archives
Archives: 2009, January - May
May 2009
Answering Madonna Apologists
May 25, 2009
In an interview hosted on "Excite," celebrity columnist, professional liar, and slobbering Madonna fan Liz Smith said, "People want to forget that she [Madonna] is this giant figure in pop music, that she has written most of her big hits," which is untrue.
(She also insulted the late Marilyn Monroe, which is just more evidence of how bad a judge of celebrity this hack Smith is. She also insults Princess Diana and takes a swipe of sorts against Elvis. But Smith gives the trashy, sleaze-ball, arrogant, untalented tramp Madonna a pass.)
All of Madonna's big hits were written by Stephen Bray, Pat Leonard, and Billy Steinberg, among others.
The songs Madonna is known for, and the ones which launched her career, such as "Like A Virgin," "Material Girl," and "Dress You Up" were written by other people, and Madonna does not even have co-writing credits for such songs.
For more information on this topic, please see the following threads at the Anti Madonna Discussion Board: Songwriter Gets No Credit for Writing Madonna Song; Songwriting; Stephen Bray Thread; Musical Rip Offs.
May 11, 2009.
It never fails: any negative publicity always brings out the journalists and amateur bloggers who are sympathetic towards Madonna.
Such is the case with the recent headlines
(a.) poking fun at Madonna and questioning her morals over the ugly, blue designer dress she wore to a fashion gala, and
(b) with headlines over the past month wherein the supposed biological child of Mercy James, a Mr. James Kambewa, insisted that Madonna is not fit to raise his child.
For anyone who thinks that a rich, famous woman automatically makes for a wonderful adoptive parent, I have six words for you:
Joan Crawford; Mommy Dearest; coat hangers. (If you've no clue what that means, google the phrase.)
New trends I have seen with those reporters and journalists who are protective of Madonna is to attack Mr. Kambewa, first by implying that he's only feigning interest in little Mercy James because he is after Madonna's money, and secondly to berate him for not being present in her life until now.
Just look at this headline, which attempts to poison the well against Mr. Kambewa:
Another editorial, "Why 'papa' can't preach to party girl Madonna," by Eilis O'Hanlon, also went with the same smear technique (writes O'Hanlon regarding Mr. Kambewa: "....considering he only popped out of the blue when an American millionairess arrived on the scene...").
Talk about irresponsible and sleazy journalism. If Mr. Kambewa can get legal representation, maybe he can sue these jokers for libel.
Aside from implying that Mr. Kambewa's only motivation for wanting to take part in Mercy's life is greed, these same authors argue that he is an unfit parent because he has not played a role in Mercy's life until now.
What most of these editorials neglect to mention is that Mr. Kambewa himself has stated that he did not even realize until now that he had a daughter.
Kambewa was told that his daughter had died in infancy. If that is the case, one can hardly blame the man for not taking part in the life of a child he did not realize even existed, and yet, these dishonest dirt bag writers think nothing of doing so.
Parsons makes this strange remark in his editorial:
But if Madonna has no right to be Mercy's adopted mother, then James Kambewa has hardly earned the right to call himself her father.
Never mind that in recent years I've yet to see a single journalist address alarming claims of pedophilia concerning Madonna (and see this photo spread), but I fail to see how Madonna, who is a total stranger to the girl, would be a better parent than Kambewa.
Have any of these writers considered how much more troubling it would be if Mr. Kambewa was aware that someone was trying to adopt his daughter but expressed no interest?
What if his attitude were one of indifference towards the girl and what happens to her: "I do not care if I lose my daughter, I could not care less who adopts her, or if she gets removed from her native country."
Shouldn't Kambewa be given some sort of credit or recognition for expressing interest in his daughter, now that he is aware he has one?
When one considers Madonna's questionable actions and behavior concerning her previous adoption of David Banda, it should raise concerns and suspicion in any other adoptions she attempts to make:
1. Anyone outside of Malawi wishing to adopt must live in the nation for 18 months in a row. Madonna did not do this, and, therefore, her adoption was not fully legal in that sense, despite her and her legal team's spin to the contrary;
2. David's biological family, including Yohane Banda, said that Madonna lied about some facts surrounding the case:
See for example, this article at the Irish Examiner. Here is an excerpt:
Malawi-based Reuters correspondent Mabvuto Banda, who has been reporting on the story, says: “Madonna claimed [in a televised interview] that none of David’s family visited him. This is not true.
And I wonder if she knew that the cloth she used to tie the baby on her back when she danced at the orphanage belonged to David’s grandmother, who was there at the time? She said, ‘If we didn’t care about this baby, why were we there?’ Where does Madonna think that the cloth she used came from? (Source)
3. News stories appeared mentioning that Madonna allegedly bribed a Malawi adoption official, a Mr. Willard Manjolo (see Digital Spy article);
4. Madonna did not even pick up the child herself: she sent a staff member to pick David Banda up from Malawi.
Rather than spend David's first day in Britain with him, Madonna went to the gym for a few hours. (An ex-staff member of hers said she devotes more time to her exercise regimen than she does to parenting the children she already has; see this article from Contact Music.)
That Madonna would, according to those various news sources, seemingly skirt the law, lie, and bribe should be signs to anyone that she is not honest in how she handles adoptions.
(Money that was meant to go towards the Malawi charity Madonna is affiliated with has not been accounted for, by the way: see this story.)
None of that information ever seems to factor into the Madonna sympathizers' opinions, and I rarely, if ever, see any of them metion those details in their articles about Mercy James.
Some of these Madonna defenders, such as the writer of "Madonna Hot Again" (a Caitlin Moran?) wrongly assume that Madonna is representive of all womankind everywhere for all time. She is not.
To criticize Madonna is to criticize one individual who happens to be a woman: it is not to criticize all women.
One wonders why some authors over-identify with Madonna or hold her up as the symbol for every woman on the planet. I am a woman, and Madonna certainly does not speak for me, nor does she represent me.
Huge Ego, Part 2
Madonna
Battled With Rihanna To Wear Disastrous Costume Gala Outfit
The Material Girl decided her much-derided look was worth fighting for...
Madonna and Rihanna reportedly fought over the Louis Vuitton boots the Material Girl wore to the Costume Institute Gala on Sunday.
According to insiders, the Umbrella singer had planned to wear the thigh-high, PVC-look footwear but "but Madonna wanted to wear them, and insisted that nobody else could be seen or photographed in them."
The New York Post's source adds: "Madonna was being so pushy, but Rihanna was fine with it."
Intelligence
Madonna wrote a letter for her ICON fan magazine and sent it to her fans.
I first spotted it on a Madonna fan site here.
This letter contains all sorts of funny mistakes.
I can only guess she must have been loopy from pain killer medications after falling off that horse a couple of weeks ago.
Click on this small image of the letter on the lower
right to view the larger version: 
Here are excerpts from the letter (with errors placed in bold face type):
25 April 2009
Dear Fans,
I have already revealed that I use cinammon toothpaste thanks to the Validator's up close and personal questions.[Under part #1, "Sticky + Sweet- Part 2"]
....So stay tuned and do not believe rumors you might hear about other planets.2) Screenplay about the Duchess of Windsor...
