archives
December 2008
Looking Ugly
A
small copy of the photo they're discussing can be viewed to the bottom
left.
To appreciate the awfulness of it, though, you really need to visit this first web page and see the large version of the image:
Ghost
of Christmas present: Madonna shows the strain on her pale and haggard
face
By Liz Thomas
28th December 2008Christmas can be stressful at the best of times.
For Madonna, who is nearing the end of a bitter divorce, the holiday appears to have been particularly exhausting.
The strain was showing as she headed out to dinner on Saturday with friends Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin in jeans and a bomber jacket.
Her skin was stretched taut and she appeared pale and haggard, despite putting on a smile for photographers.
Madonna
out on the town looking like Michael Jackson
Dec 29, 2008
She had the black trilby and pale face - all she needed was a white glove and a monkey called Bubbles and Madonna could have been mistaken for Michael Jackson.
The Material Girl, 50, went for the Wacko Jacko look when she dined with pals Gwyneth Martin and Chris Martin at London's Locanda Locatelli on Saturday night.
Madonna's "Miles Away" Single is a Flop Everywhere!
Update:
the single is flopping all around the world, too, and not just the UK,
according to the San Francisco Chronicle:
Madonna's
Record Low With 'Miles Away'
Madonna's newest single "Miles Away," about her ex-husband Guy Ritchie, has become the worst performing U.K. single of her career.
The track, from her studio album "Hard Candy," peaked at number 39 on the U.K. singles chart on November 30, dropped to 68 the following week, and has since disappeared altogether.
"Miles Away," inspired by the singer's relationship with Ritchie, is the first single Madonna has released that has failed to reach the Top 20 in sales charts around the world.
In the U.S. the single has peaked at 99, while in Australia, where the song has only been released digitally, "Miles Away" is her lowest-performing single ever.
More
woe for Madonna as new single flops
By 3am 19/12/2008
It looks like Madonna’s pop career could be going the same way as her broken marriage.
Because her latest effort, Miles Away, has completely bombed – and is the worst-ever single in the Material Girl’s history.
The Christmas turkey, from her album Hard Candy, scraped to an embarrassing 39 in the charts – and now it’s disappeared without trace.
.... But this time she’s really stunk the place out. Miles Away (from the charts) is all about her relationship to ex-husband Guy Ritchie. She has a dig at the director, saying they were always better when they were living apart.
Madonna's
latest single a flop - Music News
‘Disaster’
looms for Madonna after worst-ever career single flop
New
Madonna single her 'worst'
Madonna's
latest single a flop -Metro
Religion/ Charity
Madonna
Gives $2.6 Million to Kabbalah
Excerpts:
More interestingly, Madonna gave no money to her other charity, Raising Malawi, in 2007, even though that was the year she adopted little David Banda from that country. The tax filing wasn’t submitted to the IRS until June 2008, so it could have been amended to show Madonna’s appreciation to the African country for letting her change their adoption laws. She sent zero dollars to any groups currently working in Malawi.
In fact, considering that Madonna made a documentary about Malawi and threw a fundraiser for her cause last February with Gucci and UNICEF, it does seem a shade odd that she didn’t spread her wealth to a region that so needs it. The whereabouts of that $3.7 million that was claimed from that fundraiser still have not been reported. When they file their Form 990s, it will be interesting to see if that’s where Madonna’s Kabbalah money went.
Sour and Dry Tour
Madonna
did NOT have the top grossing tour of 2008.
Bon Jovi had the top grossing tour of 2008.
Jonas Brothers sold more tickets than Madonna, too. Madonna was also beaten by Hannah Montana and The Police.
Bon
Jovi Scores 2008's Top-Grossing Tour - Billboard
December 11, 2008
Ray Waddell, NashvilleBon Jovi's Lost Highway tour tops the list of the biggest tours for 2008, based on data reported to Billboard Boxscore from Nov. 14, 2007, through Nov. 11, 2008. The trek, promoted in North America and Europe by AEG Live, grossed $210.6 million and drew 2,157,675 fans.
In second place is Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's Magic tour, which grossed $204.5 million for the period. Springsteen reported another $31 million for last year, taking his two-year Boxscore total to more than $235 million.
Rounding out the top 10 are Madonna ($162 million for the still-underway Sticky & Sweet tour), the Police ($150 million on the second leg of their reunion tour), Celine Dion ($91 million)...
StubHub's Annual
Report on the Concert Economy
Posted By: Julia Boorstin
Dec 12, 2008The average price of Tickets sold through StubHub was $159, up three bucks from the average price last year. Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet" tour was the highest grossing of the year, with an average ticket price at $306. The Jonas Brothers tour sold the most actual tickets in 2008, but the most successful tours were consistently the older artists.
2008
StubHub Concert Ticket Annual Report
It [the Madonna Sticky and Sweet tour] was the third best selling tour in the history of StubHub, second only to Hannah Montana and the Police in 2007- 2008.
Slams, Put-Downs / Madonna is a Bimbo
With
her sinewy, veiny, gross arms and weird, beefy legs, and too-tight, oddly
hollowed-out face, I do not think Madonna causes many people to have "impure"
thoughts these days. Madonna is more apt to cause gagging reflexes in
people.
Chilean
Cardinal: Madonna Causes 'Impure Thoughts'
Roman Catholic Cardinal Jorge Medina - who was chosen to announce the election of Pope Benedict XV - used a bizarre tribute to a late dictator to denounce the Sorry hitmaker on Wednesday (10Dec08), blasting her stage antics.
Pausing from his tribute to the late Augusto Pinochet, he said, "This woman [Madonna] comes here and in an incredibly shameless manner, she provokes a crazy enthusiasm, an enthusiasm of lust, lustful thoughts, impure thoughts."
Madonna Beaten by Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) Yet Again...
Miley
Cyrus, Obama items hot online sellers in 2008
By Jill Serjeant
Mon Dec 8, 2008LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Teen star Miley Cyrus, pop diva Madonna, "The Dark Knight," hi-tech gadgets and Barack Obama were among America's top pop culture obsessions that turned into possessions in 2008, according to online market place eBay.
... Some 223,139 "Hannah Montana" related-items, ranging from buttons, to clothes and posters, exchanged hands on the Web site during the year.
... "Material Girl" Madonna, who turned 50 this year and also divorced second husband Guy Ritchie after months of rumors. Madonna memorabilia, albums and posters saw sales of 96,511 items.
Madonna's Record/Tour Company Live Nation
The folks at Live Nation have been having all kinds of problems lately.
They're losing money like crazy, and they're facing a law suit.
This could be why they've been releasing all these glowing reports lately claiming that Madonna's and Nickelback's tours have done so well -they're trying to off-set the bad news.
Black
Sabbath Suing Live Nation For Copyright Infringement
Dec 18 2008
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is suing Live Nation Inc. for trademark infringement.
Live Nation purchased the merchandising company Signatures Network Inc. in 2007 for $79 million. Iommi claims that Black Sabbath’s contract with Signatures expired in 2006, but the companies have continued to sell merchandising with images of Iommi and Black Sabbath’s logo on them.
Iommi first sent the company a letter asking them to stop selling the merchandising back in April, but that failed to stop them so he is now taking legal action. He’s asking for damages in the amount of three times any profit Live Nation has made from the band’s merchandise along with a halt to the product sales.
U2’s
Live Nation Deal Is Good For Madonna, Bad For Investors
Live
Nation loses $19 million in $25 million U2 stock buyback
November 2008
Slams, Put-Downs / Irrelevant, Has-Been
Twice
in the past month or two, host Bill O'Reilly of the T.V. Show The
Factor has called Madonna a "pin head." See the Bill
O'Reilly thread at the discussion board for more information on that.
Madonna
is Not Important Anymore - from the Houston Chronicle
By KEN HOFFMAN
Houston Chronicle
Nov. 19, 2008, 5:32PM.... A review of Madonna’s concert at Minute Maid Park referred to her as “the most famous woman in the world.”
I’m calling b.s. on that — and I don’t mean Barbra Streisand.
Again, like Barbara Walters’ list of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2008, calling Madonna the most famous woman in the world is about five years too late. Maybe 10 years.
Madonna is simply not that important or fascinating any more. There’s an element of freak show on her current tour. King Tut still goes on tour, too.
So who is the most famous woman in the world?
Forbes magazine called Condoleezza Rice the most powerful woman in the world, but power isn’t fame.
Queen Elizabeth is powerful, sort of, but not so relevant. If she were sitting on a park bench, would anybody in the U.S. recognize her? I mean, without the crown?
My choice for most famous woman is pretty scary.
If the criteria are: who is known by the most people around the world, has influence, sells tickets, moves merchandise and makes headlines ...
I can’t believe I’m saying this ... Miley Cyrus.
The Disney Channel airs in 89 countries. And Cyrus’ show, Hannah Montana, is the No. 1 show on Disney.
If Madonna and Cyrus announced concerts, with tickets going on sale the same day, whose line would be longer?
When Cyrus played the Houston Livestock and Rodeo, it was the hottest ticket in rodeo history and the biggest payday in Houston ticket-scalping history.
That scene was repeated in city after city during Cyrus’ tour in 2008.
Madonna’s concert at Minute Maid Park was sold out — but nowhere near the ticket hysteria of Cyrus’ show at much bigger Reliant Stadium.
Hypocrite / Environment
Hat
Tip: discussion board member Knight Muzic
The
5 Most Annoying Green Trends in Hollywood
Find Out What Eco Hype Gets Our Green Goat --By Tommi Lewis Tilden
[snip photo of Madonna standing in front of a private jet plane]
4. Sanctimonious Eco Hypocrites
I'd like to say they know who they are, but they probably don't because they're surrounded by their "people" (assistants, publicists and other employees) who assure them that attending a Global Green party will offset their private jet trips and five palatial, fully staffed homes scattered across the globe.
Dry and Sour Tour
Madonna's
Detroit Sticky and Sweet performance did not sell out! There were empty
seats in the house (see links below).
In the reader comment sections at the bottom of various reviews of the tour from Detroit, Houston, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, there are many complaints from people who have attended.
Some of the complaints that keep turning up: Madonna shows up late (sometimes by as much as two hours); the show is boring or stupid; the costumes are tacky; the audio is bad; she's not singing her older, more loved songs; the on-stage videos (which play while she is undergoing costume changes) are boring.
Some people have written that they were so disappointed or bored by the show that they left early.
Ignore the positive-sounding title of the first review here and notice what it says: her Detroit show was not sold out:
Madonna
returns to Michigan with exacting, entertaining spectacle
BY BRIAN MCCOLLUM
November 19, 2008....Unlike most of the dates on this tour -- and Madonna’s previous stops in Michigan -- the show wasn’t a sellout. If anything is a bellwether of tough times in Detroit, this was it.
Fans elsewhere might still splurge $165-plus on good seats, but ticket brokers Tuesday afternoon were discounting Ford Field tickets by up to $100. And this in a city once known as a can’t-miss concert market, for acts small and large.
'4
Minutes' (hours) I'll never get back - Madonna in Detroit
November 19,2008
by Stacey DuFord
Detroit Entertainment ExaminerI wish I could say I liked the Madonna concert last night; I really wanted to.
.... And the show wasn’t even sold out; we heard them still hawking tickets on the radio as we parked. We finally get inside, get a beer and find our seats and….
Wait.
And did I mention that we [the reviewer and her husband] waited?
Does Madonna think that people who can afford to spend $200 to see a concert on a Tuesday night don’t have to get up and go to work the next day? Because she did not grace the stage until 9:30 p.m.
....And there was a lot of dancing, and rolling around, and jump roping.
At some points it was more like watching a Madonna Exercise Video than a concert.
And speaking of videos, to accommodate her costume changes each set list starts out with a “video interlude.” Sure, you were still seeing Madonna, but I can see her videos on my TV at home for free.
The whole show had a “is it live or is it Memorex” vibe because her back-up tracks were her own singing.
.... The next video interlude was incredibly boring and when she came back on she sang “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” atop a grand piano while surrounded by a set piece that made it look like she was in a container that kept getting filled up with water and at this point my husband turned to me and said “This is just stupid” and I agreed and we left.
Tacky Fashion
Larger
versions of photos of Madonna in this ugly green grass dress pictured
at the left are in the Vogue
Gallery
Articles about the ugly dress (some have photos):
Madonna
is Frilly and Feathery
Defamer
Instant Reactions to Madonna's Astroturf Dress From Last Night
By Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director
20 Nov 2008....But left to her own devices, Madonna is a fashion car-crash. She simply cannot do real clothes.
Countless images show her obsession with sloppy-slobby, sports-chic – oversized sweat-tops and baggy trackie-pants, with her hair pushed up underneath a laughable tweed cap and her eyes hidden behind shades. In some shots you could be looking at a Kerry Katona or a Jade Goody.
.... [Madonna wore clothes by various, famous designers over the years]
....Then came Gucci, Stella McCartney and Prada, where the designs began often to sit uneasily on her increasingly muscled and veined body.
Very rarely, now, does she look at ease. She’s tried country chic, boho luxe, tea-dresses, tailoring, furs, frump chic; it all looks the same – awkward.
She logs onto every trend going, from leggings under dresses to ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ and the return of animal print. Still no luck.
Everything she wears looks as if it belongs to someone else, as if she’s simply inhabiting it for a nanosecond.
.... Her latest style salvo, in an Louis Vuitton dress by Marc Jacobs, which looks as if someone poured a wheelbarrow of lawn clippings all over her, is just another horrific hiccup in the wardrobe of a woman of wealth, but no taste.
Filth and Wisdom
The
Thanksgiving holidays are approaching here in the United States, a time
for cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and turkeys.
Speaking of turkeys, Madonna's Filth and Wisdom was a turkey at the box office!
Madonna's
directorial debut flops
Nov 7, 2008
Queen of pop Madonna’s directorial debut is a flop, with no one wanting to watch her new movie “Filth and Wisdom”.
Madge had released her movie three weeks ago at New York's IFC Centre, and had even received some positive feedback for directing the feature, which starred members of the group Gogol Bordello, Fox News reported.
But unfortunately, even New Yorkers did not want to see it, and so far the movie has sold just over 18,000 dollars in tickets since its release October 17th.
October 2008
Rebuttals To Madonna Apologetics
Why Madonna Still Doesn't Matter - A Rebuttal to the Obnoxious, Stupid Editorial by Mike Usinger
Religion / Ego
Madonna
Tells Guy Ritchie That She's 'Bigger Than Jesus'
The Mail has learned that Guy finally decided the marriage was over during one particular bizarre exchange with his wife at their Marylebone house where she claimed to be 'bigger than Jesus'.
Said a friend: ''The argument happened at the Marylebone house. Madonna had been moaning about his lack of support and lack of interest in what she has doing with Kabbalah.
'She told Guy she did not understand why she was ridiculed by the press for what she was doing with the religion. But Guy just reacted quite sarcastically and told her to "get over herself".
'And that's when it got a bit surreal. Madonna said that her destiny had been mapped out and that she had been chosen to live this life.
'She said the reason why she is a living icon is that she had been chosen to be a spiritual guru. To which Guy turned around and said 'Listen love, you're just a singer'.
'And it was then she turned around to him and said: "Listen baby, I'm bigger than Jesus'".
