when David Beckham's former personal assistant came forward with allegations of a four month affair with the football star.
David, said diplomat's daughter Rebecca Loos, was lonely in Madrid with wife Victoria still residing in England, and their professional relationship supposedly developed into sexual encounters and explicit text messages. Beckham denied the claims, but never took legal action against any media involved, which many saw as a sign of guilt.
Some said it served Victoria right, others Loos trapped him into it. Incidentally, Loos' code name among Beckham's security was The Spider, and the first night they supposedly hooked up one security man walkie-talkied the other with the message ‘The Spider has the Eagle in her web."
There was talk of divorce on the cards in the media, all of it unfounded as the couple remain married and had another son, Cruz, since the scandal subsided. Years later Victoria Beckham spoke of the whole hooha to W mag. "I'm not going to lie, it was a really tough time. No on said marriage was going to be easy."
Rebecca starred in a number of dodgy reality TV shows before getting together with a sports star infinitely more suited to her low-list social standing, our very own Matthew Ridge. She's now threatening of following in the Beckhams' footsteps and moving to LA.
Good things come in threes, and another British boy playing away came to the fore in 2005. Dashing English movie star Jude Law had a beautiful young fiancee, Sienna Miller, and the movie world at his feet. Jude's plans for a fabulous life with Sienna were derailed somewhat inconveniently when a woman called Daisy Wright went to the papers in 2005.
Daisy worked as a nanny for Jude's kids while the star was filming All the King's Men in Louisiana that year. One night she fell for his movie star charms, and the pair embarked on a steamy month long affair. They even did the business a pool table in Law's rented home, a la his character in the movie Alfie. That encounter ended in tears too.
The jig was up for Jude and Daisy when one of his kids ran in to find Daddy in bed with the nanny and subsequently told Mummy, fashion designer Sadie Frost. Daisy was fired, went to the media, and Jude was left to squirm. He and Miller reconciled half-heartedly a few times before calling it quits for good a year ago.
What was the gossip that stopped you in your tracks when you heard it? And are my picks for momentous goss all they're cracked up to be? Let me know below.
DiCaprio Crowes about 'body'
