all about Madonna

Photogs caught Madonna at JFK last night, who brought her guitar to the airport, but left her face at home.

Her Madgesty, 48, was spotted making her escape from New York, arriving for her flight sans makeup. The Material Girl kept a stone cold face when photogs tried to chat her up, barely smiling for the cameras ... wouldn't want to add any lines to that pretty face of hers!

Click here to watch the video report.

source : tmz

A bandana-ed Ashton and wife Demi were at Bungalow 8 in Manhattan last night, Rambo-style. Bosom buddies Penelope Cruz and Shakira partied with the couple in the tropical lounge.

Further downtown, Madonna visited Butter. Two minutes after Madge's big arrival, Shakira arrived holding the hand of a gentlemen friend. Ashton, Demi and Penelope Cruz followed closely behind. Janet Jackson stopped by while boytoy Jermaine Dupri was out on the west coast.

A hot-pink-haired Kelly Osbourne chowed down at Mr. Chow's with new squeeze Jared Gorbel and PR guru Jonathan Cheban. Kelly and beau then ditched the Tribeca eatery for Butter.

See all the NY action in today's hot buttered edition of Star Catcher NY!

Click here to watch the video report.

source : tmz

Is there a beef between Madonna and Janet Jackson?

Madge was chummy with fellow singer Shakira at Butter Monday night (our spy said they showed up "hand in hand") and was spotted dancing on banquettes with Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and Penelope Cruz. But Jackson was holed up a few booths down and, "She was not invited to join Madonna's crew," said an onlooker, who told us the table drank "seven bottles of champagne and a ton of beer."

source : nypost

5 Pictures - Madonna, Janet Jackson, Shakira, Penelope Cruz, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher meet each other at Butter for a night of partying (New York, June 26) - are added to the gallery.

10 Pictures - Madonna going out for dinner to meet Shakira, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and Penelope Cruz at the Corner Deli (La Esquina) in New York City (June 26 2007) - are added to the gallery.

6 Pictures - Madonna leaving the Tribeca Cinemas in New York City (June 26 2007) - are added to the gallery.

6 Pictures - Madonna and Carlos Leon jogging in Central Park, New York City (June 26 2007) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna has spent more than £6 million buying her sixth London property.

The American singer and her husband Guy Ritchie last week signed a contract on the 10-bedroom Georgian townhouse in London's Marylebone.

It adjoins the eight-bedroom property the couple live in with children Lourdes, 10, and Rocco, six.

They also own two nearby mews houses, which are occupied by staff, and two other houses in central London.

Madonna, 48, and British film director Ritchie, 38, bought their latest home from designer-developer Paul Davies, who made headlines recently by asking a record £40,000 a week in rent for one of his Mayfair properties.

The couple paid almost twice the £3.1million Mr Davies spent when he bought the property in August last year, even though he has not refurbished it.

The house has six floors and includes a vaulted artist's studio which adjoins the garden wall of the family's main home.

A source said: "Madonna has been a very shrewd investor in property - this is her fourth in the area. She knows the prices are significantly lower than in Mayfair but that the area is coming up. She has said she'd like to buy the whole street.

"She was really keen to get her hands on this house because she knows once Paul Davies starts developing properties an area can skyrocket in price. She was calling him for eight months and her initial offers were rejected, but after a series of meetings he agreed to sell."

Madonna faced competition for the house from comedian Jennifer Saunders and photographer Mario Testino.

Mr Davies refused to comment but he has described the property, a former private clinic, as "a blank canvas" in need of renovation.

The house has oak floorboards and many original features.

Madonna complained recently about workmen renovating her home, saying: "I can't believe how people don't like to work. The week starts at noon on Monday and ends at noon on Friday. I'm used to people in America working seven days a week."

It is not known whether the family intend to connect their acquisition to their existing home or rent it out.

Madge's property portfolio

The singer and her husband own a string of homes on both sides of the Atlantic.

Their portfolio includes six properties in central London.

In Marylebone there is their £7 million family townhouse, the new £6million property and two mews cottages close by, one of which was bought last year for £900,000.

The singer has also bought two properties that are used by the Kabbalah religious sect. One - a £3.6 million building in the West End - is used as headquarters by the group.

The other is a £1.6 million, fivestorey Georgian townhouse in Conway Street, Regent's Park. The couple also own the 1,200-acre Ashcombe estate in Wiltshire, formerly owned by Sir Cecil Beaton, which they bought for £9 million in 2001.

