Angelina Jolie made it fashionable, Madonna now has two, and even Elton John wants one. What is this latest celebrity fashion, you might ask? Adopting children from other countries, of course.

Over the last few years people have begun to question whether these celebrity adoptions are genuine, an attempt to fill a 'hole' or just to gain some celebrity status points.

But long before Angelina Jolie brought home young Maddox, Pax and Zahara, there was Josephine Baker. At the age of 50, the American singer and dancer adopted 12 children from different countries and ethnic backgrounds as part of a protest for the black civil rights movement. She called her brood her 'Rainbow Tribe' and lived with them in a chateau in France.

Madonna's Malawian adoption of her son David ruffled a whole host of feathers — many felt that she had taken advantage of Malawi's thin adoption laws to whisk in and bring home a baby — especially when David's father emerged. But it was the explosion surrounding her attempted adoption of daughter Mercy that grabbed the most headlines.

Firstly the child's father opposed the adoption — and then a judge ruled that Madonna could not take home the three-year-old girl as she had not been a Malawi resident for 18 months. But in June, Malawi's Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of Madge, who also built a community centre and set up a charity for orphaned children in Malawi. And they say money can't buy you love?

Aside from these high profile celebs, a host of Tinsletown's greats have reached out and opened their homes to children from other countries.

While in India, Meg Ryan experienced an 'epiphany' and decided that she was destined to adopt. Ten years later, that destiny was fulfilled and she adopted a 14-month-old girl from China in 2007. The girl was first named Charlotte, and then named 'Daisy'. She said of the adoption: "I never felt like I was on a rescue mission or anything like that. I just really wanted a baby; I was on a mission to connect with somebody, and Daisy and I got to meet each other in this way at this time."

Ewan McGregor adopted a Mongolian girl in 2006, Mary Louise Parker brought home a three-year-old boy from Africa and Katherine Heigl wants to follow in her parents' footsteps and adopt a South Korean child.

And now, Elton John has had his heart 'stolen' by a young Ukrainian boy named Lev. But Ukrainian authorities have put their foot down and said that they will not allow Elton to adopt the HIV-Positive Lev as, at 62, the pop legend is 'too old' — only couples under the age of 45 may adopt children in the Ukraine. And secondly, he isn't married — according to them. Ukraine will not recognise Elton's homosexual marriage to his long-time partner David Furnish — although it is legal in Britain.

But the attitude that many celebrities have to adopting children from foreign countries seems to be pretty much their approach to buying the latest Prada bag. Many celebrities 'fall in love with' children on missions to other countries, and before they know what hit them, they kids are bundled up in designer baby blankets and jetted off to a huge city.

But is this right?