Spare some sympathy for Madonna. Not a lot, mind you. Celebrities are better cushioned against life's slings and arrows than the rest of us, and the flamboyant U.S.-turned-British pop star is a super-mega-celebrity. Still, the pillorying she has suffered in recent weeks is unreasonable.
Anyone would think the woman had incorporated into her latest concert tour a routine in which she sings while hanging on a mirrored cross, wearing a crown of thorns.
Oh, wait, she did do that. So there's actually plenty to pillory -- but we'll get back to that. That's not what the true-blue Madonna Haters are up in arms about just now. The thing that has really focused their attention is her frivolous, selfish wish to adopt a 13-month-old, motherless Malawian boy whose dirt-poor father had turned him over to an orphanage. How shocking is that?