I had to smile, albeit wryly, at the latest pictures of Angelina Jolie returning from a dance class in LA with daughters Shiloh and Zahara this week.

La Jolie looked stunning, as usual, in what seems to be her trademark 'mum-about-town' look of flowing dress, flip flops and sunnies. What are the odds she's hiding another bump under there somewhere?!

Seeing these snaps made me wonder: just how do celeb mums do it? Why are the girls not throwing huge temper tantrums at having to leave the dance class? Where is the unavoidable spillage on either child, or mother? How does Angelina manage to walk through the lurking paparazzi time and time again, without a hair out of place and without having to carry at least one screaming child under her arm, or having to resort to chocolate bribes to calm them down? Are celebrity children just not born that way?

I imagine a small army of nannies leaving the dance class through a heavily guarded back door carrying standard issue bags full of messed up clothes, Dora sippy cups, tacky plastic toys, empty crisp packets and sweetie wrappers, en route to a secret underground bunker to destroy the evidence of the 'before' while we are left with the picture perfect images of the 'after'.

In any event, these latest images have only served to reignite the rumours about the twins Knox and Vivienne who celebrate their first birthday this weekend. They haven't been seen much in public since their birth and not at all since January. Suffering another bout of the dreaded 'Suri Cruise Syndrome', we all leap to ridiculous conclusions about their general well-being, suitability to be photographed or actual existence.

If reports are to be believed, they suffer various allergies and mum and dad feel it is best to keep them out of the public glare for now. This probably means they are being looked after by the army of nannies in the secret underground bunker. Let's hope they emerge into the LA sunshine for the much anticipated birthday celebrations.