People magazine paid $15 million for pictures of two newborns so young that they look like every most other newborns of their age and race. At least the money will go to charity. That's all. [MG]

• The Root dedicated its editorial space to black fathers today. [The Root]

• Last night's disaster of a game (if you're a Laker fan) drove Kobe Bryant to drink. [TMZ]

• Mike Tyson makes my head hurt. [PH]

• Office fans: Rashida Jones could be starring in a spinoff of the NBC comedy. [E!]

• Alicia Keys wants to adopt a multicultural group of kids just like Angelina Jolie! [SP]

Angelina Jolie in Vanity Fair:
"Brad got me this great thing for Christmas. It’s a bookshelf that has a book on every religion. That’s how we plan to raise our kids. Teach them about all religions. They can pick one or be a student of all of them. We’ll celebrate Kwanzaa for our girl. We’ll celebrate moon and water festivals for our boys. We’ll take them to temples in certain countries. Also to church."

Let's hope the Kwanzaa thing is because Zahara is now an African American and not because someone thinks it's an Ethiopian holiday.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT A new study from the University of Liverpool suggests that "Madonna-style adoptions" — high-profile, international adoptions that probably should be called Angelina-style adoptions — have produced more orphans instead of reducing the number. Here's how — in EU countries, the numbers of institutionalized children has increased, supposedly because celebs have influenced more people to seek international adoptions. 'Child Psychologist, Professor Kevin Browne, said: "Some argue that international adoption is, in part, a solution to the large number of children in institutional care, but we have found the opposite is true. Closely linked to the Madonna-effect, we found that parents in poor countries are now giving up their children in the belief that they will have a 'better life in the west' with a more wealthy family."' So more orphans all around? Bummer. [Telegraph]

• Gabby gets work! Gabrielle Union has joined Beyonce and Adrien Brody in Cadillac Records. [IESB]

• A judge just okayed a $24 million settlement to 10,000 black Walgreens employees who were discriminated against. [KCS]

• I think I'm going to have to see this non-racist tea "advert." [UKP]

• Here's some bright, sunshiny listening material to get your morning going. [NPR]

• The "who are the candidates distantly related to?" game has gotten really old. Does knowing that Barack Obama is related to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is related to Hillary Clinton do anything for you? [AP]

Robert Downey Jr is in blackface for his new role in the Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder. Before you summarily condemn him, note that unlike the Afrocentric Angelina Jolie's turn in A Mighty Heart, Downey Jr isn't portraying a character of color; he's playing a white actor named Kirk Lazarus who's stupidly cast as a black soldier. To us, it's almost as if Thunder is making fun of Jolie. Whaddya think?

Gabby Union's back to blaming the blogs for her bad press. She told AOL Black Voices that she wishes blogs would focus on the work she does in the community as much as they focus on her personal life. Unfortunately, I think one of the only stars that gets anything close to that sort of preferential treatment is Angelina Jolie, and, even then, the scale is definitely tipped.

In other words, Union will probably need to come to grips with the fact that if the blogs aren't writing about who she's dating and what she did the night before, they're probably not writing about her at all.

The NAACP Image Award nominations are out, and although every black person who appeared on screen this year seems to have been nominated, The Great Debaters, Girlfriends, and Everybody Hates Chris. The TV and Movie nominations are after the jump (you can find the literature and music categories here), but here's a little tidbit to whet your palate. Angelina Jolie was nominated for her role in A Mighty Heart, which goes to show that the NAACP Image Awards are fair game for people of color and people who impersonate people of color in their films. Man, have we come a long way in the entertainment biz!

CONTINUED »

• Here are some reasons why it's best Beyonce and Jay-Z have an intimate, family-only wedding. [TR]

• I sort of feel bad for the future winners of this year's Golden Globes now that the show's been canceled. Unless one of those winners is Angelina Jolie, in which case I'm kind of like, whatever. [MG]

• You might not think you care that Mary J. Blige is letting you vote on her Myspace page for the song you want to become her next single. But if given the chance to choose which song you'll be forced to listen to every time you turn on the radio, you should take it. [Myspace]

• Best. Wedding Cake. Ever. For the purposes of this post, best=most terrifying. [BWE]

• It looks like no one ever told Soulja Boy to put a cover on his Super Soaker. [NB]

Denzel Washington is on the road to some sort of Oscar nomination, if the attention American Gangster and The Great Debaters have been getting is any indication. The two films were nominated for Best Motion Picture Golden Globes, and Washington received a nod for his portrayal of Frank Lucas.

Other notables nominations: Hairspray for Best Comedy/Drama, Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart for Best Actress (gag), and 30 Rock for Best Television Comedy. The show airs January 13th. Check out all the nominees after the jump.

CONTINUED »

• Steve Harvey? Maybe not the bright, religious, sunshine-y comic he's made out to be. [Vibe]

• Aww, Nicole Richie's impending motherhood has inspired her to become closer to the father who was never there for her when she was growing up and the biological mother who gave her away. Sweet. [People]

• It's probably best to keep redneck stereotypes out of diversity training videos. It's a little funny, though. [CBS4 via Racialicious]

• If the Independent Spirit Awards are trying to go 100 percent waste-free this year, then why did they nominate Angelina Jolie for A Mighty Heart? [SP]

• Bobby and Whitney, take a long hard look in the mirror. This is all your fault. [C&D]

Rumors have been swirling that Zahara Jolie-Pitt's biological mother, whom Angelina Jolie might have thought was dead, is very much alive (maybe) and wants her daughter back. Well, besides the fact that she couldn't have Baby Z back if she wanted her, the 24-year-old woman who gave birth to Angie and Brad's child said that the rumors were false and that she is happy her daughter is under Jolie's care. She also tells a pretty grim story about being raped by Zahara's biological father.

It's apparently the cool thing to do among a certain group of "journalists" to ferret out the biological parents of famous adopted kids and get them to say that they were misled into giving their kids up. But would we expect any less from the people responsible for our weekly gossip mags?

I have never shied away from making it known that I find Angelina Jolie to be a smug, holier-than-thou, obnoxious, and self-important person. I acknowledge that she does many good things — in Africa, no less! She highlights causes that certain people would otherwise ignore, but there are many other high profile celebrities who do similar good things without becoming insufferable. I also acknowledge that she is beautiful (because everyone always tries to tell me I'm just hating when I talk about how much Angie sucks). But please. She's an actress. And I really don't care to read her thoughts in the Economist's "World in 2008" special issue.

Jolie's piece on accountability for the atrocities in Darfur sits alongside contributions from several presidents, an exiled god-king, the head of the United Nations and other political heavyweights…

The field of high-profile contributors includes French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Mexican president Felipe Calderón, the Dalai Lama, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, and Korean-born UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

I know! Let's play "One of These Economist Contributers Is Not Like The Other." Hint: just pick out the one who starred in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Or the new film adaptation of Beowulf, in theaters Friday!