Madonna has been allowed to adopt Malawi child Mercy James by that country’s highest court. This, despite a ruling from a lower court earlier this year that the adoption should not happen.

Earlier this year, the Malawai Human Rights Consultative Committee issued a strong statement against the Madonna-Mercy adoption.

It’s called “Redefining the Boundaries Between Child Adoption and Child Kidnapping.” You can read it http://www.hrccmalawi.org/madonnastatement.pdf

The statement is very specific:

“HRCC has all along, even before the adoption of the first child, David Banda by the
same pop star, been urging the government to speed up on its adoption policy so that
people like Madonna and others cannot use their financial power to override rules and
force the legitimization of child abuse. If this lacuna in policy and law is left unattended
for too long, more celebrities and other families will take our children away under the
guise of intercountry adoption, a development which may create loopholes and be
prone to child trafficking.
It is not only the material needs that matter for a normal upbringing of a child. Children
need to be taken care of within their communities and where their psychosocial needs
are satisfied. Mercy (Chifundo) James is a child who has her extended close family
members alive, and we urge Madonna to assist the child from right here and even
contribute to existing local capacities so that children are taken care of within Malawi.

HRCC shares sentiments by the British Charity Save the Children, which is of the view that the best place for a child is in his or her family in their community and just to remind that this is a position held in Guidelines for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (Malawi Government).”

In other words: Madonna has gotten her way, overturning a previous court decision and going against a country’s Human Rights counsel.

At the same time, the higher court has cited Madonna’s charity to Malawi. But they don’t underscore some very important points. For one, Madonna’s charity, Raising Malawi, as I’ve reported often, is simply a front for the Kabbalah Center of Los Angeles. Raising Malawi is using the Kabbalah Center’s Spirituality for Kids, or SFK, as a curriculum for Malawi orphans.

Second, there is still no official report about the money — said to be $3.7 million — collected from a February 6, 2008 fundraising event held by Raising Malawi, Gucci, and UNICEF. No report has ever been made about the collection or disbursement of these funds. Neither Raising Malawi nor the Gucci Foundation has filed a Form 990 tax report indicating what happened to the money. Maybe the high court of Malawi should be undertaking that investigation itself.

If you were concerned about this, Evan Rachel Wood, the lovely 21-year-old actress, has ended her relationship with Marilyn Manson, the goth singer/performer who is 40.

She told me this last night at the premiere party for Woody Allen‘s ‘Whatever Works.’ Of course the comedy is about Wood dating the vastly older Larry David. In real life, Manson — whom she actually calls ‘Manson,’ by the way — is a mere 19 years Wood’s senior.

This girl is a smart cookie with a big future. She’s also young, and will date a lot of guys. The tabloids can rest easy on this subject. But Wood impressed me as a girl with her head on straight.

The break with Manson, by the way, is fairly acrimonious. He’s not happy. There seems to be name-calling involved.

What’s next, I asked? She’s moving to New York in the fall to begin rehearsals for Julie Taymor’s ‘Spider-Man’ musical on Broadway. Maybe she’ll fall in love with Peter Parker, Spider-Man’s alter ego. He still hasn’t been cast.

‘Maybe,’ ERW said. ‘You never know.’

The main thing is, can she sing? In ‘Whatever,’ she has such a convincing Southern accent you’re sure she’s from Georgia. She’s not, just from North Carolina.

‘I can sing,’ she said. ‘You’ll see.’

In the meantime, the ‘Whatever’ premiere’the second for this film’took place at Brooklyn’s famed River Caf’, home of amazing food and the best views of Manhattan. Co-stars Larry David and Patricia Clarkson came over from the screening, but Woody Allen left immediately after sticking his head in.

‘It was too overwhelming for him,’ a publicist said.

He missed Clarkson’s pal, Amy Ryan, pregnant and due to give birth in October, as well as Dana Delany and her sister, Clarkson’s four sisters, comedian Caroline Rhea, Seth Meyers from ‘SNL,’ Brooke Shields, Stanley Tucci, Swoosie Kurtz, and a gaggle of good-looking young people who no one knew and had nothing to do with the movie business per se. They were like props. The New Yorker sponsored the screening.