Slams and Put Downs
Guy
Ritchie Told Madonna: "You're 'Old, Fat, Ugly, Wrinkled'"
Madonna:
You Look Old and Tired - Says Kylie Minogue's Designer
October 24, 2008 12:00am
The UK style guru turned designer who has worked with Kylie for 17 years, said in Sydney that while the Oz poppette has evolved her wardrobe, Madonna's has stayed the same.
MADONNA needs to drop the crotch grabbing and get a new concert wardrobe according to Kylie Minogue's long-term stylist, William Baker.
....But he claimed Madonna's concert style was tired.
"Over the years her concert clothes have always been really interesting but I didn't think there was anything new this time.
"The camera shots of her [Madonna] are also still very crotch-centric and we've seen this all before," he said.
Donald
Trump Thinks Madonna is Stupid
Madonna
is being 'beastly' over divorce to my son says Ritchie Senior -This
Is London
Madonna,
role model for a selfish generation
Excerpts:
17th October 2008
Madonna, the so-called mistress of reinvention, will surely be better remembered as the high-priestess of hypocrisy.
As her marriage crumbles, her carefully constructed image is collapsing with it and revealing her true personality. And it's not pleasant.
The dignified divorce her children have a right to expect went up in smoke on Thursday when she denigrated her husband Guy Ritchie - natural father to one of her children, father to their adopted son and stepfather to another child - as an 'emotional retard'.
If that sets the tone for the battle to come then so much for the peace and spirituality of the Kabbalah faith which she works so hard to promote.
But then I'm afraid I believe that for 25 years, Madonna, who has so cynically and assiduously promoted herself as a role model for independent, modern women, has, in fact, had a hugely detrimental effect on the values of those same women.
Throughout her hugely successful career she has personified the triumph of style over substance. She has paraded herself as a devoted wife - yet glorified casual sex.
She has vilified orthodox religion - yet set herself up as the patron saint of Kabbalah.
But most damaging of all is the example she has set as a mother. No matter how long and how viciously she and Guy Ritchie squabble over their millions, the real and lasting harm will be done to her three - soon to be four - young children.
Yes, incredibly, amid the chaos of her divorce, she plans to go ahead with the adoption of a second African orphan. And that little girl, three-year-old Mercy James from Malawi, will be raised in the same way as her adopted brother David, also from Malawi: by nannies.
Indeed, the pure selfishness of adopting David in 2006 is now laid bare. Guy Ritchie is his legal father, but what bond will he feel for a child with whom he has no blood tie and who will most likely live on the other side of the world?
And what kind of life will David and Mercy have, raised by strangers in a strange land?
Surely if Madonna cared about their happiness, she would have paid handsomely for them to be raised in their own country with their own loving families, not an army of nannies.
Not that her other children will fare much better. Madonna's daughter, Lourdes, 12, will lose her stepfather, a man she has known most of her young life. And the couple's own child Rocco, eight, will be dragged from continent to continent between warring parents.
This will be Madonna's lasting legacy: the glamorisation of a dysfunctional single-parent family.
The greatest irony of Madonna is her very name, representing as it does one of the central icons of Christianity, the eternal mother. You'd have difficulty finding a more utterly selfish one.
Goodbye
Mrs Ritchie. We hardly knew you
18 October 2008
....Cleverly suggesting that she knew an "emotional retard" on stage in New York, Madonna confirmed that she must be one herself. Everyone knows that when children are involved, you bite your lip during break-ups. Especially when everybody on the whole planet is listening.
Madonna
exclusive: Her Top 10 most embarrassing moments
Excerpts:
By Jody Thompson, Mirror.co.uk 15/10/2008
With news that her seven-year marriage to Guy Ritchie is finally over, Madonna is today facing up to yet another embarrassing failure in her life.
Because despite her immense riches and years of success at the age of 50, Madonna has had more toe-curling moments than most celebrities.
From her evermore cringe-inducing obsession with keeping up with the latest young trends well into middle-age – never mind her insistence on wearing revealing leotards at every opportunity – Madonna has refused to grow old gracefully.
Here, Mirror.co.uk rounds up Madonna’s Top 10 most embarrassing moments for you to blush along with [to read the full list, click the link]:
4. Hanky Panky. Or her cover of American Pie. Two of the nadirs of Madonna’s recorded output at any rate. The pop equivalent of fingernails down a blackboard. Hear Hanky Panky here and American Pie here – if you can stomach it.
8. As if that weren’t bad enough, after getting her boobs out on the catwalk for Jean Paul Gaultier, Madge then decided to show the world her even ruder bits in all their un-airbrushed glory in her explicit coffee table book Sex. A planet averted it’s eyes and said in unison: ‘Put it away, love’
10. Her entire involvement in the hocus pocus ‘religion’ of Kaballah. Fifty dollars for a bit of red string, we ask you.
Madonna
Officially Too Old To Compete
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Poor Madonna looked like mutton dressed as lamb at the premiere of her new film last night.
The 4 minutes singer looked ancient in her black dress on the red carpet as Lindsay Lohan was wearing a similar outfit.
The younger star looked stunning in her short black dress and big heels. Her long crimped hair was a better version of Madonnas hair style.
It's not known what Madonna thinks of Lindsay showing her up.
Baby Stealing
'Madonna's
adopted son would be better off in Malawi' says his biological father
- Daily Mail
Excerpts:
By Barbara Jones
18th October 2008The real father of Madonna's adopted son David feels bitterly disappointed that she is getting a divorce - and yesterday he declared: 'I am still a poor farmer with nothing to offer, but maybe he would be better off back with us.'
...'They [Madonna and Guy Ritchie] promised to take good care of him [David] and always remember he was from Malawi. That's why I let them take him. Now I feel let down and disappointed, really shocked.
.... 'I have never heard from her [Madonna] since the day I agreed to let her adopt David. She has sent no photographs or news. I suppose she just wants him for herself.'
Yohane
Banda (David's biological father): I don't want a single woman (Madonna)
raising David
Excerpts:
Oct 19, 2008
by Mabvuto BandaThe father of the Malawian boy adopted by Madonna has said that he was not told about her proposed divorce and does not want his son to be brought up by a single mother.
Yohane Banda, 33, a peasant farmer, said that he now regretted putting his son David up for adoption...
As I noted on the discussion board, Madonna put on a charade to fool and sucker the Malawian government into thinking she was a good mother -
-Just long enough so that she could steal David Banda
And don't forget the news reports of how
Madonna
bribed adoption officials.
Also check out stories such as
Madonna
funding Malawi official's degree,
Madonna
Accused of Bribing Adoption Official
Madonna
bankrolls man from Malawian adoption ministry,
and do a web search for the name "Willard Manjolo"
Here's further confirmation:
Trouble
brewing for months with Madonna and Guy Ritchie
The [Madonna and Guy Ritchie] relationship began showing cracks last summer when the twosome started squabbling in public, and increasingly spent more time apart.
The pair pulled it together to put on a happy face for African social workers in September who visited the couple to determine whether they could legally adopt their Malawian son, David Banda.
As soon as those adoption papers went through the couple quit making nice and again began spending time apart.
Other adoption related information:
Madonna
divorce shocks Banda father
Madonna's Mustache
Madonna's
hairy upper lip has been featured in word and photo at some web sites,
including Huffington Post and The Daily Mail.
Madonna showed up to the New York premiere of a movie she directed ("Filth and Wisdom") sporting the mustache.
Madonna's
Mustache Thread at the Discussion Board
Papa
don't bleach: Madonna forgets to wax her top lip
Excerpts:
...the 50-year-old's usual preened appearance was slightly let down by the darkened area just above her top lip, which she had apparently forgotten to wax or bleach.
...The pop star also appeared to be a few weeks behind in topping up her bleach blonde roots at the hairdressers.
Madonna: Homewrecker? - Alex Rodriguez
A-Rod
Moving Closer to Madonna
Madonna Stole Home
Sources say Madonna's relationship with Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez was going on a lot earlier than previously thought.
I've told you about A-Rod's multi million dollar 'love shack' in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel's condos over on Columbus Avenue. A-Rod, according to sources, moved in around the middle of March, right before baseball season began.
There's no question, according to insiders, that Madonna has been a steady presence at the apartment ever since then. She sort of came with the package. According to sources, Rodriguez rented the apartment without ever speaking of his wife, Cynthia. She would have been around seven months pregnant at the time.
Madonna
& A-Rod's Secret Love Shack?
Madonna
had 'affair' with A-Rod claims wife
By CHARLES MIRANDA in London
October 18, 2008 12:00am
....Both the Madonna and Rodriguez laughed off the accusation, saying they were simply good friends who shared the same manager.
But those close to Ritchie claimed he too suspected otherwise despite his wife's denials. Their being seen at Times Square together, and a week earlier at New York's Kabbalah Centre and earlier at a Mexican eatery Dos Caminos was the final straw.
Divorce from Guy Ritchie
Read
the
Guy
Ritchie Divorce thread at the Discussion Board.
Yes, Madonna and Guy Ritchie (pictured at the left) are divorcing. Who didn't see this coming?
Madonna-Ritchie
divorce confirmed - CNN
Madonna-Ritchie
Split Confirmed - Sky News
Guy
Ritchie Told Madonna: "You're 'Old, Fat, Ugly, Wrinkled'"
Guy
Ritchie's got a new - younger - gal; calls Madonna 'old, fat, ugly and
wrinkled'
Guy
Ritchie finds new love [with Kelly Reilly, age 31], like estranged wife
Madonna
The
Madonna Monster - Gawker
Is
Madonna Spying on Guy Ritchie? - Contact Music
Guy:
Now Madonna spies on me - The Sun
The
screaming matches, the money and what really broke up Madge and Guy
- (Hat Tip Anna_L for the link)
Excerpts:
By Rav Singh, 18/10/2008
As their relationship went into meltdown the musclebound singer insisted on sticking to her strict FOUR-HOUR daily exercise regime DESPITE Guy’s pleas they should spend more time together.
It meant the film director went 18 MONTHS without having sex with his wife.
And on the rare occasions when they did make love, he [Guy Ritchie] has told pals it was like “cuddling up to a piece of gristle”.
Madonna
and Guy Ritchie exclusive: Madonna's "control freak" behaviour
made marriage a 'nightmare'
Excerpts:
By Graham Brough and Beth Neil 16/10/2008
Guy Ritchie suffered a nightmare marriage dictated to by his tyrannical wife, pals revealed last night.
An enjoyable meal or a night in front of the telly with the kids were banned by his control-freak missus, sources claimed.
And he was forced out of her bedroom as she became obsessed with rituals to keep her looking young – sometimes smearing herself with creams worth £500 a pot.
....Frying pans are an absolute no-no in Her Madgesty’s household and she expects everyone to follow her impractical example.
One source said: "Guy likes to look after himself but doesn’t see the harm in having the odd treat.
"He also worries that Madonna’s paranoid attitude about food will be passed on to the children. He doesn’t want to see them have an unhealthy relationship with food."
....Guy, meanwhile, would be left holding the babies while his wife endlessly honed and toned her fat-free body.
The 50-year-old’s gruelling daily workouts have given her the incredible bulked up physique she’s famous for – but to Guy, the four-hour gym sessions intruded on family life.
He apparently begged stubborn Madonna to sacrifice some of her training hours to spend more time with him and the children. His pleas fell on deaf ears.
Refusing to sit down and chill out, she would shower and change and he would watch in despair as she dragged the kids to yet another Kabbalah religious meeting.
An insider said: "The evening meal, eaten in stony silence, would consist of – at Madonna’s insistence - steamed fish and seasonal vegetables.
....And under her strict instructions, none of the children are allowed to watch television because she believes it harms their development.
Guy is known to favour a more liberal approach to parenting but whenever he dared voice his disapproval, he would be shouted down and his suggestions would be ignored.
Madge would not even loosen up a little at bedtime.
Instead of enjoying the sort of sizzling sex which characterised their early years, Guy was forced out by her quest for eternal youth.
A friend said: "Madonna is so obsessed about lines of age showing on her face, she refuses to allow sunlight – even through windows – to touch her skin and drapes herself in linen sheets and towels in order to escape the sun’s damaging rays.
"Some nights she’ll completely cover herself with thick moisturising creams.
"She’ll go through pots and pots worth £500 a pop. And then she climbs into these protective plastic body suits. She sleeps covered in all this gunk and plastic."
Another insider added: "Guy was fed up to the back teeth with having such a regimented life. He simply couldn’t take it anymore.
"The relationship became less about passion and more about control."
Madonna gave a veiled insult against Guy Ritchie during one of her recent concerts, referring to him as being "emotionally retarded"
Which
Guy's The Retard, Madonna?
Madonna
and Guy: The gloves are off with 'emotionally retarded' slur
Guy
is 'Retarded' - Madge Diss At Concert
Madonna
makes "emotionally retarded" jibe after announcing divorce
Madonna
jabs at Guy Ritchie by dedicating song 'Miles Away' to the 'emotionally
retarded'
Guy Ritchie supposedly said Madonna looks like a 'granny' and has no talent - all of which is all true, of course.
'Guy
said I looked like a granny,' Madonna accuses husband of cruelty
Excerpts:
By Richard Simpson
17th October 2008Madonna is building an extraordinary divorce case against Guy Ritchie, claiming he was a cruel and verbally-abusive husband who would belittle and ridicule her in front of others.
....They include allegations that he [Guy Ritchie] told her [Madonna] she 'looked like a granny' on stage compared with her younger backing dancers. He is also alleged to have declared that she could not act, and was 'past it' after she turned 50.
Her lawyers say that 40-year-old Ritchie's comments made Madonna feel worthless, unattractive, unfeminine, insecure and isolated during their eight-year marriage.
Madonna
felt 'worthless' with Guy
Madonna
wants money invested in Guy Ritchie film back
Excerpt:
The bust-up over the [movie] gift was not the only cash argument. Madonna accused Guy of failing to contribute towards their nanny.
She also claimed he was not providing enough money towards son Rocco’s private education.
The source added: “It was as if Guy had given up on the marriage.
“Although Madonna is worth far more than him, she expected them to be equal partners financially.
“But Guy was just engrossed in his work and he may have just taken his eye of the ball rather than intentionally not pay. In Madonna’s eyes, these problems just added to her determination to get divorced.”
Fight
over gift 'sparked Madonna divorce'
'Madonna
is Beastly' - Guy Ritchie's Father Goes After Madonna
October 17, 2008
Guy Ritchie's father lashed out at Madonna today, calling the pop star's behavior since the announcement of the couple's divorce "beastly."
Ritchie's father, John, told The Daily Telegraph, "She is being beastly. She is saying, 'Did you ever love me?' It goes back to a time when she fell off her horse, and she's blaming him for that. She's calling him an emotional retard. When he's being bashed by her, it's horrid."
Madonna
is being 'beastly' over divorce to my son says Ritchie Snr -This Is
London
Madonna
is being "beastly", says Guy Ritchie's father -Telegraph
Guy's
father's withering verdict on Madonna
Guy
Ritchie's mum said he knew risks of marrying Madonna
The
moment Madonna fell off that horse, the marriage was doomed - The
Sun
Guy
Ritchie 'Doesn't Have to Fake It Anymore'
Sarah
Churchwell: Madonna, divorce, and the cost of turning into a commodity
Guy
Ritchie reveals why love in Madonna marriage died
Guy
Ritchie brands marriage to Madonna a "circus"
Madonna,
role model for a selfish generation
Madonna
v Guy: Mudslinging in Vogue as war begins
Make
your choice: Madonna tells mutual friends to decide between her and Guy
Gwyneth
Paltrow spent months begging Madonna to try and save her marriage
Guy
Ritchie wants 'not a penny' of Madonna's money
What
Direction Will Guy Ritchie Take Next?
