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Although I won’t hold my breath, this new development in the Angelina adoption saga is one I approve of heartily. Admittedly, I have taken a few jabs at Angelina – more than a few and am still not ready to join her fan club. (You know that she must have a few of those, at least.)
It isn’t just her handling of her adoptions that does not endear her to me. All her bizzarre behavior over the years has just been too much for me. I don’t read movie magazines or tabloids, but I have seen her on television news with some of her odder moments. To hear about Angelina, you need not read tabloids; she is on Yahoo News. Although I do not believe all that I read, I do believe some of it. When I see her on making comments on television; I do assume that her comments are real.
It seems Angie thinks staying out of the limelight might be a good idea, especially because little Pax was so riled by the media attention surrounding his adoption, that he broke into tears during his first meeting with the mega-star.
Since I have blogged about some of the negative aspects of Ms. Jolie’s adoptions, I thought it only fair to report something positive. Not that I need to be fair necessarily, but I will give her some credit for realizing that spending some time at home with her children might be a good idea. I know her charitable works are praiseworthy as well; I have always acknowledged that fact. It’s just the way she’s handling her adoptions that I find hard to take.
Adoption-happy Angelina Jolie told a Vietnamese newspaper that she’ll be staying at home with her kids for awhile to help the new passenger on the adoption wagon, Pax Thien, adjust to life in America.
Although I believe that it is sometimes difficult for celebrities to avoid the press and bad hype, I know that some stars manage to do so. That tells me that it is not impossible to avoid the limelight. She has also acknowledged that she feels badly about the press coverage surrounding her latest adoption. I am pleased that Angelina is seemingly realizing that for her children’s sake; she should try to spend more time with them, and minimize the public exposure.
I too thought it was cool that she will be staying at home for a lil’ while with the kids.
Jan, I have been following your blog with interest and rather than going back and commenting to each separate entry, I’ll just put everything here.
I don’t follow Angelina Jolie’s work; I’m probably a little old to be part of her fan base. However, media coverage of her life has been pretty comprehensive and I am aware of certain details of her life, including her having been virtually abandoned by her own father, Jon Voigt, her wild child ways and questionable adoption methods.
As far as her qualifications to adopt, which you have questioned because of her wild past, I would urge you to consider that people can mature and change. Given an inkling about the sad circumstances of AJs own upbringing, its not surprising to me that she had some difficulty as she entered young adulthood. Consider that at some point she had an epiphany and saw another path for her life that allowed her to grow up and change. I think the public should accept that she has grown up and changed and is now doing positive things with her life instead of continuing to throw stones at her for her “reckless youth”. AJs recent decision to become a stay at home mom demonstrates an unselfish and mature understanding of the needs of the children in her care. We should recognize that this is the who she is today and leave the past behind.
Personally, I don’t care whether or not she used her money to rush her adoption along and I’m not sure why that shocks anyone. Money and celebrity regularly get people to the heads of lines in our society and always have. While I understand that’s not just, it’s old news and I’ve long accepted that there’s little anyone is going to do to change that. I would care if I knew for sure that she had bypassed the kinds of safeguards that are in place to ensure that PAPs are able to meet the needs of a child.
The issue that most concerns me is the circumstances surrounding the adoption of Maddox, her son from Cambodia. I am not going to explicate what my understanding of those circumstances is. I may have it wrong and it don’t want to perpetuate rumors. Anyway, I think that since there are questions, AJ should issue a statement of explanation. I also think that if there is a birthfamily out there, she should reach out to them and establish a connection for Maddox’s sake.
Thomasina – it has occurred to me that if I believe that birth moms can change, AJ can too. I hope that she has, for the sake of her children.
As long as she has done her homework and knows what she is getting into… That’s all that matters to me. I doubt they’d allow her to adopt without taking some sort of… course or something, and educating her on what could come up in the future. It frustrates me if people are too casual about adopting, thinking that a baby would be easier to deal with or that an older child is ideal because they don’t have to deal with diapers…But hopefully she has evolved.
I think the media should step back and just allow her time to grow and mature with her family and she also should not adopt right away after adopting her child from Vietnam until he’s settled and stuff…..