Here’s the deal on ‘Whatever’: It’s very funny, a real Woody Allen New York movie. I loved it. It’s not politically correct. Get over it. Clarkson and ERW are likely Oscar nominees. Woody should be nominated for the screenplay. I think ‘Whatever’ will be a crowd pleaser. And if it got Evan away from Marilyn Manson, all the better!

P.S. Evan appears in the final two episodes of HBO’s “True Blood.” She plays the Vampire Queen. She has a memorable first scene, which I will leave to others to describe. It involves another woman, and, of course, blood.

Kirsten Dunst must have made all the money she ever needed from the Spider-Man films. Other than “All Good Things.” Peter Parker’s on-screen girlfriend Mary Jane has no new movies set until “Spider-Man 4″ in 2011.

The time off might be good for Dunst, who might find value in attending a Night School for Deluded Actresses with Julia Roberts. At last night’s premiere of Robert Kenner’s “Food Inc.” documentary, Dunst — there to help promote the film — kinda did the opposite. She wouldn’t take pictures on the red carpet, do interviews or speak to the press. She didn’t have much use for the other guests — an A list crowd, to be sure — either. At the dinner following the screening at the French Culinary Institute on lower Broadway, Dunst kept to a small clique and wouldn’t mix with the invited crowd.

Too bad, too, because the one time child screen vampire could have met Regis and Joy Philbin, Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi, Ken Auletta and Amanda Urban, Christine Baranski (with gorgeous daughter Isabelle), Sirio Maccione of Le Cirque fame, restaurateur Drew Nieporent, “Grey Gardens” director Albert Maysles, the Institute’s founder Dorothy Hamilton, and many other erudite, delightful dining companions.

Instead, 27-year-old Dunst played the evening as if she were Greta Garbo, and I’m not sure it worked.

And the talk at dinner — prepared by the school’s students and sponsored by Quintessentially — was largely about Kenner’s eye-opening film that details the way food gets to our tables in America. It’s not for the faint of heart. But at the same time, “Food Inc” — getting rave reviews — offers hope: a burgeoning business in organic food that’s coming not just to yuppie city types, but everywhere.

As for Dunst, after a succession of duds including “Wimbledon,” “Elizabethtown,” “Marie Antoinette,” and “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People,” she’d better hope “All Good Things” is a good thing, and one that she doesn’t mind promoting.

As for the people Kirsten missed: Regis talked about his two-week stint hosting the prime time 10th anniversary of “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” on ABC starting Aug. 9. Amanda “Binky” Urban, the famed literary agent, said she loved “Next to Normal” on Broadway. It’s about depression, she’s in book publishing, so it made sense. Cindy Adams traded secrets with Baz Bamigboye of the U.K.’s Daily Mail. Christine Baranski told us about her new CBS drama with Chris Noth and Julianna Margulies called “The Good Wife.” Kenneth Cole said he hoped Sharon Stone was coming back to help with more AmFar auctions. Joy Philbin talked to Nick Pileggi about his Dean Martin script written but never made for Marty Scorsese.

Chow, baby!

Today the New York Post’s Keith Kelly reports that Newsweek — struggling to survive — essentially “scrubbed” a piece about MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough so the mag’s editor Jon Meacham could continue to make appearances on his show.

Newsweek and Meacham denied it. The piece was by the mag’s esteemed Johnnie Roberts. Scarborough, it seems, once defended an abortion doc killer back when he was a lawyer and not just a blowhard TV commentator.

Kelly writes today that the Roberts piece was recut to de-emphasize Scarborough’s past. Here’s how the question and answer are presented in the piece:

When you were a young lawyer in Pensacola, Fla., in 1993, you helped defend one of the first murders of an abortion doctor. In the wake of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the abortion doctor shot dead in his church on May 31, do you have any regrets about your role in the Florida case?

I’m an attorney. I represented clients. I did it as a favor to the family. The goal was to stop this young man from trying to defend himself. I had a family [that was] heartbroken. I was called in to help keep the media away from his family, from his wife and young children. Why would I regret that? Why would anyone regret that? I did the judicial system of the state of Florida a favor.

That’s Scarborough’s story and he’s sticking with it — read it here.

But I was only able to find it by searching out Roberts and Scarborough and abortion doctor. The Q&A is cached on the Internet. Otherwise, it’s been completely removed from the Newsweek website. Of course, the site has no search engine. But check it out. What the Newsweek website does have is a link to — drum-roll please — its corporate partner, MSNBC.

