I have an idea for a new list. It will be an antidote to all of the superficial and misogynistic lists that currently get all of the press, and it will make everyone feel better. Cookie Magazine or whomever could publish it, and we could all debate who should be on it: Loveliest Celebrity Moms Ever.
Christy Turlington, who is featured in this month's Cookie, would certainly have to be on it, because a) she is jaw-droppingly gorgeous in the most unaffected and unenhanced way, and b) she radiates good-heartedness and save-the-worldishness and makes me want to do yoga, maybe, if I could ever get off my ass. Also, she invented the world's best yoga-wear, which - quite apart from good for yoga, which I wouldn't know - is the very best garb for post-partum bodies and bodies that can't be bothered to iron stuff when they're exhausted from caring for babies.
I would also put Jennifer Garner on that list, because every picture ever taken of her and her daughter is the very image of motherly love and childish joy and also have you seen her dimples? (That I have a massive girl-crush on her and want her to join my Mommy-and-Me group has not biased me in any way on this issue.) Who else? Angelina, maybe, for adopting all of those children and very possibly saving their lives - recent controversies over the terms of those adoptions don't change the fact that she is making a home for children who would otherwise likely not have any - though she looks like she would cut you if you ever dared criticize her, which isn't a lovely characteristic, but I'll reserve judgment on that. Maggie Gyllenhaal, for breastfeeding publicly, and for being unremittingly cool. Jamie Lee Curtis, for remaining insistently consistent in promoting healthy body image for girls. Julia Roberts and Jodie Foster, for putting family life before their own celebrity. Salma Hayek, for being breathtaking (superficial, I know, but still.) Sarah Jessica Parker, because she proves that sexiness isn't the be-all and end-all of loveliness, in motherhood or in womanhood generally. I could on and on.
I would prefer that it not be a ranked list, because true loveliness defies ranking, but I'd understand if some sales-minded editor insisted upon such ranking. It would have to be a celebrity-specific list, otherwise it would be nearly infinite (the stock of motherly loveliness in the world being itself almost infinite), and - however sadly - not particularly newsworthy. Obviously, there'd be some notable exclusions - Britney, of course, and likely Posh (just not lovely, in my books. She snarls), among a great many others - which is not to say that those women are excluded from the possibility of loveliness as mothers, just that, at present time, they seem to have other, less-lovely concerns. There would, however, not be an 'Unlovely Moms' list, because unecessary meanness is just not lovely.
I'm not quite certain of how I'm defining 'lovely' here; I just think that I know it when I see it (and in any case, who knows how to define 'sexy' or 'hot', either? Or 'unsexy' for that matter?) And that it's a more precious commodity that 'sexiness' or 'hotness' or whatever. And that we should celebrate it. For a change.
Who would you put on the list? Who would you exclude?
