John’s paternal ambitions

Elton John takes his parental responsibilities seriously, said Louise Gannon in The Mail on Sunday (U.K.). The 66-year-old pop star and his partner, David Furnish, 50, have two young sons (by a surrogate mother), and are settling into a quieter way of life. “I want to be there to take Zachary to his first day of school,” John says. “I want to be there to pick him up. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I want to do parents’ evenings, playdates, the whole lot.” He knows he can’t give Zachary (age 2) and Elijah (8 months) an entirely normal childhood—their godmother is Lady Gaga, and they have homes in America, England, and the South of France—but he’s determined not to let them become spoiled brats. “I have already decided they are going to have to work for their pocket money. They will have to do gardening, weeding, whatever.” John’s famous friends aren’t cooperating. “The first Christmas we had with Zachary, we walked into the sitting room, and it was full, floor to ceiling, with presents. David just sat back and said, ‘This is obscene.’ We had bought him a swing for the garden. We kept that, and everything else was sent to a Ukrainian orphanage.”