In a depressing news cycle, the cover of In Touch Weekly’s Jan. 21 issue was a beautiful sight.

It was a blast from a less complicated past, with its vintage photograph of a beaming Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt staring out at readers from above the bold headline: “We’re Having a Girl!”

For some who saw it in the racks, me included, the cover of this supermarket tabloid provided a double dose of joy. Not only was the It Couple of the late 1990s and early aughts back together — they were about to be parents.

But wait a minute.

The story rang a bell, and when I looked into it, I found that In Touch had devoted its cover to a similar piece of news back in October, with a story headlined “Brad & Jen Baby Announcement! ‘Our Dream Finally Came True!’” That one included the persuasive-seeming detail that the father-to-be was “designing the nursery in their new home.”

And what about that other time Ms. Aniston was pregnant? In July, the In Touch cover promised, “Bombshell Pregnancy News!” — and that was just the icing atop the wedding cake of the headline “Brad & Jen: Just Married! Inside the Backyard Ceremony.”