John North Editor & Publisher

Color me perplexed over Puerto Rican pop singer Ricky Martin’s recent announcement that he wants kids — adopting “one from each continent,” if possible.

At first blush, I question whether this is an authentic desire to help children and make the world a better place, or if this is trend-following and posturing for favorable media spin to boost Martin’s career.

“It’s something we want to begin to create this year, a family of many colors,” Martin, 35, told reporters last Wednesday in Puerto Rico, where he was scheduled to perform last weekend.

Rather disingenuously, the world-famous celebrity, who is not married (and insists he is heterosexual despite many rumors to the contrary), said he does not expect to receive special treatment in the adoption process. Yeah, sure.
“I want to do it right,” he said. “I don’t want any problems or misunderstandings — some think as celebrities we can manipulate the system to have a quicker adoption.” Indeed, celebrity adoptions seem to be all the rage, as exemplified by Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Gwynneth Paltrow, Sheryl Crow and many others.

While Martin’s song hits sport un-family-friendly names, including “She Bangs,” “Shake Your Bon-Bon” and “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” he does deserve — and certainly takes — credit for starting the Ricky Martin Foundation to help children in need.

Reportedly, Ricky Martin has a longtime Mexican girlfriend, Rebeca de Alba, the comely television and fashion star. However, she has gone on the record to note that they have no wedding plans, although de Alba said that she wants to be a mother soon.

“We have not made any decisions regarding a walk up the altar,” de Alba said. “It’s strange, I’ve never seen myself as a wife in the traditional sense ... I’ve seen myself as a mother much more than as a wife.”

The aforementioned comments by both Martin and de Alba strike me as flaky and self-indulgent, if not immature, and make one wonder what their real intent is.

If both want to have children, why don’t they marry and have their own kids?

Could it be that that neither wants to sacrifice his career, even for a short while, to undergo the demands of parenthood? After all, it’s hard to model designer gowns when one’s belly is swollen with a child. Also, the pelvis-thrusting Martin might lose some of his zest after changing diapers all night.

Whether their desires for children are motivated by altruism and love, or self-interest — or some of each — there is no denying celebrities are jumping on the adoption bandwagon, especially with the cachet of “elevating” children from third-world countries. At the very least, it seems to make celebrities feel better about themselves and their often obscene fortunes.

Besides questioning their true motivation, I worry about the impact on the children.

Certainly, it sounds nice to say that one is aiming to help some impoverished children by adopting them and sharing some of one’s largesse with them.

However, based on recent revelations concerning a number of spoiled celebrities’ children, one wonders if throwing anyone into an extremely prosperous situation, coupled with seldom-seen parents, is in itself a good thing. Money seems to corrupt. Will we just have more Paris Hiltons or Nicole Richies?

Also, I wonder if Martin has given any thought to the effect on cultural diversity, and a child’s sense of identity, when the child is yanked from his or her native culture and transformed into yet another homogenized Hollywood brat.

Ultimately, Martin’s comments have a flavor-of-the-month club feel to them, as he seems to have joined his peers in “shopping” for a veritable rainbow of the world’s children.

The final question is: Does a typically shallow celebrity have the depth of character to be a good parent and to teach children respect for their own culture, while raising them in another?

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John North, publisher and editor of the Daily Planet, may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it