Madonna says criticism over her adoption of a Malawian boy hurt so much that she compared it to birthing pains.
“It was painful, and it was a big struggle, and I didn’t understand it,” Madonna told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival last week. “But in the end I rationalized that, when a woman has a child and goes through natural childbirth, she suffers an enormous amount.
“So I sort of went through my own kind of birthing pains with dealing with the press on my front doorstep accusing me of kidnapping or whatever you want to call it,” she said.
PHOTO: AFP
Madonna was at the Cannes Film Festival to attend a gala benefit dinner for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and to show I Am Because We Are, a documentary she produced and narrated that shows poverty, AIDS and other diseases devastating Malawi’s children.
Madonna, 49, has been raising David Banda, now 2, since 2006, when she met him while in the southern African nation establishing charity projects there.
Critics have said Madonna used her celebrity status to circumvent Malawian adoption laws — allegations she denies. Malawian law is fuzzy on foreign adoptions. Regulations only stipulate that prospective parents undergo an 18-to-24-month assessment period in Malawi, a rule that was bent when Madonna was allowed to take David to London.
PHOTO: EPA
The singer said she was “happy to be the guinea pig” for Malawian adoptions.
“Hopefully, after we get through this adoption, it will be easier for people to adopt children,” she said.
David’s mother died when he was a month old. His father has said he believed he could not care for him alone and that placing him in an orphanage was the best way to ensure David’s survival. The father has said he did not object to Madonna adopting David.
In California, a judge who is waiting for a state Supreme Court decision on whether he will preside over Phil Spector’s second murder trial went ahead on Thursday and scheduled it to begin in September.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said a trial date is needed, whether he presides or not. Lawyers for the music producer are challenging Fidler on grounds that he is biased against Spector.
Spector’s first trial ended in September with a deadlocked jury.
Spector, famed for his revolutionary “Wall of Sound” recording technique, is accused of killing actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion on Feb. 3, 2003.
Fidler set a trial date of Sept. 29, and also set a hearing on motions for July 29.
Spector’s lawyer said it would be a week or two before the Supreme Court makes a decision.
Clarkson, 40, best known for her role in the cult film Barbarian Queen, was working as a hostess at the House of Blues when she met Spector and went home with him.
Spector, 69, attended Thursday’s hearing with his wife, Rachelle.
He was decked out in one of his signature frock-coat suits and wearing a large button on his lapel that read “Obama Rocks.” Clarkson’s mother, sister and a family lawyer sat in the front row of the courtroom. They are waiting for resolution of the criminal case before they pursue a wrongful-death lawsuit against Spector.
In its Supreme Court brief, the defense argued that Fidler’s rulings toward the end of the first trial were designed to ensure Spector’s conviction, in part to counter media reports that a celebrity could not be convicted in a Los Angeles court. Fidler has denied that and turned down a bid to remove himself from the second trial.
In another court decision, Wesley Snipes will be allowed to remain free on bail as he appeals three federal tax convictions.
Judge William Terrell Hodges granted Snipes’ motion for bail on Thursday pending appeal of his case, saying Snipes doesn’t pose a flight risk and is not a threat to the community.
The 45-year-old actor was sentenced last month to three years in prison on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file his income tax returns.
Snipes’ attorneys plan to argue before the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals that the trial judge erred in several ways before and after his February conviction.
Snipes, the star of the Blade trilogy, White Men Can’t Jump, Jungle Fever and other films, hasn’t filed a tax return since 1998, the government alleged.
Last month historian Stephen Wertheim of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published an opinion piece in the New York Times with suggestions for an “America First” foreign policy for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Of course China and Taiwan received a mention. “Under presidents Trump and Biden,” Wertheim contends, “the world’s top two powers have descended into open rivalry, with tensions over Taiwan coming to the fore.” After complaining that Washington is militarizing the Taiwan issue, he argues that “In truth, Beijing has long proved willing to tolerate the island’s self-rule so long as Taiwan does not declare independence
Big changes are afoot in global politics, which that are having a big impact on the global order, look set to continue and have the potential to completely reshape it. In my previous column we examined the three macro megatrends impacting the entire planet: Technology, demographics and climate. Below are international trends that are social, political, geopolitical and economic. While there will be some impact on Taiwan from all four, it is likely the first two will be minor, but the second two will likely change the course of Taiwan’s history. The re-election of Donald Trump as president of the US
Nov. 25 to Dec. 1 The Dutch had a choice: join the indigenous Siraya of Sinkan Village (in today’s Tainan) on a headhunting mission or risk losing them as believers. Missionaries George Candidus and Robert Junius relayed their request to the Dutch governor, emphasizing that if they aided the Sinkan, the news would spread and more local inhabitants would be willing to embrace Christianity. Led by Nicolaes Couckebacker, chief factor of the trading post in Formosa, the party set out in December 1630 south toward the Makatao village of Tampsui (by today’s Gaoping River in Pingtung County), whose warriors had taken the
The Mountains to Sea National Greenway (山海圳國家綠道) draws its name from the idea that each hiker starting at the summit of Jade Mountain (玉山) and following the trail to the coast is like a single raindrop. Together, many raindrops form life and prosperity-bringing waterways. Replicating a raindrop’s journey holds poetic beauty, but all hikers know that climbing is infinitely more appealing, and so this installment picks up where the last one left off — heading inland and uphill along the 49.8-kilometer Canal Trail (大圳之路) — second of the Greenway’s four sections. A detailed map of the trail can be found