Jessica Simpson Wants to Adopt a Pillow Angel

LOS ANGELES – Jessica Simpson read the news today, oh boy, and now the singer-actress wants to adopt a pillow angel. Ms. Simpson had been interested in adopting a child formerly, but after scoring poorly on a questionnaire sent to her by an adoption agency in Tijuana, Mexico, she became dispirited.

Recently, however, Ms. Simpson has been telling friends, “One of them cute little pillow angels that don’t grow much and stays wherever you put them would fit right in with my busy lifestyle. How smart do you have to be to look after one of them?”

The pillow angel who caught Ms. Simpson’s attention is Ashley, a nine-year-old girl with static encephalopathy, a severe brain impairment that prevents her from walking, talking, or sitting up. Ashley is fed by tube, and her parents call her “pillow angel” because she stays where they place her, usually on a pillow.

Fearing that Ashley would become too big to lift or to move or to take on family outings easily, her parents arranged for growth attenuation treatments that will prevent Ashley from exceeding 4 feet 5 inches in height or 75 pounds in weight. When their choice became public, it sparked a torrid debate among medical ethicists and child welfare advocates, but in Jessica Simpson it sparked an idea.

“That’d be just like having somebody the size of Nicole Richie around, only one that don’t fall down all the time and don’t mind being fed by a tube, like them pillow babies are,” said Ms. Simpson.

Although Ms. Simpson said she wasn’t sure where to find a pillow angel, she did not sound deterred.

“I betcha one of them websites has information about them; if not I’ll get my secretary to look on eBay or MySpace.”

Next Oprah: Decorating with Pillow Angels