Celebrity Gossip

[Abigail]

"Commitment to helping disadvantaged children?"

As in adopting a child three years ago and applying to adopt one now? I can't think of anything else she's done

Am I alone in thinking somebody has taken a backhander? First she gets refused on residency issues then they give her the green light, even though the law is clear on adoptive parents from abroad.

Yeah, totally. She probably got different judges who thought differently. Sure she's poured money into orphanages or whatever but would she have really done it unless she wanted that kid? Both of the kids still had family, not exactly all alone in the world. Even if they are poor. Money doesn't exactly buy happiness, and I wonder who will be looking after the child, Madonna or the nannies?

I agree Kasple. If Madonna really wants to help disadvantaged children she's better off putting her millions towards building schools and supporting the local community instead of taking young children away from their family and giving them everything they ask for.

[Hannelene]

I know that there are many kids that are either living in poverty or are orphans but I feel very cynical to what has been happening here. As I feel that Madonna could use some of her wealth to help more kids around the world if that is the route she wanted to follow. When she was refused the right to adopt and she brought out the digitally enhanced pictures to make it appear that was she was a lot softer and motherly. I thought to myself why do this- why try to create an image of yourself of something your not? Especially when you may not be home to even raise your own children?

I don't know about the adoption process as how could you take a child away from a family that they already have? Is the family going to benefit financially from this?

[lizann]

Sexy Megan Fox has confirmed she and boyfriend Brian Austin Green are reassessing their romance - because she's not ready to become his wife.

After breaking off their engagement earlier this year, gossips felt sure Fox was single and started to speculate about the relationship between her and Transformers co-star Shia Labeouf.

But she insists she's still with actor Green - she just has no plans to marry him.

Fox tells Entertainment Weekly magazine, "Brian and I are not engaged, because when you're engaged, your goal is marriage. I don't think that's a realistic goal for me right now.

"I know I'm not capable, at this point, of being a good partner or a good wife. That's, like, a joke. We're sort of trying to figure out what our relationship is."

[Abigail]

I know that there are many kids that are either living in poverty or are orphans but I feel very cynical to what has been happening here. As I feel that Madonna could use some of her wealth to help more kids around the world if that is the route she wanted to follow. When she was refused the right to adopt and she brought out the digitally enhanced pictures to make it appear that was she was a lot softer and motherly. I thought to myself why do this- why try to create an image of yourself of something your not? Especially when you may not be home to even raise your own children?

I don't know about the adoption process as how could you take a child away from a family that they already have? Is the family going to benefit financially from this?

In this country, paying for a child is illegal, whether it's through surrogacy (can only pay expenses) or adoption. The law in Africa and America is different.

It could be seen that Madonna can give the child a better life and future in a developed country with all the money she has. But she still has surviving family. Family that can't afford to hire a lawyer and fight the adoption.

The way I see it is, how can Madonna provide a stable home when she has no husband and is flying all over the world with work? The children are just going to be palmed off on nannies or sent to boarding school.

Madonna would do better sponsoring children and helping their communities build better lives rather than taking one child thousands of miles away from her family.

[tammyy2j]

Actress Nia Vardalos has fired off at Hollywood executives who greenlight film romances featuring "fat" Russell Crowe and Seth Rogen and then poke fun at her for finding love with hunks on the big screen.

The My Big Fat Greek Wedding star is tired of Tinseltown's double standards when it comes to pairing up stars for movie love stories - because older women can't get away with dating hunks, while ageing actors regularly romance hotties.

And she's had enough of the questions about her own onscreen match-ups with the likes of John Corbett and My Life In Ruins co-star Alexis Georgoulis.

She tells CNN, "On the publicity tour of My Big Fat Greek Wedding I was asked over and over again, if, as the writer, I felt it was a fair depiction of real life to have someone of my below average looks, hook up with hottie John Corbett.

"I thought I was attractive when I shot My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Studio executives and movie reviewers let me know I had a confidence in my looks that was not shared by them. In other words, they labelled me with words like, overweight, unattractive, unappealing. Hey, just say fat. I love the word fat. I used it in the title. It’s actually not a naughty word.

