Taking Names

School days

Madonna reportedly will visit Malawi Monday to lay the foundation stone of a multimillion dollar girls’ school she is building, says the New York Daily News, citing a report from Reuters news agency and the Material Mom’s charity, Raising Malawi.

The performer, who has adopted two children from the southern African country, was due to arrive Sunday and attend a bricklaying ceremony in Lilongwe — Malawi’s capital city — on Monday. The school is expected to cost about $15 million.

“She plans to meet President Bingu wa Mutharika and together lay a foundation stone for her multimillion dollar girls school,” a staffer at the charity, who declined to be named, told Reuters on Thursday.

An AIDS epidemic has left more than 1 million children orphaned in the impoverished country of 13 million.

Malawi’s government came under fire after Madonna adopted a 13-month-old boy, David Banda, in 2006. Critics accused the government of giving her special treatment by skirting laws that ban nonresidents from adopting children.

In June of this year, Malawi’s Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling made in April that said Madonna could not adopt a 4-year-old girl — Mercy James — because the singer was not a resident of the country.

Madonna last year divorced British film director Guy Ritchie, with whom she has a son, Rocco. She also has a daughter, Lourdes, from her relationship with trainer Carlos Leon.

Whitney tome flap

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, there’s big buzz behind the scenes in Whitney Houston’s inner circle over how to react to the upcoming tell-all by the comeback diva’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown.

The book, titled “The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But …,” is set for release next month. Early leaks have flashed juicy tidbits about the book — including Mr. Brown’s claims that Miss Houston’s concerns about gay rumors was a key reason she wanted to marry him.

One group of Miss Houston’s advisers has advised her to sue, the Sun-Times quoted a longtime Houston family friend as saying. Other associates, meanwhile, reportedly are cautioning the 46-year-old superstar to take the opposite approach, the newspaper said.

“Ignoring the book and declining to comment on it is the best tack,” an unnamed source described as a veteran Houston associate is quoted as saying.

“Besides, this is not about Whitney wanting or even needing the money — it’s just about protecting her reputation,” added the source.

Interest rekindled

Officials hope a new movie about aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart causes renewed interest in Purdue University’s big collection of memorabilia about her life.

“Amelia,” which opened Friday, stars two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank as the aviator who vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 during her second attempt to fly around the world.

Purdue has the world’s largest collection of papers, memorabilia and artifacts about Earhart, who was a career counselor at the West Lafayette, Ind., school from 1935 to 1937. Earhart also was an adviser to the university’s department of aeronautics, Associated Press reports.

Purdue Earhart expert Robin Jensen says Earhart was a pioneer in both aviation and women’s rights.

• Compiled by Robyn-Denise Yourse from Web and wire reports