Wednesday, March 26, 2014

BOY GEORGE ABOUT MADONNA

Boy George has recently released a new interview for the “Huffington Post”. He talked about Madonna …. yet. This time in positive “mood”….



When I told my deputy editor, who adores Madonna, that I was interviewing you he said, “Don’t ask him about Madonna — he hates Madonna!”

I don’t hate Madonna! That’s such rubbish. I mean I’ve said awful things about Madonna and I’m not proud of that at all — I’m really not proud of that because I didn’t know her. And like everyone, I’ve always secretly kind of been into her. I have a lot of her records and I think that really is the measure of what you think of someone. If I have like 5 or 6 singles of Madonna that I love, that makes me a little bit of a fan. I have a massive painting of her in my spare room that I got in the ‘80s from some shop on Broadway.

People do love to pit celebrities against each other
There was a point where Madonna was just everywhere you looked and you couldn’t not comment! In the same way that it’s the same way not to have a comment about One Direction! They’re everywhere you look. And there was a point where Madonna was just everywhere, running around the park — she was just everywhere. And you can’t be that famous and not have people make comments, especially other people that are in your business. People are always asking me, “What do you think of this” and “What do you think of that,” but I don’t know her. I can’t see us ever being friends now but she’s going to be at this event that I’m going to tonight. I said to my friend, “If you can get a picture of me and Madonna, you’ll get a medal.” Can you imagine? I’d be really happy! It would be great to just have a photo with her and to fucking put this shit to bed. I don’t hate her at all!


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

MADONNA TO DIRECT INTERRACIAL ROMANCE ‘ADE: A LOVE STORY’




Madonna is getting back into the director’s chair.

The performer, who last directed 2011’s stylish period romance W.E., is attached to direct Ade: A Love Story, an adaptation of the debut novel by Rebecca Walker.

Bruce Cohen is producing the indie adaptation via his Bruce Cohen Productions. Jessica Leventhal, the company’s director of development, and Walker also are producing.

Walker, the daughter of The Color Purple author Alice Walker and civil rights lawyer Mel Leventhal, wrote about growing up interracial and with mixed religions in her memoir Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self.

In her debut novel, published October 2013, Walker creates a narrator similar to herself (the mother is Christian while the father is Jewish). The story centers on a 19-year-old American student traveling with a feminist companion in Africa who falls in love with a young Muslim man on an island off the coast of Kenya. Their hastily made plans to marry, however, get blown away by cultural and political forces.

Although very much a love story, many of the themes and subjects in Ade are those Madonna has touched upon in envelope-pushing ways at the height of her music career. Sex, religion, race, lesbianism all figure into the story one way or another. Already a fan of the book, Madonna also provided a blurb that appeared in promotional materials.

CAA is arranging financing. Madonna and the producers on the hunt for a screenwriter to adapt the book.

Cohen was a producer on Silver Linings Playbook and is working on adapting the graphic novel The Fifth Beatle.

Madonna, repped by CAA, also directed the 2008 comedy Filth and Wisdom. The Weinstein Company released W.E., which, despite curiosity, only grossed $583,000 at the domestic box office.

Madonna is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment. Walker is repped by UTA, Anderson Literary Management, and Shep Rosenman at Katz Golden Rosenman.

hollywoodreporter.com

MADONNA 1978: A CENTURY OF POP MUSIC IN NEW YORK


New York magazine (issue March 24th 2014) is celebrating 100 Years of Pop Music with 8 different covers featuring music icons Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Lou Reed, Barbra Streisand, Notorious B.I.G., Madonna, Jay-Z and Frank Sinatra.