What really interests me is their love story and why he abducted.
I think she meant:
1) cinnamon
2) plans
3) abdicated
Fashion Disaster
On May 4 or 5, Madonna attended the Costume Institute Gala in New York
in a stunningly horrid ensemble (pictured to the left; visit the Vogue
Gallery's "Tacky Fashion" album to view more photos
of this dress. See also: The
Bad Fashion thread at the Discussion Board for more.)
Mercy’s
father [James Kambewa] questions Madonna’s morals
[Regarding dress Madonna wore to event]
Victoria
Beckham, Kate Moss and Madonna in battle of the fashion flops
Madonna
raises eybrows at the Costume Institute Gala
The worst offender appeared to be Madonna, dressed in a garish 80s-inspired ensemble by Louis Vuitton.
The 50-year-old singer walked the red carpet in a navy blue ruched mini dress with a puffed skirt, teamed with thigh-high black boots and jewelled black fingerless gloves.
Her teal coloured hair piece was tied around a top knot, making Madonna look more like a glamorous cleaning lady than the fashion chameleon she usually is.
Madonna
risque on day she appeals Malawian adoption
Is
that really a suitable dress for someone trying to win an adoption case
Madonna?
Did
Madonna out-wacky-chapeau Sarah Jessica Parker?
Madonna
is Reviving the Scrunchie, Beware
About
Madonna's "hat" at the Met Costume Gala
The
Oscars Of Fashion: WTF????????? - Perez Hilton's site
Madonna
Gets Unique at Costume Institute Gala
[Photo caption under Madonna photos:]
Doing the time warp: Madonna is either insane, or has dressed like this as a joke. She's returned to her Eighties roots with exposed bra, lace gloves, fabric in her hair... and the back view's not much better [click here to view back of Madonna's outfit][snip another Madonna in teal dress photo; caption for this one reads:]
This outfit by Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, in contrast to her Eighties look, is a million times the price. Ghastly and undignifiedThis just days after James Kambewa, the man fighting for paternal custody of the little Malawian girl she wants to adopt, criticised the singer for her lewd appearance and lack of morals.
All
that glitters is not gold at fashion gala for New York celebs [criticizes
Madonna's clothing]
Madonna
looks ridiculous at the Costume Institute Gala in New York
Excerpts:
Madge showed up at the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in an outfit that made us question her sanity.
....The outfit was by Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, so despite the hideous look; it still made a dent in Madge's wallet.
It was also a shock to see the mother-of-three baring so much flesh after recent jibes about her lack of morals.
Our
Girl Puts Boot Into Madonna's Fashion Style Sense
Excerpts:
7th May 2009
By Nadine LingeFashion critics couldn’t wait to put the boot in when Madonna stepped out to a fashion bash in kinky footwear.
In fact they [fashion critics] reckon she’s [Madonna is] a shoe-in for worst outfit of the year.
With thigh-high boots, puffball minidress and bizarre Mrs Mop headgear, Madonna grabbed attention for all the wrong reasons at The Metropolitan Museum Of Art’s Costume Institute Gala in New York.
Madonna
Battled With Rihanna To Wear Disastrous Costume Gala Outfit
Baby Stealing
Be sure to scroll way down to a May 2009 update under April 2009 >
Baby Stealing to see the headlines where James Kambewa, Mercy's alleged
father, said that Madonna lacks good morals and should therefore not be
permitted to adopt Mercy James.
Madonna
loses bid to adopt second Malawi child - Vancouver Sun
High Court rejects singer's application because she is not a resident of the country
By Mabvuto Banda, Reuters, April 4, 2009Madonna will not be allowed to adopt a second child from Malawi, a four-year-old girl named Mercy James, the African country's High Court ruled on Friday.
The ruling will please campaigners who say authorities have given the pop star special treatment. Malawi's government, which came under fire after Madonna adopted a 13-month-old Malawian boy, had said on Thursday it would support a second adoption.
Court registrar Ken Manda told reporters the American singer's bid to adopt Mercy had been rejected because she was not a resident of Malawi.
....In her ruling, Judge Esimie Chombo warned against celebrity adoptions because they could lead to child trafficking.
Fury
in Malawi as Madonna says Mercy still lives in poverty
May 3, 2009
Madonna has sparked anger in Malawi by criticising an orphanage in legal papers as she bids to win her battle to adopt a second African child.
....Court documents that will form the basis of the action – seen by The Mail on Sunday – claim that the child cannot be ‘suitably cared for’ in the African country.
....Last night pressure groups fighting to keep Mercy in Malawi attacked the 50-year-old singer’s legal argument, saying Madonna had previously supported the Kondanani orphanage.
....[Said Maxwell Matewere, from the children’s rights group The Eye of the Child:] ‘But it is disappointing to discover that Madonna’s current lifestyle as a divorced woman and single parent, who appears semi-naked on stage and has even been photographed on a cross, and is now consorting with a boyfriend less than half her age, was never described during the original adoption hearing.’
....Madonna’s spokesman yesterday declined to comment on the row.
No
Mercy - Top judge to throw out Madonna's adoption appeal
Madonna's hopes of adopting little Mercy James are set to be finally crushed by a judge tomorrow.
....But yesterday officials at Malawi’s Supreme Court said the country’s top judge, Lovemore Munlo, was certain to dismiss her case when he heads a review panel.
In a further blow, Mercy’s dad, security guard James Kambewa, 24, yesterday met her maternal family in the hope they will back his custody bid.
....“I [James Kambewa] hope that we can unite and fight this in the courts to see that it is so. I am Mercy’s father and should be allowed to see my daughter.”
....James, previously thought to be dead, was tracked down by the Sunday Mirror last month.
He [James, the father of Mercy] always believed Mercy died alongside her mother in childbirth but now dreams of being a proper dad and raising her in his township home.
Last week he applied for custody through Malawi’s Human Rights Commission who will make a submission in court on his behalf.
James, who has yet to meet Mercy, is hopeful the two families can work together to win custody of the girl, who is being raised in an orphanage.
James said: “Everyone was emotional when the two families met but we both want the best for Mercy – and I am sure she should be with us and not Madonna.”
Father
to Madonna: Don't Adopt My Daughter - US Magazine
Girl's
father does not want Madonna to adopt her - AP via Yahoo
Dad
of African girl Madonna wants to adopt says he's never met the child but
can care for her
Biological
father of Mercy, child from Malawi Madonna hopes to adopt, says he wants
to raise her - NY Daily News
Father
of Malawan girl rejects Madonna adoption - CBC
Father
opposes Madonna adoption bid - Press Assoc via Yahoo
Dad
To Madonna: Don't Adopt My Girl - CBS
In "Early Show" World Exclusive, Malawian Man Thought To Be Her Father Explains His Reasons For Opposing The Move
May 2, 2009
The Malawian man thought to be the biological father of a four-year-old girl Madonna hopes to adopt says he's opposed to it.
....In an Early Show world exclusive, James Kambewa tells correspondent Priya David, "I want to take care of her and I'm capable to take care of my baby. ... Mercy, she is a Malawian -- so (I) need her to grow as a Malawian, as well with our culture."
