I usually stay away from these celebrity controversies on here because I’ve just never been that concerned with Lindsay Lohan’s Grey Goose binges or the Jolie-Pitt baby’s hair texture–even if I do get a kick out of Tom Cruise’s nutbar antics and the Celebrity Baby Blog from time to time.
But the Madonna adoption to-do is pissing me off. You know why?
Because it’s awesome.
She wants to adopt. Hooray! She’s bringing worldwide media attention to adoption. Hooray! She’s adopting a child from a country where many children’s futures are bleak indeed. Hooray!
But because we all like to get down on the celebrities–even as we watch their movies and buy their perfumes and subscribe to the magazines that keep the stalkarazzi in business–suddenly everyone has a problem with her. Why adopt from Africa when there are children who need adopting here? Why adopt when you’re over 40? How can a woman with no time to keep up her roots POSSIBLY have time to take care of another child?
And then the one that really gets me: Wah wah, boohoo, she cut in line.
Here’s a secret for ya:
(Shhh, keep this one on the down low…)
Celebrities? Sometimes? They get special treatment.
They get better tables in the restaurants than the mere mortals. Even with no reservation. And then they get complimentary desserts sent over by the chef. They will even have the sommelier open an entire bottle of ’89 Barolo, that they may imbibe a single glass of it. (This I know because one fortuitous evening at Fiamma, we were offered the remaining wine from Madonna’s previous night’s oenephilic request and let me tell you, it was delicious.)
Celebrities get free clothes and free jewelry and free tickets to concerts. Front row tickets. You know, the ones that you can’t get. They can get your impossible-to-reach hair gay but fabulous hair guy to leave you sitting, wet and unfinished in his chair, while he runs to their homes to trim their bangs. They get hotter dates, bigger salaries, and better plastic surgeons. They get invited to cooler parties. And they don’t have to wait in line to get in.
They know where to find the good cheese. The unpasteurized cheese.
And sometimes, they pull strings that let them do something noble and wonderful like, say, adopt a child, before the rest of us.
I can’t imagine the painful frustration of waiting for adoption papers. I have a few friends going through it however and I sympathize, truly. But I don’t believe any one of them is blaming Madonna for the red tape.
As far as the Malawi laws and the recent development that the father didn’t understand the adoption process, well that’s another issue entirely. And if I see one more idiot commenting that “next time she should adopt one without living parents” — good lord. Do people really think that all children in orphanages have dead parents? Tsk tsk, Christian Right…your PR people are dropping the ball on this one.
Please. Lay off the do-gooding celebrities, folks. I’m sure if you can just hang in there a few moments longer, Tom Cruise will do something stupid for you to talk about instead.
54 shards of brilliance… read them below or add one
<>18 month residency requirement?<> What real person has time for that in their lives? That sounds like a law designed specifically to discourage international adoption. Having bumped up against a few of those in Russia, I just find them sad.I have no problem with Madonna looking at Angelina and thinking “that looks like a good idea.” I can’t tell you how many couples with bio kids look at my children and say “oh, I’d like to do that someday.” few of them ever do, whether from lack of time, resources, or courage. I’m not faulting them, but Madonna did actually follow through.Madonna and Angelina have advantages that many of us international families would love to have – the resources to return to the native countries of their children whenever they choose, and to contribute in a meaningful way to improving the lives of the children we couldn’t take home.
YES! I have commented on several blogs that have written about this… all of them complaining about it. And I just think… well??? Who knows what REALLY transpired? And not to mention, lucky lucky lucky boy! I say good for Madonna, in spite of what I think of her Kaballah and refusal to let her kids watch tv and eat ice cream silliness…
You wrote: They get hotter dates, bigger salaries, and better plastic surgeons. They get invited to cooler parties. And they don’t have to wait in line to get in.Dang. I wanna be a celebrity!
Karen
Oh, tough one…I’ve been working with a Bosnian-American couple (in Bosnia), who are slogging through the adoption process. I’d love it to be easier, for me as well as for them, but…I understand the hiccups. I’ll throw down a bet or two that Malawi, like Bosnia, is just coming to grips with procedures for international adoptions. I want to think that most people are adopting for reasons of love and selflessness. However. There are those nasty child traffickers who are just waiting to get their foot inside the door. And, I’m not talking about Madonna here, but if the process is made so easy for her, who else is going to be able to grease the wheels? On the other hand (I wish I had more hands), there are so many unwanted children languishing away in poor conditions, it just breaks your heart. Sigh.