Courtesy:People Magazine
Talk about being blindsided. Today, every celebrity probably is thinking the same thing: If Sandra Bullock can do it, why can't I?
Not just adopt a baby — movie stars have been doing that for decades (e.g. Joan Crawford). Not just adopting an African-American baby — celebrities have adopted babies of different races before, too (e.g. Angelina Jolie). It was even the plot of Bullock's latest movie, The Blind Side.
No, what Bullock did, as People magazine revealed Wednesday, was pull off one of the most amazing coups in the history of celebrity media: She adopted a baby from New Orleans and took him home in secret in January, despite being in the white-hot spotlight for her hit movie, winning a best-actress Academy Award and suffering through a failing marriage.
Somehow, as reporters gawked at Bullock, 45, and cheating husband Jesse James outside their home in Los Angeles and her other home in Austin, they failed to notice the baby carriage slipping in by the back door?
"I wish I knew how she did it, and then maybe I'd learn for the next time!" half-jokes Brandy Navarre, vice president of the paparazzi agency X17. "It's a mystery to us how she was able to avoid us and the rest of the media."
Says Linda Bell Blue, executive producer of Entertainment Tonightand The Insider."We got blindsided, didn't we?"
"What's interesting is that she was dropping hints along the way — in her Oscar speech she wanted to thank 'all the moms who take care of babies and children no matter where they come from,' " Bell Blue says. Also, she says, by allowing pictures of the baby in People, Bullock has reduced the price tag and competition for photos of him.(People does pay for photos. However, the magazine does not discuss the specifics of any deal.)
"It's a remarkable, impressive head fake," says longtime Hollywood PR consultant Michael Levine. "I'm astounded because celebs have zero privacy in the modern world. I don't know how she did it, but I tip my hat to her."
Even Bullock was stunned. "I don't know how we got away with it," she told People, which reported that Bullock told only a few friends and relatives and employed CIA tactics such as "decoys and dark cars." After a four-year adoption process, she and soon-to-be-ex-husband James brought the infant boy home to Los Angeles in January and named him Louis (for Louis Armstrong), and even held a bris (Jewish circumcision ceremony) but kept it under wraps until after the Oscars in early March.
"We didn't want Louis pulled into the awards season energy," she told People. "I wanted him all to myself."
By Maria Puente, USA TODAY
Read more on: http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2010-04-29-bullock29_CV_N.htm
Janet> Wow! Maybe other celebs need to take tips from Sandra Bullock on how to cheat the papprazzi. What do you think about Sandra's decision to adopt? I think she makes a really good mother.
Posted on April 29th, 2010 by janetsolomon
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