Excerpt:
Oct 17 2008 by Joan Burnie
Almost inevitably Guy and Madonna will take new partners or remarry and there will be another bunch of mummies and daddies in all the kids' lives.
Chances are too that as Madge ages - even four hours a day in the gym can't hold back time - in the way of superstars, the men will become younger, a form of emotional Botox. Easier to look at them than the mirror.
Remind me again of the number of men young Lourdes has seen come and go through her mother's bedroom in her 12 years?
But no worries, mommie dearest will always be able to provide her kids with the best therapist Kabbalah and money can buy.
Excerpts:
October 16, 2008
THE marriage of Madonna and Guy Ritchie has been dogged by bitterness and recrimination for YEARS — and any notion that they have battled to save it is a myth.
...Guy has told lawyers he wants “not one penny” of her estimated £300million fortune.
....We can reveal that Madonna launched divorce proceedings against Guy after levelling a series of accusations against him — portraying him as a cruel and selfish husband.
The superstar singer told pals she had decided to end her seven-year marriage to film director Guy, 40, because he:
# REFUSED to dip into his own £30million fortune to pay for their lifestyle — while sponging off her massive wealth;
# IGNORED her pleas to spend more time in New York and shunned her love of the Kabbalah faith;
# FAILED to support her emotionally over child adoption plans, and;
# MOANED about her being in the limelight as his career disappeared.
But Guy hit back — branding Madonna a control freak obsessed with a “weird religion”.
His “increasing hatred” of her fixation with Kabbalah — a mystical off-shoot of the Jewish faith — was a huge reason behind the break-up, a source said.
The British papers are claiming Guy Ritchie has no interest in Madonna's money, but according to an American source, he is-
Guy
Ritchie goes for Madonna's millions - and there's no prenuptial
Oct 15, 2008
...."Guy wants to make himself out to be a gentleman who's above money," the Madonna pal said hours after the couple confirmed they're splitting.
"If only that was the case. The truth is he's looking for a nice piece of the pie."
(Hat tip to board member South West Ranger for the following link):
Now
for the parting of the riches, after Madonna and her Guy decide it’s
over
Excerpts:
Oct 16, 2008
....with the couple’s confirmation yesterday that they are to divorce it was also disclosed that Madonna has hired Fiona Shackleton, the lawyer who represented the Prince of Wales when his first marriage came to an end. Nothing but the best for the Queen of Pop.
Mrs Shackleton also represented Sir Paul McCartney in his divorce from Heather Mills, reducing his former wife’s claim to a fraction of what she had requested.
Given the dizzying sums at stake in the Madonna/Ritchie settlement – they have an estimated joint fortune of £300 million, and one observer suggested that Ritchie could be awarded up to £150 million – it may be a wise appointment.
Madonna
divorce: could legal battle favour Ritchie? - Times Online
Up next: marriage is nothing more to Guy Ritche and Madonna than a business transaction.
According to some sources, Madonna and Ritchie are timing their divorce to get the maximum free publicity and profit off it, which is sick:
Trouble
brewing for months with Madonna and Guy Ritchie
Excerpts:
By JO PIAZZA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, October 15th 2008A well-timed divorce with a huge media build-up was destined to make Madonna and Guy Ritchie super...richie?
Sources have speculated that the marriage had effectively been over for months, but orchestrating the public split now is all part of a mastermind publicity stunt to generate more moola for Madge's worldwide "Sticky & Sweet" tour.
....According to the gossip Web site's sources, the marriage has been over for some time and the couple are simply friends. But it was in the pair's best interest to generate plenty of buzz to boost ticket sales for this tour that could top $300 million.
....They reportedly plan to use the cash to secure their children's financial future.
"She is simply playing the media - and the public - as usual," a pal said.
Madonna
facing £50m divorce - Financial Times
Excerpts:
Lawyers suggested on Wednesday night that Mr Ritchie, whose career has faltered since his early success with Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, could walk away with £50m from his far wealthier wife.
Is
A-Rod Connected to Madonna's Divorce Announcement?
A-Rod
Lying Low as Madonna's Marriage Crumbles
Funny slant on the divorce from Heckler Spray:
Madonna/Guy
Ritchie Divorce: And There’s Your Confirmation - Heckler Spray
Guy
Ritchie "Crying" Over Photo of Son Rocco in Yankees T-Shirt
Madonna
offers Guy an extra £5million 'if she can dictate access rights
to children'
Madonna
divorce exclusive: She blocks Guy Ritchie's plans for kids' 'first Christmas'
'Guy
was nothing but a cheap, fake gold-digger,' says Madonna as divorce war
explodes
Guy
Ritchie's got a new - younger - gal [Kelly Reilly]; calls Madonna 'old,
fat, ugly and wrinkled'
Meet
Madonna's replacement: Kelly Reilly
Was
jealousy the motive behind Madonna and Guy Ritchie's split?
Madonna
haunted by Ritchie's ex
Ritchie
Rages as Madonna Pushes the A-Rod Button
Married
to Madonna? It can't have been easy, Guy.
Guy
and Madonna's marriage ended after 'she began scheduling sex around time
in the gym'
Not
so happy Guy about sex diary
Second
religion [Hinduism] blamed for Madonna split
Why
Madonna Wants to Bury Guy - Lock Stock and Baubles
Sunday October 26,2008
By Jane ClintonMADONNA is putting her marriage to Guy Ritchie behind her by holding a “funeral” for all the gifts he gave her.
Photographs and keepsakes from Ritchie are to be gathered up and put in a metal box – and then buried.
A source close to the singer said: “Madonna wants to get Guy’s energy out of her life to help her have a more balanced view for the divorce.
....“An assistant is auditing everything,” said the source.
“All photographs and letters will be digitally scanned and stored on a computer memory stick. There are lists of what she wants collected, which will be checked off against the box’s contents.”
This latest exercise comes as Madonna embarks on a course of Kabbalah anger management counselling to deal with her rage towards 40-year-old film director Ritchie.
It is thought the singer, a keen advocate of the Kabbalah faith, has taken a counsellor with her on her Sticky & Sweet tour to help her work through her disappointment and anger.
She is particularly incensed that personal details of their relationship have leaked out and Ritchie’s settlement demands have also sent her reeling.
“She vows she will never marry again,” said the source.
Not A Savvy Business Woman
Madonna is such a "savvy business woman" that she didn't have
Ritchie sign a pre-nup, and she might be losing up to £50 million
of her own money to Ritchie.
Donald
Trump Thinks Madonna is Stupid
Madonna
facing £50m divorce - Financial Times
Lawyers suggested on Wednesday night that Mr Ritchie, whose career has faltered since his early success with Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, could walk away with £50m from his far wealthier wife.
Scandal
Sheet: The Madonna divorce edition
But what about their combined fortune? How could the savviest woman showbiz has ever seen really not have a prenup?
The
odd couple and the £100m divorce
Excerpts:
Oct 16, 2008
One way or another, this divorce should result in a huge payout for Ritchie if properly handled."
Madonna could have protected her wealth by asking her husband to sign a pre-nuptial agreement, which would have helped a court limit the value of his claim on the fortune she amassed during her 25-year recording career.
Will
Guy Ritchie claim his share of Madonna's fortune?
(Hat tip to board member South West Ranger for following link):
Now
for the parting of the riches, after Madonna and her Guy decide it’s
over
Meanwhile Madonna, who is still on tour, may live to rue her English sojourn. Andrew Newbury, a divorce lawyer with the Manchester-based firm Pannone, said that if the split did end up in court Madonna’s decision to base her family in Britain could mean her having to pay a much larger settlement than if she lived in the US.
Guy
Ritchie goes for Madonna's millions - and there's no prenuptial
How
Will Madonna And Guy Split Their $$?
Material
Girl Faces Big Payout
Madonna's Terrible Singing
Madonna
Kicks Off North American Tour
By JANE STEVENSON -- Sun Media
....The Material Girl kicked off the North American leg of her Sticky and Sweet Tour in front of a sold-out crowd at IZOD Arena [in New Jersey] on Saturday night...
....even if she [Madonna] couldn't hit the high notes during an impromptu version of the requested song, Open Your Heart.
Backstage
Pass Blog, Sticky and Sweet NJ Tour Review
Top 10 Things Madonna Said Last Night
7. “[Expletive]! It’s too high for me!” (As she realized she started “Open Your Heart” in a key too high for her to finish.)
Madonna
Wails on Sarah Palin - Roger Friedman, FOX news
Excerpts:
For one thing, Madonna cannot sing. Luckily, she only tries to "Sing" one song, "You Must Love Me," from "Evita," It was the one real moment of poignancy from the whole evening. And whoever mixes it live deserves a Nobel prize.
Filth and Wisdom
Madonna
directed a movie called "Filth and Wisdom," and she showed up
for its premiere in New York a day or two ago.
Movie reviews: 'Filth and Wisdom,' 'Midnight Movie,' 'August Evening'
October 23, 2008
'FILTH AND WISDOM'
by COLIN COVERT
0 [Zero] out of four stars
Unrated but includes profanity, sexuality, drugs, stupidity.
Madonna's directorial debut is so abysmal in so many ways that we'd have to reduce the type size to get them all in.
The acting is arch and self-conscious, the production values are poverty row, and even the lighting is abrasive. Now that takes a special kind of negative talent -- when was the last time you were offended by a film's lighting?
.... The script, co-written by the Material Girl, is a plotless stream of incidents meant to illustrate how these flawed souls work their way back to the light.
....Actually, he elucidates every notion in the film's empty little head, starting half his lines with the catchphrase, "In my country we have a saying. ... " Here's one Madonna might want to memorize: "Don't quit your day job."
Take
Madonna's 'Filth' Out With Rubbish
Excerpts:
By James Verniere, Boston Herald
"I'm going straight to hell," announces the narrator of Madonna's feature directing debut "Filth and Wisdom."
Little did I know so was I.
A narcissistic psychodrama (Really, what did you expect?), the film tells the story of three London flatmates: A.K. (Eugene Hutz, frontman of the gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello), a musician for a gypsy-punk band who moonlights as a cross-dressing S&M hooker...
Filth
and Wisdom An Amateurish Stab at Sagacity
Excerpts:
By Rossiter Drake (Oct 24, 2008)
Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars.
Let it never be said that Madonna’s self-serving fascination with sex, which once stirred enough controversy to make even her most calculated exploits seem like bona fide events, has diminished with age. It’s just that we’re no longer shocked, and only mildly interested.
Filth and Wisdom, her directorial debut, has arrived with more of a whimper than a bang, and the results are surprisingly shoddy, even by the standards expected of a first-time would-be auteur.
....Filth and Wisdom is unconvincing. In the end, it begs the question posed by a pop sensation of a different era: Is that all there is?
“Filth
and Wisdom,” By Madonna
By Raymond Fitzmyer
October 24th 2008....As a director, Madonna didn’t help her characters to follow a straight way in the movie. She is clueless about directing. But isn’t that “wanting makes you getting?”
Movie
review: 'Filth and Wisdom'
Ruthe Stein, Chronicle Senior Movie Writer
Friday, October 24, 2008Of the 22 movies Madonna has acted in, she's watchable in three - "Desperately Seeking Susan," "A League of Their Own" and "Evita." So having messed up nearly every time she stepped in front of a camera, there is a crazy logic to her decision to try her hand at directing.
....Nothing in this cynical bit of claptrap feels remotely real. She makes it impossible to relate to her main characters - all residents of a rooming house in a marginal London neighborhood - or their plight.
....Madonna is clueless about how to keep a movie moving along. "Filth & Wisdom" is dead in the water, an excruciating bore even at a compact 84 minutes.
October 24, 2008; Page WE31
The best part of "Filth and Wisdom," Madonna's directorial debut, is that it's only 81 minutes long. It could have been 82.
Madonna fans will probably want to go anyway -- hey, I can't stop you -- but I can tell you that the movie delivers on neither of the promises of its title.
It's not filthy, although it seems to think it is, and the only wisdom you'll gain from this ham-handed exercise is learning to never again trust Madonna behind the camera.
....The idea, as A.K. informs us, is that rolling around in the filth leads you to wisdom and enlightenment; you know, art, the hidden beauties and terrors of life in the demimonde, blah, blah.
Maybe it does, but the only thing this movie should lead you to is the nearest exit.
By Ty Burr
Globe Staff / October 24, 2008Now that Madonna and Guy Ritchie have officially called it quits, all that remains is the issue of custody. Madge should get the children and the brassiere collection. Based on her directorial debut, Ritchie should get the filmmaking career.
....On the other hand, the quality of the writing and performances in "Filth and Wisdom" are of the let's-put-on-a-show variety, and the filmmaking is self-indulgence itself. Worst of all, the movie's simply not very shocking.
.... [A movie character named] A.K. is fond of saying things like, "In my country, we have a saying: He who licks the knives will cut his tongue." In my country, we have a saying: Pop stars who make movies should stick to what they know.
Confessions
on a Movie Screen? Madonna directs peculiar comedy 'Filth and Wisdom'
....However, with her directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, she [Madonna] now proves herself to be a limited filmmaker.
....The tone of the film is also wildly uneven.
....the film’s pacing is off target.
.... But this feature (which even at 83 minutes feels long) has as much style as it does substance – meaning, very little. The Material Girl needs to create better material.
Madonna,
No Wanna - negative review of Filth and Wisdom from the New York Post
(Hat tip South West Ranger)
Oct 17, 2008
Guess who gets custody of the directing talent?
Given Madonna's utter failure to master acting in a lengthy screen career that's included such legendary bombs as "Shanghai Surprise" and "Swept Away," it's not exactly surprising that her directing debut, "Filth and Wisdom," is thoroughly inept in just about every aspect.
Madge's idea of pushing the envelope seems stuck somewhere in the early 1980s, when the idea of a male dominatrix (annoying Ukranian singer Eugene Hutz) and a pole dancer (Holly Weston) might seem remotely shocking. It's certainly been a long time since we heard David Rose's "The Stripper" (1962) in a movie.
Co-written by one of Guy Ritchie's former gofers, the relentlessly tedious "Filth and Wisdom" is set in Madge's (now apparently former) adopted home of London. It's peopled by a collection of racial stereotypes, including an Indian druggist and a Jewish couple that will win her no friends in the kabbalah set.
'Filth
and Wisdom': Absolute Beginner, By Kurt Loder
This negative review concludes with this wonderful ending:
Also lamentable, perhaps, is Madonna's decision to call her production company Semtex Films. Semtex is a well-known plastic explosive, much favored by terrorists. To make bombs.
It
Would Be Wise To Avoid Madonna's New Movie
Madonna
demonstrates solid attempt, yet fails at first film
'Filth
and Wisdom': More of the former than the latter
Excerpts:
Plot strands don't come together, and when in doubt, Madonna cuts away to a band performance or a song montage. The music is the undeniable highlight.
