all about Madonna

Madonna's film "Filth & Wisdom" has been a spanking good seller for L.A. foreign sales outfit Katapult Films.

Pic, which is the Material Girl's directorial debut, was sold to Hexagon Pictures in Japan, to Surreal Films in the CIS territories and United Arab Emirates-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment for the Middle East.

French rights were sold to La Fabrique de Films in a deal separately negotiated by CAA and lawyers Grubman Indursky & Shire.

Pic is set for a North American release through IFC in the fall.

source : variety

Madonna going to her gym in London (May 14 2008)

U.S. pop diva Madonna plans to start building a multi-million-dollar girls' school in Malawi for underprivileged children this year, her local lawyer said on Wednesday.

"A task force of four prominent Malawians has already been formed to head the project which will be on the scale of what Oprah Winfrey has in South Africa," Madonna's lawyer Alan Chinula told Reuters.

"It is a multi-million dollar project and we will get the real costs in the next two weeks."

Billionaire U.S. television magnate Winfrey has built a $40 million all-girl leadership academy in South Africa which boasts state-of-the-art facilities including laboratories, a yoga studio and beauty salon.

Malawi's High Court is expected to approve Madonna's bid to adopt two-year-old Malawian David Banda on Thursday. Malawi's government and David's father -- his only surviving parent -- have endorsed the adoption.

Madonna will not attend the final court ruling on her adoption bid because she is busy with other engagements, Chinula said on Tuesday.

The adoption has been controversial, with critics accusing the government of skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, which has been ravaged by an AIDS epidemic that has produced more than one million orphans.

source : reuters

Singer Kelly Rowland has hit out at British festival organizers who have blasted Madonna's outrageous backstage demands - insisting she is allowed to be a diva. The Material Girl reportedly enraged fellow artists and organizers at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Maidstone, Kent, on Saturday by demanding special Kabbalah water, a private helicopter and a huge trailer.

But the former Destiny's Child singer insists the pop superstar, who performed to publicise the release of her latest album Hard Candy, can ask for anything because she is a legend.

She tells Music-News.com, "Madonna can have anything she wants. If she only wants red Skittles then get her red Skittles, she's freakin' Madonna! And if she wants a huge trailer, get her a huge trailer."

source : starpulse

Madonna going to / leaving her gym in London (May 13 2008)
She encountered a bizarre protest featuring a man dressed as a giant cartoon cat holding a banner reading "Latins do it Better"

U.S. pop star Madonna will not attend the final court ruling on her request to adopt a Malawian child because she is busy with other engagements, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

The High Court is expected to approve Madonna's bid to formally adopt 2-year-old David Banda at a final session on Thursday. Malawi's government and David's father -- his only surviving parent -- have endorsed the adoption.

"We are going to court on Thursday, but Madonna will not be there because she is not coming," Madonna's lawyer, Alan Chinula told Reuters. "The judge has indicated that he cannot object to her being absent when making the ruling."

Chinula said Madonna had "other engagements," which he declined to disclose.

A court clerk said Madonna's lawyer has asked for a later court date -- the singer's third request for a postponement -- because their client "had other business matters to deal with." He confirmed the judge could go ahead without her.

The adoption has been controversial, with critics accusing the government of skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, a southern African nation ravaged by an AIDS epidemic that has left more than 1 million orphans.

But one of Malawi's fiercest critics of Madonna's adoption bid, the Human Rights Consultative Committee, said on Monday it was no longer interested in pursuing the case, removing another obstacle.

Madonna began adoption proceedings in 2006, and David has been living with the singer and her husband, film director Guy Ritchie, in their London home since then. She took custody of David when he was 13 months old after his father had placed him in an orphanage following the death of his wife.

David's father, Yohane Banda, told Reuters Television this week, "This is what I wanted, that Madonna should keep the child."

source : reuters

It's quite a coup for Radio 1 to get Madonna to headline its summer showcase event; the effect, however, is somewhat undermined by the brevity of her performance - the time spent setting up is equal to the six-song set.

Given that the whole event is free, however, it seems churlish to complain, and the 20,000-strong crowd is good-natured and warmly appreciative. Many of them have turned out to see Madonna's latest return to the pop game: still reigning after all these years, she arrives on stage on a throne.

Her new album Hard Candy is getting the hard sell - most of the songs are drawn from there. However, few of the new tracks are particularly memorable - although one stand-out moment is a striking image of Madonna and her highly stylised male dancers moving in tandem across the stage during the opener "Candy Shop".

It is an energetic performance that belies her age, though the spectacle often undermines her singing, which hasn't aged as well as her dance moves. At times, her vocals are overwhelmed by the electro-tinged sound and on occasions it feels as if she is merely singing along to a backing track.

For her second song "Miles Away" she strums away rudimentarily on an acoustic guitar, and straps on an electric guitar for a rock reworking of her 2005 hit "Hung Up". Both gestures ring hollow. Of the new material, "4 Minutes" fuses the divergent elements best, with Justin Timberlake appearing on large screens to complete the duet.

Closing song "Music" from 2000 gets the warmest reception. You can't help but feel that many in the crowd hoped she would live a little further in the past and perform the songs that forged her iconic status, not those that merely perpetuate the brand.

Two of the better British bands of recent years, Foals and Hot Chip, offer strong if somewhat perfunctory performances. The percussive heavy sounds of Hot Chip's new album alongside the pop brilliance of two tracks, "And I Was a Boy from School" and "Over and Over", culled from their second album The Warning, are highlights.

Yet both bands' sets end abruptly - adhering to the tight time-slots allotted. They seem to be just warming up as they have to finish. A business-like sense of bands appearing to keep Radio 1's play-list controllers onside while not outstaying their welcome pervades.

Rating : 3 out of 5 stars

he father of a Malawian child that Madonna wants to adopt said on Monday he supported her case but wanted the U.S. popstar to bring his boy home for visits.

Madonna is expected to appear in a Malawian court on Thursday for what is expected to be a final and favourable ruling on whether she can adopt David Banda. She is due to arrive in the impoverished southern African country on Tuesday.

The pop diva began adoption proceedings in 2006 and the two-year-old has been living with her and her film director husband Guy Ritchie in their London home since then.

The adoption has been controversial, with critics accusing the government of skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, which has been ravaged by an AIDS epidemic leaving more than one million orphans.

Malawi's government has recommended that its High Court approve Madonna's adoption of the child.

"I have no problem with the government's recommendation to allow Madonna to get the child. This is what I wanted, that Madonna should keep the child," the boy's father, Yohane Banda, told Reuters Television in an interview.

One of Malawi's fiercest critics of Madonna's adoption bid, the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), said on Monday it was no longer interested in pursuing the case, removing another obstacle.

"It will be as a waste of time and resources to continue pursuing the case. Malawi has more pressing issues than Madonna," HRCC chairman Udule Mwakasungura told Reuters.

Madonna took David when he was 13 months old after his father had placed him in an orphanage following the death of his wife.

Standing in a dusty village of huts, Banda said he hoped to see his son during Madonna's trip.

"If she comes with the child ... we expect to be told that the child is here and we are allowed to see him," he said in Lipunga, 160 km (100 miles) from Malawi's capital.

But even if it was not possible this time, he said he hoped to see his son every few years.

"We had agreed initially that when the child is taken, she should bring him at least once in every three to four years so that we should see how he is developing," the father said.

If Madonna does get to keep David, the child will grow up in the high-flying world of a leading popstar, worlds away from Lipunga, where Banda's relatives eat staple food like maize meal from simple bowls and meals are cooked on open fires.

source : reuters