all about Madonna

…Chicken pox delays Christian Slater’s British stage debut, as Madonna/Esther/Material girl is doling out the cash (21.6 million) for a Kabbalah primary school (K school for short), where students will be taught “mysticism,” “enlightenment,” and oh, almost forgot, that silly incidental: grammar. Funny, as hard as it was for me to imagine Madonna in the Holy Land, it is even harder for me to embrace her newfound peace and vision, when this new wave of “enlightenment” has poster children like Britney Spears to herald its purity and power. Then there are role models like Madonna, who still kisses women onstage and has veritable cursing matches with her dancers during rehearsal. I know it’s a funny concept, but perhaps if you wish for true “enlightenment” or the “mysticism” of the Kabbalah, you might start studying, reading, or going to a real temple, rather than trying to search for answers in hypocritical icons past their prime of persuasion…

It seems that all’s not well between Madonna and her filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie. According to reports Madonna’s success has become the cause of discord between the couple.
In a desperate bid to save her marriage Madonna also tried to conceive through a high tech in vitro process but failed in the attempt.
“Guy’s been accusing Madonna of cheating while she’s on tour, and despite her assurances that she’s not, it seems he’s convinced himself that she is,” a source close to the couple was quoted by The National Enquirer as saying.
“The truth is Madonna isn’t cheating on Guy, and she’s probably fed up with dealing with his insecurities,” he added.
source : ANI

A tentative track list of the Live Aid dvd which is going to be released by Warner on November 1st is starting to circulate.
According to this list, only two of the three songs perfomermed by Madonna are included in the disc. The song that apparently is left out is the only live rendition of Love Makes The World Go Round, a song written with Patrick Leonard during the Virgin Tour, that was premiered at Live Aid with the band Thompson Twins and later recorded for her True Blue album. The songs that seem to be included are Holiday and Into the Groove.
source : madonnatribe

Madonna has her eye on a stunning collection of jewellery that once belonged to legendary opera diva Maria Callas.
The singer, a keen collector of antique jewellery, has been poring over a Sotheby’s catalogue of the Callas collection, which will go under the hammer in Switzerland later this year.
A source close to the singer, who is currently on tour, says Madonna has circled the most expensive of the jewels – an 11.7 carat marquise-shaped diamond ring that Sotheby’s expects to sell for up to GBP100,000.
Callas was given the jewels by her husband, wealthy Italian industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini, in the 1950s.
source : dailyrecord

Madonna’s Re-invention tour was marred by an accident involving a member of her crew falling 30ft.
A rigger broke his arm and leg during preparations for the concert at London’s Earl’s Court.
The singer is to play the venue later this month and the accident is believed to have happened while the crew were measuring dimensions of the stage.
London Ambulance Service said the rigger was injured in a 30ft fall and was flown by air ambulance to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London.
A spokesman said: “We received a call from Earl’s Court at 1pm to say that a man had fallen approximately 30ft.
“An ambulance and an air ambulance were called and crews were on the scene for around two hours because there were difficulties moving the patient.
“His main injuries appeared to be to his shoulder and arm.”
Caresse Henry, Madonna’s manager, said: “The entire crew, performers and staff, especially Madonna, were very saddened to hear about the accident but we are hopeful that he will make a full recovery.”
The star begins her UK tour in Manchester on August 14 and is scheduled to play Earl’s Court on August 18 and 19.
source : ananova.com

…Arthur Golden’s “Memoirs of a Geisha,” the story of poor Japanese girl who became a cultivated geisha during World War II, became a best seller when it was published in 1997. Now a movie is in the works, with Steven Spielberg as producer and Rob Marshall (“Chicago”) as director. Casting is under way and reportedly Madonna wants a leading part. If all goes according to plan, it will be released during Christmas 2005, just in time for Oscar voting…
source : thereporter.com

