(continued)

No one knows who's leaking the phony figures. But they're certainly convenient, says Brandy Navarre, vice president of paparazzi photo agency x17online.com, creating a "myth that the magazines have that kind of money to throw around."

Even the smaller, seven-figure sum that People has implied it paid Lopez seems suspiciously out of whack given the depressed market, she says. When the week's hottest paparazzi pics fetch only low five-figure sums, "[Those numbers] don't quite pass the sniff test."

Baby-photo negotiations have become so aggressively discreet that even rival bidders can't dispute the rumors. "It used to work like an old-fashioned auction," says a veteran at one of People's competitors. "You knew the exact numbers on the table. Now, the stars' managers say abstruse things like, 'You're going to have to do better than that.' Unless you buy the photos, you never know how much they sold for."

All the better for the buzz machine.

According to the New York Post, tabloid editors themselves are now openly predicting that the twins gestating inside Angelina Jolie may yield $10 million. Expect the price to dip dramatically a few weeks after you've recycled your special collector's issue.

This article is from the July/August issue of Radar Magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here.

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