all about Madonna

Pop diva Madonna has reportedly spent 21.6 million dollars on funding a New York Kabbalah Grammer school for children also called as the ‘K School’ in short.
The ‘Material Girl’ has been a devout follower of the mystical offshoot of Judaism since 1997, when she was pregnant with her first child Lourdes.
According to The Sun , the ‘K School’ will open in December, and will be situated only a few blocks away from Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie’s Manhattan apartment.
The school will teach primary-age pupils the beliefs of the mystical Jewish faith.
“The school has been a dream of Madonna’s for some time. Education means a lot to her and she was keen to make the most of her money by leaving a lasting mark as well as helping kids,” the report quoted a source as saying.
“She has been really dedicated to putting money away to pay for the building and she’s delighted to finally own it. The papers have been signed and the school will be opening its doors to the first class in December,” added the source.
According to the report, parents who want their five-year-old kids to join the ‘K School’ will have to face several hurdles. They must be Kabbalists before they are even sent an application form for the fee-paying academy.
The strict entry policy will also involve an academic test for the child and a probing family interview and the parents will have to pay upwards of 3,600 dollars for a term.
The students of the ‘K School’ will get normal lessons in reading, writing, art and maths but the ‘Music’ star has insisted that spirituality will be the core of every lesson .
source : indiatimes.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

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

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.

It’s not what she wears, but how she wears it that has made the pop singer an idol for two decades.
It’s been 21 years since the belly-baring, headband-wearing street urchin with the improbable name of Madonna burst onto the pop music stage.
Two decades later, she is still in the international spotlight. She has evolved from Madonna, the pop tart, to Madonna, the S&M sex maven, to Madge the British wife/children’s author, to Esther, the Kabbalah follower.
The adult life of the Bay City, Michigan-born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone has been a spinning top that has generated love and awe (from her fans), hate and disgust (from those who found her merely vulgar) and controversy (enough to fill a book).
Whatever else was going on, though, Madonna and the world of fashion have been inextricably tied together. She has hooked up with designers such as Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Jean-Paul Gaultier (maker of her famous pointy corset bra), to name just a few, and given them name recognition in new circles.
Most people, in fact, were more likely to wonder what Madonna’s latest look would be blond Marilyn? brunette Goth? and so on than how her latest single would sound.
“Her image was always more cutting edge than her music,” says Anne Bissonnette, curator of the Kent State University Museum. “It was so strong, that, from the start, you could immediately recognize her followers.”
And how’s this for irony? The woman who made underwear worn as outerwear famous was recently named the best-dressed woman over 40 in Great Britain, by no less than that country’s Good Housekeeping magazine.
Well, it could never be said that Madonna’s fashion range isn’t extraordinarily wide.
She may have worn prim, flowered Prada dresses on her book tour, but on her current concert tour she wears costumes by made by Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney and Christian LaCroix
That tour features a retrospective of her various looks over the years: from the white lingerie bride look, to pointy-breasted dance warrior, to kilt-wearing schoolgirl run amok.
Like a virgin
with shock appeal
David Wolfe is one of the world’s top fashion forecasters, so he’s been paying attention to Madonna, he says, “since when she was Like a Virgin. ‘ ”
Wolfe, creative director of New York’s Doneger Group, first saw her on MTV in the mid-1980s.
“We were so easily shocked then,” he says. “Her wearing a lacy white bra as an outer garment that was just the beginning of what I think of as an endless succession of what has inspired fashion.”
Earlier in her career, Madonna said, “I think I have an original sense of style, and I think that people are unconsciously copying my style. Sometimes, when you see people do that, it’s really cute, you know? But sometimes it isn’t.”
Or, as Wolfe adds dryly, “I’m not sure it’s been a great 20 years as far as fashion. She’s one of the people who have helped push down the fashion taste level, since she always had to be top banana in the shock department.”
But, he acknowledges, “She also was one of the first pop stars to link herself with top fashion names, and she led pop music into high fashion.”
Now, of course, one typically sees Beyonce, Christina Aguilera and other pop singers wearing designs by Versace and Dior.
Tom Julian, the New York- based trend analyst for Fallon Worldwide, says Madonna’s background in New York City’s “underground” was crucial to her becoming someone who popularized trends, including bringing fetish wear out of the closet.
“She had that vantage point and an instinct for how exciting that world was,” he says. “She had the mind to extract certain elements from it and to make those elements commercial, relevant and exposed.”
Her timing was right, too. Madonna became, and stayed, a star just as fashion designers were themselves becoming celebrities.
“She came of age in a vibrant fashion era,” says Julian. “She embraces the fashion darlings designers like Dolce & Gabbana and not only for her concerts. She wore Olivier Theyskens at the Oscars one year and made him a name in fashion.”
Bissonnette was in fashion school when Madonna emerged in the mid-1980s.
“Jean-Paul Gaultier was important before, but she sent him to new heights,” says Bissonnette. “She had a great ability to select individual designers who had a focus on performance- based garments.
“With Madonna it was always as much about how she wears the clothes, as it is about the clothes themselves.”
Expressing herself
over and over again
At first, Madonna mimicked the look of New York’s fringe, artsy world: the raggedy, layered thrift-shop look, complete with black leather jacket, multiple rubber bracelets and torn fishnets. Later, her fashion turns were more stark, whether in the androgynous oversized tuxedo in the “Express Yourself” video or as the Hollywood bombshell in her Dick Tracy phase.
But more often than not, Madonna mixed things up. “She appropriated pieces from different designers,” Bissonnette explains. In other words, she was never like Cher, who always wore Bob Mackie for big public occasions.
“A bustier is a bustier, but with a crinoline skirt and a funky hairstyle, it becomes something else,” adds Bissonnette. “The difference between fashion and style is one’s ability to do that, and that’s what Madonna has.”
Then too, there was her body, which evolved from puppy-fat softness, to articulated musculature to a longer-muscled yoga look.
Bissonnette points out that Madonna’s style incorporated her body. She brought an extreme muscular look into the mainstream. “It became OK to look like that,” Bissonnette says.
Still, while Madonna might inspire fashion followers, Wolfe says, “I never saw her wearing something first. She’d pick something up, from streetwear, or often, she’d just be wearing an extreme version of something that’s come down the runway.”
Where she has excelled, he says, “was making the general public aware of trends that otherwise only fashion people were aware of.
“She feels the pulse of fashion she gets it a heartbeat ahead of the general public.”
Bissonnette agrees. “She is not a follower, but a leader. It’s very hard to maintain that for 20 years, but she has done it.”
Wolfe says Madonna is the per fect icon for a population with a short attention span.
“She understood that fashion was speeding up and she encouraged people to change constantly. She never stayed the same long enough for anyone to get bored with her.”
source : cleveland.com