Lucy Chekechiwa, Mercy’s maternal grandmother, says she remains conflicted about the matter, telling David the orphanage has been determined. “I did not want my granddaughter to be adopted,” she says, “but because they have been persistent enough, I have been forced to let my granddaughter go."
Bio-Dad
to Madonna: Don't Have Mercy - E! Online
African
girl's dad doesn't want Madonna adoption
••••• May 6, 2009 Additions •••••
Madonna's
adoption case adjourned
High
Court Puts Off Madonna Appeal
Madonna
adoption ruling postponed indefinitely
Madonna
risque on day she appeals Malawian adoption
May 5, 2009
Yesterday Malawi’s highest court heard arguments on Madonna’s attempt to adopt Mercy James. The case has been adjourned and a date for the next session has not yet been set.
Madonna was not at Monday’s hearing at the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, which, AP says, was held in public after the judges reversed an earlier decision to hold a closed session.
Instead she was seen posing in a design by Louis Vuitton, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala “The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion” in New York.
Now I think she looked fabulous, considering she is 50!
But she is trying to adopt a child from a country with a very conservative dress code.
It is no longer a formal dress code but as this travel guide says “it is well to remember that Malawian are very conventional, even conservative, people.”
Not so sure whether this outfit will help her case in Malawi. Will the judges understand that this is fashion as art, or art as fashion?
Is
that really a suitable dress for someone trying to win an adoption case
Madonna?
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:32 PM on 05th May 2009In the midst of her custody battle with the Malawian High Court, Madonna stepped out last night in an ill-advised outfit at the star-studded Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Ball
The self-proclaimed Material Girl appeared to lack plenty of the aforementioned substance as her Louis Vuitton mini dress and thigh-high boots showed off the tops of her thighs, her muscular arms and plenty of décolletage.
But was that really the outfit for someone who is currently battling a high-profile adoption case?
[Their photo caption for photo linked to above reads:]
Queen of arrogance: Madonna stepped out last night in this bizarre outfit despite being in the midst of an adoption battle with the Malawian authorities.
....Instead, she wore an outfit that breached the limits of vulgarity, and displayed her typically arrogant thinking.
And not only that, in another move which may not help her case, she also chose the high-profile fashion event to début her romance with model Jesus Luz, who at 22 years old is 28 years her junior.
Mercy’s
father [James Kambewa] questions Madonna’s morals
May 6, 2009
The mini-dress and bunny-ear ensemble Madonna unveiled at the Metropolitan Museum Art’s annual Costume Institute Gala earned the queen of pop more than just a top spot on many worst-dressed lists.
It also earned her the ire of James Kambewa, the man who claims to be the father of the Malawian orphan Madonna hopes to adopt.
“I cannot imagine how this woman can want to be the mother of my Mercy,” Kambewa told the Daily Star. “This can’t be a woman of 50. A teenage woman would feel ashamed in that gear.”
According to Kambewa, who has yet to meet his alleged daughter, Madonna’s racy wear revealed as much about her morals as it did her taste in fashion.
“A woman is supposed to be a role model for her daughters,” Kambewa insisted. “What morals can a woman of 50 have, who has no qualms in showing her delicate parts and displaying herself like that in front of her children?”
Madonna's
dressing may cost her Malawian kid adoption bid
••••• May 10, 2009 Additions •••••
Madonna's
Orphanage in "Cash for Kids" Probe
Excerpt:
10 May 2009
Marc BakerMadonna's bid to adopt a baby girl from an African orphanage has been rocked by a cash-for-care scandal at the children's home.
The uncle of a two-year-old told a court in Malawi a couple who want to adopt his niece had offered him money.
It was also claimed Teresa Misomali had been illegally advertised for adoption on the internet while living at the Kondanani Children's Village.
Madonna, 50, is trying to adopt Mercy James, three, from the same orphanage. But James Kambewa - who says he is Mercy's real dad - has vowed to fight the singer's bid.
And he is convinced Teresa's case will help him when judges rule this week on Madonna's plea to adopt Mercy.
Huge Ego, Part 1
This story first appeared under the April 2009 section below.
Madonna:
Whiskey for My Men, 10 Page List of Demands for My Horses
I’ll admit. Madonna flat out scares me. Old people in general freak me out. They are like children…ok from a reasonable distance. So it doesn’t surprise me when the Hamptons did welcome granny and her 10 page list of demands with open arms.
Per Page Six:
“A couple of weekends ago, Madonna, who recently signed a contract for a townhouse on East 81st Street, stayed at the beautiful Wolffer Estate Vineyards in Sagaponack. But our sources report she wasn’t interested in buying the 12,000-square-foot, Tuscan-style villa and 100 acres, which have been on the market since the winery’s well-liked founder, Christian Wolffer, died in a freak boating accident in Brazil on New Year’s Eve — she just wanted to board her horses at the winery’s stables.
Madonna then presented the estate with a 10-page list of demands, according to our source. Among the stipulations were that “no one could be in the riding ring at the same time she was. It was laughable. They turned her down flat.”
Even her horses are the epitome of ego and high maintenance. Those ponies probably have it better than most of us. I bet they get to eat gold and ride other flying ponies while having their hooves done by monks who have taken an oath to Countness Crotchula.
April 2009
Auctions / Collectibles / Fashion
Nobody bidded on a dress Madonna wore in a 1985 music video, ha ha ha!
Bond
Car, Banksy Vandal on Sale; Madonna Dress Unsold
Excerpt:
By Scott Reyburn
'Material Girl’
The strapless dress that Madonna wore in the video for her 1985 hit “Material Girl” failed to sell tonight at an auction in London.
The costume, inspired by the fuchsia strapless number that Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” in the 1953 movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” was expected to fetch up to 80,000 pounds, according to the Fame Bureau, an auction house specializing in rock and pop memorabilia. Bidding stopped at 48,000 pounds.
The pink satin 1950s-style costume was one of five Madonna- related items being sold by Marquee Capital Ltd. The London- based company started in May 2007 has aimed to amass “the world’s largest portfolio of investment-grade Madonna and non- Madonna memorabilia.”
Health / Horse Fall
Madonna
Injured in Horse Tumble - BBC
Madonna
suffers minor injuries in fall from horse - Reuters
Madonna
falls from horse - CNN Intl
Madonna
hurt falling from horse - UPI
Did
Madonna Lie About Horse Fall?
Pap
[Photographer] Calls Madonna's Camp Liars
Madonna
is a fame-seeking, ego-maniac. And a liar, too!
Madonna
Hospitalized Following Horseplay, Blames Paparazzi - E! Online
Pap
[Photographer] says Madonna is a Liar
Cops
Say Madonna's Paparazzi Story Is False
Madonna
Takes a Fall, Blames Someone Else
Madonna
Blames Paps for Tumble from Horse - Washington Post
Madonna
Blames Paparazzi For Horse Fall
Madonna
Blames Paparazzi For Falling Off Horse
Cops
Say Madonna Horse Story Is Bogus
April 20, 2009
Cops who took the report about Madonna falling off a horse over the weekend doubt the singer's story that a paparazzo jumped out of the bushes and spooked the horse.
The cops say no one from Madonna's camp said anything about a photog causing the mishap.
