Madonna & Child

As media frenzies go, this one ranks right up there. Madonna giving birth to a baby girl at Good Samaritan Hospital on Monday drew 11 trucks with pop-up satellite towers, plus other camera crews, numerous still photographers and reporters. They waited for hours without a sighting of anyone more famous than Dr. Paul Fleiss, father of convicted Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, who announced the birth and said he would be the baby’s pediatrician.

As night came, the crews who didn’t give up sat around on lawn chairs and watched “Monday Night Football” on the video monitors in their trucks.

The shot of Madonna and child is currently the Holy Grail of celebrity photographers. Amid rumors that Madonna will not release an official picture of little Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon for mass consumption, the media is relying on stealth measures to get the shot the world is waiting for.

And how much might that shot be worth?

Said Scott Downie of Celebrity Photo: “It’s worth about $150 if 25 photographers get the picture. If she wants to ruin it for everyone, she could just come out and pose.”

And if one lucky person got a stunning, exclusive portrait?

“The top is probably $250,000. If they get the birth, then the sky’s the limit,” Downie said.

Giles Harrison, a freelance video photographer, staked out the hospital early Monday with his Hi-8 camera. He even tried to get off the elevator on the eighth floor, reportedly where Madonna was giving birth. “It was like Fort Knox,” he said, adding: “Most of this job is luck. Skill has very little to do with it.”

Madonna’s choice of Good Samaritan Hospital took many media types by surprise. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center seemed the obvious choice, with its renowned maternity facilities and celebrity accommodations.

But Good Sam is no slouch when it comes to birthing facilities; the hospital has a perinatal center that can handle births from midwife-assisted deliveries to high-risk situations. Its labor-delivery-recovery rooms--more like suites--offer a homey environment, complete with hardwood floors, CD players, TVs and VCRs.

(Madonna didn’t go into this unprepared; supposedly she worked with a birthing instructor who touts the Bradley method of natural childbirth, which emphasizes deep breathing and working with the process of labor. Dr. Margaret Bates, an L.A. board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist on the hospital staff, brought little Lourdes into the world.)

*

As Madonna recuperates from her ordeal, it’s certain the media interest will not ebb.

The National Enquirer already has some 15 people working on the story.

“It’s a big frenzy,” said Executive Editor David Perel, “in the class of a John Kennedy Jr. wedding. We’ll stay on it until we get the first baby picture, and we’re going to devote our considerable resources toward that end. I think for this baby story, the interest [from the public] is surging, because of who she is, her reputation, her past, the circumstances around [the baby], turns it into a fascinating story.”

No recent celebrity birth comes close, Perel said. “If Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson had had a child, maybe.”

Phil Bunton, editor in chief of the Star, said the magazine has been tracking Madonna’s movements “for about the last month,” and has about five photographers staking out the new mom.

“The big dilemma,” he said, “is that we don’t know when she’s going to leave or how she’s going to leave.”

“With the baby pictures, if you’re not able to see the baby’s face, the photo is worth a lot less,” Bunton said. “If you can see the baby’s face and a beaming Madonna, then it would be worth a lot more.

Bunton said that despite the intense media madness, Madonna giving birth ranks just below JFK Jr.’s recent wedding; “I think Madonna’s popularity probably peaked about two years ago,” he said. “But, babies are babies.”

*

Over at People magazine, Madonna plus baby equals a full cover; Madonna minus baby equals an inset picture on the cover.

Deputy L.A. bureau chief Todd Gold, who has been on the Madonna beat for 10 years, said he understands why the maternal girl is suddenly publicity shy.

“I think she has some serious and justified concerns about privacy,” he said, “with that incident last year with the stalker. [Robert Dewey Hoskins was convicted of stalking and threatening to kill the entertainer.] I think it’ll be a while before she takes the baby into the public, and when she does, she’ll be pretty careful. I’m sure she’ll have tons of security around her, trying to block the photographers. I think that’s going to be the most difficult aspect of her job [as a mother]. She’s going to have her hands full shielding her from the paparazzi who are dying for that picture.”

How long does the magazine plan to track this story?

“We’re going to be doing heavy research into breast-feeding and potty training,” he joked. “No, really, I don’t know. It’s hard to say how big a story it will remain.”

No doubt the media will not give up on this until there is some record of Madonna’s progeny.

The world just might have to wait until Dec. 14 to see Madonna back on her feet--that’s the world premiere of “Evita” at the Shrine Auditorium, which promises to be one of the biggest movie events of the season.

Until then, “There are all those TV shows running around with their camera crews,” noted Janet Charlton, gossip columnist for the Star. “The easiest way to be killed in L.A. today is to get between Madonna and a crew from ‘Hard Copy.’ ”

* Freelance writer Kathleen Doheny contributed to this story.