The film's attempts to be quirky and arty instead feel stagy and cobbled-together. The project reportedly began as a short, and it sometimes has the feel of one padded out into a full-length feature.
....While individual scenes pay homage to such directors as Fellini and Godard, and films such as The Graduate, Filth and Wisdom is pretentious and structurally flawed, never truly coming together as a coherent work.
10 great
moments in Madonna cinema
Excerpts:
By Dave White
msnbc.com contributor....This week’s release of “Filth and Wisdom,” her directorial debut (that’s right, she directed a feature), isn’t going to help change anyone’s mind, either.
It’s so bad it’s already made the loop past so-bad-it’s-good all the way back to plain old bad again. Twice.
It’s the kind of fractured accident of a movie that history looks back at and wonders if Jerry Lewis’ nazi flick, “The Day The Clown Cried,” might not have been such a bad idea after all.
Tacky Fashion
Madonna
wore some tacky gun shoes (high heels where guns served as the heels -
see photo at left) to the New York premiere of her movie Filth and Wisdom.
This didn't go over well with some folks.
Madonna
Criticized for Gun Shoes
What
next for gun heeled Madonna ... a suicide belt?
Madonna is snapped stepping out in a pair of bizarre shoes with heels shaped like guns.
....Does she have no idea what is going on in the world around her?
Of course she does. She bans her own children from watching television so they don’t get sullied or corrupted but thinks it is perfectly fine for her to brandish her filth in front of ours.
....And it’s not even as if Madge is wearing them as a one-off. These shoes are going to be sold worldwide and I bet they will sell out too as hordes of fashion victims rush to get in on the act.
I wonder what real victims, those who have lost loved ones because of guns or survived shootings themselves, have to say about that?
Lynn Costello, from anti-violence group Mothers Against Murder And Aggression, says she is horrified and that Madonna should know better. I agree.
Just
what are Madonna's gun heels saying?
Madonna
makes fashion gaff at movie premiere
MADONNA has shot herself in the foot by wearing shoes featuring pistol-shaped heels.
The Chanel shoes caused a sensation when she arrived in them at the New York premiere of Filth & Wisdom, her first movie as director.
But it was not the sort of attention the 50-year-old singer was hoping for.
Last night anti-gun campaigners in Britain, where Madonna has lived for several years, denounced her as "irresponsible" and "utterly senseless" for choosing such a design at a time when violent crime involving guns is soaring there.
Dee Edwards, co-founder of the charity Mothers Against Murder and Aggression said: "I am utterly disgusted by this.
"It is not fashion, it is not style, it is glorifying guns.
"Kids are dying every day in Britain from gun and knife crime.
"I would like to see her walk into a mortuary or a hospital wearing those shoes to see a young child whose life has been ripped from him by guns - and then claim it as a fashion statement."
Bad Acting
As
we note at the discussion board (here),
Madonna has never accepted responsiblity for her failed movie career (as
actress or director): she simply lacks talent at either one.
She's continuing the tradition of shifting the blame on to others:
Madonna
Lashes Out At Film Critics
[The Filth and Wisdom movie premiere was] Thrown by the Cinema Society and Dolce & Gabbana at the Sunshine Cinema on the Lower East Side, the new director [Madonna] showed up at 8:15, complained about the few empty seats in the auditorium ("I'm used to much bigger crowds than this, that's all I have to say," she said) and then launched into a speech in which she went after anyone who might have given her a nasty review or slagged off her first film, "Filth and Wisdom."
"There's a certain resentment when people do one thing well and then try to do something else," she said. "And everybody gets a bug up their ass. But that's their f--g problem and the fact of the matter is that it really wasn't such a big leap [directing a film] because I'm a storyteller."
Madonna is Not Elegant: She's Trashy and Rude
Fan
Site, tour review, New York
After the request section, she [Madonna] wouldn't continue to 'hung up' until everyone on the lower loge seated level got up, she said "What is this? A f*cking bar mitzvah???" then, on the right side of the stage, there were 2 girls in the front row of the lower loge and they were still sitting, she started to talk directly to them, she said "Get up! Show some respect"
Thursday, 9 October 2008
It looks like Madonna might have to reinvent herself again if she wants to keep her fans.
The Queen of Pop failed to grab the attention of one fan during her concert in New York.
He allegedly sat down because he was bored and wanted to go home.
According to The Sun Madonna turned on her fan and said: "Are you f***ing bored, sir? Why are you sitting? I'm busting my arse up here."
She then said to the rest of the audience: "Clap for me...my ego is bruised right now!"
It seems strange that Madonna would single out a fan in such a way.
After all, he had to pay a lot of money to see the Material Girl in action - and why couldn't he sit down?
OMG!
Madonna 'confronts bored fan at concert'
Madonna's Mouthpieces, Publicists, & Liz Rosenberg
The
fans sometime behave as though you cannot trust anything the media say
about Madonna (if it's negative, at least), and the ones at the 'fan'
sites tell their readers to only believe something if it comes from Liz
Rosenberg's mouth (or computer, typewriter, or pen).
The folly of that view is demonstrated here (on Madonna Tribe, which got this information from the AP and BBC News)-
In July, Madonna's publicist denied the pair were planning to divorce, saying their marriage did not "need saving".
And now, of course, it's been confirmed that Madonna and Ritchie are divorcing.
From the primary source, BBC:
Madonna
and Ritchie confirm split
Who
Does Madonna's Divorce Announcement Really Screw Over? - Jossip
Liz
Rosenberg, Madonna's Lying Flack - Gawker
Excerpts:
....Well, how credible is Liz Rosenberg? She told the world in 2006 that Madonna was not adopting a baby in Malawi. Although, of course, Madonna did adopt a baby in Malawi.
....* She [Liz Rosenberg] does a good job of staying friendly with celebrity magazine editors, naturally—she's allegedly been showering the editor of People with free Madonna tickets for a decade or more.
* She [Liz Rosenberg] knows how to play hardball—she reportedly managed to silence a good deal of potential press coverage of Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone's book last summer, which portrayed the singer negatively.
So Rosenberg does her job. Regardless, no matter how much wheedling, pleading, bargaining, threats, or doubletalk a flack uses, they're not supposed to flat-out lie. But Rosenberg has quite a reputation for lying.
Look! Some of the most vehement "Rosenberg is a liar" voices are the most fervent Madonna fans, like commenters on AbsoluteMadonna.com. It might be advantageous to court them, from a PR point of view!
Celebrity flacks are probably the only remaining category of PR people who can get away with bald-faced lies, and continue to be effective in their jobs.
....Media flacks? Lord, they have to be friends with reporters. To lie is to die. Despite the vague public perception that all flacks are liars, they really can't be if they want to have a long-term career.
Unless they have a client like Madonna! Because the celebrity media will want to cover Madonna for the rest of her natural life no matter what she or her flack does. So Liz Rosenberg, yes, probably finds it expedient to just lie and now and then, without any real consequences.
But that also means you shouldn't necessarily believe anything she says.
Madonna's
Rep Added To Prestigious List Of Lying Flacks
Liz
Rosenberg thread at the Discussion Board
Sarah Palin
(Madonna, the rude, trashy bimbo, continues to insult Sarah Palin during
the Dry and Sour Tour)
Madonna
Threatens to Kick Sarah Palin's Ass
by Elizabeth Fairview | October 9th, 2008
....Madonna is really starting to weird us out. After making nonsensical remarks about Sarah Palin, Madonna has resorted to West Side Story-like threats.
At another concert in New York City last night, Madonna said she would kick Palin's ass if she didn't, "get off my street."
Silly Madonna is under the impression she owns the streets. She's also under the impression that it's legal to kick people's asses who are on said streets.
Madonna
Threatens Palin In Impromptu Song -Contact Music
Madonna's
Stripped Down 'Lucky Star' Isn't Meant for That 'bitch' Sarah Palin
....At her Monday concert at Madison Square Garden, then, the fledgling director and potential A-Rod squeeze put on her pundit's hat, announcing that "Sarah f*cking Palin" was decidedly not invited to the concert (a message Palin may have already gathered from Madonna's tasteful McCain/Hitler montage) and exhorting the crowd to "get that b*tch out of here!"
Madonna
screeches her hate for Sarah Palin
Madonna
Demonstrates Bad Sportsmanship When She Screams About Sarah Palin Onstage
....Celebrities, Madonna included, have gotten extremely personal during this presidential campaign. And while everyone is entitled to their own opinion, Celebrity News Service wishes that most of the celebrities would keep their personal opinions to themselves.
It's one thing to present the facts and state that you like a certain candidate, but it's completely different when a performer is screaming things from the stage.
Madonna
Throws Condoms To New York Fans In Jibe At Sarah Palin
Madonna
Downplays Her Physical Threats Against Sarah Palin: 'It's A Metaphor'
Madonna
on a Sarah Palin rampage
Sour and Dry Tour
Toned-down
Madonna Disappoints
Excerpts:
Fans who wanted to dance the night away on this tour were probably disappointed, as there were only a few numbers that took on a club-like atmosphere.
Madonna did not help the night get off to a good start by going on at 9:20 p.m., about 40 minutes later than a press representative said she would be taking the stage.
........Madonna tried to get the crowd going with “Spanish Lesson,” an abysmal track from the new record, but the crowd was not buying it.
....Then things reached rock bottom with the Romanian folk interlude...
........But then the show ended on a low note, with “Ray of Light,” which is over-rated as a dance song; an attempt at an acoustic, crowd-interactive “Open Your Heart,” which failed; a rock version of “Hung Up” which barely featured the signature Abba melody, and a lackluster “Give It To Me,” which does not have the pure joy or energy of a classic hit such as “Holiday.”
Madonna
Aerobic, Not Erotic: The Concert as Workout
Excerpt:
Has there ever been a colder pop sex symbol? For all the invitations in her lyrics, Madonna has always projected more calculation and industriousness than affection.
....Her moves were aerobic, not erotic; in one song, other dancers spotted her as if they were personal trainers.
September 2008
Old Lady Album
Fans
were asked by Madonna (via her fan magazine, "ICON") to artificially
create demand for her songs on radio.
By Bruno, a French Madonna fan (source: Madonna Tribe):
But what's a real [Madonna] fan? A tool in the promotion process of her work (as it is required now at Icon, "call the radios and get a signed cd" contest for exemple) or someone who simply enjoies what she does?
Sour and Dry Tour
Fans
who attended a tour performance in France are saying the show was boring,
disappointing and uncreative:
Madonna
Fans on French Version of Tour: It Was Boring, Disappointing
From link above: Excerpts by various fans who attended the show:
From Fimi: [The] sound was awful. ...Madonna came 30 minutes late. Yes then you get a bit tired and lame indeed.
From patrickchristo: Disappointing show... first time I had seen it. Felt like budget was cut and crowds increased to meet some gross targets... little we had not seen before, she is way better than this...
From Bruno: Hello, I just came back from the first Paris concert. I have to say that I am very desappointed by the show. ....frankly, we barely saw here [sic; her]. We were up in the sky. How could we have bad seats with presales?
Another bad point: the sound quality. We would expect great quality for this price and from Madonna. But the sound was awful.
And what happened to the back videos??? Did anyone noticed their poor quality? No creativity, no quality.
....the others [backing videos] were boring and a lot of people took the opportunity to go get some drinks.
....On the way back to the city, in the subway, many fans said that they were disappointed. I am one of them.
From Morgan: The sound was not so good, and people around me looked bored, too. I'm very desappointed.
Madonna fell on her butt during one Sticky and Sweet tour performance:
Madonna
Makes Awful Racket Then Falls Over
VIDEO:
Madonna comes a cropper and falls over on her hard booty
Madonna
falls onstage, does not break hip!
Wembley
Show Did NOT Sell Out (from a Madonna fan site):
Yesterday in Wembley's Merchandise booth there was an exclusive T-Shirt especially made for the September 11th, only London show.
On the back of the stardard Madonna black tour T-shirt they have printed the date of the show in colours of the British flag...
They have also added a "sold out" writing [to the tour t-shirt design], which is quite funny considering that forty minutes before the show they were moving and upgrading people from the back of the pitch to cover all the emply seats on tiers nearer the stage.
Oh my. Sounds like the Wembley gig did not go over well - ha ha ha!
Madonna's
Wembley Gig Crucified by Fans
Madonna failed miserably to impress her non-A-list fans at her London concert on Thursday.
In fact, a number of reports like this one and this one called the show a disaster!
We also received quite a few emails from disgruntled fans in attendance at Wembley.
Madonna
Wembley Stadium Concert Hit With Criticism From Fans
Madonna
Performs at Wembley Looking Remarkably Like Skeletor
Sound
quality at Madonna [Wembley] gig 'poor'
Excerpts:
Madonna fans have complained that they were unable to hear the Queen of Pop at her Wembley gig.
....hundreds of concert-goers inundated message boards saying they had been let down by poor sound quality at Wembley Stadium.
....A fan said of the only English date on the star's tour: "So many people were leaving before even halfway through the show. Near me there were a few boos and people losing interest... At times you would see her mouth move and the sound a few seconds later... at times we couldn't even hear what song it was she was playing."
Madonna
'ashamed' to sing Eighties hits, claims Toyah Wilcox
Former punk rocker Toyah Wilcox has accused Madonna of being "ashamed" of singing her classic Eighties tracks.'
By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent
Last Updated: 11 Sep 2008Wilcox said she could "hear the audience groan" when she went to see the London-based American star [Madonna] play at Wembley.
Speaking as she prepared to return to the stage for a live show singing rock classics, she said of live artists: "People want to hear their hits and not their arty songs."
She added: "When I went to see Madonna at Wembley she did an hour of B sides and you could hear the audience groan."
Slams, Put Downs / Age
Excerpts:
by Glen Humphries
Madonna's defenders have claimed she is showing that a woman can turn 50 and still be sexy. What she's doing, they babble, is redefining what a 50-year-old woman should look like and how she should act. But what she's doing is trying to act like she's still 25. That's not redefining, that's regressing.
By all means, 50-year-olds can still be sexy - but surely that's not achieved by trying to dress like someone half their age. The message she's sending is that the only way a middle-aged woman can look sexy is to dress like her daughter.
The image is there to be seen on the cover of her latest album, Hard Candy. Hard Candy? Hard-faced, more like it.
It's part of Madonna's desperate struggle for relevance in a world where young popsters have long overtaken her. And it shows she's a one-trick pony; instead of focusing on the music, she just sexes up her image again. Once Madonna did have the music to match her habit of shocking people. Now, all she's got is the shock.
....That piggybacking is something she's continued, co-opting today's hip performers and producers like Timbaland, The Neptunes and Justin Timberlake to gain some relevance.
By and large, it doesn't work. All it does it remind us how out of date she is. And old too. In the video for Four Minutes, her duet with Timberlake, she dances alongside the young star.
Timberlake dances rings around her; moving all over the place while she struggles to match even half his moves. It's as though her ageing body simply can't do what his can.
This is even more pronounced in the video for Hung Up which features plenty of young dancers busting some very acrobatic moves. And where is Madonna while they're doing this? She's in a dance studio wearing leg warmers, a revealing leotard and heels, tottering around like an old lady doing jazzercise.
