Hollywood’s unwed parents club

Record numbers of gay, lesbian and transsexual couples are heading down the proverbial aisle after the Supreme Court lifted a ban -- even if only temporarily -- on same-sex marriages in California.

Even Emmy-winning talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and actress Portia de Rossi have joined the fashionable frenzy, and excitedly announced their upcoming wedding plans.

But there’s an increasing number of Hollywood celebrities who are now shunning marriage. These predominantly young stars are opting to live together and have children without the financial entanglements -- and tax benefits -- of a formal ceremony or a legally recognized union.

This week, Joel Madden told People magazine that he has no plans to marry Nicole Richie, the mother of his daughter, Harlow, who was born almost six months ago.

“We don’t have any plans for that right now,” Madden told People on Wednesday. “We’re just happy, and we’re being a family, and that’s where we’re at right now. But marriage means something different to everyone.”

Other celebrity pairs churning out progeny without a marriagelicense: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have four kids, one biological and three adopted, and are hunkered down in France, reportedly prepping for the birth of twin daughters. Or they’re, depending on which gossip mill theory you believe, hiding the already born twins until they’re camera-ready for those million-dollar baby pix.

More Famous Unwed Parent pairs include Halle Berry and her model baby daddy Gabriel Aubry, actress Naomi Watts and actor Liev Schreiber, and Britney Spear’s little sister Jamie Lynn Spears, 17, and her boyfriend Casey Aldridge. Spears just recently gave birth to their daughter, Maddie Briann, after announcing their engagement a few weeks beforehand. But will there soon be a shotgun wedding in Mississippi, where Jamie Lynn Spear’s parents live?

Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were also young unmarried Hollywood stars (although they had separated before he died) who were jointly raising their daughter Matilda Rose, when Ledger died of a reported accidental overdose of prescription medications in January.

Surfer dude Matthew McConaughey and his hot Latina girlfriend Camila Alves are currently expecting a child together but have no wedding plans.

Jessica Alba and Cash Warren seem to be the exception to this new “I don’t” trend. The couple actually got a quickie marriage performed at the Beverly Hills City Hall a few weeks before they had their daughter, Honor. My, how conventional.

Even porn stars are getting into the unmarried-celebrities-with-kids act. Reformed porn actress Jenna Jameson recently announced : “I think I’m gonna stay unmarried and just go for the babies. I’m following in Angelina’s footsteps. We’re trying for a baby so hopefully in the next couple of months.”

And this week it was reported that Mark Wahlberg, who regularly attends Sunday Mass at Good Shepherd Church on Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, plans to marry the mother of his two children, a daughter, age 4 ½, and son, age 2, after their third child is born in September.

Jeepers, Mark. What’s the rush?

Take a look at Hollywood’s unwedded bliss list.