Good on 'er: Support rallies for Madonna's adoption

After a rash of largely negative press coverage of her kind-of legal adoption of Malawian not-quite Orphan David, there's some support starting to gather for Madonna and Guy.

Okay, much of it is coming from Vinnie Jones, but it's a start.

Vinnie denied it would have all been done on a whim:

“If you knew them, they probably wanted to adopt every one of those children at the orphanage.

“They don’t just wake in the morning and think, ‘Let’s do this today.’ They will have completely thought it all over.

“They’ve done a fantastic thing that should be applauded. They are the best thing that could have happened to the boy. It’s a massive thing they’ve done.

“It’s very bold. I’d love to do it but the way I’m working, it wouldn’t be fair.”

Vinnie, you'll note, doesn't say "they've been talking about adoption for years", just that he can't imaging they would have not given it some serious thought

Which, to be fair, is what most of those wondering at rush believe, too. That Madonna has been thinking about doing this ever since, ooh, Angelina did it. (Or, more likely, after she basked in the post-Live 8 front pages.)

Angelina and Brad are helping, too, apparently:

"Brad and Angelina know all about the adoption and have been helping Madonna and Guy in every way they can. They know how important it is to them and how difficult the process can be," the Daily Mail quoted the friend as saying.

Yes, those awkward "how much does the donation have to be before we can skirt round these 'archaic' laws" conversations are so wearing, aren't they?

More support comes from the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson:

I've been trying to figure out the difference between celebrity foreign adoption and regular-person foreign adoption, and I can't find any. Cross-cultural and cross-racial adoption is always fraught with complicated, nuanced issues, and those issues are the same whether the adoptive mother is Madonna or somebody you've never heard of.

Robinson has already detailed how Madonna's trip had got lavish coverage from Hello and bypassed the usual rules, which would start out by being the difference here. And, normally, most people sort out the paperwork before taking the child home - for all the protestations to the contrary, it seems Madonna didn't:

It has also been revealed that the "Material Girl" singer has reportedly hired a U.S. adoption agency to adopt the 13-month-old Malawian boy, amidst fears that British authorities could try to stop her from becoming his mother.

So this was planned, and approved, months ago and yet Madonna hadn't even decided if she was going to adopt through the US or the UK?

Meanwhile, the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation is seeking an injuction ordering David's return today; contradicting the AP reports of David's father being happy with the adoption, the Centre claims that Yohane didn't understand what he was doing when he agreed the process.

Whatever your position on the adoption, it's hard not to feel a pang of sympathy for Madonna, though, on hearing she's been bearded by the UK's least funny man:

Madonna was yesterday targeted by "comedy terrorist" Aaron Barschak who gatecrashed Prince William's 21st birthday party in 2003.

As she left a London gym Barschak, 40, in a nappy, yelled at her car: "Mummy adopt me, make me part of your family."

She should call his bluff.

music madonna vinnie jones