Paris Hilton and her Children

Celebrity babies are fashion accessories that might evolve into empty-headed heirs and heiresses

Stevie Wonder's mom, Lula May Hardaway, 76, passed away last month. She was an extraordinarily strong woman who had a tremendous influence on her son.

The Los Angeles Times reported that one day in the 1970s, Wonder was at his home in Detroit playing around on the family piano. He had a fragment of melody and lyrics, which he was singing over and over. "Here I am baby... Here I am baby..."

Close by, his mother, Lula, listened thoughtfully, eventually coming up with the hook: "Signed, sealed, delivered. I'm yours."

It's history now, but that song was a hit for Stevie Wonder, and the moment in time was emblematic of the relationship between mother and child. She supported him behind the scenes while raising her family and occasionally helped him write songs.

I'm thinking about this as Father's Day approaches and I look at the current crop of Hollywood stars - actors and singers - and their relationship with their folks. There are kids who divorce their parents (Macaulay Culkin); parents who are jailed (Lindsay Lohan's pappa); parents who sell their kids images (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt); and parents who seem to have no problem endangering their kids (Michael Jackson; Britney Spears).

I don't want to sound like an old-fashioned git but what the heck is going on? The babies have become fashion accessories to be dressed in the prettiest clothes and clutched tightly to the chest for photo-ops. To be transported all round the world and photographed in exotic locations.

I don't want to pass judgment on every single one of these cherubs, but where's the evidence that these children will be raised to be responsible, intelligent, useful human beings? More likely they'll evolve into a new subspecies of rich, spoiled, useless organisms - kind of like Paris Hilton en masse. Now, imagine her kids. Imagine a city filled with people just like the empty-headed heiress. Scary isn't it?

Email me with your thoughts, fears and insights!