I'm sure this wasn't a deliberate ploy by Madonna but the contrast between her and the good dancers couldn't have been more stark.
Late in the video, when she actually leaves the dance studio and meets up with the hot dancers, they're no longer pulling off those insane moves. Instead, they have to restrain themselves, limited to copying whatever dance steps Madonna's creaking body can still handle.
Now that Madonna is 50, I just hope she chooses to take early retirement. And gets some dignity.
Slams and Put Downs
Madonna's
husband Guy Ritchie may
never have heard of former Presidential hopeful Republican Mike Huckabee,
but considering that Huckabee's insult of Madonna was aired during the
American RNC (Republican National Convention) on all major American networks
(and simultaneously to boot!), no doubt many hundreds of thousands of
Americans heard Huckabee's slam of Madonna, which is what really counts!
Huckabee takes on Democrats, news media
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
ST. PAUL —
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who had a reputation for wit during his campaign for president, thanked the "elite media" Wednesday "for doing something that, quite frankly, I wasn't sure could be done, and that's unifying the Republican Party and all of America in support of Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin.""The reporting of the past few days has proven tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert," he said.
Arrogant, Rude Snotball
Madonna
is the Rudest Celebrity (says James Morrison)
James Morrison has claimed Madonna is the most impolite celebrity he's ever met.
Speaking to Metro ahead of the release of his new single You Make It Real, the singer-songwriter revealed he was blanked by the Material Girl while working on his second album in the US.
"I was recording in a studio in LA and she came in to speak to a producer and someone asked if I wanted to meet her," he explained.
"I'm not her biggest fan but thought I'd say hello so I went over and said: 'Hello, I'm James, nice to meet you,' and put my hand out to shake hands.
"She just looked at it and said: 'And what do you do?' I told her I was a singer and she just stared at me and didn't say anything. It was really uncomfortable. Then she just ignored me."
He added: "F*ck her [Madonna], though, it's just a matter of common courtesy. It doesn't matter what someone does for a living. She's just rude. There's no excuse for it."
Madonna
Sticky And Sweet Tour Staff Consider Quitting
Published Monday, 1st September, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Madonna is close to losing some of her entourage during the Sticky & Sweet tour, due to the second class treatment the staff feel they are receiving.
While Madonna is staying in £11,000-per-night chateaus in France (around $21,000 a night), her on tour staff are staying at a cheap hotel priced at £50 for her Nice tour dates.
As well as Madonna's family, 12 personal staff members are also staying at the expensive accomodation, including a personal chef and a team of six beauticians.
An insider told the Daily Mirror: "Everyone is furious with her and some of them want to walk out of the tour. They feel they are being treated like second-class citizens, despite all their hard work over the last few months."
While the superstar travels in style by private jet and has a helicopter fly her from accomodation to venues, her staff are flying with budget airline Easyjet.
Madonna
Crew 'Furious' At Tour Travel
Madonna's
tour crew 'close to a walkout'
Madonna's
Road Crew 'Threaten To Quit Tour Over Cheap Hotels'
Madonna's
world tour crew threaten to quit
August 2008
Dry and Sour Tour
(or Sour and Dry)
August
24, 2008 UPDATE.
As I find more tour information, I'll edit this section to add it.
I'll add most of the newer content towards the bottom. Anything having to do with bad ticket sales will go under the first section, though.
(Yes, that's a photo of Madonna on the upper left.
It was taken on the set of Filth and Wisdom. I added some of the "Sticky and Sweet" tour colors to make it the Anti Madonna Site's Dry and Sour tour logo.)
Her first Dry and Sour tour stop did NOT sell out.
Madonna
sparkles with £1m gems
Aug 24 2008 by Staff Reporter, Wales On Sunday
....Despite a disappointing turnout estimated at only around 40,000, well below the stadium’s maximum capacity and meaning the standing room was only around half-full, Madonna still gave it her all.
....One week after celebrating her 50th birthday, the mum-of-two is hoping to eclipse her last trot across the globe. But despite whipping her die-hard fans into a frenzy and selling “high-end” tickets costing £150, she failed to sell out at the 74,500-capacity venue.
The following has the same title as the link above, but it has different content:
Madonna
sparkles with £1m gems
Aug 24 2008 by Staff Reporter, Wales On Sunday
FIRST her showbiz pals don’t turn up for her 50th birthday bash – then she’s performing to a half-empty Millennium Stadium.
Only 40,000 fans turned up to Madonna’s debut performance of her 2008 Sticky and Sweet tour in the capital last night, leaving 30,000 tickets unsold.
In the midst of a credit crunch and fears of a looming recession, even the Queen of Pop couldn’t get enough bums on seats to fill a 74,000-capacity venue.
Madonna
Kicks off Huge World Tour - BBC News
Excerpt:
But despite being the first date of the tour [i.e., Cardiff, Wales], tickets were still available shortly before the event.
Check out the Sticky and Sweet Tour Thread on the Anti Madonna Discussion Board
Really stupid or ugly photos from the tour can be found in that thread, and some have been uploded to the Vogue Gallery, so far in the following categories: Hair / Ugly / Fashion / Idiotic.
Madonna gets booed at her own show for being two hours late (and notice it says that the stadium was "semi filled"):
Madonna
sets out on the tour of her life
Excerpt:
August 24, 2008
Lynne [at the Madonna Sticky and Sweet tour in Cardiff], wearing her best silky cowboy shirt and pink, flashing angel wings, is outraged.
'It's bollocks, that's what it is,' she said. 'One and a half hours late and she [Madonna] still hasn't bothered to come on stage? It's disrespectful. I've driven down two hours from Birmingham. This just isn't right.'
In the semi-filled Cardiff Millennium Stadium, Lynne is not alone in her frustration.
At 8pm last night, after an hour's wait, the crowd tried to encourage Madonna on to the stage with cheers and whoops.
By 9pm, after two hours' wait, the boos began; starting cautiously in the stands but quickly gaining deafening momentum throughout the stadium.
'I didn't pay £75 for the joy of sitting on a cold, concrete floor, eating hot dogs,' said Tom Allan, one of the most enthusiastic of the booing brigade. 'I do my job properly, why can't she?'
Madonna's camp is now telling lies about why Cardiff was not selling out. They're so desperate to cover up her Cardiff failure they actually expect us to believe that they did NOT want the venue filled to capacity.
(Hat tip to board member Candace_66 for finding this link)
Madonna Live The Sticky and Sweet Tour
Live Blogging by WalesOnline reviewer Andrew Dagnell:
6:32 Andrew Dagnell - .... THe stadium is NOT sold out.
6:32 Andrew Dagnell - gates are open. The show is not sold out.
8:28 Andrew Dagnell - The standing room is half full - it's definitely not full here tonight
8:29 Andrew Dagnell - There's room for at least half as many again
8:31 Andrew Dagnell - It's VERY empty guys. Very empty. And we're 4 minutes from show time
8:32 Andrew Dagnell - The seats are full - but the standing room isn't
8:32 Andrew Dagnell - There's room for another 1,000 people I would say
8:33 Andrew Dagnell - There's a lot of room - it's going to look stupid when she comes on stage I'm sorry to say
.... 8:35 Andrew Dagnell - I'm looking to the left of me and to the right of me and the seats are ALL empty
8:35 Andrew Dagnell - Lastest estimates - you could fit another 2,500 people in here
8:36 Andrew Dagnell - All the lower seats are empty
8:36 Andrew Dagnell - The people just haven't turned out
8:37 Andrew Dagnell - Is this the end of Madonna? This could end up being Sweet and Sour, not Sticky and Sweet tonight folks
8:41 Andrew Dagnell - The upper level of the stadium is full - the bottom level is empty
8:45 Andrew Dagnell - There's about 40,000 people here.
8:46 Andrew Dagnell - 40,000 out of a 70,000 stadium
Liar
And THE LIE:
8:55 Andrew Dagnell - Barbara Charone [Madonna's spokesperson] has said they purposely sold less tickets so everyone could get a view of the stage.
Suuuure, Charone, we believe you!
More tour information:
From Drowned
Madonna:
Unfortunately, Madonna’s concert last night didn’t impress the Swedish press. They are in fact ice cold in their reviews.
Aftonbladet gives the show one plus, and says it feels like drunk rally driving between different styles and genres. They also rate the show song by song, and give Hung Up and Borderline a minus! Check it out here.
Expressen gives her ONE wasp, saying that the show feels confused. "It’s partly akward, partly embarrassing, and sometimes painful to experience Madonna’s clumsy attempts to party." Check it out here.
Göteborgs-Posten are a bit nicer, giving her two lighthouses, but they think that the show should have been better, but blames it on her lack of routine, due to too little performing. They also have a song by song rating, but are more generous with their lighthouses. Check it out here.
Hat tip MadHonour:
Madonna’s “Dry & Sour Sticky & Sweet” tour opened up in Cardiff tonight. 40,000 fans watched as she did what she does best although doing the thrust by waving your crotch at a crowd while wearing Lolita glasses is a disappointment for an older woman who should now be past the skank factor.
We all know that her 50 year old vag has had way too much wear’n'tear to be sexy!
Madonna
raves on as tour begins
Excerpts:
'Disappointed'
But some fans at the Millennium Stadium were not so happy with her latest reinvention.
"She didn't do any of the traditional stuff that everyone loves her for," said Susan Harvey from Cardiff.
"For £85 a ticket, I was really disappointed."
Danielle Wheeler, 26, said she was "not as good as Kylie", while Stephanie Olokopa, 20, from London, gave the show six out of 10.
"She was late and she didn't even thank the people," she said.
Madonna at the Millennium Stadium
Excerpts:
Aug 24, 2008
Stephen Dalton...the Millennium Stadium was only two-thirds full ... tour tickets were changing hands nearby for half the original £90 asking price.
....This jumble of costume changes and disconnected images was often confusing...
....it takes a hefty dose of misplaced self-belief to favour bland filler such as "Heartbeat" or "She’s Not Me" over "Like a Virgin", "Material Girl", "Justify My Love", "Cherish" or half a dozen more niggling omissions.
....Madonna’s flirtation with power chords and feedback had all the plastic-punk conviction of Mel C or Kelly Osbourne.
Equally disappointing was the lack of vintage Maddy scandal.
There were no mock crucifixions, no simulated lesbian orgies, almost no gratuitous swear words.
Instead, we were treated to earnest but meaningless video montages of Al Gore, Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi and – inevitably – Barack Obama. Woolly sentiments prevailed. No religious groups were offended in the making of this show.
Closing with an oddly anticlimactic "Give It 2 Me", "Sticky & Sweet" is an archetypal 21st-century Madonna tour: ... musically uneven, and slightly soulless. ... it lacks warmth and wit.
Sticky,
Madonna Strips and Shows Off Body, Diet and Britney Spears
.... The aging star still stripped down for her "Sticky and Sweet" concert premiere that might as well have been dubbed Kinky and Sticky as the gyrating AARP broad tries once again [to convince us] that she can reinvent herself as an older kinkier version of Madonna.
.... Can Madonna really keep up at fifty? She's going to try desperately. She brought out all kinds of bondage like outfits to attempt to bring something to the stage of the old Madonna
Madonna:
the mother of reinvention
August 25, 2008 by Isabel Albiston
....Despite the bold pose, she [Madonna] looked nervous. Her shiny black cane shook in her hands. And for a few seconds, the queen of pop appeared as a cross between a Dalek and a confused grandma being wheeled out to meet the relatives.
...the audience is a little lukewarm about the new songs......
The other wrong note is hit when she tells the crowd "your world, your choice" and then blasts them with a video montage that plays like a piece of below-average GCSE politics coursework and features stills of the world's most murderous dictators (past and present), starving people in the Third World, Mother Theresa, and Barack Obama. Subtle she still ain't.
Mama
Don't Preach: Madonna's as vital as ever when she sticks to disco but
comes unstuck when she lectures us on politics - The Observer
Excerpt:
August 31, 2008
....But it [the concert] all ends with 'You Must Love Me', Madonna playing guitar on a stool and laboriously enunciating the Evita number. It is ghastly.
Indeed, whenever Madonna picks up a guitar - which is often - the songs wilt a little.
As the loveliness of 'Ray of Light' disappears under the groans of Madonna's axe, she increasingly recalls Courtney Love, who was, for a time, grunge's Madonna.
Madonna
at Wembley Stadium - the Sunday Times review
Excerpts:
Later, admittedly, wearing an ill-fitting wig, there was a hint of the transvestite about her [Madonna], but a woman with bulging biceps and thoroughbred thighs always runs that risk.
.... ....Madonna was least convincing when she grabbed a guitar for a rock remake of Borderline and a dreadful Ray of Light marred by shrill, brittle vocals that surfaced sporadically throughout the 90-minute set.
She even spoilt Hung Out [Up] with faux metal guitarist antics that set women in rock back about eight years.
McCain
Campaign Calls Madonna Show ‘Divisive’
McCain
attacks 'outrageous' Madonna
Excerpts:
US PRESIDENTIAL candidate John McCain has hit back at Madonna after the singer kicked off her world tour with a concert that appeared to compare him with Adolf Hitler.
...."It clearly shows that when it comes to supporting Barack Obama, his fellow worldwide celebrities refuse to consider any smear or attack off limits.''
Madonna's apparent swipe at Mr McCain came during a performance of the song Get Stupid, when the Republican contender's image was flashed up alongside images of destruction and global warming as well as Hitler and Mugabe.
ADL
Condemns Madonna's Use of Hitler in Concert Photo Montage
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today condemned as "inappropriate and offensive" the use by Madonna of an image of Hitler as part of a concert photo montage that also included photos of John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement:
Comparisons to Hitler have no place in a music concert, or in the presidential campaign.
Whatever Madonna's political or personal views, it is outrageous to invoke Nazi imagery in the context of John McCain's candidacy or to make a comment on American political leadership.
It is inappropriate and offensive to compare any current or former world leaders with the man ultimately responsible for the death of six million Jews and the suffering of countless others during the Holocaust. Doing so trivializes the history of the Holocaust and is an insult to the memories of the victims and their families.
Environment
Madonna
'Hard Candy' Tour Hit for Carbon Footprint
Madonna's
carbon footprint under scrutiny
Environmentalists
Slam Madonna Tour
MADONNA's upcoming Sticky + Sweet world tour has been criticised by environmental groups - for not taking enough eco-friendly precautions.
The pop superstar kicks off her series of live dates in Cardiff, Wales on Saturday (23Aug08) night.
And green activists have slammed the singer for the massive carbon footprint they claim will be created by the tour.Madonna's 49-date trek will see 250 staff members - including nine wardrobe assistants, 12 seamstresses, a personal trainer and a masseuse - 30 wardrobe trunks and the tour's stage set flown around the world.
And experts from Carbonfootprint.com predict that the trek will produce more than 1,500 tons of carbon emissions.John Buckley from the website insists that Madonna's team should have done more to protect the environment.
He says, "This is a massive amount of carbon emissions even for a top celebrity icon."However, these emissions will be swamped by those caused by the crowds of concertgoers."
The Holiday hitmaker headlined the Live Earth concert in London last year (07) where she pledged her commitment to saving the planet.
08/23/2008 02:04:18 PM
Arrogant, Rude Snotball
Her Madgesty’s had her chips [French Fries]
Aug 24 2008 by Andrew Dagnell, Wales On Sunday
POP superstar Madonna lashed out at staff at her top Cardiff hotel just days before she performed in the capital – over a plate of CHIPS [French fries].