Madonna’s not singing “Like a Virgin” anymore.
Like every other aspect of her micromanaged life, this fact must be scrutinized and analyzed and extrapolated to determine how it will affect her career and influence the Zeitgeist.
At 45, Madonna, apparently happily wed, mother of two, children’s book author, no longer wants to sing about being “touched for the very first time.” Surprising? Maybe not, even dirty-minded Prince, 46, has cleaned up his act.
Does it mean something other than these two ’80s icons are simply tired of singing lascivious songs they wrote to gain and maintain notoriety? Is Madonna’s long, glorious, infamous career as a sexual provocateur waning?
Madonna still has a few pelvic thrusts left in her, she proved at her “Re-Invention Tour” concerts last week on the east coast. The conical and comical Gautier bras have been packed away in the costume closet, but Madonna still managed to simulate sex with most of her dancers.
But singing “you make me feel shiny and new” was out of the question, apparently. After all, Madonna’s shimmying into middle age.
It is hard to believe, and painful to accept, that it’s been 20 years since she first started pushing our buttons. I can easily recall the first time I heard her, singing “Holiday,” from the tape deck of a friend’s car in 1983. This girl is going to be a star, my friend insisted.
I wasn’t impressed. The voice was too small, the music too dance-oriented. Back then, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen and Journey were the BMOC’ big music on campus.
Oddly enough, I was riding in a car again when I heard “Like a Virgin” for the very first time. It seems so tame now, doesn’t it? Not then. Plenty of Americans, at least in the middle states, were shocked.
Mission accomplished for Madonna.
She had opened the door to a pansexual playground that led to the explicit “Erotica” book and album, the “I’m gonna keep my baby” controversy of “Papa Don’t Preach” and eventually oral stimulation of a water bottle in the tour documentary “Truth or Dare.”
Prince wrote the song “Controversy” but Madonna lived it.
A couple decades later, she has moved on from the sexual to the spiritual and the political, with mixed results.
Despite media interest, her lip-lock last year with pop tart Britney Spears raised few eyebrows. Like Janet Jackson’s flash-in-the-pan breast-baring at the Super Bowl, Madonna’s cross-generational girl-on-girl action seemed unseemly rather than sexy, a desperate grab for attention, a creepily exploitative display along the lines of a mother frenching her daughter.
The sponsors of Madonna’s voyeuristic peep show all these years, through ticket sales and CD purchases, can understandably feel wistful and disappointed as the curtain falls on her “girlie show” era. Even as her music continues to explore new territory thematically and stylistically, one can’t help longing for the racy Madonna of old.
Sitting in another car last week, riding home from her concert and listening to remixes from her recent politically charged “American Life” album, I instead wanted to hear one last time, “Been saving it all for you, ’cause only love can last.”
If Madonna can’t sing those words anymore, if she’s middle-aged, then that means I am, too.
source : news-press.com

Madonna and Guy Ritchie happily wait for their lift after a night at a good, old-fashioned English boozer.
And perhaps it is no surprise to see the American superstar emerging from a pub… after all she says she is a Real Ale girl these days.
The 45-year-old has made no secret of the fact she now likes a pint of the good stuff, thanks to the influence of her English husband.
And the couple had clearly enjoyed their night after popping into the Punchbowl in London’s trendy Mayfair. They had perched on bar stools at the cosy pub, built in the 1730s, while watching boxing on the TV in the corner.
And regulars say Madonna and her film director husband are often in for a drink or two.
One customer said: “They are a lovely couple but no one really bothers them. We are used to seeing them when they come in.”
Madonna revealed last year that Ritchie had introduced her to the traditional English drink… and she didn’t mean tea.
She said: “I didn’t start drinking until I met Guy.
“He’s a wonderful influence on me, I get drunk with him. I become one of those English drunken girls.
“I wear flat caps and speak low and order a pint of Timothy Taylor, the best Real Ale.” Sadly for Madge there was no Timothy Taylor on offer in the Punchbowl this week.
But while bar staff were keeping tight-lipped about the couple’s choice of tipple, they were spoilt for choice with ales.
Spitfire (GBP2.65), Old Speckled Hen (GBP2.55), and Courage Best Bitter (GBP2.30) were all on offer.
The couple spent about an hour in the pub, before leaving at last orders.
But while mum-of-two Madonna and Guy, 35, might pretend they are just like the rest of us, there are one or two differences.
As they finished off their late night drinks, three burly bodyguards kept watch outside.

Michele Zieger has set up her Zieger Prods. shingle at Maverick Films, the production house founded by Madonna and Guy Oseary, where she plans to develop film, television and reality projects.
source : variety.com

…Superstars use touring as a way to make a chunk of cash fast. Madonna grossed $44.9 million for 21 shows, according to Pollstar , playing to more than 250,000 people. Average ticket price: $174.17, says Pollstar…
source : usatoday.com