all about Madonna

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5 Pictures – Madonna leaves the Sanderson Hotel in London’s Mayfair ater Oprah interview (October 24 2006) – are added to the gallery.

Ricky Martin on Wednesday defended Madonna’s adoption of a 1-year-old Malawian boy, calling her an “exemplary” mother, and said he, too, would like to adopt. “I know Madonna as a mother, and she’s exemplary,” the Puerto Rican star told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Miami.
“The love she gives her kids is a dream, and I know that her heart is big enough to adopt not just one child but to adopt 20.”
Martin, who in recent years has defended the rights of children through his foundation and as an ambassador for UNICEF, said he was not aware of the challenges to the adoption by human rights groups that allege the pop diva flouted the African country’s adoption laws.
Madonna, in an interview aired Wednesday on Oprah, blamed the media for the controversy the adoption has sparked.
“I feel the media is doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa, period, not just the orphans of Malawi,” she said.
Madonna and her husband, director Guy Ritchie, were awarded temporary custody of the boy, David Banda, earlier this month.
Martin, when asked if he would like to adopt a child someday, said, “Totally. I don’t know when, but right now I am sponsoring three children in India and we have a very beautiful connection.”
source : ap

Madonna told Oprah Winfrey yesterday she was surprised by the firestorm surrounding her efforts to adopt a 13-month-old boy from the African country of Malawi — and she blamed the media for it.
Madonna taped the interview via satellite from London, for airing today. It was the first time she’d spoken publicly in depth about the adoption.
Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper quoted audience members as saying the Material Girl told Winfrey: “I did nothing wrong.”
According to a member of the Oprah audience, Madonna said she was startled by press reports about the toddler’s father, Yohane Banda, who was quoted last week as saying he didn’t realize he was signing away custody of his son, David, “for good.”
“She said she met with the father, she looked him in the eye,” audience member Sheryl Lewis recounted.
Madonna, she added, said she acted according to the law and had both “oral and written approval … and now the press have gotten to him,” Lewis said.
In an interview posted yesterday on Time magazine’s website, Banda said he will not contest the adoption.
“I don’t want my child, who is already gone, to come back,” he said. “I will be killing his future if I accept that.”
Madonna told the Oprah audience that she and her husband, Guy Ritchie, had been thinking about adoption for more than two years, said Lewis, of Deerfield, Ill.
Another Oprah audience member, Amanda Bannon of Crawfordsville, Ind., told ABC News that “the biggest thing was that Madonna wants to get the point across that she doesn’t want this to be a discouragement to other families to not adopt.”
Many in the audience appeared to support the star.
“Madonna is an intelligent woman and she made a lot of sense. I am not always the greatest fan of her, but it was a good thing that she did,” Sue Waldman told the Daily Mail.
Madonna, 48, travelled to Malawi on Oct. 4 with Ritchie. They spent eight days visiting orphanages she is funding through her charity.
David was taken to London last week after Malawi’s High Court granted Madonna and Ritchie an interim adoption order.
source : ap

from InStyle : As Her Madgesty has said, “Music makes the people come together.” The pop icon and her producer, Stuart Price, compiled their ultimate party playlist for us. Our only quibble? Modesty kept Madonna from adding any of her own songs to the mix, and nothing gets a party started like a little “Madgic.”

Madonna’s Playlist
1. West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys
2. Supernature by Cerrone
3. Dance by ESG
4. All This Love That I’m Giving by Gwen McRae
5. Don’t Stop The Music by Yarborough & Peoples
6. Give Me The Night by George Benson
7. Move On Up by Destination
8. The Smurf by Tyrone Brunson
9. Do What You Wanna Do by T-Connection
10. Evolution by Giorgio Moroder

The biological father of 13-month-old Malawian boy David says he did not know that American pop star Madonna would be taking his son “for good” when she came to adopt him earlier this month (a claim government officials dispute). But Yohane Banda tells TIME that his son is now better off and he would be “killing” David’s future to insist his son returns.
Banda, 32, lives in a small mud hut in the village of Lipunga, which sits close to the Zambian border about 112 miles west of Malawi’s capital Lilongwe. Poor and uneducated, Banda tends a patch of maize and a vegetable garden and every now and again gets a job reworking scrap metal. When his wife Malita Lungu, a Zambian who gave birth to David across the border in her native country, died just a week after David was born, Banda struggled to raise his son with the help of relatives and friends. But a month later he sent David to the orphanage where Madonna would later find him. TIME reporter Peter Kumwenda interviewed Banda in his modest home this week

TIME: Your son David is now in the UK where he has joined his new parents. After all that has happened how do you feel?
Banda: I am OK.