Sgt. Herbert Johnson from the Southampton Village P.D. tells us: "There is no mention of photographers. It's a matter of spin control that went out of control. If they felt there was something else, they would have written 'paparazzi' in the form -- if they felt there was a problem."
Cops
Don't Blame Paps for Madonna Spill
Paparazzo
kicks back in Madonna horse fall row
Cop
Report Tarnishes Madonna's Horse Story
Madonna
fall: Photographers 'not to blame' - from a site called Amateur Photographer
Madonna's
horse story full of holes? - Toronto Star
Madonna
accident claims denied by paparazzo
Cops:
No paparazzi mentioned in Madonna accident report
Pap
Proclaims Innocence in Madonna Horse Accident
Photographer
Says He Wasn't Responsible For Madonna Accident
Photographer
refutes Madonna publicist's stalking claims
Photographer
Says Madonna's Horse Story is Horse Poo
Is
Madonna Horsing Around With The Truth?
Lensman
denies his role in Madonna's riding accident
Madonna
Hospitalized After Fall From Horse In Hamptons - The Insider
Madonna
Released from Hospital After Horse Accident
Madonna
feeling “better” after horseriding fall
Madonna
'Better' After Accident
Religion
Russian
museum wants Madonna to guarantee decency during concert
The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, located on the square where Madonna is to sing during her summer Sweet and Sticky tour, has demanded that the artist ruled out any blasphemous acts from her show.
“We want guarantees that there will be no blasphemy at Dvortsovaya Square,” RIA Novosti quoted Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky as saying Wednesday.
....The city authorities earlier called Madonna's concert in the city a disaster and sought to ban the show.
Charity / Donations
Will Roger Friedman of FOX news discover that all the money Madonna "vowed,"
"promised," and "pledged" to donate to Italian earthquake
victims never actually reached them?
It is my opinion that the pledge to help Italian earthquake victims is suspicious: it's taking place around the same time that Madonna is having her lawyers appeal the judge's decision over her attempt at adopting a girl in Malawi. I think she pledged this money just to look good, to impress the judge in Malawi.
If Madonna is supposedly such a "savvy business woman," why did she pledge funds to the wrong city?
Madonna
Sends Earthquake Aid to Wrong Italian City?
Unfortunately, Madonna has donated her money to a town that was not actually in the quake zone.
....It’s always difficult to decide whether celebrities should be commended for doing good deeds, or whether they’re only being generous in return for good publicity.
In this case, it will be interesting to see whether Madonna’s good deed will help her win favor with the courts in Malawi which denied her bid to adopt Mercy James last week.
Madonna
saves Pacento, Italy - from what?
Madonna donates £340,000 in the aftermath of the Aquila earthquake. Pity Pacento is one of the few places in the region that didn't need help, says Oliver Marre
Poor Madonna only seems to be in the news when things are going wrong. First, looking ludicrous, strapped to a cross or whatever. Then a big, messy divorce. And most recently, a failed bid to take another Malawian child.
So it seems about time to note a very good thing connected to her. I am not thinking only about the £340,000 she donated to her grandmother's hometown in Italy, Pacento in Abruzzo, but also of the fact that Pacento is one of the few towns in the region which has not been devastated by the Aquila earthquake.
Mayor:
Madonna promises $500,000 for quake relief
Excerpt:
But Rosa Napoli, 90, was less than approving. "She [Madonna the pop singer] is a woman that men like. She is not the Madonna that is worshipped in church," Napoli said as she left a small church where she attended an evening Mass.
Scroll down to the "Charity" section under March 2009 to see the "Madonna's Missing Millions" story, or click here to view it
Dark
Day for Madonna's Ray of Light Foundation
Excerpts:
by Gina Serpe
It's just not shaping up to be Madonna's day.
In the wake of a judge's assurances that her heart—if not her residency—was in the right place in a rejected bid to adopt a second Malawi child comes word that the Queen of Pop's Ray of Light Foundation has been deemed "delinquent" by the state of California.
The foundation, created in 1998, had a pristine record for more than a decade before being cited by the attorney general's office.
.... Tax forms the foundation most recently filed with the IRS—which grabbed headlines last year for its curious omission of selected donor charities—have been removed from GuideStar, the publicly accessed website that includes all registered foundations.
The 990 forms first came to light late last year and contained several embarrassing revelations, including that Madonna's foundation sent a whopping zero dollars to her Raising Malawi charity and donated no funds whatsoever to any charities working with or in the impoverished nation.
Huge Ego
Madonna's rep is denying this story (see this page for the denial).
April 30, 2009 --
Madonna is dead set on the Hamptons this summer -- but Hamptonites aren't exactly thrilled with her.
A couple of weekends ago, Madonna, who recently signed a contract for a townhouse on East 81st Street, stayed at the beautiful Wolffer Estate Vineyards in Sagaponack.
But our sources report she wasn't interested in buying the 12,000-square-foot, Tuscan-style villa and 100 acres, which have been on the market since the winery's well-liked founder, Christian Wolffer, died in a freak boating accident in Brazil on New Year's Eve -- she just wanted to board her horses at the winery's stables.
Madonna then presented the estate with a 10-page list of demands, according to our source. Among the stipulations were that "no one could be in the riding ring at the same time she was. It was laughable. They turned her down flat."
Slams and Put Downs
French
And Saunders slam Madonna
April 27, 2009
Comedy duo French and Saunders have taken a dig at Madonna for refusing to appear on their show.
Fresh from receiving their Bafta Fellowship Award to honour their 30 year partnership, the pair revealed backstage that Madonna was the only star who never agreed to feature in one of their sketches.
"It's her loss, that's the way we've looked at it," said French.
From a Britney Spears concert review:
The
Riff: Britney's toxic wasted club
By Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune
Last update: April 12, 2009.... Most of the legions of young women at the show were old enough to smoke, but too young to know Madonna as anything other than that crazy old lady who adopts babies.
Bill O'Reilly named Madonna a Pin Head in his "Pin Head or Patriot" segment of his show a night or two ago (on April 2, 2009):
Bill
O'Reilly on Madonna: Pin Head or Patriot?
Pinhead front: our pal Madonna in Africa trying to adopt another [child]--[she's] already adopted one African child and now seeks to get another.
But she's getting criticism for her wardrobe. Reports say her Chanel track suit cost about 2800 hundred dollars [$2,800] [click here to read track suit story]- that would be a year's salary for many Africans.
Health
Because she did not die as a result of this accident, and because she did not get seriously injured (say, permanently paralyzed or something), I feel comfortable laughing at the following story:
Madonna has injured herself after "flying off" a treadmill in Malawi.
The 50-year-old singer twisted her ankle yesterday when she fell off the running machine, which she had flown to Malawi to keep her fit while waiting trying to adopt a second African child.
A worker at the Kumbali Lodge Hotel - where the star and her children Lourdes (12) Rocco (8) and three-year-old David are staying - said: "There was a bang and she came suddenly flying off the back of the running machine. She looked hurt."
Baby Stealing
The attempt at kidnapping a second African kid, Chifundu James (whose
name translates as "Mercy"), has failed!
