First exclusive pics of the twins Angelina Jolie may or may not be carrying could net Hollywood's Mother Theresa a whopping $10 million, claims National Enquirer Executive Editor Barry Levine. Pee soup-drinking American Media head Bonnie Fuller says $8 million, but still! By contrast, People paid $4 million for photos of Brangelina spawn Shiloh Nouvel back in 2006 and between $1.75 million and $2 million for pics of adoptee Pax last March.

Even factoring in the circumstantial differences (there are two of them this time around, maybe!), the price increase is staggering. "It's at the point now where some stars might decide to have more kids just to collect the money from their photos," an anonymous magazine editor tells the Post.

Is winning a bidding war over photos simply a matter of pride for celebrity mags, or is it actually financially prudent to fork over seven figures for photos that many people will see the next day on a gossip blog? A combination of both, actually.

People sold about 2.3 million newsstand copies of the Shiloh issue, compared to an average run of 1.5 million. They also jacked up the cover price by .50 cents, meaning the mag raked in an extra $2.25 million in profit. Not a full return on the $4 million investment, but probably pretty close when you factor in the increased Web traffic and money earned by re-selling the photos overseas. (The potential Web numbers are even more valuable now, given how well New York's Lindsay Lohan nudes did.)

Now, People's recent Jennifer Lopez twins cover, for which the mag shelled out $6 million, sold between 2 and 3 million copies—a significantly higher number than usual, but approaching the ceiling for how many magazines you could possibly sell in a week that isn't marred by, say, September 11th or the death of Princess Di (the two best-selling People covers of all-time). Which means that a $10 million Brangelina investment is motivated more by the desire to extend a middle finger to the competition and cement the brand than by the expectation of any serious profit.

Of course, while tabloids are happy to play the game, they still gripe. "It's outrageous, they've gotten very sophisticated," says the Enquirer's Levine. "The rights are bought up now even before the celeb enters the hospital. They hire extra security so it's impossible to obtain a photo illegally."

You know, Barry, there's a pretty efficient way to quell your moral "outrage": stop offering multi-million dollar payouts for staged shots of barely sentient newborns.