all about Madonna

Madonna leaving the gym in London (March 20 2007)

Madonna arriving at a studio in West London (March 19 2007)

Madonna is moving her family from London to New York to be closer to her ailing dad as he fights cancer.
The Queen Of Pop, who now lives almost permanently in the UK, has already been Stateside to see Tony Ciccone twice this year.
Her fears for his deteriorating health have forced her to uproot the family from London and plan for them to spend much more time in the US.
Her film director hubby GUY RITCHIE has been busy working in LA and she is now trying to find a new family home in New York.
A source said: “Madonna, Guy and the kids are definitely moving to New York this year.
“The deal is to spend as much time there as in London if not more.
“Guy hasn’t been as keen on the idea but Madonna is insisting they are moving.”?
Madonna’s dad has been receiving treatment for colon cancer in Leelanau County Hospital, Michigan, which is relatively close to New York.
Recent reports suggested he was making good progress but Madge fears he is putting on a brave face to benefit family and friends.
My source told me: “Madonna’s dad is going through the mill and she wants to be there for him and to help his spirits by letting him see more of his grandchildren.
“Guy is working more and more in LA on his new TV show, a film project and a documentary.
“The move will be a big upheaval but Madonna needs to be near her dad and the support network of her closest friends.”?
Madge is also cracking on with a new album, with the work split between Los Angeles and London.
She decided it would make sense to be based on the East Coast in The Big Apple, splitting the distance between her US commitments.
But she will not be selling her current New York apartment, London house or her Wiltshire estate any time soon.
She has decided the NY pad isn’t big enough for the whole family since the adoption of one-year-old Malawi tot David Banda.
I can reveal Madge has narrowed the search for a new house down to two properties.
One is a flat and the other an impressive townhouse what they do have in common is an asking price of more than £20m.
And she has made it clear the new place is HER buy and will be in HER name without any mention of Guy.
There’s no doubt who wears the trousers in that marriage.
source : the sun

This was no everyday clothing launch: There was thumping music, muscled male dancers and a great wall of paparazzi planted on the pavement outside the Langham Hotel. The event was the unveiling of M by Madonna for Hennes & Mauritz.

On Tuesday night, the pop star, clad in a white Forties-style jersey dress of her own design, laid out the theory behind her new collection for the Swedish fast-fashion retailer.

“I wanted something casual but naughty, sensible but sexy. That’s me. That’s how I am. I wanted the collection to be for a working girl,” said Madonna in a not-so-quiet corner of the Artesian Bar at the hotel, near Oxford Circus.

“This is a combination of outfits I would love to wear. Bits and pieces have been inspired by the outfits in my own wardrobe, and also by what I love, like kimonos or my favorite Seventies vintage dress with the butterfly sleeves. I bought it in New York 10 years ago, and have worn it down to threads.”

The collection, Madonna’s second for H&M after her tracksuits launched last spring, features pieces in viscose jersey, silk rayon, cotton poplin, leather and Lycra.

The new M by Madonna line launches worldwide on March 22 and will be sold in 26 countries. An H&M spokeswoman said M by Madonna differs from the brand’s other celebrity collaborations, with Karl Lagerfeld, Viktor & Rolf and Stella McCartney, in that it will be sold in every H&M store that carries women’s wear, rather than in the flagships alone.

As reported in December, Steven Klein shot the campaign, which features Madonna modeling the clothes. The ads look eerily similar to the campaign with Madonna that Klein shot for Versace.

The one-off, capsule collection is filled with classics: Kimono-style dresses; tailored jackets and knee-length hipster shorts; pencil skirts paired with cummerbunds; belted trenchcoats; little leather jackets, and white cotton shirts. There’s also a full accessories line, with sexy, lace-up boots, skinny leather belts, evening clutch bags and sunglasses.

Madonna said her inspirations come from everywhere. “I go out a lot, I read and go to the movies, and I always try to see and interpret what’s around me. I’m a curious person.”

Clothing prices range from 14.90 euros, or $20, for a bodysuit to 249 euros, or $330, for a leather trench, while accessories range from 9.90 euros, or $13, for an M-print scarf to 99 euros, or $130, for a leather bag. All figures have been converted at current exchange.

Margareta van den Bosch, H&M’s head of design, said Madonna was ever-present during the creative process. “She was involved in even the smallest details of every design. She has an impressive feel for fashion and trends,” she said.

