“Entertainment Tonight” aired a story about the birth of Angelina Jolie’s twins despite being repeatedly told beforehand that the report was based on information from someone impersonating Jolie’s assistant, according to documents and two people with knowledge of the exchange.

The celebrity newsmagazine denied Wednesday that it knew about an impostor before the broadcast. The identity of the impostor remained unknown.

On Friday morning, the show posted a story on its Web site and sent an e-mail alert to media outlets saying it had confirmed the birth of Jolie’s twins. The Associated Press picked up the report.

“Entertainment Tonight” 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 assistant Holly Goline.

Shortly after the story was posted but several hours before the broadcast aired, Goline told “Entertainment Tonight” that she was not the person with whom they had been corresponding, a person with direct knowledge of the conversation told The Associated Press. That account was confirmed by another person close to Jolie.

“‘Entertainment Tonight‘ was told before the broadcast that their information came from an impostor,” said the second person. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The people said there were several conversations Friday, by e-mail, text message and telephone, between Goline and “Entertainment Tonight.” Meanwhile, the story was quickly challenged by several other celebrity news outlets.

The TV show stood by its story Friday night, with host Mary Hart saying 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.”

Later that night, the manager of Jolie’s partner, Brad Pitt, told AP that the babies had not been born.

The show said in a statement Wednesday that 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,” the statement said. “We are actively investigating the matter and are reaching out to law enforcement agencies.”

The show has not mentioned the story on the air since the initial report, and the story has been deleted from its Web site.

The 27-year-old program is the top-rated entertainment newsmagazine on television, with an average nightly audience of 6.6 million viewers, more than double any competitors. The twins, who Jolie says are due in August, are one of the biggest stories of the year in celebrity journalism, with their first photographs expected to fetch at least $10 million. (The first pictures of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt reportedly fetched a $4 million donation to charity from People magazine.)

The mystery of who was sending the e-mail fit perfectly into the world of celebrity gossip, in which rumor and thirdhand sources coalesce into “facts” at the speed of the Internet. Even before the “Entertainment Tonight” report, there were international rumors of the twins’ birth, possibly started by an OK! magazine story that did not report the babies were born, but speculated on possible names.

According to an “ET” executive, the report of the twins’ birth began with Sharlette Hambrick, an “ET” producer. Hambrick told the show that she had obtained a BlackBerry e-mail address for Goline from a contact at CNN, according to the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

According to e-mails provided to AP by the show, Hambrick sent a message to the BlackBerry address asking for confirmation of “reports swirling” that Jolie had given birth.

The reply came back: “Yes she did. I was actually in the room with her. They are doing fine and so is mom.”

Goline has never had a BlackBerry e-mail account, one of the people with knowledge of the exchange said. Hambrick referred a call from The Associated Press to the show’s public relations representative.

Shortly after “Entertainment Tonight” posted the story, Hambrick called the real Goline seeking more details, and Goline told her verbally and through text messages that Hambrick had been dealing with an impostor, the people with knowledge of the exchange said.

E-mails obtained by AP show that Hambrick sent a message to Goline’s real e-mail address showing the exchange with the impostor, asking “Are you saying this is now not your e-mail address? That you did not send me these e-mails?”

Goline responded: “This is not my e-mail.”

“Entertainment Tonight” aired a story about the birth of Angelina Jolie’s twins despite being repeatedly told beforehand that the report was based on information from someone impersonating Jolie’s assistant, according to documents and two people with knowledge of the exchange.

The celebrity newsmagazine denied Wednesday that it knew about an impostor before the broadcast. The identity of the impostor remained unknown.

On Friday morning, the show posted a story on its Web site and sent an e-mail alert to media outlets saying it had confirmed the birth of Jolie’s twins. The Associated Press picked up the report.

“Entertainment Tonight” 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 assistant Holly Goline.

Shortly after the story was posted but several hours before the broadcast aired, Goline told “Entertainment Tonight” that she was not the person with whom they had been corresponding, a person with direct knowledge of the conversation told The Associated Press. That account was confirmed by another person close to Jolie.

“‘Entertainment Tonight’ was told before the broadcast that their information came from an impostor,” said the second person. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The people said there were several conversations Friday, by e-mail, text message and telephone, between Goline and “Entertainment Tonight.” Meanwhile, the story was quickly challenged by several other celebrity news outlets.

The TV show stood by its story Friday night, with host Mary Hart saying 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.”

Later that night, the manager of Jolie’s partner, Brad Pitt, told AP that the babies had not been born.

The show said in a statement Wednesday that 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,” the statement said. “We are actively investigating the matter and are reaching out to law enforcement agencies.”

The show has not mentioned the story on the air since the initial report, and the story has been deleted from its Web site.

The 27-year-old program is the top-rated entertainment newsmagazine on television, with an average nightly audience of 6.6 million viewers, more than double any competitors. The twins, who Jolie says are due in August, are one of the biggest stories of the year in celebrity journalism, with their first photographs expected to fetch at least $10 million. (The first pictures of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt reportedly fetched a $4 million donation to charity from People magazine.)

The mystery of who was sending the e-mail fit perfectly into the world of celebrity gossip, in which rumor and thirdhand sources coalesce into “facts” at the speed of the Internet. Even before the “Entertainment Tonight” report, there were international rumors of the twins’ birth, possibly started by an OK! magazine story that did not report the babies were born, but speculated on possible names.

