Madonna Makes Like Angelina?

Wed Oct 04, 8:48 PM ET



Most people return home from trips abroad with snow globes and Toblerone. Needless to say, Madonna is not most people.

'The Material Girl' may or may not have gotten in touch with her maternal side Wednesday as conflicting reports surfaced as to whether or not she adopted a child shortly after arriving in Africa on a humanitarian mission to help the region's impoverished AIDS orphans.

Officials in Malawi confirmed to Reuters earlier today that Madonna adopted a one-year-old boy, selected from a group of 12 children that adoption officials had meet with the pop star.

"She asked us to identify boys only, which we have done after visiting four orphanages in Lilonge," Andrina Mchiela, the secretary for the Ministry for Gender and Child Welfare, told reporters, per the wire service.

Mchiela said that the "Hung Up" singer and husband Guy Ritchie had originally planned on adopting a girl, but changed their mind two weeks ago. The name of the boy was not released.

Possibly because he never existed.

Madonna's longtime publicist, Liz Rosenberg, denied the adoption report to E! News, saying the singer has not made any additions to her family.

"I can confirm Madonna is in Malawi on a private visit," Rosenberg said. "Despite reports stating otherwise, she has not adopted a baby boy.

"She is building an orphanage and child-care center and is involved in other initiatives geared toward helping children orphaned by AIDS through the Raising Malawi organization."

While the couple had never spoken publicly about plans to adopt, Mchiela told Reuters that the government had already exempted the twosome from Malawi's ban on nonresidents filing for adoption.

However, Mchiela was later quoted by the Associated Press saying Madonna and Ritchie would be subjected to the same adoption process as everyone else, requiring an 18-month waiting period before being able to take a child home.

The non-adoption news could explain the absence of Ritchie, 37, from the trip. He's apparently with the couple's bona fide brood, son, Rocco, 5, and daughter Lourdes, 9, who Madonna had with personal trainer Carlos Leon.

New mother or not, Madonna is doing plenty to help the children of Africa.

In August, Madonna spoke to Time magazine about her increasing desire to help the Africa's more than 12 million orphans, a promise she apparently kept her word on.

"For the last few years--now that I have children and now that I have what I consider to be a better perspective on life--I have felt responsible for the children of the world," she said.

"I've been doing bits and bobs about it and I suppose I was looking for a big, big project I could sink my teeth into."

She arrived with a 10-strong entourage in Malawi Wednesday morning to make good on her promise, launching six large scale projects designed to help underprivileged children in the country.

The pop star is expected to travel to the electricity-free village of Mphandula Thursday, where construction on Raising Malawi, an education and feeding center that broke ground two months ago. The center is expected to feed and educate up to 1,000 Malawi children.

Madonna also announced plans to raise at least $3 million for the region, with the funds going toward the center as well as setting up additional economic, food and health programs for the area.

She is also financing a $1 million documentary about the region's orphans and met with Bill Clinton about bringing low-cost medicine to residents.

Madonna, who tried to draw attention to the humanitarian problems facing Africa via her controversy-courting mock-crucifixion during her recent Confessions world tour, is the latest celebrity to join the cause.

Gwyneth Paltrow recently appeared in the well-intentioned but widely mocked print ad for KeepAChildAlive.org, with the tagline: "I am African." George Clooney toured Sudan's Darfur region last month for a documentary of the war-torn region and has urged the UN Security Council to intervene with peacekeeping troops.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who are arguably at the forefront of the charitable movement, announced last month that they'll donate $2 million to the humanitarian organizations Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders. After their daughter Shiloh was born in Namibia, they also donated $300,000 to local hospitals.

Judge Orders Bobby Brown Arrested

Mon Oct 02, 6:53 PM ET



Being Bobby Brown ain't easy these days. A family judge ordered the singer arrested if he steps foot in Massachusetts after Brown failed to show for a hearing Monday over delinquent child support payments.

Brown's attorney said it's a "very difficult time" for Brown, 37, whose tumultuous marriage to Whitney Houston is coming to an end. She filed for a legal separation earlier this month.

"Whether or not he's going through a divorce doesn't negate the fact that he still owes child support relative to his two children that he had prior to his marriage," said Norfolk Probate and Family Court Judge Paula Carey.

Kim Ward, of Stoughton, the mother of two of Brown's children, says Brown owes two months' support, or $11,000.

In June 2004, Brown was sentenced to 90 days in prison for missing three months of payments. That sentence was immediately suspended after Brown made back payments totaling about $15,000.


Brown's attorney, Phaedra Parks, would not say where Brown, a Boston native, is currently living.

"It's just a very difficult time for him, as you can well imagine," said Parks, an Atlanta-based entertainment lawyer. "The media is very aware of this very public divorce that's going on right now. It's unfortunate we find ourselves back in Boston on this matter."

Brown gained fame as a member of New Edition and for his 1988 hit solo album.

Jackson's Custody Battle Cease-Fire

Sun Oct 01, 9:06 PM ET

All's well that ends well…we guess.

Attorneys representing Michael Jackson and his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, announced Friday that the pair have settled "all the issues" in their ongoing custody battle, preventing the need for further squabbling.

"We're still dealing with the details but it addresses all of the disputes between the parties," Rowe's lawyer, Marta Almli, told the Associated Press. "I can't say anything about the terms of the settlement but I don't think it would have happened if both parties didn't agree it was appealing to both of them."

Neither Almli nor Jackson's attorney, Michael L. Abrams, elaborated on what their clients' agreement entailed or whether it included a resolution to both physical custody and monetary issues.

Since Jackson was rung up on child molestation charges in 2003, Rowe has been seeking to reinstate her rights to visit their two children, nine-year-old Prince Michael Jackson Jr. and eight-year-old Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, after giving up custody in 2001. She filed a petition seeking $195,000 for legal fees and $50,000 for living expenses in July. Jackson was ordered to shell out $60,000 earlier this month.

"I think both parties are satisfied," Abrams said Friday. "[Jackson] seems to be satisfied with the result."


Rowe and Jackson tied the knot in 1996 and were officially divorced by 2000. When she relinquished her parental rights the following year, the former nurse said she wanted to "forever give up any and all rights pertaining to the children because I believe that by doing so, it is in the children's best interest." But…

"Everything changed," Rowe said in a declaration after requesting temporary custody in 2003. In addition to the charges filed against her ex, she cited Jackson's association with members of the Nation of Islam, a group whose leader she feared was anti-Semitic.

"I am Jewish, as are--by definition--my children," Rowe said. "I worried about how my children would be treated by these new advisers to Michael."

And that was before Neverland was boarded up and the kids were shipped off to Bahrain.