NEW YORK (NYTimes, Reuters, AFP) - The end of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's grand Hollywood romance is huge - bigger than the United Nations General Assembly on social media.

On Tuesday (Sept 21), with the announcement of the split, the hashtag #Brangelina quickly became the top trending item on Twitter, with fans reacting to the news with a range of emotions, including laments over the death of love; complaints that the news was superseding US President Barack Obama's speech at the UN; and theories that the news was a welcome distraction from the presidential campaign.

#Brangelina was mentioned roughly 720 times per minute on Twitter, more than triple the mentions of the UN General Assembly, according to the analytics firm Zoomph.

The media reacted with surprise and sadness to the news. "Today shall go down as the day love died," Vogue magazine said in an online report.

But the spotlight on Twitter and Facebook was on Jennifer Aniston, Pitt's previous wife.

Many users posted memes featuring an ecstatic Aniston, including one of her on the phone saying: "And that, my friend, is what they call closure."

Pitt was still married to Aniston in 2004 when he and Jolie filmed Mr & Mrs Smith, the story of assassins unknowingly assigned to kill each other. There were reports of an affair, but Jolie told Vogue she was only "very, very good friends" with Pitt until he and Aniston split in 2005.

Performing at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, soul-pop superstar Adele paused to dedicate her sold-out show to Brangelina.

"Let's not ignore the elephant in the room," she was quoted as saying by Us Weekly. "Did everybody hear about Brad and Angelina? It feels like the end of an era, so I'm dedicating this show tonight to them."

One fan took to Twitter and wrote: "Now #Adele is leading us all in a group Brangelina breakup therapy session. Also, there are songs."