Leonardo DiCaprio's Mother Will Have to Wait for a Diamond  11/27/06

There's only one woman who can expect a diamond ring from hunky Leonardo DiCaprio in the near future - and that's his mum.

Leo's mother has been hinting she needs a sparkler on her finger for some time but, after researching the diamond industry for new movie Blood Diamond - which is set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990's Sierra Leone, the Titanic star has realized buying the right gem is not an easy thing to do.

In preparing to play South African mercenary Danny Archer in the action film with a conscience, DiCaprio learned all about the diamond trade and fully understood that the gems might be a girl's best friend, but some are washed with the blood of poverty-stricken Africans.

He says, "My mom is the only person I would really buy something like that for; she, for a while, has wanted one.

"But what I learned from my conversations about diamonds from Global Witness and Amnesty International is you have to go into the stores where you buy these diamonds and ask for authentication that it isn't a conflict diamond.

"That's one of the biggest ways this whole process can be put to a stop. Ultimately diamonds are a source of economic stability in Africa, but what they're specifically trying to target is these conflict diamonds, these that have funded these warlords and caused this civil strife in Africa."