Entertainment Tonight knew of false source before airing Angelina Jolie birth story?

Entertainment Tonight has allowed a mistake in judgment to really snowball into an embarrassing situation! E.T. aired a story last Friday, which also appeared on their website a few hours earlier, claiming Angelina Jolie had given birth to her twins despite being repeatedly told beforehand that the report was based on wrong information. E.T. also sent an e-mail alert to media outlets saying it had confirmed the birth of the Brangelina twins. E.T. 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’s assistant, Holly Goline. The Associated Press picked up the story and were not at all thrilled to find the news to be false.

Now according to a new Associated Press report, Entertainment Tonight reps were informed by Brad and Angelina’s camp that an impostor posing as Jolie’s assistant falsely provided the celebrity news show with information about the non-existent birth (yet) of the golden twins. But it’s the timing that’s disturbing. Shortly after the story was posted but several hours before the broadcast aired, Goline (Jolie’s assistant) told ET that she was not the person who provided the news, according to an insider with direct knowledge of the conversation. That account was reportedly confirmed by another person close to Jolie. Allegedly there were several conversations Friday, by e-mail, text message and telephone, between Goline and ET.

But E.T. went ahead anyway to report the officially disputed news on air last Friday. ET host Mary Hart said 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.” This is all after Jolie’s assistant told the news source that an impostor provided the news mag with the info!!

Furthermore, it contradicts the show’s statement that claimed it it first learned of an impostor from a letter from Jolie’s attorney Monday — three days after the broadcast:

Entertainment Tonight takes this very seriously and is, of course, concerned that the show may have been victimized by someone allegedly posing as a member of Ms. Jolie’s team. We are actively investigating the matter and are reaching out to law enforcement agencies.

Later that Friday night, the manager of Jolie’s partner, Brad Pitt, told AP that the babies had not been born. Retractions were printed. However ET has been evasive. The show has not mentioned the story on the air since the initial report, and the story has been deleted from its Web site.