Love Child. American culture seems to adore Hollywood babies. Follows their every step, starting with the speculative bump under glittering gowns flowing down the red carpet. Millions of dollars are paid to allow us a glimpse at the first photos of the most famous love children. We climb onto soft covers with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and peek at their lovely love children. We admire Halle Berry and what could be the most beautiful love child. We read about the love child of Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves. We watched Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who married after their love child was born. And we peer at magazine covers of Jamie Lynn Spears. How cute, we think, as more love babies are born: Salma Hayek. Nicole Ritchie. Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber.

However, American culture unleashes a chorus of damnation when it comes to a politician having a Love Child. Hardly anybody mentions Essie Mae Washington-Williams, the baby of Strom Thurmond. Or Jesse Jackson’’s love child. Or Thomas Jefferson’s.

Questions began swirling a few weeks ago, about whether former presidential candidate John Edwards had fathered a Love Child. A blurry photo in the National Enquirer shows a man who could be Edwards or could be any other middle-aged man in America holding a blurry baby. While Edwards admits having an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker on his campaign, he and Hunter deny that her 5-month-old baby is Edwards’ child.

“The acceptance among movie stars is an acceptance that reflects a change in the national mores, but is not held consistently across all dimensions,”” says Bruce Carter, associate professor of psychology and child and family studies at Syracuse University. “We expect movie stars to misbehave.”

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