••• There are many updates in this section; you'll have to scroll down quite a way to see them all •••
Malawi
court rejects Madonna's adoption request
Judge
tells Madonna adoption rules can't be bent to suit
Excerpts:
04 April 2009
By CLAIRE SMITH and JENNY HAWORTH....Madonna was told she would not be allowed to take Chifundu James – whose name translates as Mercy – out of the southern African country. The judge expressed fears it could set a precedent for child trafficking if the pop star was allowed to adopt the little girl.
Judge Esme Chondo said that allowing the 50-year-old to adopt the girl could encourage illegal trafficking of other children in Malawi, where there are an estimated one million orphans.
Following a closed hearing the court released a judgment that said: "Put simply courts do make law by the process of precedence and Miss Madonna may not be the only international person interested in adopting the so-called poor children of Malawi."
"By removing the safeguard that is supposed to protect our children, the courts by their pronouncements could actually facilitate trafficking of children by some unscrupulous individuals," it read. "Anyone could come and quickly arrange an adoption that might have grave consequences on the children that the law seeks to protect.
"Having considered this I must decline to grant the application for the adoption of the infant CJ."
Court registrar Ken Manda told reporters the application to adopt the girl had been rejected because the singer was not a resident of Malawi.
There had been complaints by civil rights lawyers in Malawi that Madonna was trying to 'fast-track' the adoption process and was contravening a rule that a person wishing to adopt a child in the country must have been resident there for between 18 and 24 months.
[snip Madona's pathetic defense of her own view point]
....However, Anna Feuchtwang, chief executive of children's charity EveryChild, welcomed the judgment.
She said: "High-profile adoptions send out the wrong message. More emphasis needs to be placed on the valuable work being done to support vulnerable families to stay together.
"This may be less glamorous than international adoption by pop stars but it is the only viable solution to provide safe and secure homes for all of Africa's children."
A spokesman for development agency Plan said: "Whisking a single child off to a fairy-tale lifestyle in Hollywood is not something we condone. We endorse keeping children within their community wherever possible, where there is often extended family nearby."
He added: "We believe a better way for [Madonna] to help would be to act as a champion of change and use her celebrity status to influence government and businesses to ensure a better life for the country's children. That way all Malawi's children would benefit."
-More links about Madonna's second adoption attempt having failed are below these editorials and news stories:
Madonna
deserves jeers not cheers for her irrational exuberance
Here's a very long excerpt from the above link:
by Tolu Olorunda | Posted April 1, 2009 8:53 AM
"I've never been treated more disrespectfully as a woman than by the Black men that I've dated."
-- Madonna, Spin Magazine, 1996.
"Once I read an interview with Madonna where she talked about her envy of black culture, where she stated that she wanted to be black as a child. It is a sign of white privilege to be able to "see" blackness and black culture from a standpoint where only the rich culture of opposition black people have created in resistance marks and defines us...
Those Madonna fans who are determined to see her as politically progressive might ask themselves why it is she completely endorses those racist/sexist/classist stereotypes that almost always attempt to portray marginalized groups as "defective."
-- bell hooks, "Madonna: Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister?"
It's hard to disagree with Earl Ofari Hutchinson, but on this count I'm forced to. As one who favors his political insight, it's a thrill to have him put words together on the brouhaha concerning Madonna's decision to adopt another Malawi orphan ("Madonna deserves cheers not jeers for casting light on Africa's orphan misery," The Daily Voice).
Bro. Hutchinson is convinced that the Human Rights Consultative Committee is simply using Madonna as a scapegoat, in its complaints over her refusal to follow proper protocol, in the adoption process. I respectfully disagree.
And it is imperative that I put my contention in proper context, before explaining it.
When I heard about the Madonna incident, the first thoughts to graze the inner walls of my intellect was how little had changed, since her countless questionable remarks on Blackness, in the '90s. Black people, for her [for Madonna], seem to be nothing but objects in demand of pity and tolerance--white liberalism.
Hollywood elites have been most vicious in supporting and perpetuating this feed the children sensibility--a notion built on the premise that all that is needed to restore Africa (and Africans) to its former glory is the kindness of "good" white people, and the mercies of their Almighty Dollars.
....Another current in the Madonna firestorm is the issue of a cultural or racial gap between her and the potential adoptee.
....Most of us are familiar with stories told by relatives, friends, colleagues, or even, siblings, that reveal some sad truths embedded in the racial politics of foster homes.
Tales of White parents who abuse, and humiliate their Black adopted children are not rare.
Those who don't suffer abuse might not necessarily benefit, as they, often, come to lose their hybrid--Black--identity, and, progressively, begin to emulate the Eurocentric ideals found dominant in their homes.
Last I checked, Madonna hasn't exactly held Black life, culture, aesthetic, and heritage to the highest standard. That's not good news.
....True as it may be, the old saying that charity ain't justice rings louder than ever.
Shelling-out pocket-change in African countries begins to lose its moral flavor, when a blatant disregard for those countries' sovereign laws and customs is elegantly displayed.
To put it bluntly, it's hard to accept her philanthropic services as noble, when Madonna has revealed herself as another pompous, obnoxious European, who finds no importance in heeding the sacrosanct traditions of the country she seeks to adopt a child from. Doing this, I'm afraid, only yields more credibility to the indigenous organizations arguing against her case.
I hate to say it, but there are better, and more constructive, ways for Madonna to channel her excessive popularity and prowess, than the adoption of colored children. It borderlines on obsession, after a while (Angelina Jolie-esque?).
It becomes less appreciated, and more suspicious, when one can comfortably overlook the financial oppression Black, and other indigenous, people in America are afflicted by, and would rather genuflect to countries far beyond one's reach, to "save" a child's life. If charity begins at home, justice should, as well.
To make it plain: Madonna's Like a Virgin disposition fails to impress me.
Madonna’s
Adoption Bid Is Denied in Malawi
Judge
in Malawi denies Madonna adoption
Malawi
court rejects Madonna bid to adopt second child - The Guardian
There's
no Mercy for Madonna as court blocks adoption - The Independent
Madonna's
Adoption Bid Rejected In Malawi - MTV.com
Malawi
Court Bars New Madonna Adoption
Malawi
Court Denies Mercy to Madonna; Singer Files Appeal - E! Online
Madonna's
adoption request thwarted - UPI
Madonna
fails in second Malawi adoption bid - NME
Madonna
Fails in Bid to Adopt Second Malawian Child, AP Reports
Madonna
criticised on adoption bid
April 1, 2009 -
Madonna has been accused of using her fame to bully her way into adopting another Malawian child.
A coalition of rights workers issued a statement criticising the singer's attempt as a court decided it would rule on Friday whether to grant it.
"We feel Madonna is behaving like a bully," said Undule Mwakusungura, chairman of the country's Human Rights Consultative Committee.
"She has the money and the status to use her profile to manipulate, to fast-track the process."
The 50-year-old pop star spent about an hour in court in the Malawi capital of Lilongwe applying to be the legal guardian of four-year-old Chifundo James, whose name means "Mercy" in a local language.
The girl's father is believed to be alive but no other details were available.