According to an “ET” executive, the report of the twins’ birth began with Sharlette Hambrick, an “ET” producer. Hambrick told the show that she had obtained a BlackBerry e-mail address for Goline from a contact at CNN, according to the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

According to e-mails provided to AP by the show, Hambrick sent a message to the BlackBerry address asking for confirmation of “reports swirling” that Jolie had given birth.

The reply came back: “Yes she did. I was actually in the room with her. They are doing fine and so is mom.”

Goline has never had a BlackBerry e-mail account, one of the people with knowledge of the exchange said. Hambrick referred a call from The Associated Press to the show’s public relations representative.

Shortly after “Entertainment Tonight” posted the story, Hambrick called the real Goline seeking more details, and Goline told her verbally and through text messages that Hambrick had been dealing with an impostor, the people with knowledge of the exchange said.

“Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush is launching his Westwood One “The Billy Bush Show” music and talk radio program this week – grateful his voice is back to 100 per cent after a staph infection in his larynx that caused him strained vocal cords last fall, and worsened to the point he was off the air in February.

“I was just busting to get through a day, eating cough drops constantly,” he recalls. “It’s a nightmare for someone who uses his voice as much as I do.” Bush tried acupuncture, a healing session at church, and of course doctors. “I finally met the right one. I heard about this doctor at the Harvard Medical Center who’d helped Dick Vitale, the basketball announcer,” Bush recounts. “I took the redeye to Boston see the guy, Dr. Dr. Steven Zeitels, and he made me do a test, and found out what it was.” With a course of a particular antibiotic, the problem started to clear up in a matter of days.

Now Bush is rarin’ to go as a radio host in addition to his TV job. He maintains, “It’s not going to be a combative show. It’s going to be a fun show. It will take what we do on TV further.” However, “If I have an issue with someone I will say so,” he adds. “Like the Mary Hart thing earlier this year, when I had an issue with how they (“Entertainment Tonight”) presented the Heath Ledger video with Heath in a room full of drugs. It was incredibly exploitive. If someone had handed me that tape I’d have said, ‘No way,’” he insists. “Mary, how could you?”

With his shoot-from-the-lip style, the cousin of George W. Bush is used to having people angry at him, obviously. “If I feel I’m right, I don’t have a problem with it,” Billy says. “If someone comes after me and I see that I’ve done something wrong, I’ll apologize.”

SLAVES TO SEX: “Army Wives” regular Sally Pressman says playing the lead in the Lifetime Original Movie, “Love Sick – Secrets of a Sex Addict” debuting Saturday (04/19) was “probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. It’s a heartbreaking story based on an autobiography and it’s also a lot darker than anything I’ve ever done.”

In “Love Sick” Pressman’s plays a woman who “was sexually abused by her father starting at age five and as a result of that developed a sexual disorder. The author came to the set a couple of days and I got to meet and talk to her, which was amazing. It’s very embarrassing for the person. They feel very alone, can’t tell anyone. What was fascinating for me as an actor was that this woman is having a lot of sex, but hates herself more every time she does it.”

Pressman says in reading the book on which the film is based and doing subsequent research she found sexual addiction to be a much misunderstood disorder. “Women who have this sexual disorder just basically get labeled as sluts and that’s not fair at all..It’s an actual chemical imbalance that alters your body so it’s something out of your control.” She adds, “What I loved about working on the piece was it brings consciousness to people that sexual addiction happens far too often in the world, that it’s not okay and you can stop it and help yourself.”

THE VIDEOLAND VIEW: Marlee Matlin, who stars with Jeff Daniels in CBS’s Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of “Sweet Nothing in My Ear” Sunday (4/20), is diplomatic in talking about the different sides of the debate over cochlear implants. And the Oscar-winning deaf actress is pleased that playwright Stephen Sachs “didn’t take sides” on the matter either. “He looked at all sides of it. As for myself, I think that there are too many sides to the cochlear implant issue to take a stance either for or against them. In the end, it’s up to the individual or the family to decide what’s best for themselves or their child.”

SERENDIPITY: Movie maker C. Jay Cox wound up getting Tori Spelling to star in his “Kiss the Bride” film after, “I was flying back from Miami, and Tori and her husband Dean happened to be sitting behind me. I realized she’d be perfect for the character of Alex…Like her, she tends to start off being underestimated by people.” Cox contacted Spelling the next day – not in flight. “I’m a little too shy for that, I guess. She came in and I thought we were just going to do a general meeting, but she was all prepared and did a wonderful reading.”

Tori’s character is called upon to be something special, since she is the titular bride whose groom (James O’Shea) suddenly finds himself facing his high school love for the first time in years in the days preceding their planned wedding. The twist in Ty Lieberman’s drawn-from-real-life screenplay: that love is male (Philipp Karner).

“We shot it in 18 days for a half million dollars,” reports Cox, who had his distribution lined up early into the production. “Going in we were thinking, ‘Okay, we will make this movie for whatever we have to make it for. There’s a reason wedding movies are usually big studio movies. Weddings are expensive! We soon realized we weren’t just planning a movie shoot, we were planning a wedding. We ordered grip equipment, then picked out our color scheme and flowers.” “Kiss the Bride” opens in limited release Friday (4/18).