It is been suggested by some sections of the media that you are unhappy about how things went, specifically that you did not understand that adoption means your son now becomes somebody’s else’s child, isn’t that right?

It is true that I was not told properly that my child will be taken for good. You know, I am not educated so the way I was told, I thought it would be the same as keeping him at the orphanage, the only difference being that he will be kept by a rich, respectable lady and in America which is far away. I never understood it as my child being taken for good.

Have you now been told adoption means David is now Madonna’s child not yours’ anymore?

Yes, some people are saying that.

But you have not been told officially by the orphanage or by government officials?

No, I have not been told.

So do you believe that your child has been taken away from you for good, to become Madonna’s child, or do you still think he will come back to you after some time?

What I know and I what I was told is that good Samaritans want to help raise my son by sending him to school and looking after him. When he finishes school he will come back home to stay with us.

If you find that it is true, your son is now another family’s child and you may never see him again, what will you do?

Nothing. What can I do?

You won’t try and demand your child back?

No no no.

Some human rights activists have taken up the case in court. They say because you did not understand what adoption means, your son’s adoption must be nullified. Do you agree with them?

No.

Explain.

I don’t want my child, who is already gone to come back. I will be killing his future if I accept that.

So you won’t go to court to strengthen their case?

No.

How about other members of your family uncles, brother and so on. Will any them be going to court together with human rights groups to try and stop the adoption?

No, no one will do that.

Do you think your wife would have tried to stop the adoption from going ahead?

No, I don’t think so.

Tell me what exactly she would have done about all this?

Well, I don’t know. I think she would have wanted our child to go so he can be supported with education so that in future our child can support us.

Finally, I want to ask you about Madonna. You saw Madonna, what do you think about her?

Well, I am just grateful to her for helping my child.

source : time magazine

6 Pictures – Madonna leaving the gym in London (October 24 2006) – are added to the gallery.

Madonna is to ask gay actor pal Rupert Everett to be her African baby’s godfather, The Sun can reveal.
The 48-year-old has told friends she wants him to play a big part in little David Banda’s life.
Madonna picked Rupert, 47, because of his experience of working in Africa with Aids victims. The move is a sign that Madonna and hubby Guy Ritchie are confident the adoption will be approved.
A close source said: “Madonna and Rupert have been pals for years and he is one of her closest friends. But more than that her trip to Africa was partly inspired by Rupert’s work out there.
“She knows he spends a lot of time in the country through his work with Aids charities and that he knows the country well. She feels he knows the culture well and would be a great help to David as he grows up.”?
Madonna and Everett have been pals since the 1980s and starred in a film together, The Next Best Thing. The adoption has been surrounded by controversy and yesterday David’s father Yohane, 31, claimed he has not given approval for a permanent adoption.
He said he hoped David would return to him in Malawi after finishing schooling. African officials yesterday insisted the adoption HAD been handled correctly.
source : thesun.co.uk

8 Pictures – Madonna leaving the gym in London (October 21 2006) – are added to the gallery.

Madonna will speak to talk show host Oprah Winfrey about her decision to adopt a 13-month-old Malawian boy – the first television interview for the pop star since her adoption became an international controversy.
The interview is scheduled to tape Tuesday and air Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Harpo Productions Inc. said Monday.
Madonna traveled to the African country of Malawi on Oct. 4 with her husband, Guy Ritchie. Together, they spent eight days visiting orphanages she is funding through her charity.
The boy, named David Banda, was taken to London last week after Malawi’s High Court granted Madonna and her husband an interim adoption order.
The 48-year-old singer has said she acted according to the law, but the toddler’s father said Sunday he did not realize he was signing away custody of the boy “for good.”
Madonna, who rose to pop culture icon status in the 1980s, has two children – daughter Lourdes, 9, and son Rocco, 6.
source : ap