all about Madonna

Cannes is buzzing with talk of Madonna and everybody is desperate to catch a glimpse the material girl. So, last night, we bagged a golden ticket to the screening of her documentary about Malawi, I Am Because We Are. Sharon Stone was there, looking very tanned in a sparkly black number. But Madge out-sparkled her friend when she arrived in a gorgeous floor-length black and silver Chanel gown, proving that shoulders are definitely the new erogenous zone.

The boss of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Fremaux, gushed about Ms Stone’s long-standing involvement with the Festival (’Sharon, you are at home here’) before introducing the harrowing film about the plight of Malawian orphans, a subject close to Madonna’s heart since she adopted Malawian baby David Banda in October 2006.
‘It’s an incredible honour to be able to show this film at Cannes,’ Madonna told ELLE, ‘I would like the world to see it.’

After the film, it was off to a party hosted by private members’ club Soho House at the Chateau de la Napoule in Mandelieu-la-Napoule. But not before we bumped into Naomi Campbell, causing a stir in Dolce and Gabbana. The paparazzi went crazy for the model who looks even more amazing in the flesh.

We drowned our sorrows about not looking like Naomi with several glasses of La Palme de Cannes (Grey Goose vodka, saffron infusion, strawberries and passion fruit – if you’re interested) and Goose d’Azur (Grey Goose vodka, blue Curacao, orange bitters and lemon foam) as UK band The Feeling entertained guests with a very intimate gig, which ended with a rousing version of the Beastie Boys’ Fight For Your Right (to Party!). Meanwhile, Sophie Ellis Bextor, who was there with husband, The Feeling bassist Richard Jones, was delighted when ELLE complimented her on her Luella Bartley mini dress. ‘If I knew her, I’d pass on the compliment,’ she laughed.

source : elle

Madonna doing a TV interview / leaving the screening of ‘I am Because We Are’ with Guy Oseary in Cannes (May 21 2008)

Madonna with Sharon Stone and Guy Ritchie at the screening of ‘I am Because We Are’ at the Cannes Film Festival (May 21 2008)

Pop star Madonna made her debut as a movie maker at the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday with a red-carpet screening of her documentary about the plight of the 1 million children in Malawi who have been made orphans after losing their parents to AIDS. While Madonna did not appear in Filth and Wisdom, her directing debut which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February, she wrote, narrated, produced and enlisted first-time direction by Nathan Rissman to make the documentary I Am Because We Are.

The black-tie Cannes audience gave a warm reception to the movie with Madonna also attending the screening of the documentary at the world’s leading film festival.

She told the invited guests, which included Hollywood star Sharon Stone, that I Am Because We Are represented “a journey of lifetime; a journey that was continuing.”

The documentary begins with Madonna saying: “People always ask me why I chose Malawi. I didn’t. It chose me.”

The movie also touches on Madonna’s adoption in 2006 of a child from Malawi, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. More than 60 per cent of its 13 million citizens live on less than a dollar a day.

The adoption sparked controversy with claims that the official papers had been processed with unusual haste and the boy’s biological father later saying he did understand what adoption meant.

I Am Because We Are, which is derived from a remark by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the emeritus Archbishop of Cape Town, premiered last month at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Apart from prominent Malawian activists and Tutu, the Madonna documentary also includes interviews with former US President Bill Clinton, American third world economist Jeffrey Sachs and medical anthropologist Paul Farmer.

But it is the often harrowing stories told by many of the children and the sometimes horrific lives they lead that are the most powerful part of the movie.

The 90-minute film also shows the efforts by Madonna’s charitable organisation Raising Malawi to help improve the lives and conditions of children in Malawi, many of whom have ended up the streets after their parents or other family members have fallen victim to AIDS and HIV.

source : dpa

A choked up Madonna premiered her documentary, I Am Because We Are, about orphans in Malawi, on Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival.

“This is a film I want the world to see,” she said.

Dressed in Chanel haute couture and heels so high she twice grabbed the edge of a seat to steady herself, the Material Girl, 49, sounded near tears as she stood before the audience (including Sharon Stone) at the special screening.

“It’s an incredible opportunity for me to be able to show this film in Cannes,” she said, noting that she “held my breath” when she sent it to Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux. “I think I turned purple,” she joked.

“To say that this film is a labor of love is trivial,” she said. “It’s also the journey of a lifetime. I hope you all are as inspired watching it as I was making it.” (The singer’s adoption of a Malawian boy, David Banda, is nearly complete.)

One light moment: Fremaux teased her about introducing the film in French “because I know she speaks it.”

Laughed Madonna: “Not so good.”

source : people

Madonna with Sharon Stone and Guy Ritchie at the screening of ‘I am Because We Are’ at the Cannes Film Festival (May 21 2008)

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Madonna with Sharon Stone and Guy Ritchie at the screening of ‘I am Because We Are’ at the Cannes Film Festival (May 21 2008)