....Children's advocacy groups have accused Madonna of wielding her wealth and influence to circumvent a Malawian law requiring an 18- to 24-month assessment period before adoption.
Children
best raised in their own environment, charity says - CNN
MALAWI:
Madonna, "The child trafficker"
Excerpts:
LILONGWE, 1 April 2009 (IRIN) ....The Malawi Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), an umbrella body of local human rights NGOs, is arguing that in Madonna's case, wealth and fame have applied a different yardstick for adoption, while the laws governing the issue remain as opaque as they were in 2006.
"In absence of clear laws and procedures, this process of adoption amounts to nothing but child trafficking," HRCC's national coordinator, Mavuto Bamusi, told IRIN.
Malawian law prohibits non-nationals from adopting a local child unless they have been resident in the country for at least 18 months.
"She [Madonna] must follow procedure. She is simply using her profile and money to manipulate the process. We should not be seen to be legalizing child trafficking," Bamusi said.
....Chimwemwe Chisi, a father of two living in Malawi's second city, Blantyre, told IRIN that foreigners jet in and break the laws in the name of trying to help the orphaned and the poor.
"I am not being indifferent, but government should not be applying double standards in this case. How special is Madonna that she bends the rules and gets away with it? Just like anyone else, she must follow the laid-down procedure," he said.
Clearly, Madonna is not taking David Banda to visit his biological father enough if he cannot and does not even recognize who the man is:
Madonna's
son [David Banda] didn't recognise dad
Madonna's three-year-old adopted son doesn't recognise his biological father.
David - who has been living with Madonna since 2006 - was reunited with his dad Yohane Banda in Malawi on Monday and asked: "Who are you?"
Yohane was also left shocked after learning they would need an interpreter to communicate because David has forgotten his native tongue.
He said: "He asked me in English who I was and what I do. When I told him, 'I am your daddy,' he looked surprised.
"We spent three hours together. He played with my nose and although he did not know who I was he asked me lots of questions.
"David is quite chatty and intelligent. He asked whether I ride horses but I told him horses are for the rich. He asked me why I am poor."
••••• April 7, 2009 Additions •••••
Father
of Madonna Orphan [Mercy] Surfaces, Wants to Support Child
Excerpt:
First, the long-missing father of 3-year-old Mercy James, the child Madonna would like to make her own, has surfaced – and he claims he wants to be a part of his daughter's life.
The young man, James Kambewa, tells PEOPLE he didn't even know his daughter was alive until her name surfaced in the Madonna adoption case. Now a security guard, Kambewa says he learned the girl's mother, 15-year-old Mwandida Maunde, had died – and assumed their child was dead too.
'Willing to Support Her'
"Now that I know [Chifundo, also known as Mercy] is alive I am willing to support her," Kambewa says. He and Maunde were both high school students when they conceived the child. "Her parents were furious that I had messed up their daughter. They caused hell for me so I left town," says Kambewa.
Hooray
for the Malawians Who Stood Up To Madonna
How shaming that it takes a poor country in Africa to show it's still possible to put ethics before wealth
By Catherine Bennett
Apr 5 2009....Three years ago, a similar court waived the rules, allowing her to adopt her first child from Malawi, David.
He is now three and unable to communicate with his biological father, with whom it had been intended he should keep in touch.
At their first reunion, of which pictures were distributed to the media, the boy's first words: "Who are you?" were spoken through a translator.
Madonna's commitment to "an ongoing relationship with David's Malawian roots" has not, her critics noticed, extended to employing a nanny who could speak to him in the language spoken by his birth family and prospective sister.
It is not clear what deterred the court from waiving the rules on this occasion.
Even if David had been able to tell his father, in Chichewa, that "kabbalah explains that reincarnation is an integral part of understanding our universe", it might not have mollified critics who pointed out that Chifundo, like David, has living family members. With a little help, they could have raised the girl within Malawi.
Save the Children was more bothered by a personal selection process which appears to be based on surveying the contents of orphanages funded by Raising Malawi, a charity Madonna co-founded with senior members of the kabbalah enterprise. "What Madonna is doing is verging on a puppy parade," said a spokesman. "People like her are looking for the most beautiful child."
Even those who agree, on principle, that a child such as Chifundo deserves better than an orphanage have objected that a 50-year-old, acrimoniously divorced, single mother of three with issues on ageing, who is often absent and is sustained by a spiritual organisation that is held in contempt by a large number of people, would be unlikely, in normal circumstances, to have her adoption approved.
In Britain, after all, you can be ruled out for being too fat, too sad or too rich.
Now, with Malawian justice done, you wonder about the effect on four-year-old Chifundo, of her temporary membership of the Madonna entourage.
With luck, neither she nor her almost-brother David will remember much.
As for Madonna, for whom this may be the first significant snub since she was a child, we can entrust her to the kabbalistic masters:
"Any pain, disappointment or chaos that exists in our lives is not because this is how life is meant to be, but only because we have not yet finished the work that brought us here."Even so, you wonder if Madonna will ever regret wearing that first adoption outfit, a simple Chanel sweatpant affair with tastefully muted logo, priced by tracksuit experts at £2,000.
Or question her decision to travel in a Gulfstream jet which carried not only her three children and other pre-adoption essentials, but her personal trainer, Josh.
Either way, the trip might have been designed to illustrate Samuel Johnson's remark to the effect that "the insolence of wealth will creep out".
If this casual ostentation did not tell against her, perhaps it should have done.
Leave aside the particular case of Chifundo James: how seriously can the public take Madonna's exhortations to give generously for school uniforms, books and the provision of kabbalistic guidance at her various institutions when this single trip probably burned up enough money for another academy?
She must know, from previous visits, roughly how many school dresses you can buy in Malawi or, even, how many people's eyesight might be restored for the combined cost of her adoption-friendly leisurewear, a week's worth of personal trainer and a whole-entourage outing to Africa by private jet.
In The Life You Can Save, his new book on the moral imperative to give, Peter Singer puts the cost of saving a life at somewhere between $200 and the price of Madonna's tracksuit.
Singer accepts that wealthy people have every right to spend their money on themselves.
"We might say that the rich have the right to spend their money on lavish parties, Patek Philippe watches, private jets, luxury yachts and space travel or, for that matter, to flush wads of it down the toilet." The rest of us may also choose to spend, more modestly, on luxuries. "But we could still think," writes Singer, "that to choose to do these things rather than use the money to save human lives is wrong, shows a deplorable lack of empathy and means you are not a good person."
In reality, the obscene spending of the super-rich is customarily received with indifference or admiration. Hardly anyone expects the world's Rooneys, Deripaskas, Cowells, even Goodwins, to spend their preposterous earnings on anything but cars, holidays, houses and other varieties of shameless tat.
Relative to this, as Singer points out, Madonna's doing well, even if Raising Malawi consumes an unspecified fraction of her £300m fortune and doubles as a teaching vehicle for kabbalah.com.
(Funds have been spent, for instance, flying teachers to the US to train them in techniques that will help pupils in Malawi to recognise their "inner opponent".)
From an African perspective, it looks a bit different.
