Jolie’s doctor says twins could be weeks away

NICE, France - Angelina Jolie’s doctor says her twins may take a few more weeks to arrive.

Dr. Michel Sussmann spoke at a brief news conference Wednesday in Nice, where Jolie is hospitalized. Asked when the 33-year-old actress is expected to have her twins, he replied: “I can’t give you a date. Let’s say the birth will happen in the weeks to come.”

Sussmann stressed that Jolie checked into the hospital to be kept under observation, not because of any medical emergency.

“Mrs. Angelina Jolie and her husband, Mr. Brad Pitt, told me to tell you that she is doing absolutely fine,” said the doctor, apparently unaware that the actors aren’t married.

“Her hospitalization at this stage in her pregnancy is totally normal for a patient who had a Caesarean (section) during her first pregnancy,” he said.

French medical secrecy laws are very strict, but Sussmann said Jolie and Pitt had given him the OK to give out a few details.

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Sussmann said four rooms of the hospital had been reserved for the Jolie-Pitt clan and their bodyguards. The couple have four children: Maddox, 6; Pax, 4; Zahara, 3; and Shiloh, 2.

“I find it legitimate that she wants to protect her privacy,” he said. “She is (a) pregnant woman.”

“She is a patient like any other,” he said. “She is very well and she is OK.”

He wouldn’t reveal the sex of the babies.

The seafront Lenval hospital announced Tuesday that Jolie had checked into its Santa Maria maternity clinic to be kept under doctors’ watch and rest.

British actress Celia Imrie, who was in Nice on Wednesday soaking up the surf, told Associated Press Television News that Jolie “has chosen the most beautiful place in the world” to give birth.

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The local newspaper, Nice Matin, reported that Jolie has the best room in the hospital, on the fifth floor with an unobstructed view over the Bay of Angels. It said Jolie arrived by helicopter, landing Sunday afternoon on the hospital’s roof.

Nice Matin reported — not without a little pride — that the famous couple had chosen Nice over the even more chic Monaco, further down the coast.

The hospital is named after Baron de Lenval, who in 1884 donated part of his fortune to start the facility, in memory of his only son, who died in Nice at age 11, the hospital’s Web site says. It says the hospital was rebuilt in the 1990s. Photos show a boxy-looking building with a white exterior and mirrored blue windows set among palm trees.

The hospital’s address is fitting for the American couple: It’s on Nice’s California Avenue.

The Brangelina clan has been settling into a new home in the south of France, in Correns, about 60 miles from Nice. The town’s mayor confirmed the couple had moved into the Miraval Estate villa, and a helicopter has been spotted taking off and landing there.

Veteran British celebrity publicist Max Clifford told APTN earlier this week that the first photos of the twins could fetch millions for paparazzi.

“France has got very, very strict privacy laws, which gives them far greater chance of controlling everything and making sure no one gets some sneaky photos,” he said. “But of course the stakes are high and this is probably going to be the most expensive set of baby pictures in history.”

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