Rant - Babies For Sale?
I'm bothered by the bidding wars waged between tabloid magazines for picture rights to the newborn babies of celebrity parents.With the recent Brangelina baby births, which I'm sure we've ALL heard about given just how much coverage the news has been getting, the only other topic more important than the birth of the twins seems to be which publication will get first crack at pictures of the newborn infants! It's nuts!
Even worse is when parents oblige, essentially prostituting their children, who, by the way, have absolutely no say whatsoever in the decision, asking for millions of dollars, as we saw in Jennifer Lopez's case, when she and husband Marc Anthony were reportedly paid a cummulative $6 Million for pictures of their twins earlier this year. Christina Aguilera sold her child's pictures for a reported $1.5 million; Nicole Richie received $1 million for shots of her baby... and the list goes on. I don't recall if Halle Berry or Nicole Kidman made any similar irresponsible decisions... but this is certainly nothing new.
Ok. Fine. Yes, I understand. The tabloids are relentless, unforgiving, and will do almost anything to get the stories that they want, even if it means implementing something immoral or unethical. And they'll likely have their aggressive paparazzi photographers taunt each celebrity parent until the coveted photos are acquired, whether by the parents' eventual submission, or via other illogical, acrobatic stunts. It's a competitive industry - a magazine getting an exclusive story or photo could mean a dramatic increase in sales. So, if you're a parent with child, it's probably wisest to simply give them what they want, at a price of course, so as to avoid certain molestation. I get it.
However, I suggest the following: if you are a J-Lo or Nicole Richie, or whomever, and you do decide to essentially play pimp to your kids for a few million dollars, at the very least, do the *right* thing and give all the money away to those who actually need it - whether it's your favorite charity, or the homeless shelter on that other side of town that you rarely, if ever, drive through.
It's unfortunate to think that any of these parents would pocket the money paid to them for the sale of their voiceless childrens' images - images that the entire world will see! It's tacky, and just simply wrong!
So, don't do it. Or, if you choose to do it, donate the money - all of it - as Brangelina Jolie-Pitt did when they sold pictures of their son, Shiloh, to People Magazine for $4 million a few years ago, and gave all the proceeds of the sale to charitable causes. I certainly hope they'll continue that trend with whatever amount they are paid for first dib snaps of the two newborn twins.
It would be wonderful if others will follow their lead.
