- Image via Wikipedia
We live in a world of celebrity culture and regardless of whether we like it or not many look to celebrities to legitimize and often promote practices that at one point in time seemed almost taboo. One of the most recent celebrity causes seems to be adoption. It seems like it happens all the times and you see it on the news everyday — More and more celebrities are adopting. Some say that Angelina Jolie started the recent celebrity “trend” of adopting children when at twenty-eight she adopted a little Cambodian boy named Maddox. She proceeded to adopt more children from Ethiopia and Vietnam while also having three biological children of her own with partner Brad Pitt. But many experts say that this wave of celebrity adoption as old as Hollywood itself and is only a resurgence. They site examples of Hollywood golden age stars such as Gloria Swanson and Joan Crawford among many others being adoptive parents themselves.
Resurgence or not, celebrity adoptions are running rampant in the headlines. Just in the last few months several A-listers such as Sandra Bullock and Katherine Heigl have both adopted, albeit in very different circumstances. Sandra Bullock went through the adoption process domestically with then husband Jesse James. Bullock, stated that she went through and arduous four year process in the state of Louisiana since she wished the baby to be from that state. This is a similar route that was taken by Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw who have two adopted African-American children through the child welfare system.
Katherine Heigl, formerly of the hit show Grey’s Anatomy, took a different route and relied on foreign and private adoption agencies when she recently adopted a baby girl from Korea. Her motivation was that her own sister had been adopted from Korea and she said she could not imagine adopting from anywhere but her sister’s home country.
Besides the cases above the likes of Calista Flockhart, Sheryl Crow, Sharon Stone, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman and Madonna have all adopted children in recent years. And with the admission of Jessica Alba that she plans to adopt a child soon this celebrity trend has no end in sight.
