Celebrity link! Obama related to Clinton?

Source: Xinhua | 03-26-2008 10:06

BEIJING, March 26(Xinhuanet) -- U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt and Hillary Clinton is related to Pitt's girlfriend Angelina Jolie, a genealogical society said Tuesday.

U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (lower left) is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt  (lower right) and Hillary Clinton (upper left) is  related to Pitt's girlfriend Angelina Jolie (upper right), a genealogical society said Tuesday. (File Photo)

Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society have discovered that Jolie and Clinton are ninth cousins, twice removed, while Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, according to a genealogical study conducted over the last three years.

Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother's side, is also related to Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette, researchers found. Other cousins include Camilla Parker Bowles and Jack Kerouac.

Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, on the other hand, shares his ancestry with six U.S. presidents, including current commander in chief, George W. Bush, and his father, George H.W. Bush.

Other far-reaching Obama relations include Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison, as well as Vice President Dick Cheney and Sir Winston Churchill.