In the United States they have an £8 million house in Beverly Hills and an apartment in New York.

source : dailymail

Hennes & Mauritz, Europe's second-largest clothing retailer, said yesterday its profit rose 31 per cent in the second quarter as the company opened new stores and the Madonna-branded collection was well-received by customers.

H&M, which operates nine stores in the Toronto area, also announced a collaboration with Italian designer Roberto Cavalli.

Net income for the three months through May 31 rose to 3.47 billion Swedish kronor, or $540 million (Canadian), from 2.65 billion kronor a year earlier, H&M said. Sales gained 18 per cent to 20.05 billion kronor. Net income for the first six months rose to 5.1 billion kronor.

"The spring collections have been well received by the customers during the whole first half-year," the company said.

Shares in H&M, which has a total of 1,420 stores worldwide, dipped 1.54 per cent to 416 kronor yesterday in Stockholm, however.

source : thestar.com

Thanks to Peter

Wedding Belles

Madonna Preys on the Young

Some girls only do it for the attention, as evidenced by the 2003 VMAs, a ceremony that will be remembered exclusively for the choreographed lip-lock between cross-dressing "groom" Madonna and her snow-white "brides" Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The producer's career-threatening decision to cut away and capture ex-Britney boy toy Justin Timberlake's stone-faced reaction, left poor Aguilera with half the face-time, and a fraction of the press. To be fair, Britney did seem to put a bit more enthusiasm into it.

Full Article

12 Pictures - Madonna leaving the gym in London (June 19 2007) - are added to the gallery.

... he is continuing a new-found collaboration with queen of pop Madonna.

The exiting pairing has already produced five songs - a couple of R'n'B numbers and a couple of dance records.

Justin said: "Some of the dance stuff hasn't the in-your-face energy of Hung Up but it's got this mellow R'n'B thing on top of dance accompaniment which Timbaland is doing the beats for.

"It's all still in demo phases and I don't know if it'll be an album but four or five songs will make really good records."

source : dailyrecord.co.uk

12 Pictures - Madonna going to / leaving the gym in London (June 16 2007) - are added to the gallery.

In a bid to recruit top-name stars to sign up for Live Earth, Mr Gore tapped up the Red Hot Chili Peppers when he presented them with a Grammy Award in LA in February. He travelled to London for a one-on-one meeting with Madonna.

He did such a good job convincing the Queen Of Pop she agreed to close the concert at Wembley. Mr Gore said: "My wife and I met her and we had a wonderful conversation and she agreed to help."

Just one thing though . . . did he manage to also persuade Madge to ditch her private jets in favour of commercial airlines to help reduce her own carbon emissions?

I got an extremely carefully- worded answer in response.

Mr Gore said: "Well, I appreciate and respect her as an artist and as a person and there are many artists who are offsetting their role in contributing to the CO2 build-up and I understand that.

"The essence of this problem is that we live in a civilisation that has developed rather fully according to a pattern that emphasises the burning of carbon-based fuels.

"So making the shift to renewable energy is a challenge for everyone that will be a lot easier when governments around the world adopt the new strategies that will make this shift a lot easier to accomplish."

I'll take that as a "No" then!

source : thesun.co.uk

2 Pictures - Madonna leaving the gym in London (June 15 2007) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna is dithering about releasing songs recorded with Justin Timberlake.
Mum-of-three Madonna, 48, went into the studio with Justin, 26, last month in a bid to get some R&B credibility.
A pal explained: "She wants to reinvent herself."
But he added: "She's got second thoughts because she's not sure the stuff she did with Justin is quite right for her new sound."

source : people.co.uk

YouTube

Directed by Madonna and Johan Soderberg

Madonna
Power Rank - 3
Pay Rank - 9
Web Rank - 2
Press Rank - 1
TV/Radio Rank - 6
Pay - $72 mil

Madonna crisscrossed the globe last year for her tour, 'Confessions,' which drew over 1 million fans and grossed $194 million, making it the top-earning tour by a female artist in history. NBC cut the Material Girl a hefty check to broadcast the 'Confessions' tour live last November, though ratings proved disappointing. In March, the always-fashion-forward singer linked up with retailer H&M for her own clothing line, M. (Rhinestones a-plenty, but no cone bras.) Generated a maelstrom of negative publicity last year for her adoption of a baby in Malawi.

Top 20 :
1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Tiger Woods
3. Madonna
4. Rolling Stones
5. Brad Pitt
6. Johnny Depp
7. Elton John
8. Tom Cruise
9. Jay-Z
10. Steven Spielberg
11. Tom Hanks
12. Grey's Anatomy Cast
13. Howard Stern
14. Angelina Jolie
15. David Beckham
16. Phil Mickelson
17. David Letterman
18. Bon Jovi
19. Donald Trump
20. Celine Dion

British actor Rupert Everett can't wait to see the results of Madonna's directorial debut, because he thinks it will be "amazing".
Everett starred alongside the Material Girl in the 2001 comedy The Next Best Thing and is adamant Madonna's low-budget comedy Filth and Wisdom will be a hit.
He says, "She's great, I think it'll be amazing."

source : contactmusic

18 Pictures - Madonna and Guy Ritchie arriving at the Locatelli's restaurant in London for a dinner with Justin Timberlake (June 12 2007) - are added to the gallery.

21 Pictures - Madonna leaving the gym in London (June 12 2007) - are added to the gallery.

3 Pictures - Madonna leaving the gym in London (June 11 2007) - are added to the gallery.

From Madonna.com Newsletter :

Dear Madonna Fans,
A new day has come for Madonna's official website and we're happy to announce the re-launch of Madonna.com!
The "Confessions" days are behind us and 2007 has already been fueled with exciting new Madonna projects... and Madonna.com is now ready to keep you up-to-date on a daily basis and to provide you with everything Madonna!

New features include:
- A revamped video gallery, which allows you to watch every single video Madonna has made during the past 25 years
- A reworked Madonna tagging system, which is now organized by year and gives you access to thousands of Madonna pictures. We would love to see your favorite photos of our Queen, so please continue to add and tag away with your photos!
- Brand new goodies for your computer, including vintage wallpapers
- And much more!

Visit Madonna.com now to discover all of them!

New features and videos will be added in a near future, so make sure to check back on a regular basis!

Enjoy the new site!

Gosford Park actor Richard E. Grant has heaped praised on Madonna's movie-making skills, admiring her "real talent" for directing. The Material Girl has followed in the footsteps of her filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie with her directorial debut, the low-budget comedy Filth And Wisdom. And Grant, who stars in the movie, admits he is impressed by the singer's first attempt in the film industry. He says, "She is somebody who is so determined to stretch in every direction and I really admire that. "Believe me, the number of directors that I have worked with who don't have half her ability makes me believe she has a real talent."

source : contactmusic

Soft Cell frontman Marc Almond was forced to host superstar Madonna in a prostitute and drug-ridden apartment block when she visited the U.K. in the 1980's.

The Queen of Pop was about to embark on her first promotional tour in the country and used Almond's humble bedsit while he was away.

And former drug-user Almond reveals he still hasn't gotten over the shame of his filthy apartment.

He says, "It was a hell-hole. There were prostitutes upstairs, and junkies downstairs.

"I've always felt ashamed she stayed in such a pit. If I'd known how big she'd become, I'd have sold my bedsheets on Ebay!"

source : postchronicle.com

Saving Malawi's Children

Madonna first visited Malawi in April 2006. She's been there twice since, including a trip last October to adopt her son, David, who was then suffering from malaria and pneumonia. Through her Raising Malawi organization, Madonna is helping to foster sustainable solutions for the Malawian people, especially its most defenseless children. She's also working on a documentary about the orphans of Malawi.

Below are excerpts from her conversation with Dr. Jim Yong Kim, a founder of Partners in Health, which provides medical care and social services to the world's poorest patients. Dr. Kim is currently based at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University. He works to bring good medicine to people without access; his campaigns have helped increase aids treatment in Africa eightfold.

Madonna: A lot of people ask me, "Why did you choose Malawi?" I always say that Malawi chose me. Victoria Keelan, a businesswoman who was born and raised in Malawi, contacted me through a mutual friend and said, "Look, if you're in the business of helping children, we have over a million orphans here in Malawi, and the problem is insane. It's an emergency. They need your help." She reached out to me because I do a lot of fund-raising for an organization called Spirituality for Kids, which helps children in impoverished conditions everywhere in the world, whether it's Palestine, or East L.A., or New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, or the Bronx, Miami, Mexico Cityall over the place.

I must admit that I didn't really know where Malawi was when I first heard about the situation there. I had certainly heard about the aids pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, and in more well-known countries like Ethiopia and Rwanda. But not Malawi. So I educated myself, and I couldn't say no, and it just seemed like a good idea. I sort of dove in.

Dr. Kim: When was your first trip?

Madonna: A year ago April. I've only been there three times, but so much has happened in a year. I'm thrilled because, as you know, it takes a lot of time and a lot of work to get things done. It was great to go back and see so many things manifested. But once you start turning over rocks and reaching out to help people, there's a whole avalanche coming right behind it. And it seems never-ending. But when you see the fruits of your labor, you feel like it's possible.

Dr. Kim: One of the things we've learned is that you've got to take lots of joy out of small victories. That's what keeps you going.

Madonna: Yes, and you have to stop fixating on things, too. I found myself getting really angry when I went into [the slums] and was visiting families or single people living with aids who we're supposed to be helping with home-based care. I would talk to people through translators and find out that they were getting all the wrong medication. That drove me bonkers, and I almost ripped my hair out. Those little things get me down, but then you realize there are all these other great things happening: the Millennium Villages have surplus crops, and orphan-care centers are being built. So you have to focus on the things that are getting done.

There are some kids you can help by building orphan-care centers they can visit during the day. It's a place to go, and there's food; they can have their health needs taken care of, and they can get an education. And then they can go home and sleep with their extended family. There are other orphans who are in such dire straitsthey're living on the streets, and you need to find foster homes for them, or you need to send them to private schools. And some kids just need psychosocial support to deal with the fact that they're living with their extended family. But no one's addressing what it feels like to lose your parents, and what's going on in the heads and hearts of these kids. If they're the future of the country, then we need to do something about it.

I know that you're dealing with everything from alcoholism to orphans. There are just so many issues that need to be dealt with to raise up the level of someone's existence.

Dr. Kim: You mentioned alcoholism. We deal with that a lot in Russiait happens to be one of the biggest complications in treating TB there. We're doing a lot of research on alcoholism and TB.

Madonna: I think there's very little difference between Moscow and Africa in some respects. Have you heard about the orphanages there?

Dr. Kim: Oh, God. They're just terrible.

Madonna: It's way more depressing in a way.

Dr. Kim: When I was at W.H.O. [the World Health Organization], the director general had been to every single depressing place in the world. And the one place that just ripped his heart out was an aids orphanage in Moscow. It was the most emotionally troubling place he'd ever been to. He started a fund-raising campaignhe sold all the gifts that had been given to him by all these different presidents. He put all the money into a Russian orphanage.

Madonna: Oh, well, God bless him.

Dr. Kim: Orphanages in general, Madonna, I have to tell you "¦ I have a child. And it's just the most painful thing in the world even walking in there.

Madonna: I can't take it. I can't take it. It's difficult to watch people suffer, but it's so hard to watch children suffer. To see children lying on the ground in a daze, in a pool of urine with flies buzzing around their heads. It's unfathomable, and this is what the orphanage that David came from was like. I'm very happy to say it's not like that now, but it's just devastating. And there's another nursery we go to where a lot of the children are H.I.V.-positive, and they all weigh about three pounds, and they're all a year old. You hold these children and you think, How can I save them all, how can I make their lives better, what is their future. It's an unforgettable experience. I feel like everybody needs to take a sabbatical and go to Russia and Africa and work in orphanages and really witness true suffering. And then you'll just feel ridiculous for ever complaining about anything. Everybody needs that kind of reality check.

Dr. Kim: I think the second-worst thing I see on a regular basis is when parents can't feed their children.

Madonna: Yes, when they can't feed their kidsand then what they're pushed to do to feed their kids. Or just to sit and watch your child die of starvation. It's unthinkable when you consider how much we have.

Orphans are sort of my main focuschildren are my main focusso I have a question for you. From a health-care perspective, what is your approach for helping orphans?

Dr. Kim: Over time people have gone from just building orphanages around the aids epidemic. They're focusing more on preventing a generation of orphans. When people say, "What do orphans need the most?," I sometimes say, tongue in cheek, "Well, they need their parents more than anything else." So many children are being orphaned because of aids. That's why we push so hard for aids treatment.

Not too long ago, probably in 2000 or 2001, there were a lot of people who were still saying, "H.I.V. treatment is just not possible in Africa. All those 30 million people are just going to have to die." These are very nice, well-meaning people who sort of said, "It's not going to happen. Just forget about it and let them die." That's one of the things that we took on. We insist that people get treated. The other thing is that people need the whole range of servicesnot just basic health care, but help related to early childhood development, and whether they have a loving household. Those things are also really important.

The bad news is that there are a lot of orphans, and we have a lot of work to do. There isn't a single straightforward answer: "Well, if they just had orphanages "¦" No, it's going to be a little bit more complicated.

But the really, really good news is that there's plenty of money in the world to do these things. It just takes a small percentage of the money we spend on junkand then we can invest it. There's more than enough money to do these things.

Madonna: If we would just stop spending money on killing people and start spending money on saving people?

Dr. Kim: Why not?

Madonna: [Laughs] It seems so simple.

Dr. Kim: I've looked at what you're doing with Raising Malawi. What would you like to see happen in the next five years? What do you want to see there as a result of the work of Raising Malawi?

Madonna: First of all, I'd like to know that we're getting a handle on the aids epidemic. Some people say that we've stabilized it, that the numbers are not increasing. I spoke to a woman who is the director of the ministry responsible for women and children's development, and she said that, according to studies, it's impossible to really know how many are sick, because there's such a stigma attached to being H.I.V.-positive. If people know they have it, they don't tell you. And the other thing is, it's so hard for a lot of people to get tested. If you go into most villages and orphanages and ask, "How many of the people in this village are infected?," they'll say, "Oh, 70 to 75 percent." Then you ask, "Well, how many people have actually been tested?," and they say, "Not even one!" So it's very hard to gauge, and there are a lot of elements that work against it.

It's not enough to just make ARVs [anti-retrovirals] more accessible; it's not enough to help diversify their crops; it's not enough to bring in the educational component, whether it's health education or just education in general. You still have to deal with traditional practices, which, especially in the more remote of Malawian places, have a huge stronghold. Some people still think that their illnesses are curses and spells that other people have put on them. Even if you give them a cure and they get better, they'll still insist it was a spell somebody put on them.

Dr. Kim: Paul [Farmer, the medical anthropologist who works to raise the standard of health care for the world's destitute] tells this great story about a woman he was treating for TB. She came every day, took all her medicines, and got better. Being an anthropologist, he was compelled to ask her, "What do you think caused your tuberculosis?" And she had this long explanation that had everything to do with sorcery. So Paul said, "But if you believe sorcery caused your TB, why did you take all your medicines?" And she put her hand on her hip and said, "My dear, are you incapable of complexity?" People think that if medicines are making them better, you should do that and talk to the voodoo priest. Cover all your bases.

Madonna: To me, the most important thingaside from meeting people's physical needs, whether that's education, health care, clothing, food, a roof over their headsis changing the mind-set and educating people. And most of all, most important, is empowering people and making them self-sustaining.

I want to continue to see that aspect changing and flourishing and growing. I want to see girls with educations. I think women are the future of Africa. I hate to sound like I'm being sexist, but I interviewed a lot of women, and found, while watching a rough cut of my documentary, which is very far from being finished, that the people who are really doing the most to effect change in Africa right now are all women. They're the future. So I want girls everywhere to get an education.

After the English came and went in Malawi, after three decades of dictatorship and several more years of corrupt government, I feel like everyone in Malawi is walking around with this feeling like, "How can I make a difference in my country? How can my point of view be heard? I'm a nobody, I don't have any say, I don't have a point of view." I want to get rid of this inferiority complex. I want to help them to believe in themselves, to empower them. That's really what I want to see in the next five years. I'd love to see growth in all areas. You can't just go into a place and say, "O.K., I'm going to fix it with this one solution." That's naive and impossible.

Dr. Kim: What do you think it's going to take to get more Americans engaged with all these problems?

Madonna: That's part of the reason I'm making the documentary. I want people to be moved, to feel called to action. That's what I want to do.

Americans live in a bubble, for the most part. I say that from my house in London. [Laughs] But obviously I'm an American, and I've spent most of my life there. We're very privileged as Americansit's easy to forget about the rest of the world and to think that your problems are the most important problems. Even poor people in America live better than poor people most everywhere else. I can remember being poor and living on the streets in New York back in the day. But you could still scrounge up a dollar and go to Kentucky Fried Chicken, you know what I mean?

Being poor in Africa is something people in America can't relate to. Part of the challenge is bringing that reality to people and moving them. You have to arouse compassion. But, like Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, it's not enough to raise awareness. You have to give people solutions, and you have to invite them to get involved in whatever way they can, whether that's doing volunteer work or taking a portion of their salary and figuring out where they want that money to go. You have to find ways to inspire people to get involved.

