So True? So False? Did Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Just Spend $16 Million on a Home in London?!

The Sun reports that the family of eight purchased the mansion they rented last summer

By Natalie Finn, Melanie Bromley May 03, 2012 9:00 PMTags
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Beverly Hills, New Orleans, France—where don't Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt live?! It certainly wouldn't be much of a stretch to have their family of eight setting up a home base in England, too, right?

Sure enough, The Sun is reporting that the betrothed actors have plunked down $16 million for Whornes Place, an estate in the West London town of Richmond.

The price is easily in Jolie and Pitt's wheelhouse, they spend tons of time across the pond and London is just downright swingin'. Then again, they've already got a place in the relatively nearby south of France.

Alert the royal family, ladies and gents, because this story is...

So false! (Looks like Prince William and Kate Middleton will have to be content with just Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz living nearby for now.)

"They have not bought that property," a source confirms to E! News. Jolie, Pitt and the pitter-patter of 12 feet are familiar with Whornes Place, however—it is where the family stayed between May and September of last year for a reported $50,000 a month while Pitt wrapped World War Z.

But, though they're setting up shop in London for awhile, they've chosen to rest their heads elsewhere.

"They are staying in a gated community in Oxfordshire," the source says. "They are going to be in London for quite a long time and the plan so far is that they are going to move around between different rental properties so they can enjoy some privacy. Right now they are not planning on buying anything in London.

"Bear in mind," the insider added, "Angelina has bought and sold here before. She used to own a home in Buckinghamshire but sold it because she doesn't spend enough time in the U.K. to justify a purchase. Angelina and Brad only come to England for work, not for vacations."

And, unlike how it was with the French chateau they at first leased and then bought last year, the owner of Whornes Place—"a very successful businessman," our source says—isn't interested in selling right now.