Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has given birth to twins, a boy and a girl, her doctor at a hospital in southern France said on Sunday.

Oscar winner Jolie, 33, had the twins by caesarean section on Saturday evening at the Lenval hospital on the glamorous Promenade des Anglais waterfront drive in Nice. Actor Brad Pitt, the twins' father, was at her side.

The girl, named Vivienne Marcheline, weighed 2.27 kg (5 lbs) while her brother, Knox Leon, weighed 2.28 kg, according to Jolie's doctor, Michel Sussmann.

"The parents and the babies are in excellent health. Everything is fine," Sussmann told Reuters. He said the c-section had been planned for a long time but the date was brought forward "for medical reasons".

Marcheline was the name of Jolie's mother, also an actress, who died of cancer last year. Marcheline Bertrand raised Jolie and her brother, James Haven, after divorcing their father, actor Jon Voight, when Jolie was a toddler.

The doctor said Pitt, 44, was "perfectly calm" during the birth.

"He was very moved to be there at the birth of his children," Sussmann told reporters later on Sunday.

Jolie arrived at the Lenval hospital in late June by helicopter from the Provence villa where she and Pitt had been staying with their four other children - Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh.

A crowd of photographers and camera crews camped outside the building on Sunday morning hoping for a glimpse of family and friends arriving to congratulate the parents.


$11 MILLION BABIES

News of the celebrity births spread like wildfire in the streets and markets of Nice, where residents and tourists alike were keen to congratulate and advise the A-list parents.

"Sleep when the babies sleep. That is definitely my main advice to them," said Nicole Stechmann, a visitor from Germany.

Another tourist, from Spain, was concerned the Hollywood stars might have trouble managing their expanding family.

"Please take care of them because with so many children, I don't know if they can handle them," Ana Romero said.

Newspaper Nice Matin, which broke news of the birth on Sunday, reported the couple had sold exclusive rights to the first photographs of the twins to an unnamed US magazine for $11 million and would give the money to charity.

Canadian tourist Heather Langfield said she was shocked at the hype surrounding the birth.

"It's ridiculous. It's just two people that just had two kids and they're making far too much out of it,"she said.

Nice Matin said Jolie, who had become weary of being indoors for so long but did not wish to be seen by paparazzi, had taken a walk on the roof of the hospital to take the air just two days before the birth.

The celebrity couple, known in the media as "Brangelina", moved into a 17th century villa in Provence, France, earlier this year, with paparazzi descending on the village of Correns when news of their arrival leaked out.

Jolie, star of current hit movie "Wanted", and Pitt, of "Ocean's Eleven" fame, went public with their relationship after they acted together in the 2005 film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."