Though western criticism focused last week on Madonna's selection of Chifundo out of all the world's deserving orphans, the Malawi-based Human Rights Consultative Committee chose to concentrate, with a lack of gratitude that must have startled their kabbalistic donors, on the visiting philanthropist's faith in money to get what she wants.
The committee's national co-ordinator, Mavuto Bamusi, described Madonna as "a bully":
"She has money, she has status, she is using her profile to manipulate the procedures."Of course, Madonna has just as much right to spend her money on jets, Chanel tracksuits and a fourth child as she does on anything else. No doubt the fortunate infant, when it is brought home, will want for nothing.
But we can still look at Madonna's humanitarian circus and marvel at how little is expected, ethically and materially, of the charitable mega-rich. Except, as of last week, in Malawi.
Posted on April 4th, 2009
by Nancy Reyes in African NewsAdoption is about childless couples getting children, right?
Wrong.
Adoption is about a child without a family getting a stable, permenant family to care for him or her.
It’s better for a rich person to adopt a child than to let them live in poverty, right?
Not always.
The “cure” for poverty is…money, not adoption. In the case of poor children, often the extended family takes them in, despite the financial hardship, to raise.
Another belief is that a stable, rich, middle class home is better for kids than keeping them with poor relatives, such as elderly grandmothers or aunts.
Wrong again.
Kids need roots,and keeping in touch with family is important.
Some adopted children, who know they have relatives, but are taken in by strangers, they often start thinking they are “no good” or that the “evil” mother “stole” them from their family.
A friend of mine went through hell when her kid became a teenager started acting out because his only memory of his father was saying goodbye to the man at the airport. In this case, the boy’s mother was dead, and his beloved father had placed him for adoption when he developed terminal cancer. But children don’t understand such things…
Which brings up another point: It is best to keep the children in the same culture, race, and religion.
All of these are again part of a child’s roots.
There was a minor scandal in the US after the TV show “Different Strokes” came out. The show inspired many couples to adopt “cute” black kids. Black social workers intervened. Often these kids had families or close family friends who were willing to take them in, but the white social workers turned them down for being single, or not having enough bedrooms.
A similar change in adoption policies of Native American children was implemented by most tribal councils.
As a result, most adoption agencies stopped inter-racial placement, except for hard to place children.
So does that mean that I oppose adoptions, or oppose adoptions from other cultures?
No, because I did adopt two sons from overseas. But my sons were given to me because keeping them together was more important for the boys, and older, school aged children are hard to place.
It helped that I spoke Spanish and had lived overseas, and was Catholic (my older son insisted on a Catholic home).
But in adoption, the first option should be family members. Programs that help fund the child’s expenses often allow these children to be cared for at home.
The second option is adoption by a local family, so that the child stays near his roots.
The third option is adoption in a stable two parent family from a different culture, including overseas placement, especially for infants and small children who do best in a family environment.
Option number four is local foster families: Many third world countries have group homes with trained parents to raise these children.
Option number five is adoption by a single parent. This includes gay adoption and adoption by divorced persons (in countries that allow this option), but the parent has to be checked for stability and the possibility of marriage with a person who would not accept the child.
Option number six is an institution such as an orphanage. These give good “care” but not the personal love needed by children to thrive, and is only an option because option number seven is having the child live on the streets supporting himself by odd jobs, including petty crime.
Most street kids–and in many countries, many children in orphanages– are not “orphans” but runaways or abandoned by families, or who fled abuse in their homes, and who prefer life on the street to a bad home situation.
In the Philippines alone, there are a million and a half street kids.
It should, however, be noted that in poor countries, often parents place children in orphanages as a temporary placement when food is lacking.
For example, in Africa, baby formula is expensive, and cows to milk rare. So if a mom dies, either a relative nurses the baby, or you place it in an orphanage, or it dies.
One major scandal was that Madonna’s first child had a family who placed him for such care, but was adopted away by her. Never mind that he had a family.
Madonna’s defenders saw the orphanage placement as “not wanting the child” when the reality was that the child would have died without placement. Similarly, her defenders criticized the father’s quick remarriage, when poverty means that an unmarried father has no way to care for even his older children.
The first adoption by Madonna became a scandal: it had all the appearances of “rich lady” adopts “poor black child” from loving family.
So it is no wonder that this time around, the courts turned her down.
Finally, most countries want their children adopted into stable families: few countries would allow the adoption by a recently divorced single mother.
This isn’t to say that a single or divorced mom can’t adopt and raise a child, but that most countries would insist a waiting period after a divorce before adoption…especially for a mom who has had multiple marriages and whose sexual antics on stage would make many conservative Africans blush.
Another problem is age: Madonna is 50, and many adoption agencies (not Malawi but other countries) will not place a very young child with a parent more than 40 or 45 years.
So what is the alternative?
Well, with a fraction of her airline ticket, she could support an orphan with a local family for a year.
The kid won’t wear designer clothing and have his or her own personal nanny, but he will be loved and cared for.
And Madonna?
Sorry, I just don’t think that adopting matched black kids is a nice way to get publicity.
————————–
Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines. She has two adopted boys from Colombia, now adults.
Small
Mercy that Madonna's adoption plan failed
Apr 5 2009 by Sally Bailey, Wales On Sunday
Now, I am not a huge fan of Madonna.
I interviewed her once and she was so rude she made me cry, so I suppose I’m least disposed to give her a good press.
But her latest bid to adopt another child from Malawi has left me cold.
Yes, she was trying to adopt a child and, yes, it would be a wonderful thing to do, to bring up an adopted child in your own family, changing their life.
There is, I suppose, little doubt Mercy would have benefited from growing up with the “Grandmother of Pop”.
She would have had a good education and not have wanted for anything financially.
But love and time is what children want and need.
Now I’m not suggesting that Madge wouldn’t have given her love, but how much actual time would she have to give to these children in between her global career and her obsessive fitness regime?
There was also the issue of little Mercy’s extended family, who were clearly distraught about the adoption application, and even went so far as to say they felt their “adorable little girl” is being stolen from them”.
After hearing that who would possibly want to pursue the adoption?
Madonna also has a three-year-old Malawian boy called David, and promised she would keep him in contact with his family. But David has only just seen his father again for the first time this week and he didn’t even know who he was.
I wanted to feel that Madge would have put Mercy first, but I can only breathe a sigh of relief at Judge Esmie Chondo’s decision to reject the pop star’s application.
Court
right to prevent Madonna's African adoption
....In a court hearing on Friday, her request was denied because of concerns that facilitating international adoption may open the door to child trafficking.
Madge has appealed. Nevertheless, I applaud the court's wisdom.
To recap, Madge's eldest is Lourdes, offspring of a coupling with her personal trainer (that's some powerful ab crunching).
Then there's Rocco, Madonna's son with ex-hubby Guy Ritchie, who will be picking his boy up from school by private jet from now on.
Third came David Banda, 3 -- a souvenir from an orphanage in Malawi. Sadly for Madge, it seems the stocktake sale ended there.
You'd think it's Madonna's own business how she acquires her children, but much controversy has surrounded this attempted adoption and that of David Banda's, for the same reason -- there's something fishy about the whole thing.
.... But we're talking about adoption of orphans, as in children who have no living relatives. Not children who are placed in care facilities out of financial desperation.
