I heart Liz Smith & her article “NURTURING THE WORLD”

“If magazines are crazy enough to pay upwards of $15 or $20 million for photos of Angie’s infants, I say, you go girl! What have these critics and pundits done for the world’s sick, starving and abused? Yeah, I thought so.”

“P.S. And if magazines are crazy enough to pay upwards of $15 or $20 million for photos of Angie’s infants, I say, you go girl! This money is funneled to her various charities. Let the media howl. What have these critics and pundits done for the world’s sick, starving and abused? Yeah, I thought so.”

(part of the article is the Battle of Heroic Hospital Staff vs. Scum of the Earth, umm, I mean the Paparazzi)

NURTURING THE WORLD — July 15, 2008

‘SOME PEOPLE seem compelled by unkind fate to parental servitude for life. There is no form of penal servitude worse than this,” said 19th century novelist Samuel Butler.
Mr. Butler never married, never had children, and could never have anticipated the likes of Angelina Jolie. Miss Jolie is the Mia Farrow of the 21st century, gathering up and bearing children willy-nilly, nurturing the world. (Of course, Josephine Baker did it all long before Mia and Angie.)

Jolie finally gave birth to her twins over the weekend. I say “finally” because as many of you know, “Entertainment Tonight” insisted more than a month ago that Jolie had already delivered, spawning media hysteria and confusion when the star appeared in public, obviously still in the gravid state. So it only seems that Jolie has been pregnant forever. “ET” finally fessed-up on July 2.

By then it had become something of a parlor game – when would they concede Jolie had not yet given birth? Would they ever? Eh, they were anxious to give the world happy news. In this time of global trauma, who can blame them?

NOW, EVERYBODY in the universe is thrilled for Angie and Brad. And that includes the employees at Nice’s Lenval Hospital, where Jolie delivered. But, they’ll be happier once the famous star is gone. Oh, no. Not that she was a problem. She’s a doll, personally. But the entire staff of the hospital was exhausted by the intense media interest. Journalists leapt out of bushes, lurked in dark corners, begging for scraps of gossip. This begging came with astronomical financial offers. The good people at Lenval – a 133-bed establishment – were being worn down. Even the extra security didn’t cool the heat. (Hollywood hospitals, such as Cedars-Sinai, leak like a sieve. If you are hospitalized in Tinseltown, your records and even your meals are likely to be up on the Internet by the end of the day.)

However, facilities around the world should stay on high alert, perhaps perform “Angelina Jolie drills.” The beautiful actress has already said she’s not through baby-making.

P.S. And if magazines are crazy enough to pay upwards of $15 or $20 million for photos of Angie’s infants, I say, you go girl! This money is funneled to her various charities. Let the media howl. What have these critics and pundits done for the world’s sick, starving and abused? Yeah, I thought so.

CELEB BABY PHOTOS – THE END OF CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT

#1 More than $11 million (speculation runs up to $50M !!!) – Knox Leon & Vivienne Marcheline

#2 $6 million – Max & Emme Anthony

#3 $4.1 million – Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt

#4 $3 million – Levi Alves McConaughey

#5 (tie)
$2 million – Dannielynn Smith

#5 (tie)
$2 million – Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt

#7 (tie)
$1.5 million – Max Liron Bratman

#7 (tie)
$1.5 million – Honor Marie Warren

#9 (tie)
$1 million – Harlow Winter Kate Madden

#9 (tie)
$1 million – Maddie Briann Aldridge

About the babies weights. I think 5 lbs is good for twins. Together they were a little more than 10 lbs. Pretty big. Also they were very close in weight. I am glad that it was a boy and girl. I know that if it were two girls, they would be compared to each other all the time, just like Mary Kate and Ashley. By them being opposite sexes, they get to be treated induvidually by the outside world.

Celeb Baby Photo Exclusives, Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick, Tom/Katie/Suri, Nicole/Keith/Sunday Rose

I like how Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick handled it. They let the media know there’d be a photo-op when they left the hospital; since the paps/photogs got the same non-exclusive photo, they didn’t make money off it. Lainey & Page Six report that Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban wanted $3Million, but the tabs didn’t want to pay that much (especially since Nicole isn’t as popular now). When I heard that Nicole wasn’t going to make Sunday Rose’s photos available, I did think that Nicole’s UN project could have benefited (“Ex.Dir. Sandler emphasized the need to scale up funding for the UNIFEM-managed United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women”), or that Nicole & Keith could make a sizable donation in honor of their daughter. Tom, Katie & Suri posed for Vogue (?) for free; it was rumored they didn’t want Suri’s photos to go for less than Shiloh’s.

There’s been lots of talk before & since the twins’ births about celeb baby photos. An article said baby covers used to be only 2-3 times a year (e.g., Princess Diana’s 1st baby), now it’s almost weekly. While I respect those who decide not to go the exclusive baby photos route – like Liz Smith & Rachel Giese, I believe that if anyone’s going to make money on these baby pics, it shouldn’t be the paps/tabloids – it should be the charities.