People: Water seemed natural to Lake
Ricki Lake is firing back at physicians groups that have singled her out for bringing attention to at-home childbirth.
In “The Business of Being Born,” her new documentary about the maternity care system, Lake is shown giving birth in the bathtub of her Manhattan apartment to her second son, Owen, who turned 7 on Wednesday.
As a result, the 39-year-old actress and former talk-show host is named in a statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that says the home is not the safest setting for having a baby.
“This is not unlike the abortion issue,” says Lake. “I am pro-choice when it comes to childbirth and choices in birth. Home birth was around long before hospitals were taking over.”
Lake says she had no problems delivering her oldest son Milo, 11, at the hospital. But so long as her second pregnancy continued to be low-risk, she decided to give birth at home.
“I was empowered, I was transformed and I would love for women to have had that opportunity – to be an active participant in their own birth choices and birth experience,” she says.
With kid gloves?
Elsewhere on the celebrity baby beat:
“Jessica Alba, who co-stars in the new Mike Meyers movie “The Love Guru,” plans to practice tough love with her newborn daughter.
“I don’t want to be my child’s best friend,” Alba says. “I want to be a mom. But I do want my child to come to me when they have problems and need to talk, so it’s going to be about treading that line.”
“”Project Runway” host Heidi Klum says that she and musician husband Seal, who have sons ages 2 and 19 months, aren’t done yet. “I feel like we still have one coming,” Klum says.
“Angelina Jolie plans to get her older children involved after her twins are born: “They’re old enough to feel included to change diapers themselves, to feed bottles themselves, like if I pump into a bottle. We’re trying to find ways where it can be a fun group thing.”
Just Jenny from the block
Students at a Staten Island, New York, elementary school for autistic children liked Jennifer Lopez‘s video for “Let’s Get Loud” so much that they wanted to watch it every day, learning the lyrics and the dance moves.
They even wrote to Lopez, hoping for pictures or an autograph.
Instead, she stopped by Tuesday to perform the song for a group of eight 10- and 11-year-olds at their graduation ceremony.
Returned to vendor
Celebrity psychic Uri Geller and two partners have lost a federal lawsuit claiming the owners of Elvis Presley‘s pre-Graceland home in Memphis breached an eBay contract to sell it.
A U.S. district judge ruled that the online auction was more an advertising vehicle than a binding sale. Even if it was a contract, he added, Geller and his partners breached it when they altered the closing terms after the sale.
The birthday bunch
Actress Gena Rowlands is 78. Actress Phylicia Rashad is 60. Singer Ann Wilson (Heart) is 58. Actress Kathleen Turner is 54. “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul is 46. Actress Robin Tunney is 36. Actress Poppy Montgomery (“Without a Trace”) is 33. Actor Paul Dano (“Little Miss Sunshine”) is 24.