People in the actors' camp announced to the media that Parker, Broderick and six-year-old son James are "happily anticipating the birth of their twin daughters later this summer with the generous help of a surrogate. The entire family is overjoyed."

Exciting news for both Sex and the City actress Sarah, 44, and her husband of almost 12 years. Congratulations for the family rolled in from people all over Hollywood.

Days before the couple was out in their home town of New York at a movie premiere during the Tribeca Film Festival. Sarah was clasped to her husband like white on rice, while a graying Broderick sported a pair of newly grown, rather disturbing sideburns.

I suppose you could read anything into this - or nothing. Is Sarah hanging on to her man for dear life? Are they trying to make a public point after the marriage rumours which dogged them for most of last year? Or are they just a regular, long-term married couple who are lucky enough to be expecting to welcome not one, but two more children into their home in a few months?

I don't think this happy event will make any difference to the persistent gay rumours that have buzzed around Broderick for years. Do you believe? Sometimes I think it's almost impossible to escape if a man in showbiz doesn't dress too shabbily and enjoys working in the theatre (refer: Hugh Jackman).

Interestingly, the affair US tabloids insist he had last year was supposedly with a young woman in her 20s. Yes, a woman. So is he straight and faithful, straight and unfaithful, or gay altogether? Surely it's impossible to be all three simultaneously, so take the rumours with a grain of salt, people.

Of course, the tabloids have already begun their prodding and prying into the babies, and this week a US magazine published what they said were the details on the Brodericks' surrogacy agreement.

I don't want to dilly dally on the couple's success (or lack of) with conceiving. Parker, herself one of seven children, has always spoken of her hopes for a big family. The actress, granted, is 44 years old and as thin as a pin, so the process cannot have been easy.

The twins, reportedly conceived in vitro with Sarah Jessica's previously frozen eggs and Matthew's sperm, are being carried by a 26-year-old divorce and mother of one in the actress' home state of Ohio.

The mag reports she is due to give birth on July 18, and that the couple may be in the delivery room to see their daughters enter the world.

The mother of one is supposedly receiving US$30,000 to carry the twins and has all her medical expenses covered, with the couple also paying US$100,000 to a surrogacy agency based in Los Angeles.

Whatever happens, those twins will be two of the best dressed and most impressively shod little girls in New York City.

Congratulations, Brodericks!

From Russia with love

All of two weeks after his long-suffering wife Robyn filed for divorce, Mel Gibson was snapped out this week at the premiere of X Men Origins: Wolverine hand in hand with girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva.

This Oksana, a 39-year-old mother of a son, Alexander, with former Bond actor Timothy Dalton, was one of three potential Oksanas that the press was frantically trying to pin down as the new woman in Gibson's life.

One, a lounge singer, was happily married and several months pregnant to her husband of many years. Strike one. The next, 24-year-old blonde Oksana Pochepa, claimed she was in a relationship with the star although she didn't look much like the mystery woman snapped with Gibson on a Costa Rican getaway.

"This is serious and I hope that our union will be real and strong and long-lasting," Pochepa told Britain's The Sun.

"We are different people, but Mel is a grown man and knows precisely what he wants and me too - I know what I want."

Turns out that Oksana got her fifteen minutes of publicity through telling a few porkie pies. Strike two. Gibson's real girlfriend is a singer signed to his record label, and strolled at the side of the actor at the Wolverine premiere looking like the cat that got the cream.

Mel Gibson has been in this business for a long time, and I don't believe for a minute that he didn't know about the attention the couple would be getting on the red carpet. He went to steal the show - most un-Australian of him. Although his fellow Aussie, the movie's star Hugh Jackman, is such a good guy he probably wouldn't have minded.

"Mel has been single for almost three years and it's nice to see him getting out and enjoying himself," commented a rep for the actor.

Mercy's father throws his hat in the ring

Madonna's appeal in the disallowed adoption of three-year-old Malawian girl Mercy James is due to be heard on Monday (Tuesday NZ time), but the singer's campaign has hit a snag with news that the child's real father is planning on seeking custody.

James Kambewa left Mercy's mother Mwandida Maunde when she was pregnant with the child and has never met his daughter. Mercy has been living in an orphanage for the past three years, and her maternal grandmother and uncle gave their permission for the superstar to adopt Mercy before a judge

(See more here about Madonna's Malawian adoption campaign.)

Admittedly, not a great start to fatherhood. But what's important is that he wants to be part of his daughter's life, right?

Or I am being naïve? Writing this at the end of the week. As the working week progresses it sort of weakens my bitchy resolve. Catch me on a Friday afternoon, you'll find me as sweet as a kitten.

Mercy's 24-year-old father is seeking a permanent injunction on Madonna's plans to adopt his daughter and, strangely, his simple argument makes a lot of sense.

"She is not an orphan," he told the Daily Mail. She lost one parent, yes, but I am still alive and so she is not an orphan.

"Madonna has millions of dollars but that doesn't make her a good mum. Parental love is more than money."

He continues: "Besides, I don't think Madonna is a model mum. I have seen her in movies of her songs. She doesn't portray good morals.

"How can a woman of 50 dance almost naked on stage? I wouldn't want my daughter to grow up like that! In Malawi women respect themselves. Cultured women do not go about half-naked.

"I also heard after her marriage failed she is already seeing two men, both very younger than her and her ex-husband. I hear one of them is even less than half her age. That's scandalous. How can a normal woman fall for a boy who can as well be her son? No, spare my Mercy that scandal."

Although Madonna's not a normal woman, is she? Madonna wants this child, and Madonna intends to get her. Let's hope the appeal judge lets the adoption decision stand. She has a father who wants to raise her, and that, to me, should be the end of.

There are plenty of children all over the world who need good homes. If Madonna really wants to help (and I don't doubt that she does in her own way), find one.

Spotted

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel out jogging in New York...Pamela Anderson wrapped in a blanket, watching on as her sons played baseball in Malibu...James Gandolfini riding a newly purchased bike in New York City...Pink filming a commercial in Trafalgar Square in front of 15,00 people...Jessica Alba out for breakfast with baby daughter Honor...Holly Madison roller skating in LA...Elle Macpherson and Claudia Schiffer dropping their kids off at the same London school...Billy Ray Cyrus taking the dogs for a walk in Toluca Lakes, California...Zac Efron and his mother Starla arriving at LAX on a flight from Heathrow...Colin Farrell and his girlfriend getting dinner to go from an LA restaurant...Sharon Stone and son Laird visiting a Beverly Hills park...

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