Riddle me this: Have they or haven't they?
As the world indulges in one of 'celebridom's' oldest guessing games, the rumour mill goes into overdrive and pops the burning question: Has one of Hollywood's hottest love affairs really hit the skids?
Speculation was rife on Sunday that Brad Pitt
and his lady of five years Angelina Jolie were on a toboggan ride to splitsville.
According to tattler the News of the World, the A-list couple - who aren't married - had consulted divorce lawyers and signed a US$330 million split deal.
The elaborate report also stated the pair had agreed on joint custody of their six kids - who were to remain with Jolie - and an amicable division of their fortune.
Brad and Angelina have three adopted children and three biological - a daughter called Shiloh and twins Vivienne and Knox.
The alleged existence of said legal papers paved the way for the tabloid's report, which it claimed will precede an "imminent split announcement" from the couple.
"The document was signed in early January," a source said. "Both Brad and Angelina had signed it.
"The contract was like a tailor-made version of a pre-nuptial agreement except for an unmarried couple's split.
"There's no date for when the contract would come into effect.
"But the paperwork is already organised for a break- up — and for it to be as unmessy for them as possible. It is clear it's a case of when they break up rather than if."
Camp Brangelina has remained typically tight-lipped about the split reports, bar supposedly issuing unconfirmed statements to a handful of media.
A contingent of 'insiders' close to the pair have also been quoted by several entertainment news outlets.
One told People magazine that the split talk is "totally false" and that "everything is fine" between them.
Another source 'extremely close' to the situation blabbed to E! Online and said the reports are "patently untrue".
Celebrity gossip website TMZ.com also raised a cynical eyebrow and called B.S on the reports, quoting multiple sources "directly connected with the couple" as saying "it's B.S".
And self-proclaimed gossip queen Perez Hilton told his readers: "Don't believe the rumours ... A rep for Brangelina says they are NOT breaking up."
Fan the flames
So if we're not witnessing the end of one of the most coveted and documented Hollywood relationships, what's stirred the spurious split talk?
Fidelity
Tongues began wagging that all was not well in camp Brangelina after Jolie spoke to a German magazine recently and offered her take on fidelity.
"I doubt that fidelity is absolutely essential for a relationship," she told Das Neue.
"It's worse to leave your partner and talk badly about him afterwards.
"Neither Brad nor I have ever claimed that living together means to be chained together. We make sure that we never restrict each other."
Was she completely misquoted? Or was she giving herself the green light for an open relationship?
The argument
On January 6 the National Enquirer magazine claimed Brangelina had argued furiously at a New York restaurant. It claimed the pair came to blows because Pitt tried to convince Jolie to get treatment for depression.
Jolie, according to the report, allegedly had depression following the death of her mother from ovarian cancer three years ago.
The Enquirer claimed that after an intervention, the pair agreed to call it a day and focus on "making a smooth transition for their children".
Globes no-show
The pair fuelled the split rumours after announcing they would not be trotting down the red carpet at the Golden Globes. And they also boycotted the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday - which roused suspicion because Pitt's flick Inglorious Basterds swept the boards.
On top of that, Pitt flew solo at the Friday's Hope for Haiti telethon, which was organised by his mate George Clooney. Jolie, however, was a no-show. But his former missus Jennifer Aniston was there...supposedly doing the Highland fling and gazing adoringly at her burly Scot Gerard Butler.
Although rumour has it that Aniston is still pining for Pitt and is waiting in the wings to offer him a shoulder to cry on as his relationship supposedly goes down the S-bend.
Yeah right.
The verdict
As it stands, we're calling cobblers on the split reports.
Not a year goes by without a sensational, headline-hogging 'Brangelina break-up' melodrama. It's a perennial rouser than never ceases to rear its ugly head and smear itself on the gossip agenda.
Only time will tell...
But what do you think? Can we stab a fork in the Brangelina romance and declare it done? Or will Mr & Mrs Beautiful endure and prove the naysayers wrong?
Video: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Just because.
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