Viva Cohen!

Singer songwriter Rufus Wainwright, son of folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle (who died last year), and brother of also singer songwriter Martha, has recently announced the birth of his daughter, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen. The mother, Lorca Cohen, is Leonard Cohen’s daughter. Rufus has stressed on his website that he’s going to be a proper father, he’s ‘no surrogate’, and is going to help raise the child with his partner, Jörn Weisbrodt, whom he was recently engaged to.

A few things immediately struck me when I read this news. First, Rufus is gay (call me old-fashioned but in my day gay men would marry women, have children with them and be closet homosexuals…. Rufus appears to be doing the exact opposite). Second, I knew Rufus was a fan of Leonard’s, but isn’t this taking things a bit far? Third, that baby has one hell of a musical pedigree.