Madonna and Jolie in adoption feud?

Madonna and Angelina Jolie are feuding publicly over their support for African orphans, it has been reported.

Both stars have apparently attacked the way the other chooses to carry out their good work. Madonna has criticised Jolie's plans to open her own orphanages while she responded with comments about the singer's adoption of a Malawian baby.

The conflict began when Madonna and Guy Ritchie first considered an adoption from the continent. According to the Mail on Sunday Jolie told her to go to orphanages in Ethiopia where she found her own daughter Zahara. The singer decided otherwise and adopted David Banda from Malawi, which has less established procedures, in October.

Breaking her public silence on the matter, Jolie recently told a magazine in France: "Madonna knew the situation in Malawi, where he was born. It is a country where there is no legal framework for adoption."

Now Madonna, reportedly "apoplectic" about the remarks, has hit back with comments about Jolie and Brad Pitt's project to build an orphanage in India.

"I'm not interested in going there like an idiot and going, 'OK, I'm going to build ten orphanages and I'll see you guys later,'" she declared. "I've joined the UN and become an ambassador, visited various countries and just showed up and smiled and looked concerned. But that's not getting to the root of the problem and neither is building orphan care centres."

A friend of Madonna added: "Angelina seems to think she has got a monopoly on being the good Samaritan, but quite frankly criticising Madonna for adopting David is a case of the pot and the kettle."