Monday, March 24, 2014

Saturday, March 22, 2014

THE ICON OF POSTMODERNITY




Madonna has become one of the most successful and notorious female singers the world has ever seen.
The Times spoke in these terms in 1991:

Madonna has just clinched a deal making her the highest-paid performer in the history of the Pop industry only confirms what we already knew, which is that she is now the biggest star on the planet.
Even the rather staid Sunday Telegraph recognized her as the ‘female Icon of the age…’



She will do anything, say anything, wear anything, mock anything, degrade anything to draw attention to herself and make a buck. She is the quintessential symbol of the age; self indulgent, sacrilegious, shameless, hollow.

The aspect of Madonna that strikes one most is her use of image.

She is the self-sufficient postmodern phenomenon … A masterpiece of controlled illusion.
Madonna lives out the clich̩ that the medium is the message. Because of her success and because of her hard work, she has total control over her shows. She writes the songs, produces the music, choreographing and dancing herself, designs the stage sets and even does her own make up and costume design. She is obsessively controlling of all aspects of her show. And not just her shows, but all the things she does. Her films, her public appearances, even her private life Рall reflect a calculated image.

There is another important aspect to Madonna’s use of image and that is the constant change. She is always changing her image, whether it is from the good girl gone bad to the virgin in white; from Marilyn Monroe to the 1920s gangster moll, from androgynous, cold robot to naked sex symbol; from glamour queen to cosmic spirit and finally to doting mother. Her ability to change images every couple of years has fascinated the world, and has been vital to her success.

She is always evolving. She never stands still. Every two years she comes up with a new look, a new way of presenting herself, a new attitude, a new act, and a new design. And every time it is successful. There is this constant genesis.
And of course this again reflects our culture. We are always looking for the new, always moving from one image to the next, swapping one artificial world for another, changing to meet the pragmatic needs of the moment or discarding the old when it becomes boring, demanding or problematic.

Madonna’s use of image is complicated in a further way, because whilst she lives in her images, she refuses to fully identify with them. She says:

I do everything with a wink.
This playfulness comes through in all that she does – the self-parody in her films and the double entendres in her lyrics, the different levels of meaning and ironies that she uses again and again.
Whenever people accuse her of something she responds:
Well you don’t understand, it’s all ironic … don’t take it too seriously.
Defending her stage performance she once said:
I do not endorse a way of life, but describe one.
On the other hand, however, she wants us to believe that the image is real – she says “What you see is what you get, I’m not hiding anything”. So she makes the video ‘In Bed With Madonna’, a reveal-all documentary. The attitude is: ‘Let the camera roll, I don’t have anything to hide.’

The loss of her mother is significant in her world. She has said:

When my mother died, all of a sudden I was going to become the best student, get the best grades; I was going to become the best singer, the best dancer, the most famous singer in the world. Everybody was going to love me.
I’m a very tormented person. I have a lot of demons I am wrestling with, but I want to be happy.
It’s very moving when you look at this woman in all her decadence, in all her success and find beneath it all such a lost, sad and lonely person. That really reflects our culture. We see people lost in the images. Stridently, aggressively, demandingly using and abusing, pushing and shoving yet underneath … they are lost.

Madonna is the most visible example of what is called Post-Modernism.

Like A Prayer: From Billboards Book Of Number One Hits!





Friday, March 21, 2014

MADONNA’S ‘LIKE A PRAYER’ AT 25: CLASSIC TRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEW




To celebrate its 25th anniversary on March 21, here’s our track-by-track look back at Madonna’s classic studio album, 1989′s “Like A Prayer.”

By early 1989, the world had come to know Madonna as a dance-pop provocateur with quirky-sexy style. She was the biggest female celebrity on the planet, and yet for all her fame, few realized just how much pain and self-doubt this soon-to-be-divorced 30-year-old lapsed Catholic from Detroit was carting around. With “Like a Prayer,” that would all change.

Recorded amid the dissolution of her marriage to actor Sean Penn, “Like a Prayer” was Madonna’s most introspective and eclectic album to date. Unlike the three that came before, it blended classic psychedelic rock with then-current synth-pop sounds. And now, a quarter-century after its March 21, 1989 release, it doesn’t sound a bit dated. Lyrically, it’s about growing up, moving on from bad romance, and getting right with God and family. At least two of the songs center on the death of Madonna’s mother, a childhood trauma that had a strong part in making the singer who she is.

