Brangelina
Before Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt flew to Africa last week, the couple stocked up on baby stuff at a Paris boutique – including dresses, socks, a bonnet and a layette, an observer tells PEOPLE.
"We think it's a girl, but we're not 100-percent certain," the observer says he overheard Jolie say during the private shopping jaunt. Still, the source tells PEOPLE that the actress also purchased a gray T-shirt with the word "boy" on it . . . "just in case." Besides, she said, "since I already have a boy and a girl, it doesn't really matter." Besides the gender of the couple's baby, the other question is: Where in the world will their child be born?
The globe-trotting pair arrived in the southwest African country of Namibia on April 4 with Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 15 months, and immediately holed up in a tiny, beachside lodge – with very tight security.
Among their first adventures: visiting a game reserve. A local source tells PEOPLE that Jolie "fell in love with the country" when she filmed Beyond Borders there in 2002 and is "here for the birth of the child."
(Another source says that the couple have a plane on constant standby should they change their minds.) Although Pitt has recently checked out business properties in France, Italy and the Dominican Republic, back in L.A. three construction crews have been working around the clock to finish renovations on his Craftsman-style home.
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Bucky Booted from Idol
Bucky Covington
Queen dethroned American Idol contender Bucky Covington, who was voted off the show Wednesday night after his performance of the group's "Fat Bottomed Girls" on Tuesday. "Mediocre," said judge Simon Cowell. Bye bye, said the public.
The departure of Covington, 28, of Rockingham, N.C., leaves the number of contestants at seven. The winner will be announced May 24. Covington's reaction to the news that he'd been voted off was a simple, "Somebody's got to go."
Rounding out the bottom three: Ace Young, 25, of Denver, and Elliot Yamin, 27, of Richmond, Va. Cowell had called Young's rendition of Queen's "We Will Rock You" a "complete, utter mess," adding, "I really, really, really hated that." Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that this season's favorite contestant is Taylor Hicks – at least according to eBay, where nearly 900 Hicks t-shirts, CDs, bumper stickers and other souvenirs have been sold over the past month.
And in still more Idol news, season-one winner Kelly Clarkson will launch her 24-city Addicted tour June 30 in West Palm Beach, Fla. Tickets go on sale Saturday.
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Cruise, Holmes Likely to Have Quiet Birth
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
Tom Cruise has been practically shouting from the rooftops about his love for his pregnant fiancee, Katie Holmes. But when their much-anticipated baby is born, the superstar dad probably won't say a word.
Cruise, a longtime Scientologist who introduced Holmes to the faith, is likely to follow Scientology's practice of quiet birth. Followers believe the absence of talk and other noise in the delivery room is more healthful for mother and baby.
No one's saying publicly where baby Cruise will enter the world, but if it is at the actor's Beverly Hills home then noise control might prove a challenge. Buzzing paparazzi are already camped aside the property.
With the little one expected soon, tabloids and gossip Web sites have been rife with chatter about silent birth, spawning much speculation about what it is and isn't.
Some are sure it means the mother can't make a peep during childbirth forget the popular image of a chaotic hospital-room scene with a laboring woman spewing invectives. Others have claimed silence must be maintained for a full week after the baby is born and that Scientology opposes medical exams for newborns.
According to the tenets of Scientology, known as "Dianetics," words even loving ones spoken during birth and other painful times are recorded by the "reactive mind," or subconscious.
Those memories, adherents feel, can eventually trigger problems for mother and child.
What the doctrine doesn't say is that laboring moms can't make some noise during delivery.
"We're not going for absolute silence," said self-professed "Scientology mom" Michelle Seward. "If a sound is made, that's OK."
After years studying the faith, established in 1950 by fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, Seward went the silent route for the birth of her son, Sage, five years ago.
Seward drew up a birth plan and discussed her desire for a wordless delivery with her doctor.
In the hospital delivery room, she used hand signals to communicate with her husband and mother.
A nurse tapped her on the shoulder to tell her it was time to push. When a complication arose after 30 hours of labor, the doctor whispered to Seward that she would need an epidural.
"I had a happy, calm baby," she said. "I know it's because of the way I delivered him."
Actress Anne Archer, a Scientologist for 30 years, called the recent speculation about silent birth "ridiculous."
"We just want to keep the environment as calm, quiet and loving as possible," she said. "Any culture in the world would understand that and any woman who's given birth would understand that."
Scientology doesn't dictate where babies should be born or whether drugs can be used, she said.
Quiet birth "supplements whatever medical model the mother chooses," said Karin Pouw, a spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology International.
Beverly Hills obstetrician Stephen Rabin said he has never attended a silent birth but believes that verbal communication is key during delivery. While he supports limiting "extrinsic noise" and extraneous visitors in the delivery room, speaking to parents is still "extremely critical."
"It's almost impossible to do without words," he said. "You're not going to yell at the patient. You may talk to them in a calming fashion and the patient will gain comfort from hearing your voice."
Typical delivery-room talk might include direction on how to push and reassurance that the woman is doing it right, he said. A doctor may also need to explain pain medication or unexpected problems with the birth.
But as long as the planned approach isn't harmful, Rabin said, parents should choose the delivery method best for them.
Seward said silence doesn't just keep the subconscious clear, it also is more relaxing for the mother and less jarring for the newborn.
"The baby is coming from a dark womb," she said. "They come from a muted environment and they're thrust into this world."
Infants deserve to be born into a reverent place, agreed Mindy Goorchenko, a certified doula and birth educator whose own unassisted delivery of twins was featured on the Discovery Channel. The transition from the womb to the world should be peaceful, she said.
But moms, dads and doctors probably need to talk during delivery, Goorchenko noted.
"Communication is key in birth for all people involved," she said.
Sound can also be an effective means of working through labor, she added. Besides, the womb isn't as quiet as one might think; babies can hear voices, music and their mother's heartbeat, Goorchenko said.
"Infants respond in the womb to what's going on around them," she said. "Why at the moment of birth you'd suddenly need silence doesn't make sense physiologically."
Still, said Goorchenko, a mother of four, she wanted privacy during her deliveries and preferred silence following the births.
"You don't need loud, blasting noises while mother and child are bonding."
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