all about Madonna

A piper who was hand-picked by Madonna to perform on her world tour is having the time of his life, his father said today.
Lorne Cousin, 31, was working as a lawyer in Edinburgh when he received a telephone call from the superstar asking him to play the bagpipes on her five-month Reinvention tour.
Mr Cousin, who is from Campbeltown, Kintyre, is now appearing with Madonna on stage in America, after taking leave from his job.
His father Alastair said his son was loving every minute of performing with one of the world’s most famous women.
“I spoke to him a few days ago, and he seems to be enjoying the experience of being on the tour,”? said Mr Cousin Snr.
“He is having the time of his life – he gets on really well with Madonna, there are no problems there.”?
Madonna first noticed Mr Cousin when she heard him playing the bagpipes at her friend Stella McCartney’s wedding on the Isle of Bute, last year.
Mr Cousin Snr, who is a vet in Campbeltown, became a friend of the McCartney family after looking after some of their animals.
He added that his son would continue with the tour of America and Canada until the middle of July, when he planned to take a 10-day break, before flying back for Madonna’s European concerts.
Simon Mackintosh, a partner at the Turcan Connell law firm where Mr Cousin works, said today: “We are delighted that Lorne has been given this opportunity.
“He is recognised in piping circles as an outstanding piper and is also a valued member of our rural property team.
“It is not easy to lose him for six months, but for Lorne it really is a chance of a lifetime.”?
Another Scots piper Callum “Spud”? Fraser from Aviemore, was initially reported to have been chosen as piper for Madonna’s tour.
Mr Fraser had played the bagpipes at Madonna’s wedding to Guy Ritchie at Skibo Castle in 2002.
It was reported he had been approached by the singer’s staff during the wedding celebrations and asked to come on the tour but he had no contact again.
source : scotsman.com

Wanna have a face like Madonna? Well, here’s all the dope on what products the Queen uses to remain the Queen of pop.
According to The Daily Mail, Material girl Madonna uses Alterna’s Enzymetherapy Caviar shampoo and conditioner, make-up from the MAC range and Laque Lustres and perfume is Fluerissimo. She wears Prada and Burberry and clothes by her friend Stella McCartney.
source : newkerala.com

Instead of the birthday boy, it was Madonna who hogged the limelight at Rabbi Michael Berg’s 31st birthday bash.
According to New York Daily News,a host of celebrities came to wish The co-director of the Kabbalah center in a private room gathering at the kosher midtown restaurant Solo.
However it was Maddona, one of the most ardent followers of the cult who got the most attention, so much so that it even sidelined the host.
source : newkerala.com

The Vatican has been holding a special conference of international Catholic leaders to deal with the challenges that New Age spirituality poses to traditional Christian beliefs. Special attention was reportedly given to “kabbala as espoused by Madonna.”
The Catholic-born singer’s public involvement with the Los Angeles-based Kabbala Center, accused by some of being a cult-like distortion of Jewish mystical beliefs, has intensified in recent months. It has been reported that Madonna had decided to observe kashrut dietary restrictions, and not to perform on Friday nights (Shabbat eve). Last week, the entertainer announced that she was adopting “Esther” as an additional name in honor of the heroine of the Purim saga.
“I don’t go by the name of Esther, but yes, that is my Hebrew name. I chose it,” she told the ABC-TV news show 20/20. “I was named after my mother. My mother died when she was very young. I wanted to attach myself to another name. So I read about all the women in the Old Testament, and I love the story of Queen Esther.”
This week the singer released her third children’s book, Yakov and the Seven Thieves, about the travails of a Jewish family in 18th century Russia.
In the on again, off again saga of Madonna’s planned visit to Israel, the latest news according to a well-informed member of the local entertainment industry is that she will be coming – but in a private capacity.
“She’ll fly in when she’s somewhere in the region,” he said, “but she won’t be performing here.”
Madonna will be performing in Europe from mid-August as part of her new “Reinvention” tour.
source : jpost.com

Madonna is casting a range of beauties to play Naoimi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Cgristy Turlington in a film- adaptation of a tell-all book about the supermodels. The 45-year-old superstar has acquired the film rights to Micheal Gross’ revealing fashion industry tome Model. David Brendal wrote the movie treatment for Madonna’s Maverick Films, and the movie is expected to air on an American cable network next year (05). A range of other supermodels are expected to be included in the movie, including Sylvester Stallone’s ex-girlfriend Janice Dickonson.
source : breakingnews.iol.ie

The new issue of the french magazine Spotlight – entirely dedicated to Madonna’s re-Invention World Tour – is now available.
Spotlight #26 contains:
An homage to the late Christophe Coatanoan
An intorduction to the “Re-Invention World Tour 2004″
The complete review of the opening night in L.A. by Fred Gilloteau
An exclusive interview to Christian Lacroix
An interview with Mike McKnight, the keyboards player of the tour band
All the latest news
The pictures from the “Re-Invention World Tour 2004″
A walk through memory lane to the past Madonna’s tours.