Before “Like a Prayer” was even released, Madonna made it clear this wouldn’t be just another album. Three weeks before the release, she debuted the video for the title track, the first of five top 20 Hot 100 singles spawned from the album. Featuring depictions of murder, interracial love, and cross burnings, the clip juxtaposed notions of religious and sexual ecstasy, leaving some folks puzzled and just about everyone talking. Catholics denounced her; Pepsi dropped ads featuring her (and ended plans to sponsor her tour). Fans, of course, ate it up.

Controversy aside, “Like a Prayer” is among Madonna’s finest moments, and over the next 10 tracks, its namesake album never lets up. It’s funky, poignant, and even a little kooky. And while Madonna is the quintessential singles artist, this chart-topping LP stands as one of her most fully realized collection of songs. Read on for our classic track-by-track review.

“Like a Prayer”
What a way to start an album. First, distorted guitars and a heavy thud. From there, a pop-gospel workout that’s as enigmatic as it is invigorating. It’s “Thriller” meets Catholic mysticism, and “Like A Prayer” works just as well without its vivid video. No wonder it shot to No. 1 on the Hot 100 a month after its release.

“Express Yourself”
The party moves from the church to Madonna’s posh high-rise, where she looks at her jewels and satin sheets and decides she’d rather have a man who’s in touch with his feelings. It’s her brassy, funky version of “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and it climbed all the way to No. 2 on the Hot 100.

“Love Song”
This collab between Madonna and Prince is the ‘80s-pop equivalent of Wonder Woman teaming up with Batman. Given the star power, the track feels a touch slight, and as Prince’s signature scratchy disco guitar breaks through Madonna’s synths, the divergent musical sensibilities make like the lovers in the lyrics—they don’t quite connect.

“Till Death Do Us Part”
As her tumultuous marriage to actor Sean Penn comes to an end, Madonna reflects on the well-publicized fights—“He starts to scream / the vases fly”—and emotional distance that doomed the couple. The skittering guitar or keyboard part creates a frazzled feel that contrasts nicely with Madonna’s assured vocals.

“Promise to Try”
Seemingly a straightforward song about the death of Madonna’s mother, this piano ballad is actually rather complex. She’s singing to her devastated five-year-old self, and in addition to offering some advice for coping—“Don’t you forget her face”—she asks for forgiveness. She knows she’s made mistakes, and she fears she’s let her mother and herself down.

“Cherish”
A welcome reprieve after “Promise to Try,” the album’s third single is a frolicking pop confection about true love. The only conceivable reason this thing didn’t quite make it to No. 1: America likes its Madonna a little edgier.

“Dear Jessie”
This playful psych-pop fantasia could have come from Prince’s “Around the World In a Day” album, though the Purple One had nothing to do with it. Madonna wrote and produced it with Patrick Leonard, whose young daughter was the inspiration. Listening back, it’s obvious Madonna was destined for motherhood.

“Oh Father”
A companion of sorts to “Promise to Try,” this song about Madonna’s strained relationship with her father leaves little to the imagination. As a child, she felt betrayed by his decision to remarry, and in a 1989 sit-down with Interview magazine, she traced her rebellious, independent spirit back to the sinking feeling her lone surviving parent had been “taken away” by her stepmother. Though it’s hardly a feel-good track, it resonated with listeners and reached No. 20.

“Keep It Together”
As the preceding eight tracks attest, Madonna had some familial issues. But on this mid-tempo synth-funk tune, she offers an olive branch to her estranged father and siblings, insisting that blood “is thicker than any circumstance.” A No. 8 hit in March 1990, “Keep It Together” is a tense groover.

