The hoopla around the birth of Tom and Katie's brand new kitten (Suri!) may be the most watched celebrity nativity of our time: Tom's going to eat the placenta! She has to suck a pacifier! But they are hardly the first celebrities to have the birth of their child right smack in the center of the media spotlight.

 

Here then, for some perspective, is a list of 10 other notable celebrity parents and the stories of how they got their buns out of the oven and into the limelight.

 

1. Alexa Rae Joel January 1, 1986

 

In a jokey attempt to dodge the merely semi-vicious paparazzi, mom Christie Brinkley and dad Billy Joel donned Groucho Marx glasses as they left the New York Hospital with newborn Alexa.

 

2. Rene Charles Angelil January 25, 2001

 

Nothing was simple about young Rene's birth. Celine Dion and her considerably older husband Rene Angelil turned to scientists to help them conceive partially because of Dion's fertility issues, partially because Angelil had been diagnosed with cancer. When the baby did come (three weeks early) Angelil hatched an elaborate escape plan for Dion involving two decoy limos parked at the front entrance and doctor's entrance and a fake Celine dressed in large straw hat and cape carrying a doll. Mom, Dad, and baby made their escape in a black Mercedes parked by the loading dock.

 

3. Dakota Johnson October 4, 1989

 

Melanie Griffith — flush from her success in "Working Girl" — gave birth in Austin, Texas where husband Don Johnson was filming the Dennis Hopper-directed film "Hot Spot." Johnson arrived at the hospital in a helicopter, but the couple left by pick-up truck. Officials at Brackenridge Hospital kept tight security, although the Austin American-Statesman reported "fans and well-wishers were nowhere to be seen."

 

4. Prince Michael Jackson Jr. February 13, 1997

 

The son of Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe, (formerly a nurse in Jackson's dermatologist's office), Prince Jackson's birth was shrouded in rumors and mystery. Some tabloids reported that moments after the birth Jackson whispered to his wife "don't get too attached." Other claimed Rowe was artificially inseminated and that Jackson paid her between $500,000 and $1.24 million to carry the baby. What appears to be true is that six uniformed guards stood watch in the lobby to keep the media out and that other guards were posted in the maternity unit.

 

5. Lourdes October 14, 1996

 

Madonna is the kind of lady who sticks to her guns, but during the birth things did not go to according to plan. She had hoped to have a natural childbirth, huffing and puffing to the soundtrack of Alan Rudolph film "The Moderns." But when hours later she was still in pain and showing no signs of progress, her doctor suggested a cesarean. She reluctantly agreed and soon found herself heavily sedated and being wheeled toward the delivery room. "Goodbye, everyone," she said. "I'm going to get my nose job now."

 

6. Apple Blythe Alison Martin May 14, 2004

 

Hippy-dippy Gwyneth Paltrow planned to have baby Apple at home, but was advised against it by her midwife, so she and husband Chris Martin checked into St. John and St. Elizabeth Hospital in London. It was a long labor, but Gwynnie refused to take any medication according to a friend of the couple. Natural childbirth worked out for her. Gwyneth left the hospital the following day, and the couple took a very public well-photographed stroll with baby just two days after the labor.

 

7. Desi Arnaz Jr. January 19, 1953

 

When Lucille Ball became pregnant in 1952, women with bulging bellies were still expected to spend most of their time out of the public eye. Not one to sit back quietly, the fiery red head instead made the unprecedented decision to write the pregnancy into "I Love Lucy" — although the scripts had to be reviewed by a priest, a minister, and a rabbi to be sure they were inoffensive. When the Ricardo's TV son Ricky was born, more people watched the episode than watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

 

8. Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter November 28, 2004

 

Twins run in Julia Roberts' family, so it was no surprise to Roberts and her husband of two years, camera operator Danny Moder, when the bump in her belly belied two babies rather than one. Roberts did not experience any of the usual aches and pains of pregnancy — no morning sickness, swollen ankles, leg cramps or complications — except for being on bed rest for six weeks, just before the film Closer was about to be released. She had to do interviews from her home.

 

9. Sean Tara Ono Lennon October 9, 1975

 

The baby who turned a rock legend into a house-husband was born on his father's 35th birthday. Coincidence? Some think not. Some fans believe that Lennon's wife Yoko Ono induced the birth a month early. After Sean was born Lennon disappeared for five years to dote on his son while Ono threw herself into real estate.

 

10. Sean Preston Federline September 14, 2005

 

Kevin Federline had been through this before, but for wife Britney Spears, her first experience with labor was going to be luxe all the way. In addition to the pop star's fifth floor $3,000/night UCLA Medical Center room (complete with tented balcony — of course), her family and security team took up an additional seven rooms on the floor. Britney also had a private chef in a kitchen adjacent to her hospital suite to make whatever she requested.

 

 

Deborah Netburn for latimes.com

Crap...look at the Celine Dion one..

what about it? :huh: