ISN'T it amazing how Madonna continues to reinvent herself?

From Material Girl through dominatrix to dance-class mistress in retro leotard and legwarmers, her versatility has astonished fans and detractors alike for more than two decades.

Now she's transformed herself into her scariest incarnation yet: a child-hungry predator casting envious eyes on an African orphanage in search of a child to fill the void in her obviously-empty existence.

A degree of talent and a world-beating dose of blonde ambition can clearly get you a long way in this life.

But who could possibly be foolish enough to imagine that global fame, a fortune beyond your wildest dreams and a husband and two children of your own would be enough to satisfy Madonna?

It's been claimed that adopting a 13-month boy in Malawi is not usually possible for people who aren't nationals of that country, but that the authorities made an exemption in Madonna's case.

Adoption is normally a lengthy process, with some parents waiting years in order to prove themselves worthy of the chance to bring up a child that's not their own.

But when you're Madonna, it seems you can pop into a country, pick your baby and have it airlifted to another continent before human rights protesters can say: "I want an injunction".

Even the fact that the baby has a father of its own is not something that need hinder you when you can clearly offer so superior a home life to the existence that otherwise awaits the unfortunate waif.

To be fair, Madonna has launched a campaign to publicise the plight of orphans in Malawi, where HIV/Aids has left almost a million children without parents.

But the British charity that supports the home where Madonna chose her baby has criticised the adoption, saying that Madonna should instead be sponsoring families to look after children at home.

Be that as it may, Mr and Mrs Guy Ritchie now have an 18-month interim adoption order on baby David Banda, and the youngster was ushered into the bosom of his new family through a paparazzi scrum at the entrance to Madonna's garage yesterday morning.

For baby David, a new and utterly transformed life awaits (how very Madonna, when you come to think of it).

I am sure that at no point in the future will David's adopted older siblings express resentment at his sudden arrival into their comfortable, privileged home.

The youngster will no doubt maintain regular contact with his real father back in Malawi; and why should anyone think that he may find difficult the contrast between the life he was born to lead and the one to which he was plucked by his adoptive mother?

It must be extremely hard to deal with the inability to have a child when you long for one, and when, at the age of 48, you realise it is probably never going to happen naturally for you again.

But surely a little rain must fall into every life, even one as golden as that manufactured by Madonna.

Things are probably made harder for her by the knowledge that everything she is today she has created for herself by dint of her own ability and her iron will. So what Madonna wants, Madonna gets.

What sort of person would she be if she were ever completely denied something she was determined to achieve?