“Spanish Eyes”
This Latin-flavored guitar ballad is either about AIDS or gang violence, and the ambiguity—a topic of debate among fans to this day—shows just how far Madonna had come since “Everybody” and “Borderline.”

“Act of Contrition”
Having spent the previous 10 tracks digging into some pretty deep emotions, Madonna takes a minute to decompress. Amid wailing guitars and backwards tape loops, she empties the contents of her head, and in the hilarious coda, she’s not sure if she’s confessing her sins and reserving a place in heaven or booking a room at a trendy hotel. “What do you mean it’s not in the computer?” she asks, ending the record in true Madonna fashion, with a big old wink.

By Kenneth Partridge
billboard.com

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

‘Game Of Thrones’ Cast Reacts To Madonna’s Daenerys Purim Look




Madonna recently donned the Daenerys Targaryen look from “Game of Thrones” to celebrate Purim, posting the results on Instagram over the weekend, and the Mother of Dragons, or rather, the woman who plays her – Emilia Clarke – was impressed.
“Oh my goodness. It’s insane. I thought I was asleep, I thought I was dreaming,” Emilia told Access Hollywood at Tuesday night’s “Game of Thrones” premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City of seeing Madonna dressed as her character.
“It’s a huge moment,” Emilia added. “And, damn! She looks good.”

For Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth, a character that challenges female stereotypes in HBO’s fantasy drama, it was a big deal.

“I got really, really excited. Madonna’s always been a favorite of mine. I love her strength and her transformative nature and the idea that she might be dressing up as a brilliant character in the TV show I’m in is pretty exciting,” Gwen told Access.
Actress (and singer) Carice van Houten joked that Madonna could have chosen another ensemble, namely the one worn by her character, Melisandre, the Red Priestess.

“I was like, ‘Why’s she not wearing the red dress, man?’ No, I completely get it. It’s such a great honor for my youth idol to dress up like someone that I’m working with,” Carice said. “But the fact that Jack Nicholson and Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson are watching the show — it’s pretty cool too.”

Kristian Nairn, who plays the one-lined character Hodor (he just says Hodor – so far!), and who is also a DJ, loved seeing Madonna as Dany.

“[I] kind of freaked out, slightly. That’s kind of a sign how big ‘Game of Thrones’ has got,” he said. “The Queen of Pop is wearing a Daenerys costume. I completely freaked out.”

John Bradley (Samwell Tarly) thought it was a good example of the show’s reach.
“She looks delighted, doesn’t she? Look at that. Things like this are just amazing,” he said. “It’s when you know that you’re really kind of pressing the right kind of cultural buttons.”

“I’m like still getting over it,” Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) told Access. “But that’s amazing. I’m dying.”

Alfie Allen told Access he thought it was “fabulous.”
“It’s crazy. It’s mad and everyone’s up on it,” he added. “It’s mental.”

Sunday, March 16, 2014

MADONNA AS “DAENERYS TARGARYEN” FOR PURIM 2014


“Happy Purim!!!!! All Hail All Queens! ##certainty”







Saturday, March 15, 2014

25 Years Ago in Rolling Stone: Madonna Smells Prince




1. Madonna smells Prince
In Bill Zehme's cover story on Madonna, she discusses Catholicism, her split from Sean Penn, her endorsement deal with Pepsi (her "Like a Prayer" video would end up scotching that), and a certain genius from Minneapolis. (Read the full story here.) "Ever since I've known Prince, I've attached a smell to him, which is lavender," Madonna said. "He reeks of it."


