Hollywood star Brad Pitt and his equally celebrated partner Angelina Jolie arrived in Malta on a private aircraft this afternoon.

Labelled the sexiest stars in film history and attracting major global media attention, the couple who are accompanied by their six adopted and biological children, left Los Angeles yesterday evening in a Bombardier Global Express jet.

They arrived in Malta this afternoon and exited Malta International Airport in a couple of vans from the VIP area.

They are thought to be staying at Palazzo Guarena, near Qrendi.

Brad Pitt was last in Malta in 2003 for the filming of the ancient epic Troy in which he played the mightiest of the Greeks, Achilles. This time round, he is a United Nations worker and father of two girls.

Brad Pitt is in Malta for the filming of World War Z, a movie he is producing.

Based on Max Brooks' globe-spanning novel, World War Z is set 10 years after the human victory over a worldwide zombie epidemic and tells a retrospective story about the invasion from the various viewpoints of those who survived the conflict that almost eradicated humanity.

Among the locations for the Malta shoot – the rest of the filming is in the UK – are Valletta and the Three Cities area.

The couple announced today they are donating 500,000 dollars  from their foundation to help Joplin rebuild after the deadly tornado which struck the south-west Missouri town last month.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks said the gift from the Jolie-Pitt Foundation will go towards mid- and long-term needs in the tornado-ravaged city.

Pitt grew up in south-west Missouri and says in a press release released by the Community Foundation that he spent much of his childhood in the area and knows the people to be "especially resilient".

The May 22 tornado destroyed more than 8,000 homes and 400 businesses. The death toll was 151 as of yesterday, including several victims who died as a result of injuries suffered in the storm.