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No, Ben Mulroney did not adopt an orphan in Malawi last week.
But UNICEF's new Canadian ambassador -- who also co-hosts CTV's nightly entertainment show eTalk Daily -- is not about to pick a bone with someone who did.
It was pure coincidence Mulroney's six-day jaunt with a UNICEF crew to Malawi, in the works for months, came on the heels of Madonna's highly publicized trip.
And though she may have sparked an international furor by adopting a young boy there, Mulroney says Malawians couldn't have cared less. "No one over there knew who Madonna was," he explained yesterday. "There's no TV, the music is indigenous, they've got their own things to worry about."
Mulroney doesn't quite understand why the Material Girl -- or any other celebrity -- faces so much suspicion over motives when they do work to draw attention to the troubled continent.
"I think it's a sad state though, when the public turns cynical and believes the worst or leads with the worst," said Mulroney. "I'm much more optimistic. I would rather believe the best until I'm disappointed."
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Mulroney had previously been to Africa just once, on a photo safari with his famous family as a teenager. He spent yesterday telling media and local schoolchildren how funds raised here make a difference there -- in the form of brand new schools, drinking water systems and other projects -- and promoting UNICEF Canada's revitalized Trick-Or-Treat program.
"I wanted to see that, so I could come back and I could relay that to the kids who've been working for the past month," he said.
But he also saw those still waiting for funding, a sight which made quite an impression.
"You couldn't get a kid from Canada to sit on a rock in the sun, with dust blowing through, and no books, and a blackboard that was made of mud," said Mulroney.
"You couldn't get a kid here to do that for more than one day before he'd say 'you know what this is not worth my time,' and yet these kids are doing it every day because they're thirsty for an education."