…”Body of evidence” DVD was re-released this week (2.August) in Germany…plus amazon.de and ebay are selling from last July “Sex Bomb” new 2004 ‘behind the scenes’ DVD about her early days when Madonna first arrived in New York and her subsequent rise to fame. It contains exclusive and previously unseen film footage including in-depth interviews with those that worked closely with Madonna during this period, including journalists, producers, engineers, studio owners, her make-up artist, old classmates and ex-boyfriends. Packed with interviews and rare footage, this new DVD features on the cover a famous shoot from Hollywood video


source : drownedmadonna

Just becouse Madonna’s making a mint on her tour doesn’t mean she’s forgotten those less fortunate. On July 20, Madge, 45, made a surprise visit to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. According to a source, Madonna arrived at 10 a.m. with doughter Lourdes, 7, and “spent hours talking to 40 kids and their families. [Madonna and Lourdes] also played with the kids and read all three of her children’s books to them, and gave each and everyone of them copies of all of her books.” The source addsthat Madonna “signed autographs for not only them, but also for the nurses abd doctors, who were clearly starstruck”


source : madonnamegacollection.net

“It is going to be wonderful to be in the Olympic Village again, from having the Sydney Olympics which was such a fantastic atmosphere to going over there to be among the athletes,” Goodrem said.
The party would be held before the official Olympics opening ceremony, she said.
Other big names likely to be in Athens during the Olympics include Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, Danish Crown Princess and former Tasmanian Mary Donaldson, Madonna and Hollywood actors Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Tom Hanks.
source : yourguide.com.au

Missy Elliott has finished mapping out “The Road to Stardom” for 13 contestants in her new reality show. Madonna, Busta Rhymes and Jermaine Dupri all make appearances on the show, while music producer Dallas Austin will join co-executive producer Elliott to judge the aspiring hip-hop stars. Combining elements of “American Idol” and “Survivor,” contestants must endure mental and physical challenges to prove their talent. …
source : mtv

The latest news on the tv broadcast of the re-Invention tour from Portugal is that it will be directed by Hamish Hamilton .
English man Hamilton , is one of the best tv directors around and is the man behind tv broadcasts and Live Dvds such as Madonna’s Drowned World Tour , Jennifer Lopez ’s concert in Puerto Rico, Kylie Minogue Live in Sydney, One night with Robbie Williams and the latest Brits Awards ceremony.
Apparently Hamish Hamilton will start working on the re-Invention project next week, when he will travel to Portugal for a technical visit to the PavilhALo AtlAcntico in order to decide how and where he will install tv cameras as both Lisbon show will be recorded.
source : madonnatribe