Friday, March 14, 2014

Rob Lowe missed his chance with Madonna




It seems Rob Lowe wanted to sleep with Madonna  — not dance with her, as he writes in “Love Life,” the sequel to his bestselling 2011 memoir, “Stories I Only Tell My Friends.”
The Brat Pack star, who says the new book (due out April 8) is racier than his first; it tells of meeting Madonna after a show in Los Angeles in 1984.
“She was cute and she was young and she was single, and so I sat front-row . . . she was a revelation,” Lowe writes. “‘Madonna would like to see you backstage,’ a security guard said as the house lights came up.”
“She had flawless skin and eyes that imparted secrets … she asked what movie I was working on and so I told her a little about ‘St. Elmo’s Fire,’ which I had just finished. ‘I play the bad boy,’ I said. Madonna just smiled. She seemed to like that.”
Months later, they made a date to meet up at the Palladium, “a giant dance club that was filled with rabid ‘boy-toy’ doppelganger fans of both sexes. It was a madhouse.”
After a harrowing trek through the “grabbing and pawing” crowd, Lowe reached the VIP section.
“Madonna and I were discussing where we would sneak off to at the end of the evening when she suddenly jumped up and said, ‘Let’s dance!’. . . ‘I’ll wait here,’ I said.
“‘Suit yourself,’ she replied as she waded beyond the velvet rope into the fray.”
But, unlike the free-spirited singer, Lowe had no desire to rub elbows with his fans.
He writes: “‘You’re crazy,’ I said, half meaning it. ‘No I’m not,’ she said . . . ‘I’m just not going to let success f–k up my fun.’”
Lowe is coming to Midtown to sign copies of his book on April 9 at Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue.
PageSix

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

KYLIE MINOGUE TALKS ABOUT MADONNA




Over the years you’ve worked with some great artists and sognwriters.
Is there anyone left on your wishlist?
So many!
What about Madonna?
Of course! That would ne incredible! It’s like maybe the world would stop mid orbit!
Yeah! it would be incredible. I don’t know if it would ever happen. Mabe it’s something that will live in our imagination.

Madonna Leaving Gym In Los Angeles March 10/14 Pics!








Saturday, March 8, 2014

Madonna hits the gym in LA March 6th Pics!

















NEWS: MADONNA IN STUDIO WORKING WITH AVICII




“Doing some house work before heading to the studio with Avicci!#artforfreedom #clean”

Monday, March 3, 2014

Madonna Wears 1,000 Carats of Diamonds to Oscars After Party




Madonna is forever living in a material world. The pop star wore 1,000 carats of diamonds at her Oscars after party on Sunday, Mar. 2, Neil Lane announced Monday morning.

The 55-year-old singer posted an Instagram photo of herself from Sunday night’s festivities, rocking a cherry red gown and matching lipstick, draped in jewels from head-to-toe. “The Oscar goes to Party ## 7!!!!! #revolutionoflove,” she wrote in the caption.

The press release announced Madonna wore 1,000 carats of diamonds up the wrist and on her ears, including diamond and platinum bracelets and earrings. In addition to the Neil Lane jewels, the blonde superstar adorned her eye-catching gown with even more jewels. Leaning against a wall in her pic, Madonna flashes the camera an intense gaze as she wears a crystal-coated pendant on her head and diamond-covered cross necklace around her neck.

To put Madonna’s 1,000-carat diamonds into proper perspective: Oscar presenter Anne Hathaway, who looked gorgeous at the Dolby Theatre wearing a black silk crepe Gucci column gown, paired her outfit with 100-carats of diamond and platinum bracelets by Neil Lane. The total cost of Hathaway’s jewels amounted to a cool $1 million.

Best Supporting Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence, who stunned in an elaborate rock crystal diamond and platinum necklace, also wore 100-carats of diamonds that were worth $2 million.

The Material Girl once again hosted her annual private Oscars after party at manager Guy Oseary’s mansion. The Gucci-sponsored event lures in top celebs annually with the promise of luxury brand goods from the Italian fashion house and plenty of booze.
A source tells Us that security detail was tight at the coveted after party. “There was tons of security and tons of staff checking people in,” the insider adds. Paparazzi is not allowed inside with the promise of privacy for famous guests attending the event.

US Magazine