Guide Note

Celebrity Adoption refers to the growing trend of celebrities adopting children. The practice has come under intense scrutiny from critics who argue that the adoptions are used as a publicity scheme. The adopted children often come from orphanages in developing nations, and from different ethnicities than their celebrity parents.

Fast Facts

1. Meg Ryan adopted a girl from China
2. Madonna adopted infant David Banda from Malawi
3. Ewan McGregor adopted a 4-year old Mongolian girl
4. Angelina Jolie adopted a boy from Cambodia, another from Vietnam, and a girl from Ethiopia

• Woody Allen
• Brad Pitt
• Guy Ritchie
• Michelle Pfeiffer
• Tom Cruise
• Nicole Kidman
• Rosie O'Donnell
• Steven Spielberg
• James Caviezel
• Mia Farrow
• Calista Flockhart
• Diane Keaton
• Hugh Jackman
• George Lucas
• Lionel Ritchie

Critics of the adoption craze point out that the money it costs to adopt one child, could help many others. Rosie O'Donnell reportedly paid between $1,500-$5,000 in fees to locate birth mothers for her adoption. There is also a general concern that celebrities are more concerned about the public relations benefit of adoption, than providing families for young children