Why can’t celebrities just pick regular old names like John and Susan like the rest of us?
For whatever reason, they have to seemingly pluck the names of their newborns randomly from dictionaries or half-remembered nightmares. Perhaps they believe that their millions and celebrity status will protect their young ones from the inevitable schoolhouse teasing. Or perhaps they believe the adversity can only make their kids stronger.
Either way, we get to enjoy the feeling –that sometimes average Joes and Janes like us have made much better decisions in life than the stars of stage and screen.
Like rocker Frank Zappa (here with parents Rose Marie and Francis), who infamous dubbed his kids Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan, and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.
Woody Allen and Mia Farrow: Satchel and Moses Amadeaus
Early odd-name adopters Woody Allen and Mia Farrow made a splash when they named their son Satchel, after Satchel Paige. Satchel later changed his name to Ronan Seamus Farrow.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin: Apple
“It sounded so sweet and it conjured such a lovely picture for me – you know, apples are so sweet and they’re wholesome and it’s biblical – and I just thought it sounded so lovely and … clean! And I just thought, ‘Perfect!’ ” Paltrow told Oprah Winfrey. But it’s hard not to imagine that the actress and musician’s daughter got her name from what her parents had for lunch that day.
Bruce Willis and Demi Moore: Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah
Odd choices, but now Rumer Willis has a burgeoning acting career.
Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf: Pilot Inspektor
Yes, you read that right: Pilot Inspektor. With a “k.”
Michael Jackson and ?: Prince Michael, Prince Michael II (aka Blanket), and Paris
Funny how “Paris” doesn’t seem at all unusual anymore, huh?
Jermaine Jackson and Alejandra Jackson: Jermajesty
Maybe a royalty fixation runs in the family.
The Edge and Morleigh Steinberg: Blue Angel
It’s probably safe to assume they’re Marlene Dietrich fans, and it could’ve been worse — like “Blade” or “Pinpoint.”
David Duchovny and Tea Leoni: Kyd
Ingenious twist, or just plain laziness?
Bob Geldof and Paula Yates: Peaches Honeyblossom, Fifi Trixibelle, and Little Pixie Geldof
The late Paula Yates had a definite attachment to unusual names.
Nicolas Cage and Alice Kim: Kal-El
Cage, who once almost played Superman, named his son after the Kryptonian name for the Man of Steel.
Mia Farrow contradicted Naomi Campbell‘s testimony at the war crimes trial of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, saying the model had told her how she had received a “huge diamond” from him.
In sworn testimony last week, supermodel Campbell admitted receiving two or three “dirty-looking stones” after a 1997 dinner with Taylor at Nelson Mandela‘s home in South Africa, but said she did not know who sent them.
Those stones are believed to be “blood diamonds” — gems mined in war zones and used to fund conflict and corruption. Connecting Taylor with the trade in blood diamonds is crucial to the prosecution’s case in the Special Court for Sierra Leone. They allege that the one-time West African strongman used the uncut jewels to subsidize a brutal 10-year-long civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.
During her appearance, Campbell said she didn’t know who gave her the stones, which were delivered to her room in Pretoria late at night by two men. But Farrow told the court that when Campbell came down for breakfast the next morning, she began gushing about the gift before “she even sat down.”
“Naomi Campbell entered the room where my children and I were already eating breakfast. As I recall it she was quite excited and said, in effect, ‘Oh my God, in the middle of night I was awakened by knocking at the door. It was men sent by Charles Taylor and he sent me,’ as I recall, ‘a huge diamond.’”
Farrow and Campbell had been guests at Mandela’s 1997 celebrity-filled charity dinner party, which Taylor also attended. Campbell told the tribunal that she shared the story of how she was handed the diamonds in the middle of the night with her then-agent, Carole White, and Farrow the following morning. “Well, that’s obviously Charles Taylor,” one of them said, although Campbell didn’t recall the identity of the speaker. Then, one of the two women added, “Well, obviously, they are diamonds.” Campbell said she assumed the stones came from Taylor, but testified that she wasn’t sure.
After the model finished her testimony — during which she admitted that she didn’t know where Liberia was — prosecutors said they intended to present two witnesses who would highlight the errors in Campbell’s story. Farrow was the first witness. White is expected to take the stand this week.
During an interview with prosecutors in May, Campbell’s former agent said the model and the dictator were “mildly flirtatious” throughout the dinner, and that he had promised Campbell a gift of diamonds. “It was arranged that he would send some men back with the gift,” the prosecutors’ notes read, adding that White said Campbell, “seemed excited about the diamonds and she kept talking about them.”
Before taking over as Liberia’s president in 1997 — a post he held until advancing rebel troops forced him to go into exile in Nigeria in 2003 — Taylor led the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, an armed group that fought to control neighboring Sierra Leone’s highly profitable diamond mines. Taylor is accused of selling diamonds and buying weapons for Sierra Leone’s brutal Revolutionary United Front militia, known for hacking off the hands and legs of civilians during the 1992-2002 civil war, during which up to a quarter of a million people died. The ex-president has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of murder, sexual slavery and enlisting child soldiers.
Taylor, 62, was arrested in Nigeria and transferred in 2006 to The Hague, where the U.N. and Sierra Leone set up the court to try alleged war criminals. Eight other defendants have so far been sentenced to jail terms. The court will shut down after Taylor’s trial.
