Angelina Jolie gives birth to boy and girl (Reuters)

NICE, France (Reuters) - Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has given birth to twins, the hospital where she was staying in southern France said on Sunday.

Oscar winner Jolie, 33, had the twins by caesarean section on Saturday evening at the Lenval hospital in Nice, said spokeswoman Nadine Bauer.

The girl has been named Vivienne Marcheline and the boy Knox Leon. Both babies weighed around 2.27 kg (5.0 lbs).

"The parents and the babies are in excellent health. Everything is fine," Jolies doctor, Michel 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 Jolies 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.

U.S. representatives for the couple could not immediately be reached for comment, but Sussmann told People magazine that Jolies partner Brad Pitt was at her side.

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

Jolie and Pitt, 44, already have four children -- Maddox, Pax, Zahara and Shiloh.

The A-list 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 "Oceans Eleven" fame, went public with their relationship after they acted together in the 2005 film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

Jolie confirmed she was expecting twins during an interview at the Cannes film festival in May. Later that month Pitts manager was forced to deny a television report that Jolie had given birth.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer, Pierre Thebault, and Mike Collett-White in London; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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