Brad news hits the headlines for fans with stars in their eyes

The idea that dour old Gordon is at all interested in the doings of the world's "most beautiful couple" is laughable. His spin doctors' unveiled attempts to make him seem in touch with popular culture are completely cringeworthy and, after the event, he'll surely have

growled: "Did I get the names right?"

However, the episode does touch on a worldwide obsession with the love life and living arrangements of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and

their "rainbow" family of six children, a mania fuelled by thousands of stories in gossip magazines which inhabit what has been labelled "the unpoliced border between truth and invention".

To recap: five years ago, Pitt broke up with Jennifer Aniston, the actress who won a very special place in TV viewers' hearts for her role in Friends.

Not long afterwards, Pitt and the blindingly beautiful Jolie, who'd met months previously on a film set, announced that she was pregnant with his child.

Since then, the couple have adopted another child to add to the two Jolie already had, and added twins of their own, to make a family of eight. Baby photos were sold to a gossip magazine for an unprecedented figure to benefit the politically committed duo's charitable foundation.

Meanwhile, Jennifer of the tawny locks and perfect tan was nearing 40 and apparently caught in the "finding-love-then-hitting-the-buffers" loop. Depending which day, which magazine and the position of the sun, the story of the protagonists might involve Brangelina "so in love", "seeing divorce lawyers", Ang "furious" about Brad's alleged phone calls/meetings with Jen, Jen "so in love" with Vince/John/Gerard or "Jen advising Brad".' The latest rumour is that of Ang's alleged relationship with a voice coach.

The pace of the narrative is bewildering, and wouldn't hold up as a script. While Brangelina and Jen are going about their grocery shopping, yoga, or humanitarian activities, paparazzi are never far behind them, sniffing out the next photo to illustrate a story which

may have a few grains of truth at its core, but is mostly a confection.

A relationship like Brangelina's, where there is said to be the odd pot-flinging row, keeps the tale simmering nicely. They are much more interesting to magazines than a couple who meet, marry, have children and settle inside a white picket fence.

Brad and Ang are so beautiful, so rich, so family-orientated, yet they are unmarried and she has a slightly wild and dangerous image. The possibilities for the story are manifold, so a solo outing for Brad means it's all over; Ang looking "too thin" or inspecting properties means she is definitely moving out.

No-one can live their life at the break-neck speed attributed to these three, but the demands of weekly publications and 24-hour celebrity blogging means there is a voracious monster to be fed. But at least when Charles Dickens wrote his (high-quality) weekly cliff-hangers it was clear that they were fiction. The ultimate golden sales high would be some strong hint of the longed-for Brad/Jen reunion, and a baby for them would go platinum.

There are usually some facts in the stories, but the over-riding imperative is to keep the plot moving. It's obvious what's in it for the magazine, but why does the worldwide public lap up the story so want only that a Brangelina cover can empty the shelf in minutes? Is there something wrong with our own lives that we hang on to a "fact cloaked in fantasy" version of someone else's?

At a basic human level, each weekly instalment perhaps gives us

something we can relate to, such as the ticking of Jen's biological clock or Brad's need to see the lads and drink beer. It's doubtful that Brangelina and Jen bother to read any of the alternative versions of their stories, but if they did they'd be shocked at how exciting their lives are.