Look, it happened with me. Obviously, I know what's going on in Africa, and I've contributed money to various funds over the years. But until you go there and you see it and experience it, it just feels like a problem that's somewhere in the distance, and it doesn't really affect you. So you're not moved to do anything about it.

Dr. Kim: How are you going to bring your art together with this? Do you see the two efforts coming together somehow?

Madonna: I'm making a documentary about the orphans in Malawi. And it's not really about just Malawi; it's about all of Africa, because Malawi shares a lot of the same problems with other countries. Making a film is an expression of my art, and I believe I'm going to connect to people that way, as a parent and a human being of this world. I want to appeal to people's sense of humanity and interconnectedness. I feel like I have the platform I'm standing on for a reason. It's not just to make people happy and get people to dance and sing, to feel an escape. It's also to get people to listen and to bring important issues to the forefront. With the success I've had and the position I've earned in the world, people are listening to me, so I'd better have something important to say.

source : vanityfair.com

Graham Norton has admitted that he is desperate to interview pop queen Madonna.

The Irish comedian has grilled female pop stars including Cher, Mariah Carey and Britney Spears during his nine-year chat show career, but has yet to meet the 'Ray of Light' star.

He told Heat: "I'm now with the same publicist (as Madonna) and I've named my dog after her - what more do I have to do? Jesus, I pay to see her in concert, I buy the albums...OK, I don't see the movies.

"Maybe if I'd seen Swept Away she'd do it. That would be the ultimate sacrifice."

source : digitalspy

The 21 people who put their famous faces to work for July issue say it all. Annie Leibovitz paired them up on 20 different covers - shout outs for the challenge, the promise, and the future of Africa.

Madonna is featured on two covers (#10 & #11). Photos courtesy of Amazon.com :

Raising Malawi
Madonna lends a hand.
by Punch Hutton July 2007

Madonna has done her homework. And her fieldwork. She first visited Malawi in April 2006 after Victoria Keelan, a native Malawian businesswoman, reached out to her because of the work Madonna has done with Spirituality for Kids, a nonprofit organization which aids children in impoverished and devastated areas across the globe. Madonna recalls that Keelan advised, "Look, if you're in the business of helping children, we have over a million orphans here in Malawi and the problem is insane. It's an emergency. And they need your help."

This past October, Madonna took her second trip to Malawione of the poorest countries in the world, with 42 percent of its citizens living on less than a dollar a dayand adopted her son David, almost two, who, at the time, was suffering from malaria and pneumonia. In this nation of about 13 million, one million are children who have lost at least one parent to aids.

Madonna was spurred to action. She met with medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer, who has dedicated his life to raising the standard of health care for the world's destitute, and had conversations with Dr. Jim Yong Kim, the director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, at the Harvard School of Public Health. Through her Raising Malawi organization, she joined a team that began setting up Millennium Villages, which provide maize seed and fertilizer to households, build water and sanitation infrastructures, help start schools, and make medicine more accessible.

Currently, she is working with film director Nathan Rissman on a documentary which aims not only to heighten awareness and effect change in Africa but also to explore what goes on in the heads and hearts of orphaned children. "I'm making my own discoveries as I go," she says. "You have those great moments of despair and inspiration simultaneously."

source : vanityfair.com

7 Pictures - Madonna leaving the gym in London (June 04 2007) - are added to the gallery.

Madonna seems to be mightily impressed with the talents of gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello.

The Material Girl offered moustached frontman Eugene Hutz a lead role in her new movie project Filth And Wisdom. Eugene spent the last week shooting with Madonna on location in London before heading back out on the road.

A source said: "He was thrilled and surprised when she asked him to join the cast. It was an offer that you can't really turn down."

Madge is directing the low-budget comedy, about a pop star on the make. Old pal Richard E Grant is among the cast, playing a blind writer.

Richard reckoned the Queen of Pop was coping well in her first stint at the helm of a film.

He said of the tale: "It's autobiographical to her own experience, but there is no lookalike wannabe Madonna in it as there was in the film version of my early life.

"She was very exact and particular about what she wanted as a director and she was very impressive."

source : thesun.co.uk

From TheSun.co.uk :
... Madonna dragged Guy Ritchie out for a date to see her new favorite band Gogol Bordello at Electric Ballroom in Camden, London. I had no idea Madge was a fan of gypsy punk. Maybe she is looking for some inspiration for her next project.