Jessica Alba on 1/26/08. Credit: L. Gallo / WENN
The higher up you are on the celebrity pecking order and the more babies you have, the more money the photos will fetch from the glossies. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are said to be commanding at least $16 million for the first photos of their twins, due sometime this month. Matthew McConaughey just signed a $3 million deal with OK! Magazine for pictures of his newborn son, Levi, and Jamie Lynn Spears got around $1 million from OK! for the exclusive story of her pregnancy at 16 and the first photos of the baby.

Jessica Alba’s baby pictures fetched a respectable $1.5 million from OK! The photos were taken this week, according to TMZ, and should come out soon:

TMZ has learned Honor Marie Warren, celebuspawn of Jessica Alba and hubby Cash Warren, is now $1.5 million richer thanks to OK! Magazine.

We’re hearing the two-part deal consists of pictures of the baby now, and one other “event” — Christmas, Thanksgiving, vacation, etc. Our spy said Jessica initially turned down the offers of several weekly mags, not wanting to sell, but eventually caved.

Two-month-old Honor, we’re told, is just “adorable” and the pictures, taken this week, are “so cute.”

[From TMZ]

Celebrities who seem to have made the conscious decision not to sell photos of their children include Naomi Watts, Halle Berry, and Salma Hayek. In fact not even the paparazzi have photographed Halle’s four month old Nahla. Watts willingly showed her then-newborn, Alexander, to photographers trailing her last summer. Salma Hayek released a lovely posed photo with baby Valentina, taken by the Associated Press with no pricetag associated with it that I could tell.

On our post about the whopping $16 million bidding price for the first Brangelina twin photos, commenter Anastasia mentioned that Brad and Angelina are probably trying to do what they think is best for their children by controlling the photos and keeping the paparazzi partially at bay. She said “If they don’t do this, the paps will be practically killing people to get pictures of these babies and will probably no doubt endanger people for real to get the pics, because they can fetch a high price.”

That’s definitely true for the Brangelina twins, and maybe for the other celebrity babies as well. Alba lives in LA and she’s followed everywhere, so it could be a real concern for her.

Still it seems so much more noble just to stay at home with the little one and not bother with all the press. Save the photos and stories for your friends and family. I want to see the stars’ baby photos though, and I love to read the stories. If the celebrities want the publicity they may as well cash in.