"I have sat through many a movie like Sideways, where nobody blinks an eye when Paul Giamatti gets together with gorgeous Virginia Madsen, and Knocked Up. I mean the visual of Seth Rogen on top of Katherine Heigl made me put the popcorn down and reach for my purse... because I knew the film was about to stop and Ashton Kutcher would now jump out and go, 'Aha, you’ve been punked.' I waited, but no Ashton.

"Socially, the issue of men’s weight is simply not a big deal. Let’s face it, Russell Crowe is fat and no one ever talks about it. Alec Baldwin just orders his suits a size bigger and we continue to swoon.

"Meanwhile, I get hit with this awkward question about my weightloss daily and I have answered it in press interviews, at the grocery store, at the newspaper stand. Why? Because I see their (people) anxious, open faces needing the secret, the new pill, the cure, anything: 'Just please share the secret'. So I hesitantly answer and I am always met with the same response: the glaze-eye, slack-jawed face.

"They don’t want to hear the truth - I had a blood sugar problem, so my doctor ordered me to lose weight. It was really hard but I did it through diet and exercise, and it took a year."

I doubt Crowe and Baldwin will be too happy they were called fat

[Abigail]

Madonna has reportedly flown a nurse and nanny out to Malawi to care for her newly-adopted four-year-old daughter Mercy James.

The singer's aides will care for the child in her luxury apartment in the African country's capital Lilongwe while adoption papers and a visa are finalised, reports say.

Mercy James will then be flown by private jet to the US, where Madonna will introduce her to her new siblings Lourdes, 12, Rocco, eight, and David Banda, three.

According to The Sun, Mercy's biological father James Kambewa, 24, has vowed to seek visitation rights to his daughter.

"I will fight until my last drop of blood to have the right to my daughter," he is quoted as saying.

Madonna won a court appeal last week to adopt the Malawian after the application was originally rejected in April.

[StarsOfCCTV]

Figures.

Why doesn't she adopt actual orphans instead of taking them away from their family, no matter how poor they are...at least they would be able to visit her in the orphanage, but how will they afford to visit overseas?

[tammyy2j]

Paris Hilton has dismissed reports she moved on from her recent break-up with Doug Reinhardt by romancing Portuguese soccer stud Cristiano Ronaldo - insisting they are "just good friends".

The hotel heiress recently ended her six-month romance with baseball player Reinhardt, announcing the news on Tuesday through her publicist.

But just a day after the split, the hotel heiress was spotted getting close to Manchester United player Ronaldo in a Los Angeles nightclub - prompting rumours of a new relationship.

But Hilton insists she is not dating Ronaldo - and remains coy over whether romance will bloom in the future.

She says, "Cristiano and I are good friends. Very good friends. He's a nice guy - and an incredible athlete. We're getting to know each other and I have to leave it at that."

[tammyy2j]

Actress Sienna Miller has opened up about her split from Brothers & Sisters star Balthazar Getty - insisting she should have been "more conscious" of her actions while she was romancing the married oil heir.

The British beauty found herself at the centre of a major scandal involving Getty after he reportedly cheated on his wife with her in 2008.

Miller faced a barrage of negative press about her romance with the actor, and the couple eventually split earlier this year.

And the Alfie star admits she ended the relationship after a long talk with one of her girlfriends forced her to come to her senses.

She tells Vogue magazine, "She took me to lunch - funnily enough to a restaurant called Balthazar, but she never commented on the irony of that. She said, 'You've been through hell and you need to talk about it with someone.'

"I got to the point where I was doing things that I didn't necessarily think I was capable of as a person. And I wanted to be conscious of my actions. I think I was really naive and trusting, and thinking that if you are true to yourself, that's enough, that's the best way to be.

"But actually, it's important to become more conscious."

[tammyy2j]

Suzanne Shaw wed DJ lover Jason King in Christchurch at the weekend, say local reports.

According to the Bournemouth Echo, the pair tied the knot at the Captain's Club Hotel.

King, 33, and Shaw, 27, live together with Corey, her four-year-old son from her previous marriage to TV personality Darren Day.

The couple announced their engagement in August 2008, claiming that they "couldn't be happier" with each other.

Shaw's former Hear'Say bandmates Myleene Klass, Danny Foster and Noel Sullivan were rumoured to have been invited to the wedding. However, Klass is currently working on I'm A Celebrity... in the US, so it is known that she did not attend.

Kym Marsh, who was also in the original Hear'Say lineup, was left off the guestlist.