I can sympathize with Roberts. The line between corporate ownership of one entity and actual journalism has vanished recently. If the corporate owner doesn’t like it, or there’s a conflict, then the journalism is history.

Ironically, Kelly is merely repeating news of the scandal from the online blog Gawker.com, which reported the story yesterday. (I’m sure Kelly’s original filing had the Gawker credit. Somewhow, it was omitted.) On Gawker, you can see the original Roberts story and how it was changed. Read it here.

But now the entire Roberts piece is missing, unless you Google it. Why is anyone surprised? Scarborough has always been a Fox in sheep — or cheap — clothing, an O’Reilly wannabe who adapted to MSNBC’s attempt to find a niche. Viewer beware.

Bon Jovi is in the studio recording a new album. But don’t expect them to make the Grammy deadline of August 31st.

Band insiders say a single may make the early cut-off. The album, though, will likely drop later in the fall, maybe in November.

This news accounts for the lack of Bon Jovi touring dates this summer. So far they’ve booked only June 25th and June 27th. In this economy, sources point out, Jon and Richie and the gang would be better off waiting until next year, hope for an upturn, and tour behind a new CD.

Michele Lee came in from L.A. and got last minute tickets to everything. She and Fred Rappaport sat fourth center at Radio City where Michele rekindled her old friendship with Jane Fonda. On Saturday night, Michele sneaked in a performance of “Blithe Spirit” to see pals Angela Lansbury and Christine Ebersole. There was a time when Michele and Angela were the cornerstones of the CBS line up with two of the network’s longest running series ever, “Knots Landing” and “Murder She Wrote.” Michele co-starred on Broadway a few seasons ago in “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.” Now the Tony nominee for “Seesaw” — who’s had sensational reviews for a Houston production of “Hello, Dolly!”– is looking for a musical return to Broadway.

P.S. A new list of top TV episodes of all time omits the best “Murphy Brown” — when Ebersole is hired by Murphy’s newsroom buddies to be her sister, as a birthday gift. Ebersole’s actress turns into Murphy’s stalker. It’s genius…

…Meantime: who in New York City government approved one of those traffic-snarling, rat infested “Street Fairs” to run all day Sunday right in from of Radio City Music Hall? Does any keep a calendar in this city? How is it possible that such a spectacle of unncessary tchotcke selling and greasy sausages could take place on the same day as the Tony Awards? The “fair” — the same one that will snake around the city all summer for no reason — tied up traffic as Tony Award guests, dressed in black tie, had to step through the trash on the way to the show. If Mike Bloomberg wants to be mayor again, his first campaign promise should be to get rid of these things, pronto…

You know, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote ‘Hound Dog’ for Big Mama Thornton in the 1950s. Then Elvis Presley got hold of it, and the rest was history. Leiber and Stoller have like seven thousand hits from ‘On Broadway’ to ‘Poison Ivy.’

They were at Elaine’s last night for a book party, in from Los Angeles. David Ritz has just co-authored their original biography, called ‘Hound Dog’ (Simon & Schuster). The thing about Leiber and Stoller is, they’ve always been outspoken. Stoller says in the book that he was uncomfortable at first when Presley took the song and changed the lyrics. But he adds it wasn’t like Pat Boone covering Little Richard. ‘Pat Boone was insipid,’ he says.

Stoller says Ahmet Ertegun passed on signing Elvis because Colonel Parker wanted $25,000. So RCA got him. Ahmet’s elegant widow, Mica, came by Elaine’s to pay respects to the songwriters last night. I asked her which of Ahmet’s acts was her favorite. ‘Ben E. King,’ she said, ‘but I was always a Rolling Stones fan.’

The book party was like a meeting of the real Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lesley Gore and Leslie Uggams turned up, also. Legendary producers Phil Ramone and Tommy LiPuma posed for pictures together. It was a tasty appetizer before the Apollo main course — a Monday music night in New York.

But wait: the last chapter hasn’t been written. Stoller has a musical called ‘Laughing Matters’ opening at the Pasadena Playhouse this November. Iris Rainer Dart, author of ‘Beaches,’ supplied the book and lyrics. Leonard Foglia, director on Broadway of ‘Thurgood’ and ‘Master Class.’ is in charge. The producer of the show told me last night it’s coming to Broadway. Ritz will have to add a chapter to the paperback of ‘Hound Dog.’