....Hotel kitchen staff were said to be left fuming after she sent them back – complaining the oil used to cook them was “too old”.
A source at the hotel said one of Madonna’s entourage then ordered the hotel’s kitchen staff: “You must cook for her as if she is the real Queen.”
The hotel worker said: “Everyone was left stunned by Madonna’s demands.
“Some felt she was a nightmare to deal with but we were told to treat her like a real queen and ensure everything was fresh for her.”
Even though the kitchen staff said the oil was just two days old, they were forced to change it before preparing a fresh plate of food.
The source added: “The hotel’s head chef could not believe it and had to change the oil in the kitchen just to make one plate of chips. He was furious.”
Even before the superstar arrived in the capital, the hotel refurbished the entire seventh floor penthouse in preparation for Madonna’s stay.
They ordered her a new white sofa for her suite, as well as shipping in a giant state-of-the art plasma TV, new curtains and fresh rugs.
They also provided a brand new coffee machine, white roses, new light fittings and a new headboard for her spacious king-size bed.
When she last visited the capital on tour, Madonna requested gallons of fresh rainforest water, a private gym next to her room, sole use of the hotel’s giant swimming pool and spa as well as special Kabbalah candles to fight off evil spirits.
One hotel insider said: “Everything on the top floor was changed to Madonna’s specification.
“As far as I know, the hotel paid for everything. Everything in the room had to be changed.
“We had maintenance workers here for days making sure the new light fittings were correct. I saw the room – it wasn’t to my taste – but whatever Madonna wanted, she got.”
Hotel workers were told not to talk to anybody – including guests – about Madonna during her stay at the hotel.
Charity
Here's one that went ignored by most in the media - kids forced to give up charity game for Madonna's tour:
Madonna’s
‘sweet’ tour leaves kids feeling sick
August 4, 2008
Superstar Madonna’s Millennium Stadium gig has forced a charity to cancel a children’s football final – 22 days before the concert takes place.
Youngsters from 48 teams across Wales were left heartbroken when their dreams of playing on the world famous pitch were dashed.
A total of 336 kids had been looking forward to donning their kits for the annual Champion of Champions final yesterday, which has been held at the stadium since 2000.
But organisers at the Neighbourhood Watch Sports Trust were e-mailed and told the date was “no longer available” because “the period of the 1st to the 26th of August 2008 (is) now confirmed as required for the Madonna concert”.
The American star will open her Sticky and Sweet Tour in Cardiff on August 23.
But Ian James, manager of Barry team Cadoxton Imps, was gutted when he found the team would not be able to play in the stadium – which has hosted FA Cup Finals as well as major international games – because the Queen of Pop needed so long to set up.
He said: “Give us that one day. You don’t need that one day. It’s three weeks until the concert. We can take knocks, but they are kids.”
And the Neighbourhood Watch Sports Trust’s chairman, former builder Gary Reade, 63, said: “I’ve spoken to the team managers and they are sick. Some of the kids have had holidays with their families withheld so they can go to the stadium and now they are not going which is a bit cruel.”
Birthday ~ only carbon dating can pin down her true age
The
media sure made a big deal out of Grandma-donna turning age 50 on August
16.
You can see a photo of her to the left that was taken on her 50th birthday, and I uploaded a few more to the Vogue Gallery.
Nobody showed up for Madonna's 50th birthday party, ha ha.
Madonna
'Disappointed' With Birthday Celebrations
Madonna was left disappointed after her 50th birthday celebration on Saturday when several of her guests failed to turn up.
.... She reportedly told guests, "I'm really disappointed."
"There are a lot of people who are not here tonight, but thanks to everyone who did make it."
Legal Problems & Issues
MADONNA
TARGETED IN $400,000 LAWSUIT
Dykes
and More Dykes Finger Madge for Money
Aug 27, 2008
Stifle your snickering -- the lawsuit alleges Madge, her manager Guy Oseary, and Maverick Motion Pictures took over $400K in loans from Jay Dykes, Jr., and his company Dykes and Dykes, L.L.C. to make the 2006 flick "Material Girls" (it starred Hilary and Haylie Duff and no, we didn't see it either). According to the suit, filed in Louisiana, they stiffed the Dykes.
To add insult to alleged thievery, Dykes claims he never got the co-producer credit he supposedly bought with the loan.
Madonna's rep didn't immediately return our call for comment about the loan and why the Duffs were cast.
Madonna
tries to stop love letters going public
Singer calls in lawyers to prevent exhibition showing saucy missives
27 August 2008
Madonna has called in her lawyers to prevent an exhibition showing over a dozen raunchy notes she wrote in the 90s.
The singer, 50, sent a legal warning to organisers of the show Simply Madonna after she learned they were to feature love letters she sent then boyfriend James Albright.
Is
Madonna Overcharging The Tourists?
Madge
and Guy's pub facing probe over 'tourist rip-off'
Madonna
and Ritchie's Pub To Be Investigated By Council
Madonna
and Guy Ritchie's pub faces investigation over irregular prices
Excerpts:
The pub owned by Madonna and Guy Ritchie is to be investigated over claims it is charging tourists and locals different prices.
By Chris Irvine
Last Updated: Aug 2008Should The Punchbowl, in Mayfair, be found to have done so, it could lose its licence only six months after it was bought by the couple.
Ritchie and Madonna spent a reported £2.5 million on the pub, located in Farm Street, in February this year.
But the pub is set to be investigated by Westminster council over a series of claims tariffs have not been displayed to customers - a legal requirement - and bar staff have been increasing prices to those they do not recognise.
Drinkers claimed the difference was sometimes as much as 40p.
Madonna
and Ritchie Cleared Over Pub Price Fixing
Feminism / Slams and Put Downs
Sadly,
Greer is not upset with Madonna for the 'right' reasons:
She's one of the ignorant crowd who think that women being trashy, cheap, and vulgar is "feminist."
But nonetheless, it's still fun seeing Madonna get slammed by a feminist:
Madonna
was a middle class girl pretending to be tough
Excerpts:
August 15, 2008
If our own lie-detectors had been more finely tuned, we might have realised that the Madonna we thought we knew was yet another invention.
Madonna was a middle-class girl pretending to be tough, a religious girl pretending to be irreligious, a prude pretending to be a pervert, a control freak pretending to be out of control.
The
author of this next article is dismayed by the feminist backlash against
Madonna, but I include it here because it has some good anti Madonna quotes
in it:
Just
why have Camille Paglia and co turned on Madonna?
Excerpts:
Tuesday August 19 2008
Take Camille Paglia, for instance, writing in Salon last week of the "horrifying paparazzi pix of Madonna's wan face looking as resculpted as a plastic doll", and of the "brassy" cover image for Madonna's latest CD, Hard Candy, "with that ostentatiously exposed crotch and hard-bitten face lolling its tongue like a dissolute old streetwalker ... still hammering at sex as if it's Madonna's last, desperate selling point."
Baby Stealing / Cheap Skate
Madonna's "Raising Malawi" donated only about $13 to $14 to the funeral of David Banda's grandmother.
Excerpts:
August 17, 2008
Pop billionaire Madonna chipped in just £6.50 for the funeral of her adopted son’s granny.
David Banda’s 52-year-old grandmother Asineti Mwale looked after him when his own mother died.
She was buried last week after the family could not afford to buy medicine to treat her pneumonia.
But there were gasps of amazement at her funeral on Tuesday when donors’ names and the amounts they had given to cover burial expenses were read out.
The coffin she was buried in cost just 7,000 Malawi Kwacha – about £25. But the Raising Malawi Trust, supported by Madonna, put in only 2,000 Malawi Kwacha – about £6.50.
[After it was announced at the funeral how much Madonna / Raising Malawi donated,] The congregation, which had maintained a respectful silence, murmured their disapproval.
Liar
Piers
Morgan not fooled by Madonna
Excerpts:
August 18, 2008
Morgan revealed that he lost faith in Madonna after receiving false information from her publicist Liz Rosenberg when he was editor of The Mirror.
"Purely on the back of her firm denial, I'm going to have a few quid on a Madonna divorce by Christmas," Morgan explained.
"I remember once phoning Miss Rosenberg to ask her if Madonna was pregnant. 'No, no, no,' she insisted. 'Madonna. Is. Not. Pregnant.'
"The very next day, Madonna's pregnancy was announced on The Sun's website, with a corroborative quote from one Liz Rosenberg."
Christopher Ciccone
Somone had a blog up under Christopher Ciccione's name ( at mysistermadonna.blogspot.com).
I'm not sure if it was really his, or if it was a hoax; it was removed.
It contained some strange information. Here's a link about it:
Ever Heard The One About The Time Madonna
Crapped Her Dominatrix Outfit?
Excerpt:
Madonna walks in later that day [for tour rehearsals] looking very sad and disoriented. I would say she is drunk but she doesn't drink.
She says, "Lets start from the beginning" and gets what we call her "Dita" gear on and gets a hold of her whip. She can't even balance herself on stage and Nikki Harris, her backup singer, suggests to Madonna that she sit down for a little bit.
Madonna then walks over to Nikki and starts hitting her with the whip while crying her guts out.
Nikki is shocked at first but then screams, "What are you doing?" Madonna then drops to the ground, face first.
All of us look at Madonna, then each other, then at Madonna again. We noticed that she has pooped in her "Dita" outfit and think she is dead. Despite being bitchwhipped by Madonna, Nikki Harris is the first person to run over to her. "She's got a pulse," Nikki indicates and turns Madonna over.
Looking Ugly
Madonna
Fans Were Peeved Over Madonna Looking Ugly in Photos
Stress
Taking Toll on Madonna's Face
Music Biz
A rare no. 2 - Incredibly, Madonna isn't the top-selling female recording artist in the US.
Who on earth could have shifted more records than the Queen of Pop? Mariah Carey? Close but not quite.
Celine Dion? Nope.
Whitney or Britney? Wrong again.
The most successful female artist in the US is actually Barbra Streisand, according to industry figures.
July 2008
Looking Ugly
It's
funereal girl! Shocking photo reveals unkempt, scrawny Madonna
Madonna
Down in the Dumps - Just Jared
Gym
Doesn't Fix It! Life's Strains Etched on Face of Madonna
And, as usual, for more great Madonna photos, be sure to visit the Vogue Gallery. (July 27, 2008. Please note: if you sign up for the Vogue Gallery today, your application might not be approved until August 3, 2008 or later. Sorry for the delay; please be patient.)
Environment
Someone
at Disney Thinks Madonna is an Eco-Hero [But She's Not]
Excerpts:
...Madonna isn’t green. I know, I know...
Then came the news that she spends $120,000 a year on bottled water.
Followed by a bizarre rant on London’s congestion tax — meant to curb CO2 and increase the use of mass transportation.
After that, the appearance on the cover of not one, but two ‘green’ edition magazines; of which nothing in the interviews even hinted at her involvement with any environmental initiatives.
To cap it all off, the BBC reported that Madonna’s carbon output last year was 200 times the average American’s; and her latest tour features nothing green like so many other acts out on the road making a difference.
...we seriously can’t get behind any list honoring her for her work with the environment.
Mental & Physical Health
Madonna
ordered to rest by doctors
Excerpt:
The stress of the past month is taking its toll on Madonna.
The Queen Of Pop has sacked two dancers and her tour manager is threatening to walk out over her spectacular moods.
And for the first time, despite her incredible fitness regime, her health has started to suffer.
Religion
From
2005: Madonna says you should go to Hell:
Pop queen Madonna has launched a broadside at modern life, insisting people need to change their behavior or they will go to hell. The Material Girl singer, who is a staunch follower of the mystical Offshoot of Judaism Kabbalah, believes the western world is chasing illusionary dreams which ignore the real issues that need addressing.
She says, "(People) are going to go to hell if they don't turn from Wicked behavior... The material world... the physical world. The world of illusion, that we think is real. We live for it, we're enslaved by it. It will ultimately be our undoing."
Slams and Put-Downs
You-
know- who is on the list:
Ten
Artists Who Should Stop Making Albums
Excerpts:
..."Hard Candy," makes it clear that Madonna's moment as a musical force has long since passed.
....despite whether she's a massive influence, she feels unnecessary. And pop can be a lot of things, but never that.
High-lights
from the Christopher Ciccone book Life With My Sister Madonna and
interviews with Ciccone:
• Madonna is unoriginal and untalented:
We discover how, when Madonna started off, Christopher [Madonna's brother] learnt how to give insincere applause. She was always a brilliant dancer, but he would tell her that she had a great voice, and no, she wasn't fat.
Now he tells her he lied to make her feel better. Yes, she was fat. No, she couldn't sing. [source: Independent]
I reply to her. 'You have never in the entire time I have worked for you since 1985 paid me even close to what I was worth. I gave up my life to help make you the evil queen you are today. Fifteen years listening to your bitching, egotistical rantings, mediocre talent and a lack of taste that would stun the ages.
'Every ounce of talent you have, you have sucked dry from me and the people around you. [source: Daily Mail]
• Is Too Cheap to Financially Help Her Own Grandmother Much:
....He [Christopher Ciccone] also made reference to Madge's lack of generosity. He said that Madonna does very little to help care for their 93 year old grandmother only giving her $500.00 a month to help make ends meet.
• Madonna is sex obsessed [source: Mirror]
• Madonna is a big slut:
His new biography Life With My Sister Madonna, he [Christopher Ciccone] accuses her [Madonna] of being a sexual predator – and hints that she's also had lesbian relationships.
Christopher – who no longer speaks to Madonna, 49 – says before starting a family she drew up a list of men, including basketball star Dennis Rodman and actor John Enos, who could father her child. [source: Now]
• Madonna does not object to or halt the derogatory anti-homosexual jokes and comments that take place during her wedding celebration:
"I [Christopher Ciccone] glance at my sister [Madonna], hoping to see a look of outrage on her face [regarding insults against homosexuals made by a wedding guest], but there is none. I am sad that Madonna, whose early success was built on her legions of gay fans, can listen to these comments without protest.
I feel even sadder that she is now married to a man [Guy Ritchie] who seems so insecure in his masculinity that he thrives on homophobia." [source: book excerpt at Daily Mail]
• Madonna jilts Christopher repeatedly — summoning him to New York and then relinquishing her offer of a place to stay, or forcing him to eat half the cost of a set of paintings he purchased at her behest. source: Time]
• Madonna has lied about her background:
"...she is a middle-class girl who propagates the story that she landed in Times Square with just a pair of ballet shoes and $35 to her name. But that's pure mythology and the further she progresses, the more mythological her life story becomes." [source: Daily Mail]
• Madonna exploits her brother's sexual orientation for her own publicity:
Soon after exploiting her mother's grave [for her Truth or Dare movie] she [Madonna] exploited Christopher's [Madonna's brother's] gayness. She outed him in an article.
"At that point everybody in my immediate family knew I was gay, but not my grandmother. It was not her business to out me. I think she must have been feeling that she'd gone very mainstream. She'd done S&M, she'd done Sex, what she really needed was a gay brother." At the time he tried to forgive her, but he could not forget.
