You can’t blame a media outfit for trying: E! Entertainment Television donated $250,000 to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation last year.

Theirs was one of just four donations to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s joint charitable fund. The others were Angie ($1,194,911) and Brad ($956.961) themselves, and “Ocean’s Eleven” (Twelve and Thirteen, too!) producer Jerry Weintraub ($5,000).

Not even People magazine, often accused of getting exclusives from the couple by tantalizing them with remuneration, is listed in the now available federal tax filing from 2007.

Who knows what E! thought it was buying? Maybe some extra face time on the red carpet? They certainly weren’t going to get it with headlines like this one from their online gossip back on February 20, 2009: “Angelina — From Sex Kitten to Emaciated Mama.”

It’s not clear whether E! curried any favor with the couple because of their donation. Other than using the Pitts to film a “Wild On…” episode on the beaches of Cambodia, or making an E! True Hollywood Story about the Darfur genocide, the payback results are unknown.

The E! donation certainly added to the stunning amount Jolie & Pitt gave away through this foundation in 2007: $3.4 million.

Where did the money go? The couple put the money to causes they’ve been vocal about. The largest single recipient was Pitt’s Make it Right Foundation in New Orleans, which got $1,364,320 million. They also split $1 million evenly among three different UN based organizations working in Darfur, Pitt’s other pet cause. Another $400,000 went to Cambodia’s children’s causes, a country from which they adopted a child, plus $150,000 to a project in his name: the Maddox Chivan Children’s Center.

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