Angelina Jolie, who told CNN host Larry King on December 18 that her 56-year-old mother was battling ovarian cancer, is now confirming that her mother passed away on Saturday afternoon.

According to a new release, Angelina Jolie and brother James Haven were with their mom, actress Marcheline Bertrand, when she died this weekend at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. It is reported that Jolie's boyfriend, Brad Pitt, was at the hospital with Jolie and her brother.

Bertrand, divorced from Jolie's Oscar-winning actor father Jon Voight and primary caretaker of her children, had small roles in the movies Lookin' to Get Out in 1982 and The Man Who Loved Women in 1983.

A private funeral is planned -- and the family asks that donations be made to the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai.

It might be celebrity gossip but news is flying around the internet that Nike has offered Jennifer Aniston a record deal for her celebrity endorsement in exchange for donations that will benefit cancer research. It is being reported Aniston will be appearing in both television commercials and print ads for Nike.

According to the buzz, it might be the most Nike has ever offered for a celebrity endorsement. For Jennifer Aniston? Is she that popular? I am not being snarky. Really I am not. I just didn't know she was popular on the level that Nike would offer her the most money they have offered anyone for a celebrity endorsement.

Not long ago, Sheryl Crow publicly thanked her family and friends Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox for keeping her spirits up during the first days after breast cancer diagnosis. Maybe there is something to the Nike deal. If the amount of money being reported is true, and it is earmarked for cancer charity -- then it's worthy of a mention at The Cancer Blog. We appreciate any sizable donation to cancer research.

In a feature published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Julietta Jameson asks the same question many of us have asked -- Is the compassionate celebrity the new public pest? If you are talking about Paris Hilton's insatiable self-promotion in grabbing one more photo-op by making a shallow meaningless promise to a charity for kids with cancer, the answer is a resounding yes. If you are talking about U2's Bono, who regularly meets with world leaders and often knows far more about the subject under discussion than the politicians do, then the answer is an emphatic no.

Then there are all the celebrities who fall between the extremes of Hilton and Bono, who lend their name and some of their time, for noble reasons and then too for the less-admirable ambition of keeping themselves in the news, to causes that need attention for the fundraising needed to keep the charity or cause going.