....What does he think she means with her flirtations? "I think it's publicity. She craves attention and it doesn't really matter where it comes from." [source: Independent]
Madonna has lied about her background, Part 2:
• ... Madonna's image of herself as a benevolent babymama to her younger siblings is baloney. By Ciccone's account, she was as starry and remote as a child as she was to become later in life, and ruled the house like a tempestuous deity.
....She was rude before fame, and ruder after it.
.... He suggests a contract for when he does up Madonna's next home, but when he sends it over, she calls him “a f***ing piece of sh*t”. He dispatches a return fax calling her “an ageing popstar”. [source: Times]
• Madonna is egotistical and uses Kabbalah to back up her egotism:
My sister [Madonna] always gets bored unless the conversation centres on her, her next tour or her next album. [source: Daily Mail]
Kabbalah ended up validating Madonna for her bad behaviour. The theory is that on some level you are who you deserve to be. And since she was in a position of power and wealth she thought she deserved to be there and was closer to God than the rest of us. [source: Independent]
Some narcissistic tendencies at work [in Madonna]? He laughs, "It's not a tendency, it's a lifestyle. But you don't get to where she is by not being narcissistic." [source: Independent]
• Madonna is a hypocrite and judges by physical appearance:
"You're the one who is always telling people that they shouldn't judge others by outside appearances," Warren [Beatyy] said to her [Madonna]. "How dare you judge me? It works both ways, you know?"
"Oh please," Madonna said as she sipped a cocktail ... "You older guys are too sensitive," she said, taking a drag from a cigarette. "I'm just being helpful. If you want to be fat and flabby, Warren, fine with me. Go right ahead."
• Cares about her public image and not relationships:
....Above all, my sister being my sister, she's acutely aware that being Warren's [Warren Beatty's] girlfriend is wonderful for her mythology, her status in Hollywood - and the positive effect on the final cut he, as director, will make on her latest movie, Dick Tracy. [source: Daily Mail]
Dry and Sour Tour / Old Lady Album
Roger
Friedman has done a turn-about. Now he's writing that Madonna's tour is
not doing so well after all.
Excerpt:
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
By Roger FriedmanAccording to her Web site, Madonna.com, there are plenty of tickets available in most major American cities, including New York and Boston. Apparently, all this publicity — a lot of which this reporter admittedly thought was being generated to sell tickets — has not helped much at all.
Site or Board Updates
July
8, 2008. I have completed the new "Madonna Rips Off Marilyn Gallery."
I can think of maybe one or two more images that should go in that gallery, but overall, I'd say it's pretty much done.
Access it via the Rips Off Index Page or click on the graphical link to the right (the one that says "Madonna Rips Off Everyone").
(And if you people at the "Madonna Revelations" blog use any of the photos or ideas from this updated Marilyn Monroe gallery, or any others at this site, or any of the material at the Anti Madonna Board, then you really ought to give me, or whomever the appropriate person is, credit.
As of July 20, 2008, the individuals at the "Madonna Revelations" blog still refuse to cite either source (this site and the Anti Madonna Discussion Board).
Their new blog disclaimer essentially says they think they have the right to rip me off. Enjoy the irony, everybody.)
Media Misinformation and Propaganda
Is
The Editor Of People Too Friendly With Madonna?
Excerpts:
Part of the problem is [People magazine] editor Peter Castro... Shady anonymous whisperers tell us he likes to suckle at the teat of Madonna, figuratively!
According to a tipster, Castro has been accepting free tickets to Madonna shows since at least the early 90s.
Those tickets, of course, sell for exorbitant amounts, and can be scalped for even more—in all they add up to "thousands" in value, the tipster says.
The most recent case, they say, was the Madonna show in New York that Yankee superstar A-Rod attended, and which is now the subject of great interest because of the rumored fling between the two.
And who is bestowing all these tickets on Castro? Reportedly it's Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's lying flack!
You may also have noticed People's recent sappy and credulous coverage of the supposed strength of Madonna's marriage to Guy Ritchie.
Our source says that the friendly Castro deliberately chose to overlook the A-Rod affair rumors and "play nice" with Madonna and Rosenberg.
While
People Runs Madonna’s Denials, The Other Tabloids Are Free to Spill
Blood
Baby Stealing
Marriage to Guy Ritchie
There
are now approximately 4,000+ news stories (yes, literally, there are 4,000+
stories, I'm not exaggerating) on Google News about the state of Madonna's
relationship with husband Guy Ritchie, and whether or not she's having
an affair with a ball player named "A-Rod."
News flash to media: nobody cares about either rumor. They're both likely media stunts to get free press for Madonna's upcoming tour.
Madonna
and Guy Want You To Buy The Hype
Excerpts:
So.... Is Vadge's [Madonna's] marriage drama one big publicity stunt for her upcoming world tour? Sources tell TMZ that Vadge has been planning the divorce rumors for months in hopes that it will boost sales for her ["Dry and Sour"] world tour.
The plan is that they would slowly leak details of the divorce months before the tour started to get the publicity machine running. Guy is on board with the plan, because he knows how much money this sh** is going to make.
Sometimes Roger Friedman can be so naive:
It didn’t make sense, did it? Madonna wouldn’t have a lover come to her apartment while children were there. Not even Madonna would do that.
Yes, Roger, yes she would.
Madonna used to have sex with children (according to sources listed here), so why do you think she'd feel uncomfortable having sex in front of them?
Friedman does redeem himself later in this same piece when he writes,
The Madonna-A-Rod saga is a strange one, but little by little the pieces are coming together. If Kabbalah is involved, for example, the probability is that Madonna and her guru, Philip Berg, the sect’s founder, are more interested in Rodriguez for his bulging wallet than anything else.
A Rod has earned over $200 million in his lifetime. His new deal with the Yankees is worth $350 million.
Consider that Madonna has been the Kabbalah Center of Los Angeles’s top celebrity benefactor for a long time. She may be tapped out at this point, what with declining CD sales and slow-moving concert tickets at some venues. She has a lot of mouths to feed. A-Rod is a great catch for her and Berg.
June 2008
Rebuttals To Madonna Apologetics
Roger
Friedman's Hostile Relationship With Facts Continue
Excerpt:
The real falsity here is Friedman's assertion that Dodger Stadium is "the only venue Madonna hasn't sold out."
Yesterday I did a little Ticketmaster searching for Madonna's shows in Boston and Houston, and found available seats at both dates; repeating that experiment just now revealed similar results.
(I just did a plain old search, without any wiggling around for VIP seating or secondary-market offers.)
Is there another definition of "sold out" that I'm not aware of?
A
Response to FOX News Writer Roger Friedman's 'Is Madonna Being Sabotaged?'
Are you pressed for time? The short of it is, No, Madonna is not being sabotaged.
Sickly Sweet Tour / Old Lady Album
Madonna
and her "career," and her so-called "success," have
always been shams and illusions, fueled by half-truths and much exaggeration.
Every so often, the mask slips, and the truth comes out:
MADONNA
SALE$ SAG: Live Nation Defends Limp Response To Her U.S. Tour
Excerpts:
By BRIAN GARRITY, June 24, 2008
....Big sales around the world for the Material Girl's upcoming "Sticky & Sweet" tour have been overshadowed in music industry circles by chatter about the large number of tickets still available for a key stop in Los Angeles in November and softer-than-expected sales of her latest album "Hard Candy."
....But just over half of the 43,000 seats available for a Nov. 6 date at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium - 27,000 tickets in all - have been sold in their first three weeks of availability, raising red flags about the limits of US demand for the 49-year-old Madonna at this stage of her career.
....But at the biggest venues, consumers in the US are not rushing for Madonna tickets with the same fervor that they are in Europe and other parts of the world.
Madonna's
Ticket Sales Give Live Nation Something Else To Suck On
Marriage to Guy Ritchie
Three
Reasons Why Madonna Will Never Have "Incredible Sex" with Guy
Ritchie Again
Excerpts:
The seven-year itch has reportedly struck the unusually long and strong union between Madonna and Guy Ritchie, but news of the split isn’t exactly sending anyone into shock.
...most likely reasons we think the love story went sour:
1. The World No Longer Wants Madonna's Sex:
As we know by now, Lesbian Chic is the word.And despite her reputation as being so very salacious in the Erotica department, Madonna's on-stage kiss with her female backup dancer two months ago didn't cause much of a ripple in the pop culture universe.
Beaten in Polls / Charts (Non-Music)
Kylie
Minogue has been voted the celebrity who is growing old most glamorously
Ugly & Mannish
Madonna's
muscling her way to 50
Mighty
Madonna: No rest for the queen of eye-popping muscles
Madonna
Has Chest Hair ... Stop Using The Cream!
Feminism
'I
won't conform to this ageist society,' says Madonna as she nears the big
50
If she's not going to conform to "ageism," why does she keep getting botox injections? Why is she a slave to working out at the gym? Why has she admitted in interviews that she will be getting plastic surgery?
Says Madonna in the article:
"I'm a big cry baby - I actually cry all the time."
Hmm, some feminist she is. She "cries like a baby?" I thought she was supposed to be feminism's poster girl for toughness?
Madonna: Unoriginal & a Thief
The
folks at this 'Revelations' blog got some of their images and ideas from
this site and the board - and they refuse to cite either as a source.
It's nice to see someone else pointing out Madonna's many thefts, but too bad they don't credit their sources:
According to French newspaper Le Parisien, Madonna was so angry with the hotel staff [for allowing a TV crew to film her empty hotel room], she refused to pay the $90,000 (GBP45,000) bill.
Duran
Duran accuse Madonna of copying them
[Duran Duran band member John] Taylor said that he wasn't surprised to see Madonna employ both artists [Timberlake and Timbaland for Madonna's Hard Candy album] but claimed it was their idea.
“It wouldn’t be the first time Madonna’s copied us. She’s been doing it for years,” he told the Daily Star.
Media Misinformation and Propaganda
Despite the fact that I e-mailed the editor at Jamacia Observer to inform them of the incorrect information in Diane Abbot's editorial, I did not get a reply, and as of June 2008, the incorrect information in Ms. Abbott's piece remains:
Slams and Put-Downs
Madonna
wins an award at Cannes. But not for her film.
The daily French Riviera newspaper gave Madonna its “Egocentric Award” because she “acted like the whole film festival was organized just for her.”
"Madonna is wretched at the moment - absolutely vulgar," The Sun quoted him, as saying in Attitude magazine.
"Put it away! You're not young and sexy anymore. She went thoughtful and mature for a while, and now she's chucked it away in some desperate attempt at being hot again. It's just a bit vile," he added.
Comedienne ROSEANNE BARR has launched an online attack on MADONNA, accusing the pop star of abusing face-freezing Botox injections.
....In a posting on her blog, Barr ranted, "Please lay off the Botox. You are scaring the children. Act your age. You are doing good things and your face negates your message of spirituality."
According to the National Enquirer Barr has since removed the post.
Excerpts:
And the Leeds band’s frontman Matt Bowman, never short of an opinion, says she [Madonna] needs to pull her sticky finger out if the show is to be better than the performance she turned in at Maidstone.
“Madonna is quite an easy person to have a pop at because she is so successful,” he began, attempting to lend some context.
“But she was a joke.
“She was clearly struggling to sing live, she looked out of practice, and there was a bit where she pretended to play the guitar and, as someone who knows how to play a guitar, she was clearly just holding down an open G chord and strumming it.
“The problem for her is that she has got no credibility left, which is why she is always working with these young new musicians.
“She is looking increasingly desperate to hang onto the fame she has left, but she isn’t aware of the way she is perceived because she lives in a bubble.
Music Biz
Gabriella
Cilmi topples Madonna
AUSSIE singing sensation [16 year old] Gabriella Cilmi yesterday did what most teenagers can only dream of: she knocked Madonna from the No. 1 spot on Britain's top 10 chart.
Duffy
Steals European Crown From Madonna
Welsh soul star DUFFY has scored a chart double to become the queen of Europe.
The singer has toppled Madonna from the top of the European singles chart, and she's keeping hold of her album chart number one for a second week.
Duffy's hit song Mercy has overtaken Madonna's 4 Minutes collaboration with Justin Timberlake...
Madonna was beaten by Siouxsie Sioux in '89. From the June 1989 issue of Smash Hits magazine, page 20, "Smash Hits 5th Annual Readers' Poll"
BEST FEMALE SINGER
1- Siouxsie Sioux (of Siouxsie and the Banshees)
2- Debbie Gibson
3- Madonna
May 2008
Baby Stealing
Even
up to now, Madonna keeps repeating on film and in interviews that David
Banda was completely abandoned, despite the fact that David's biological
father, Yohane, has corrected this misinformation more than once, and
he did so beginning over a year ago.
This month:
Father
of Madonna's Adopted Son May Challenge Custody Ruling
Banda's
Father Speaks Out Over Madonna Adoption
Excerpts:
....And Yohane Banda insists he never wanted to leave the youngster in an orphanage, but severe poverty forced him to take drastic action.
....He [Yohane Banda] says, "After losing two sons, I really wanted David to survive. It isn't true that we abandoned him."
Excerpt:
There is something creepily colonialist in Madonna’s attitude to Africa. First we had the White Man’s Burden -– now we have the White Madonna’s Burden. More and more celebrities are treating Africa as a wide-eyed child that needs a Hollywood hug -– or as a wicked devil that needs a Hollywood hammering.
Music Biz
Neil
Diamond finally makes it to No 1
Neil
Diamond tops US and UK charts for first time
The singer-songwriter Neil Diamond's new album Home Before Dark has gone straight to the top of the UK and US charts, the first time he has had a number one hit with original material in either country.
His double success comes 42 years after he released his first LP, The Feel of Neil Diamond.
Ting
Tings end Madonna's chart reign
The Ting Tings have taken the top spot in the [UK] singles chart, ending Madonna's four weeks at the top.
German
techno band topple Madonna
German techno group Scooter have knocked Madonna off the number one spot in the UK album chart.
Madonna has been knocked off the top of the album charts with new entry Jumping All Over The World by Scooter, according to The Official UK Charts Company.
The techno artists, whose last album came out in 2002, went to number one in the album charts less than a week after it was released on May 7.
Scooter
knock Madonna from top spot
Madonna's new album, Hard Candy, is her last for Warner's:
Record
labels' woes deepen Warner losses
Excerpt:
Not even Madonna, one of the top acts for Warner Music, could prevent the group from recording gloomy figures
Edgar Bronfman, chairman and chief executive, was also forced to admit that recorded music sales had effectively stagnated over the period and that losses had deepened twice as rapidly as expected.
Live
Nation down as 1Q loss misses analysts' estimates
Excerpts:
Live Nation Inc.'s stock fell Friday as its first-quarter loss narrowed but missed analysts' estimates.
For the period ended March 31, the live event and venue management company reported a loss of $35.4 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with a loss of $45 million, or 69 cents per share, a year earlier.
Performance at Big Weekend, UK
Madonna,
Radio 1 Big Weekend - review
Excerpts:
Clearly, the plan was to prove that a pop star about to turn 50 in August can remain relevant to the kids.
Instead, a sterile, soulless performance made Madonna resemble an embarrassing auntie desperately trying to be hip.
...her singing occasionally strayed off key...
....The Abba-sampling hit Hung Up, from 2005, began with a steal from the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction and was a given a grungey rework that felt as fake as Madonna’s overblown guitar-thrashing.
