Jolie's children get Pitt's name

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles judge has granted Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie's request to change the last names of her children to reflect Brad Pitt's status as their adoptive father.

Superior Court Judge Linda Lefkowitz granted Jolie's petition during a brief and routine name change hearing that was not attended by either parent, a court clerk said.

The ruling means that Jolie's children, 4-year-old Maddox and Zahara, who just turned one, will now carry the last name Jolie-Pitt.

A spokeswoman for Pitt, 42, confirmed last week that Jolie, 30, was pregnant with a child fathered by the actor, the first official confirmation of a relationship that had been the subject of furious tabloid news coverage.

Pitt and Jolie met in 2004 while working together on the film Mr and Mrs Smith, in which they played married assassins ordered to kill each other.

Rumours of an affair heated up after Pitt and his ex-wife, former Friends star Jennifer Aniston, split up in January 2005.

Pitt also recently joined Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for a UN refugee agency, in efforts to promote various humanitarian causes, including fighting poverty in Africa. The actor accompanied Jolie to Ethiopia in July when she visited that country to complete the adoption of her infant daughter.

Jolie, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in the 1999 film Girl, Interrupted, was divorced from actor Billy Bob Thornton in 2003.

- REUTERS