Guests, including McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Solange Azagury-Partridge, Freddie Windsor, Ella Windsor and Arki Busson, gathered at the Artesian Bar, which has just been redesigned by Madonna’s pal David Collins, who was also a guest.
“I told her that scarf print looked a little Pucci to me,” said a cheeky Williamson, referring to the bright, patterned scarves in the collection. “I also told her, ‘Now you know how hard I f***ing work! You only have to do it once. I have to do this four times a year!’ Seriously, though, the collection is just great, it’s very her and it’s gonna fly.”

Azagury-Partridge, who designed a capsule collection of jewelry for H&M in fall 2005, said of the new collection, “I like it, it’s quite ‘me’ actually. I especially like the pencil skirts and the big belts. I’m definitely going to be getting some.”

Halfway through the evening, Madonna’s male dancers hit the floor to perform for guests, although some friends had already slipped away to attend the joint birthday party for Elton John and Sam Taylor-Wood in east London.

During the evening, in between greeting guests and cheering on her dancers, Madonna talked about how she put the collection together.

“I think my biggest challenge was to make clothes that looked chic, sophisticated and expensive, but that weren’t expensive. Going into this, I made a promise that I wouldn’t design anything that I wouldn’t wear myself,” she said, adding that her white dress “flatters just about every figure I’ve seen it on.”

She also admitted that her “at-home” uniform is an H&M tracksuit, and that she asks husband Guy Ritchie for advice on dressing. “I value his opinion very much. Before going out I always ask him what he thinks. If he doesn’t like it, I don’t wear it. But that doesn’t happen very often,” she said.

She also said she hates shopping. “People come to me with collections and show them to me. That’s not because I’m famous, and it’s not because I can’t walk into stores without being disturbed. I just hate shopping. I did it even before I was famous,” she said.
As for her future as a fashion designer, that’s still up in the air. Madonna may be famous for her stamina on stage, on a yoga mat, and in the public eye. But fashion design might just have pushed her over the edge.

“I must say, I really enjoyed doing this collection. But, honestly, I don’t know how long I could sustain this for,” she said.

source : madonna.com

THE Madonna zip-front tracksuits sold at H&M last year may have disappointed some fans, for in all their polyester shininess, they didn’t look like something She would wear. A cheerleading squad at a Florida retirement home, maybe, but not Her.

“I didn’t read the reviews,”? Madonna said on the phone the other day. “I don’t care what people say. I like them.”?

Next week Madonna gets a do-over as a celebrity designer.

Blouses, wrap dresses, printed halter tops, corset belts and a turban all designed by Madonna! go on sale in H&M’s 1,300 stores on March 22. And, She wants you to know, real effort went into these clothes, like maybe She does care, just a little, about what people say.

“Did they come and see my show?”? She asked, still on the subject of the mixed reviews. “If they’d seen my show, they would cut me some slack about how simple my tracksuit was. I like the simplicity of it and live in my tracksuits.”?

But one cannot live in tracksuits alone. The new collection, called M by Madonna, has an unexpected vibe that could be described as landed-gentry Madonna goes office-casual Madonna.

The degree of workplace appropriateness depends on whether one chooses to accessorize with pearls or a riding crop. Madonna, who chooses both, was inspired by the dynamic young women who work with Her, a group She calls the Semtex Girls, because, you know, they are like the explosive. Naughty!

“They are the kind of clothes that mean business and fun all at the same time,”? Madonna said. “I thought about what I like to wear every day.”?

Still, there will be Madonna fans (um, me) looking for something more emblematic of the many, many Hers. Like that bodysuit ($19.90) that speaks of “Confessions on a Dance Floor”?; or the double-breasted pantsuit (jacket, $99.90; pants, $59.90), circa “Express Yourself”?; or a long white dress ($69.90) that could have been a castoff from “Vogue”? days. But no.

“I didn’t really think about anything in connection to the stages of my career or the evolution of my persona,”? She said.

Not even the $34.90 corset belts?

“Well, what part of my career didn’t I have a corset in?”?

source : nytimes

The major deal for Live to Tell: My Life as Madonna’s Nanny, by Melissa Dumas, has been canceled by Crown, Publishers Marketplace reported yesterday.
The company said “it will not be publishing the memoir to be authored by Madonna’s former nanny, Melissa Dumas. The rights to the book have been released to the author, who is represented by [Sharlene Martin of] Martin Literary Management.”
“I deeply regret that Crown Publishing decided not to move forward in publishing Melissa Dumas’ book,” Martin told The Book Standard. “I had a wonderful experience with them with a previous nanny tome, You’ll Never Nanny in This Town Again, and had hoped to repeat that experience.”
According to Britain’s The Mirror, “Madonna, predictably enough, has risen from the lotus position to turn the full force of her legal team against rogue nanny Melissa Dumas in an attempt to silence her.”
source : thebookstandard.com