Bullet-proof Beyoncé, or just the baby gossip rumor mill out of control?

I admit it: I heard a rumor and believed it.  Is it true that Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid $1.3 million to have the wing of the hospital where Beyoncé delivered her daughter Blue Ivy redecorated, lined with bullet-proof glass and patrolled with a battalion of bodyguards?  I honestly don’t know.  Beyoncé and Jay-Z deny it, and I’d like to believe them. I’d like to think they had better things to do with their money.  My husband suggested that the cash could have been donated to a nearby clinic or inner city hospital, or even a hospital abroad, where moms face a real lack of prenatal care and higher infant mortality rates.  I think it’s a great idea.  

I understand the very real security needs that this couple faced, and they and the hospital had to take measures to address them.  As parents we would do anything to protect our children.  But spending over $1 million to protect a newborn’s eyes from unsightly hospital decor is simply too much.  And I’m sure it would take well over $1 million to make Beyoncé ingest one bite of the hospital food.

The sad thing is that, true or not, the wretched excess of this story didn’t surprise me.  I was prone to believe it because celebrities pull this sort of thing all the time.  It seems that another father at the hospital, Neil Coulon of Brooklyn, had great difficulty seeing his own twins, who were born prematurely, in the NICU.  Apparently the scene was a circus, which created problems for Coulon’s family and rained on their parade.  Having a child in the NICU is a harrowing experience, and I’m sure stressful for all involved.  Coulon claimed to know that the amount of money the superstar couple spent on the security detail and hospital makeover was $1.3 million.

Time will tell whose version of the story is true.  Regardless of the outcome, I wish all the new parents and their little ones health and happiness.  

Blue Ivy is a wonderful name.  Ivy is my maiden name, so I am partial to it!