MADONNA: MILLION DOLLAR BABIES

22 November, 2006 by The_Boss

ITV1 Thursday 7th December 2006 10:00pm to 10:30pm

Madonna’s adoption of a baby boy from Malawi commanded worldwide attention and controversy. Was the new addition to her family a gallant attempt to reach out and save a child’s life, while giving publicity to a country’s impoverished plight? Or an attempt to re-brand a celebrity and create a much needed diversion in a flagging career?

Madonna: Million Dollar Babies tries to find out. And, as the programme shows, celebrity adoptions are nothing new. Starting with Mia Farrow and Woody Allen back in the 1970s, more recently stars such as Angelina Jolie, Meg Ryan and Ewan McGregor have followed suit and the trend seems to be growing.

But it was Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie’s decision to take David Banda from a Malawi mud hut to Marble Arch that captured the world’s attention and a torrent of negative headlines. Madonna is one of the most famous women in the world and a master of spin. So why was this simple philanthropic gesture, her and Guy Ritchie's desire for a baby, and a humanitarian act meant to highlight the plight of one of the poorest African countries, so spectacularly backfire on the couple?

As Madonna: Million Dollar Babies shows, this adoption - with its media circus and fanfare - was very different to other stars who have adopted and kept it private. Many people don’t even know that Meg Ryan and Ewan McGregor have adopted – yet we know every last detail of the process the Ritchies have been through.

And this process seems to have been the deciding factor in the way her actions have been perceived in the court of world opinion. The way she fast tracked the system; the confusing statements about whether he really was an orphan or whether he had a father and grandmother; the mix up over the passports; leaving it up to her nanny to bring her new son home to London and her visits to the gym when the media were expecting her to be at home with her precious baby.

The couple have attempted to show the positive side to their adoption with a whirlwind tour of TV studios in the US and UK and interviews on Oprah and Newsnight. They’ve also announced that they intend to raise nearly £2m for projects supporting HIV/AIDS and orphanages in Malawi.

Madonna: Million Dollar Babies follows the superstar to Manhattan where, besieged by paparazzi, she attempts to give her side of the story in a series of carefully controlled high profile television appearances.

The programme talks to critics and supporters of her decision to adopt a baby from a developing country, as well as journalists who traveled to Malawi to interview David’s father Yohane Banda. Celebrity journalists close to Madonna and Guy Ritchie give an insight into the couple’s thinking and try to put into context what they did and why it has backfired so spectacularly. Paparazzi and pundits explain how Madonna operates and how her image control has failed to present the adoption in the best possible light. And her fans and ordinary people tell the programme what they think.