I don’t want to widely broadcast my naïveté, but I’m starting to be really impressed by Nicole Richie and Joel Madden. I have loudly proclaimed that she’s mean, immature, and likely incapable of any meaningful amount of change. And while I’m not ready to totally take that back yet, I have to say that Nicole (at least when combined with Joel) has consistently impressed me lately. I’m not sure if the two are employing an expert team of PR folk (and if so, give that team’s card to Britney Spears ASAP) or if Joel is just a really good person who wields a surprisingly large amount of influence of Richie. Perhaps he’s her much-needed Svengali. First they donated all of the presents from their baby shower to a local women’s clinic, then they served turkey dinners on Thanksgiving. Now the couple has thrown a Christmas party for L.A.-area homeless kids and their families. The two established a charity in their future baby’s honor called the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation, and the party was their second big outreach (after donating the baby shower gifts) through the foundation.

More than 200 children and their family members enjoyed a “winter wonderland” on the Paramount Studios lot featuring teddy bears, cookies, cupcakes, face-painting, clowns, holiday music, Santa Claus and his elves. Children, selected from the L.A. homeless program Beyond Shelter, were able to choose from a teddy bear mountain of 500 “Cuddle Cub” stuffed bears.

“It was a no-brainer for us to pull this party together for them for the holidays,” Richie, who is pregnant with her first child, said.

“We want to do much more to address the homeless issue, especially where it puts children at risk. But for now, we can at least try to help them have a merry Christmas by giving them teddy bears and getting them fitted for shoes. That’s something we can do right now, today.”

[From US Weekly]

It might be PR spin. Probably. But it’s still really nice, so I’m going to assume it comes from a place of good. It’s not like it matters if Nicole has a good public image or anything. What’s the worst that could happen, it could hurt her career? What career? What does she do? She kind of half-ass participates in “The Simple Life” a few weeks a year, and that show isn’t based on her being a wholesome do-gooder. I’m guessing those maternal/pregnancy hormones have kicked in full-time. I wonder what her friends think of the “new” Nicole. Do you think Paris Hilton was by Nicole’s side, holding one of those metal foot measuring devices and plopping toddler’s feet on it, eyeballing for an exact fit? Well maybe if she could do it drunk. While getting paid to promote a product. Whatever the reasoning, it’s great to see a celebrity that started a charity and is actually doing something with it.

Picture note by Jaybird: Header of Joel and Nicole at the launch of the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation at Los Angeles Free Clinic in Hollywood on December 3rd. Images thanks to WENN.