Celebrity Adoption Trend
We can’t help but be surrounded by images of celebrity adoption all around us. Everywhere we go there are pictures of happy celebrity parents holding their little bundles of joy. Katherine Heigl and her husband Josh Kelley just adopted their second, Charlize Theron and Sandra Bullock on their first, and of course who doesn’t instantly recognize the uber famous Jolie-Pitt brood?!? I’ve read several negative comments on articles that refer to the celebrity adoption trend as nothing more than a publicity stunt. How can that be? Would someone go that far as to commit life-long to another human being just as an act of publicity? I don’t think so.
Most people don’t know this, but I LOVE the BBC Sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous”. I got addicted in high school and worked hard to catch every episode. This wasn’t an easy task growing up in a “pre-Internet” town of pig farms and cornfields. Not exactly the audience for a show about two fashion and celebrity obsessed drug addicts.
“AbFab” touches on adoption several times as the butt of a joke. One episode features a character’s new business, which is to help celebrities adopt internationally. This is how the characters ”Bo and Marshall” explain their Hollywood adoption business model;
“What we do is find, supply or source babies for those actresses whose careers don’t allow a conception window. Whose schedules are so tight and who want to remain tight down below if you know what I mean. The women who can, but don’t need to give birth. The market is for the Western small featured baby now. The South American Latina face is going out of fashion. What they need is something that can through cosmetic surgery be made to have a family resemblance. Those wide Aztec faces can not be pulled down to look like Gwyneth Paltrow. As soon as the baby cuteness goes they just dump them or keep them on as domestics. The real kids are in rehab and the adopted ones are cleaning the pool, but that’s Hollywood.” ~Absolutely Fabulous
To me this speech is ridiculously hilarious (for the record this show in no way reflects my opinion of celebrity adoption nor did I say it is politically correct). In another episode the main character discovers she’s going to be a grandmother. She’s upset until she finds out it’s a mixed race baby, which is the “fashion accessory of the season.” Funny yes. Real, hopefully not.
Adoptive parents have multiple reasons they decide to adopt, but they all have one thing in common. They wanted to grow their family through adoption. Not to stick out at parties as the mixed race family. Not to have a halo put over their heads because of how great they are. And certainly not to commit to a child and then go back on that promise when the paparazzi stop filming them.
Celebrity or not, each parent makes a conscious choice to adopt. We all have to fill out the same paperwork, have the same interviews and convince caseworkers that we’re capable to care for a child. Unlike celebrities, we can’t afford personal nannies and constant wardrobe changes for our new additions. Yet each of us get to experience the same joy on the first day we meet our child and the privilege of watching them grow up. Let’s stop spreading hateful words toward celebrities who choose to adopt. Let’s unite as parents, build each other up and protect the feelings of all adoptive families.
To watch the speech from the episode Birthin’ start at 2:00
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“Let’s unite as parents, build each other up”…I couldn’t agree more. I can not lie – with each addition to the Jolie-Pitt family, I may have rolled my eyes and thought, “aren’t their hands already full?!” However, they do go through the same process as any other adoptive parent. How dare I begrudge them the feelings of joy I felt when I first brought my children home.
Strangers jokingly call us the Jolie-Pitts all the time because we’re their age and we have 6 kids. I don’t think their money makes it any easier to deal with the issues adoptive parents face. Sure they can hire tutors and nannies, but it doesn’t erase how their children feel or behave.
“Would someone go that far as to commit life-long to another human being just as an act of publicity?”
It was a long time ago, but Joan Crawford did.
I get the sense that Madonna adopted, at least in part, for the publicity, but I do not feel that way about the other actors and actresses who have adopted. Of course, what I think doesn’t matter. We’ll see what the kids think in about 10 years.
Aw yes Joan Crawford. Who could forget “Mommie Dearest” I still have to hope that deep, deep down she wanted to adopt to help kids in need, not just a photo op. Let’s not forget that she suffered from alcoholism and supposed mental illness. I like your point “we’ll see what the kids think in 10 years” There might be shelves full of angry biographies like Joan’s adopted daughter, let’s hope not.
Robyn, that was my thought too, Mommie Dearest. I read te book and have never forgotten it. So mean!