Amazing what a little star power can do to win friends in high places.
Just days after the Madonna held a star-studded benefit in New York to raise millions for UNICEF and her own Raising Malawi charity, a government minister in that African country is now lending her support to the pop queen's efforts to win final approval in her adoption of the Malawian-born David Banda.
"This country owes her so much. Very few famous people would take their time off to rally other celebrities to raise money for a poor country like Malawi, which very few people know about," Information Minister Patricia Kaliati told Reuters.
The Material Mom is scheduled to go before a Malawian adoption court in April. At that time there should be a ruling on whether she'll be able to take permanent custody of the two-year-old David. The tyke was just a toddler in October 2006, when Madonna and Guy Ritchie quietly initiated adoption proceedings after announcing plans to help build an orphanage there.
The high-profile adoption sparked controversy after human-rights groups complained that the "Causing a Commotion" singer received special treatment and skirted Malawi's adoption laws.
Activists said officials failed to follow their own rules and fast-tracked the adoption process by granting the couple interim custody of David without requiring them to live in the country for at least one year to assess their suitability as adoptive parents.
The law also mandates that Malawi monitor David's integration into the new family, something officials have had trouble doing once Madonna took the boy to live with her in London. In one instance, the court-appointed social worker assigned to check on David's welfare was denied permission to travel to the U.K. by Malawi's government because his trip was being paid for by Madonna. Officials wanted to avoid even the slightest appearance of impropriety.
Then came last Thursday's highly publicized fundraiser. The dinner and live auction, which drew such A-listers as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Amy Adams, Chris Rock and Salma Hayek, raised $3.7 million tol help UNICEF and Raising Malawi improve the lives of poor children worldwide including the estimated 1 million Malawian children orphaned by Africa's AIDS crisis.
The event apparently won over Kaliati.
"It will be wrong for Malawi to even dare deny this wonderful woman all the rights to be a parent of David and many Malawian children," the minister said.