Tangled Magazine

Hollywood Adoption - A crazy fad?
An article by Laura Hartley

It seems as though an adoption craze has hit Hollywood, with adoptive parents including Angelina Jolie, Meg Ryan, James Caviezel, Calista Flockhart, Diane Keaton, Michelle Pfieffer, George Lucas, Rosie O’Donnell, Hugh Jackman, Madonna, Mia Farrow, Jamie Lee Curtis and Sharon Stone.  So why do these celebrities choose to adopt?  Is it because they want to keep a certain body type, haven’t met the right partner or do they not want to  give up work going through pregnancy and caring for a newborn?  Or is it all for publicity?

Julie Andrews was one of the first celebrities to set off the trend when in 1974, with husband Blake Edwards, she adopted two Vietnamese orphans, Amy and Joanna.  Julie’s reasons for overseas adoption appear unselfish, saying, “It goes back several years to the time when Blake and I were members of the Committee of Responsibility.  It organised to bring children who were victims of the Vietnam war to the United States for medical attention and treatment they couldn’t receive over there. Hundreds of youngsters were brought to America, treated, and returned to Vietnam. We had an opportunity to see some of those children.

“There was another element that encouraged us to adopt a Vietnamese child. Andre Previn and Mia Farrow are close friends of ours and they adopted such a child. We also are friends of the Yul Brenners, who adopted two Vietnamese children. So we decided to go through the same agency in Saigon that helped them.”

Mia Farrow, who has four biological children, started adopting in 1973 with her husband Andre Previn.  After divorcing Previn in 1979, she adopted two children with her partner Woody Allen.  Since the break up of that relationship, she has adopted a further six children (some with disabilities including cerebral palsy and blindness) as a single parent, bringing her total to 11 adopted children. 

In 2001 actress Calista Flockhart adopted a 10 day old boy, whom she named Liam.  Flockhart was single at that time and there was much speculation that her reason for adopting was because she did not want to go through pregnancy, thus losing her size zero body.  She talks back saying, “Choosing to be a single mother can be perceived as brave by some, perhaps foolish by others, but I didn’t think about it one way or the other… I have always wanted to adopt a child, and I am overjoyed that I have been blessed with a beautiful and healthy son”.

George Lucas is an oddity in Hollywood, choosing to adopt and be a single father.  Lucas first adopted a daughter in 1981, whilst married to film editor Marcia Lou Griffin.  However, after Lucas and Griffin divorced in 1983, he went on to adopt two more children as a single dad – Kate in 1988, and Jett in 1993.  Lucas says, “I thought very hard.  ‘Can I do this? Should I do it?’ Kids grow up without mothers, kids grow up without fathers, but it’s better for them to have two parents. I kind of agonized over it, but I’ve never questioned it since. Once you’re a family, those concerns are insignificant. My kids don’t have a perfect life. Their dad is more famous than he should be, and they don’t have a mother, and they just have to get over it. But I’m not sure that in a perfect world it would have been any different. And there is no perfect world.”

Diane Keaton, now 62, adopted her first child (Dexter) as a singled parent in 1996, at the age of 50.  Controversy ensured over what the cut off age of an adoptive parent should be, some labeling her as ‘selfish’ .  Ignoring public opinion, Keaton adopted another child, Duke, in 2001.  Keaton said: “I was not ready before. One of my former lovers said to me: ‘You are a very late developer.’ I think the same applied to motherhood.”

Concerns are rife when it comes to the adopted children of celebrities.  Were they adopted for the right reasons?  Will they have a stable life?  Is the parent too old to keep up?  Are they OK with a single mother?  However, the reasons for celebrity adoption generally appear honest, and quite varied, much like the average persons.  In truth, they have no less reason or right then the general public, and if adoption is a fad, then perhaps it is a beneficial one with more children finding homes. Only time will tell if the craze continues.