Performance at Olympia in Paris, France
Desperately
seeking publicity: Now Madonna stages another lesbian kiss
Excerpts:
It was a case of recycling rather than reinvention for Madonna last night as she pulled out her tried and tested move - a lesbian kiss - during her show in Paris last night.
The singer, who is rapidly approaching 50, locked lips with one of her female backing dancers during a private concert in the French capital, just like she did with Britney Spears at the MTV Awards more than five years ago.
Madonna's
Lame Stage Pash - Been There, Done That
Excerpts:
Let's face it - after about 500 years in the pop game, you're bound to run out of steam at some stage. And it looks like Madonna is getting a bit desperate - scraping at the bottom of her shock tactics barrel to keep her audiences interested.
The world groaned as 49-year-old Madge pashed a backing dancer on stage in Paris on Tuesday - an exact recreation of her onstage antics with Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV Awards.
Miscellaneous
Summary:
Madonna allowed an entertainer, a man in drag who was hired to sing at one of her private birthday parties, to be physically abused at her birthday party, did nothing to stop it, and laughed about it
Excerpts:
...On the publicity trail for her new single with Justin Timberlake, she's [Madonna has] tried to reinvent herself by teaming up with a younger star.
Unfortunately, instead of making her look youthful and sexy, the pictures of Madge pinning Justin to a wall while she writhed against him and thrust her groin at the cameras, were cringe-worthy.
Rather than raising pulses, the only thing rising among many fans was bile in throats. Who is this embarrassing old lady trying and failing to prove she's still got "it"?
....Her reputation is a mess of conflicting messages - get your boobs out for the boys, dress chastely for the kids, save the planet, smash the system, blame religion, use religion. I don't know if even she knows what she stands for any more.
If Madonna still thinks she's hot, it's probably down to her menopausal hormones.
Here's hoping her next reinvention will be "Madonna in retirement".
Madonna
Upsets French Fans With Short Performance
Pop superstar Madonna upset her fans in France on Tuesday night after turning up to a concert more than two hours late.
And the Holiday hitmaker further disgruntled her followers by only giving a 40-minute performance in the nation's capital, Paris.
[Fans decribed the show and Madonna as lacking charisma, emotion, energy. One used the word "disappointed."]
Environment
Madonna's
Latest Tour Offers Zilch For The Environment
Excerpts:
So now we come full circle — a little less than a year after Madonna urged to us to ‘love the planet’ on-stage at Live Earth and, well, nothing has changed.
Unfortunately, Madonna is doing an injustice to environmental campaigning by claiming to care but then not showing anything meaningful to reflect such talk.
Old Lady Album
For
more Old Lady - um, I mean, Hard Candy reviews, scroll
down this page and look under April 2008.
German
techno band topple Madonna
German techno group Scooter have knocked Madonna off the number one spot in the UK album chart.
Madonna's
'Hard Candy' is more bland than sweet
Excerpts:
"Hard Candy" feels and sounds like a desperate attempt to remain relevant, with Madonna enlisting the likes of Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West for support.
.... The music is so overwrought, so contrived, that Miley Cyrus seems like an innovator in comparison.
What's most apparent is that Madonna, at 49, has become what she must fear most: Irrelevant, boring and disposable.
CD
Review: Madonna 'Hard Candy'
Excerpts:
But with "Hard Candy,” Madonna plays catch-up with mainstream pop charts. She essentially has remade Nelly Furtado's "Loose” and half of Justin Timberlake's "FutureSex/LoveSounds,” following fashion trends that are 2 years old. Is this where Madonna wants to be?
Never mind the off-putting come-ons such as "My sugar is raw, sticky and sweet” from the opener, "Candy Shop,” or the nausea-inducing cover art redolent of down-market porn: Those are the least of Madonna's problems.
She banks everything on the catchy but vacant single, "4 Minutes,” in which Timbaland recycles the marching band trope that drove Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl.” With Timbaland and Timberlake in the foreground, Madge certainly doesn't own the song; she is a bit player on her own track.
On "Hard Candy,” when she slags Madonnalikes such as Britney Spears and Furtado ("She's Not Me”), the argument falls flat because these days, Madonna's trying to be them.
....By letting her formidable personality disappear into the tasteless "Hard Candy,” Madonna sold herself out. It is the least essential disc of her career.
Excerpts:
Her [Madonna's] attempt to get down with the kids on opener 'Candy Shop', a track far more suited to her collaborator on this album, Timberland, than herself is cringeworthy.
Hard
luck for Madonna as Tesco two-for one sales disqualified
Madonna
Suffers Massive Sales Loss
Excerpts:
Madonna’s previous album “Confessions On A Dance Floor” that Reuters declared a flop, sold 350,000 in its first week of release.
To put that in perspective for you, Britney's “Blackout” sold 272,000 copies in the first week of sales and flopped...
In spite of having the most popular pop star in America, Justin Timberlake, on “Hard Candy” the CD came in with weak sales anyway.
Justin Timberlake’s current solo CD sold over 800,000 copies in the first week. When he did a duet with 50 Cent for the rapper’s current CD, he sold over 800,000 copies in the first week as well. Kanye West is also on "Hard Candy" and he sold over 800,000 copies in the first week of his current CD.
Yet, instead of "Hard Candy" debuting with 800,000 copies sold in the first week like Warner Bros. and Madonna hoped, they suffered a massive sales loss, way down from her previous CD.
[Neil]
Diamond Is A Chart's Best Friend
Legend’s Rick Rubin-Produced Columbia Album Will Debut at #1
....set to debut at #1 next week for Steve Barnett and company with a one-week total of 125-130k.
That number, which could go higher with Mother’s Day weekend sales, should be more than enough to beat out Madonna’s WB release, Hard Candy, which appears on tap for between 85-95k after one week on top.
Are
Madonna's first-week sales numbers a disappointment? Blame Mariah
Excerpts:
.... Yet it's ... hard not to note that Madonna's "Hard Candy" sold about 180,000 fewer copies than Mariah Carey moved two weeks ago.
....But back to Carey. Her "E=MC2" scored the highest debut of the year when it opened at No. 1 after selling 463,000 copies. In just three weeks on the chart, "E=MC2" has sold more than 740,000 copies.
Album sales may be down across the board, but Madonna would certainly be expected to be closer to Mariah than, say, Leona Lewis on the diva totem pole. Newcomer Lewis entered at No. 1 a few weeks ago, her debut, "Spirit," selling 205,000 copies.
Hard
Candy Review from Live Daily
Excerpts:
The biggest disappointment with "Hard Candy" isn't that it sounds bland...
Derivative lyrics paired with overly produced club beats do not make for anything especially artistic or extraordinary.
After a while, these songs just feel like a lot of fluff and filler.
It's painful to hear Madonna, who has always set trends and shocked listeners, struggle so much with finding a solid, or even interesting, direction.
Even with the support of mega stars like The Neptunes, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Pharrell Williams, she seems to fall flat.
Instead of being a leader, Madonna seems more like a follower on "Candy Shop," chasing what has become Gwen Stefani's signature sound, for the most part. Stefani already did the sugar-themed album in 2006 with "Sweet Escape."
Madonna even borrows the "tick tock," whistle and marching band samples that Stefani made central forces in her 2004 debut, "Love. Angel. Music. Baby."
"Hard Candy" proves the adage "what goes around comes around." Madonna may have paved the way for her peers, but now she is fighting to stay on the path.
...."Don't stop me now," Madonna sings on "Give It To Me." It's a plea she's made before, but at what point should she call it quits? If "Hard Candy" is any indicator, that time may be sooner than she'd like.
Hard
Candy "Reeks of Desperation"
Excerpts:
....But: Man, does this album ever reek of desperation.
....All of this would be forgivable if the album were great. But it's not. It's just... meh.
"Candy Shop"? Are you kidding me? Hasn't everyone and their mother (hi, Fiddy) employed this tired double entendre?
And "Spanish Lesson" is virtually unlistenable, the lyrics are so cheesy and depressingly literal.
The first single, "4 Minutes"? The production on that track completely overwhelms her (as it does on much of this album), and it's actually rather sad how much of a better singer Justin Timberlake is than Madonna.
Perplexingly, "Beat Goes On" is about as joyless an outing as a trip for a root canal...
....But overall, there's little on this album that's truly noteworthy.
April 2008
Baby Stealing
Madonna
'cuts off' father from adopted son
Excerpts:
The father of the Malawian boy adopted by Madonna has accused the pop star of severing contact between him and his son and says he regrets ever putting the child up for adoption.
Yohane Banda, 33, said the singer had reneged on a promise to allow him to maintain regular contact with his son David, whom he last saw in 2006.
“I feel robbed. I should be able to see my son and say hello,” Banda said.
....Banda claims the star [Madonna] snubbed him during a visit to the country in April last year.
....Justin Dzonzi, a lawyer and prominent critic of the adoption, said both Madonna and the Malawian government had a moral duty to maintain contact between Banda and his son.
Malawian
Father Claims Madonna Has 'Robbed His Son'
Father
of Madonna's adoptee lashes out
Old Lady Album
There's
a New Queen of Pop: Mariah Beats Madonna
Excerpt:
Hitsdailydouble.com is reporting that estimated first week sales for Madonna’s Hard Candy album will range between 275,000-300,000.
Mariah’s “E=MC2” sold 475,000 in its first week and was Carey’s biggest debut ever.
In addition to that, Madonna’s numbers are a slide downwards from her last album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," which 350,000 copies its first week out and went on to sell 1.7 million copies in the U.S. That was three years ago.
Madonna’s
‘Hard’ Sell Hardly Succeeds
It's almost as though, as middle age creeps up, Madonna is out to prove to the kiddies that she's not some old lady holding onto the house-music '90s. But she's out of her comfort zone, while her producers are too much in theirs, making "Hard Candy" an uncharacteristically desperate bore.
....Unless Madonna can figure out how to recalibrate her identity in a way that compliments her, she could be facing an early retirement.
Hard
Candy Review from Variety.com
Excerpt:
But for the most part, the [Madonna] album is suffused with a predatory desperation that's not pretty at any age. Here, it's as taut and affectless as the Botoxed faces of "The Real Housewives of Orange County."
Madonna's
Hard Candy Underwhelms
Excerpt:
... critics have been underwhelmed by the [Hard Candy] album.
'Hard
Candy' by Madonna, Review by Courant
This time, Madonna is just another singer drawing on the chart appeal of Timbaland, Timberlake and Pharrell, which makes this particular piece of candy taste like a sour ball: It's appealing to fans, but it's not for everyone.
Excerpts:
But while she can still generate a paparazzi frenzy and get herself on the covers of Vanity Fair and Elle, Madonna is not doing anything particularly innovative or original on her new album.
In fact, Hard Candy sounds a bit like Madonna parodying Madonna.
...There is next to nothing on Hard Candy that can be called innovative.
....One has to wonder what will come of Madonna when she can no longer rely on her sex appeal? Her voice certainly can't carry her.
....there is something incredibly sad about a near-50-year-old woman unwilling to show her age and instead choosing to ramp up her campish sexuality to sell albums.
Excerpt:
The problem is Madonna. She sounds out of touch, like she's not sure what to do with herself. Her trademark frigid coo doesn't fit with these bump 'n' grind rhythms, and her usually harmless pop hooks repeatedly fall flat.
On the album's first track, Candy Shop, her opening lines - "Come on into my store, I've got candy galore / Don't pretend you're not hungry, I've seen it before / I've got Turkish delight baby and so much more" - come off oh-so contrived.
...this album isn't much fun...
Madonna
takes on all comers with hit heavy Hard Candy
Excerpts:
Where the album sags, it's usually due to Madonna herself.
Despite the usual self-important meditations on sex, life and her own relevance -- she's constantly out to convince us she's cutting edge -- a lot of Madonna's lyrics on Hard Candy are pretty dopey.
Weak lyrics and forgettable hooks spoil too many killer rhythms on the disc...
Hard
Candy Review - the star.com
Excerpts:
Hard Candy's endlessly embarrassing lyrics and dearth of vocal melodies suggest Madonna herself didn't bring much to the table, yet surprisingly, neither did Pharrell or Timbaland, who split production credits on the album evenly.
.... serves as proof that Madonna, for once, is a little late to the game in hooking up with the cutting-edge talent upon which she's staked her career. She's still got taste to spare, yes, but she's not necessarily a tastemaker any more.
March 2008
Fans
Lying to Radio Stations to Get Madonna Songs On Air
So desperate are Madonna fans to get songs from Madonna's new "Hard Candy" album played on American radio stations, fan site owners have been pleading with their readers to call radio stations and request her songs be played.
Read examples in the following threads:
Fans
Try to Inflate and Skew Sales Numbers and Song Rankings
and
Baby Stealing
Yohane
Banda Infuriated by Madonna's Comments
Hall of Fame
Rebuttals
to the Various Nauseating Articles Defending Madonna's Induction to the
Hall of Fame
Feb. 2008
Excerpt:
Well, it had to happen. Madonna has been a terrible actor in many, many films and now - fiercely aspirational as ever - she has graduated to being a terrible director.
Malawi
Ministers says Madonna adoption not over
Oct. 2007
Live
Nation could lose money on Madonna deal
Second
Adoption: 'You'll Never Take My Girl, Madonna'
Rock
And Roll Hall Of Fame: Do Not Induct Madonna
Sept. 2007
Trip to Israel
Rabbis
Disgusted by Madonna's Visit
Baby Stealing
-Oh please! Even she doesn't think so:
'I'm
a crap mother,' says Madonna
David Banda's real father doesn't think Madonna is a perfect Mom, either:
Other
Woman Would've Made Better Mom for David' Says Yohane Banda
Environment / Live Earth
Climate
change concert star Madonna accused of hypocrisy
The stars of a major Live 8-style concert to raise awareness of climate change have been condemned as hypocrites for failing to lead environmentally friendly lives themselves.
The likes of Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers will perform at Live Earth at Wembley Stadium on July 7, yet campaigners say they are among the least "green" individuals on the planet.
.... But green campaigners called the stars' involvement hypocritical last night saying their lifestyles which demand they jet themselves and their huge entourages on world tours give them enormously large carbon footprints.
Last year, for example, they report how Madonna flew as many as 100 technicians, dancers, backing singers, managers and family members on a 56-date world tour in private jets and commercial airliners.
Madonna herself also has a collection of fuel-guzzling cars, including a Mercedes Maybach, two Range Rovers, Audi A8s and a Mini Cooper S. Yet she will headline the London concert to "combat the climate crisis".
"Madonna's Confessions tour produced 440 tonnes of CO2 in four months of last year. And that was just the flights between the countries, not taking into account the truckloads of equipment needed, the power to stage such a show and the transport of all the thousands of fans getting to the gigs.
A
song by Madonna won't save the world
...by the way, there's not one recording artist in history who has not sold more records as a result of appearing in one of these charity shows beamed live to billions of people around the world. Beats a couple of blogs on Myspace, doesn't it!
Madonna continues to use private jet planes, SUV automobiles:
Madonna
leaves Malawi after six-day visit
Madonna
had a hair stylist flown in to style her hair
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madonna ripped off marilyn monroe
i hate madge madge sucks madge can't act
madonna madge slept her way to the top everyeone used uses using people