A Vatican meeting has singled out Madonna’s latest religious curiosity as a potential threat to the faithful, MSNBC reported Monday.
The lapsed-Catholic diva and former Material Girl has recently embraced a mystical form of Judaism called Kabbalah and announced she had taken the hebrew name Esther.
The Vatican has been holding a special summit with Catholic leaders from around the world, hammering out a way to deal with New Age religions and spiritual fads that pose a threat to the historic Christian faith.
Last week that summit singled out “Kabbalah as espoused by Madonna,” plus several fad, quasi-Eastern religions.
“In the past, the Pope has criticized Madonna for the contents of her concerts,” said cult expert Rick Ross, who has closely followed the activities of the Kabbalah Center. “Now, ironically, it’s become a theological issue.”
source : beliefnet.com

She’s off again – for her “Reinvention Tour” (from May 24th to September 5th), Madonna, the uncontested queen of pop and fashion icon always at the cutting edge of the trend, will be revealing her best assets.
This time the singer approached CHANEL, and Karl Lagerfeld designed two fringed bodysuits in a music-hall singer style – one in black and white stripes, the other in red and black. His comment was, “I love Madonna.
She is a source of inspiration for us all – always ready to be transformed. Who could refuse to work with her?”
The items have been designed in a stretch fabric to accommodate the star’s body movements, embroidered with some 200 000 sequins, each one set in place individually using a hook! An amazing achievement that took more than 250 hours of work by the nimble fingers in the Haute Couture workshops.
In all, three copies of each of the two outfits have been made, to make allowance for the little accidents that are likely to occur in the course of a six-month tour.
Madonna will be performing in Toronto, July 18, 19 and 21st, 2004.

source : cnv.ca

Madonna hopes to have her next feature-length documentary ready to debut at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. A sequel of sorts to “Truth or Dare,” the film chronicles her current Reinvention Tour and the “new” Madonna, among other things. Director Jonas Akerlund (”American Life,” “Ray of Light”) said that after each night’s concert, he heads back to his hotel room to start editing, because the amount of footage he’s collected so far is massive “

Madonna’s Yakov and the Seven Thieves is the most visually magnificent of her three children’s books, but the dreary and inappropriate story is lackluster and verbose. The luscious, wonderfully ornate illustrations, which convey a sense of 18th-century Ukraine, were created by the prolific and gifted Russian-born artist Gennady Spirin, who has illustrated 33 children’s books and won a number of prizes.
Putting the name of the illustrator on the cover of a children’s book is a traditional practice when the illustrator and writer are two different people.
Apparently, however, when one has an ego fatter than the onion domes topping Moscow’s skyline, giving credit to others isn’t part of the program. Spirin, like the illustrators of Madonna’s previous two books, must settle for having his name listed on the book’s title page.
Ego also plays a huge part in this moralistic tale. We’re not talking about the ego of the characters. They are far too underdeveloped for that. It’s the ego of Madonna, who apparently sees herself as destined to improve the world’s moral tone.
The tale involves a dying little boy named Mikhail whose desperate father, the cobbler Yakov, and distraught mother, Olga, consult doctors but cannot find a cure. In desperation, Yakov visits a wise old man who claims that his prayers are powerful enough to pass through heaven’s gates. When this doesn’t happen, the old man has his grandson, Pavel, gather the village’s pickpockets, thieves and other criminals. When this gang prays, the little boy miraculously recovers.
Unfortunately, Madonna violates several rules of children’s literature, including don’t be wordy and keep it appropriate. And parents will enjoy explaining the occupation of one particular character: an arsonist. Most of all, get off your high horse, Madame Morality. This tale is humorless and heavy-handed.
In fairness, Madonna did write an appealing children’s book with her first, The English Roses, published in 2003.
She writes best when drawing upon personal experience. Roses effectively explored the difficult situation of being a motherless girl snubbed by her peers.
Her second book was weaker. Mr. Peabody’s Apples addressed gossip and lies. A cloying stench of self-pity about the media’s obsession with Mrs. Ritchie could be detected. Not that Madonna “