David's father is still alive. Mercy has relatives to care for her, if they were financially able. Wouldn't it be far preferable for someone to assist them in that, rather than taking Mercy miles away from her home and culture? Someone like a filthy rich, leather-faced, albeit enviably fit, Queen of Pop?
....And certainly don't go jumping queues in front of other less famous applicants who have spent longer on waiting lists.
Celebrities already get a better deal with the Hermes Birkin Tangerine Crocodile Handbag. Until they start handing out infants in the Oscars goodie bag, can we keep adoption a level playing field?
You can't argue with the difference in quality of life for David. But I'm not even sure a life in Madonna's household is a healthy one.
To grow up in the paparazzi spotlight, constantly surrounded by security, raised by butlers, cooks and nannies, to be "prioritised" below their mother's three-hour workout each day, to subsist on tasteless macro-biotic organic food and have their indigenous culture replaced by crazy red-string wearing Kabbalahists.
Surely that's child abuse.
Outrage
at Madonna's Malawi adoption attempt
By Tom Parry
on Apr 6, 09Madonna's visit to Malawi under the auspices of taking home a sister for little David Banda stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy.
The notion that one of the world's most recognised celebrities can cherry-pick the cutest toddler at an orphanage and then automatically adopt rightly appalls couples who struggle for years for the privilege of bringing a child into their family home.
Now Guardian journalist Marina Hyde has written a book on the "hypocrisy" of celebrities who whisk their entourage off to the developing world before scurrying back to promoting their latest blockbuster movie or world tour.
On Radio 4's Start The Week she railed against the absurdity of actress Sharon Stone commenting she would kiss anyone in the Middle East to bring peace to the region while sharing a press conference with Shimon Peres.
Her book Celebrity: How Entertainers Took Over The World And Why We Need An Exit Strategy seems an appropriate riposte to the blanket sympathetic coverage stars sometimes get for their ego trips to poverty-stricken lands.
by JIM PAYETTE
April 7, 2009Ottawa -- Madonna is not being denied the opportunity to adopt a Malawian child (A Malawian Moment - letters, April 6).
She is being denied the opportunity to circumvent the due process to which everyone who is not a megarich Western pop star must submit in order to take charge of another human life.
It is this process that ensures pedophiles and child slavers do not loot the developing world's orphanages.
Congratulations to Malawi for not being blinded by the glitter.
••••• April 15, 2009 Additions •••••
Madonna's
Ex-cook Blasts Adoption Bid
MADONNA's bid to adopt a second child from Malawi has been blasted by her former cook, who accuses the superstar of ignoring the three children she already has.
....But Eric Ienco, who once worked for Madonna as her cook and house manager, claims the 50-year-old star should spend more time with her three kids Lourdes, 12, Rocco, eight and adopted three-year-old David, instead of dedicating all her spare time to keeping fit.
...."It's a puzzle why she wants to adopt again. She's hardly ever with her children. She's got two full-time nannies and one part-time nanny. So why adopt a kid when somebody else is raising them?
"She gets up and has a coffee, then she does two hours of yoga. Then there's two hours of pilates and exercise. That's six days a week. After that she deals with her email, her calls and the rest of her business. And after that, she spends maybe half an hour with the kids.
"Madonna puts herself before the kids. When she adopted little David, he arrived at her home from Africa, and three hours later, she left to do pilates. Wouldn't you think she'd want to spend the entire day with her new son?"
Madonna's
Adoption Quest: Mission of Mercy or Latest Publicity Stunt?
Excerpts:
by Pam Meister
April 2009...But if her final goal is, as she says, to give David and Mercy the tools they need to “one day return to Malawi and help the people of their country,” why doesn’t she just stick with the school she is planning on building?
Or perhaps invest in the local economy, providing jobs for parents who are unable to adequately care for their wn children?
Wouldn’t that go further than holding what amounts to a kind of lottery and then whisking the lucky winners away to a fantasyland of luxury?
Forgive my cynicism, but it seems to me that like many celebrities, Madonna’s actions are more about burnishing her image as a progressive, caring person than helping the children of Malawi.
“See, I’m not one of those people with lots of money who’s selfish! I’m doing something good!” Perhaps I’m wrong, but adopting these two children isn’t going to do much for the plight of the others left behind.
....Funny too, when you think of it, that when little David first arrived in London, he was accompanied not by his adoptive mother, but by her aides.
What, could she not find the time in her hectic schedule to accompany her new son to his new home? It reminded me of ordering from a catalog and having it delivered right to your door. No muss, no fuss.
On a related note, Christian Toto wonders if Madonna’s daughter Lourdes is picking up on Mom’s narcissistic qualities:
She [Madonna] once told “Today” staffers Lourdes tends to “walk into a room and demand that everyone pay attention to her.”
Who knows where she picked up that attitude from?
Indeed. And what screams “pay attention to me” more than a couple of cute little kiddies from a poor African nation in the care of a pop music icon?....Madonna sees the public relations value in adopting ethnic children from impoverished countries.
The queen of reinvention, Madonna once again seeks to remake herself - this time as the doting mother with a gaggle of international children (now sans husband, since she and Guy Ritchie divorced late last year).
Like I said, forgive my cynicism. I expect not everyone will agree with me and some will say I’m being overly critical of such a selfless gesture.
....But considering all of Madonna’s colorful past, it’s hard to believe this isn’t just the latest in a long line of publicity stunts. I just hope the children make it through unscathed.
Mercy
James’ ‘dad’ doesn’t want Madonna to be her mum
Madonna’s plans of adopting Mercy James dealt another blow after the Malawian child’s “father” came forward and insisted that he was looking forward to being part of her life.
James Kambewa, 24, who fled in disgrace after Mercy’s mother Mwandida, who was a 15-year-old schoolgirl at the time, fell pregnant, told The Mirror: “She is my daughter and I want her to live with me.”
Mwandida died eight days after giving birth. James has never been seen in the family’s home village of Thwonde in southern Malawi since the outcry.
In fact Malawi authorities had always believed that Mercy was an orphan and had failed to find her father.
Now, James is ready to prove he is the biological dad by taking a DNA test - and is desperate to meet his daughter for the first time.
James told in an interview how he was made to believe Mercy had died along with her mother during childbirth.
Security guard James, 24, said: “Discovering my daughter is alive is a miracle. Now I call on all my countrymen to help me have my child. I will take a DNA test and appear in court to prove Mercy is my child. I am willing to do whatever it takes.”
He added: “I bear no grudge against Madonna. But I am Mercy’s father and I want her to stay with me. God will take care of us.”
Following the revelation, Madonna’s hopes of adopting the child are in tatters.
The 50-year-old singer was planning to appeal last week’s shock decision by Malawian judge Esme Chombo to block her adoption of Mercy.
The adoption application was dismissed on the grounds that prospective parents must be resident in Malawi for 18 to 24 months before adopting.
Madonna
Whines to Malawi Newspaper
According to some sources, Madonna instructed the orphanage to hide Mercy James from her biological father:
Madonna's
Mercy in hiding as furious family fight to keep father [Kambewa] away
By Barbara Jones
11th April 2009Mercy James, the four-year-old girl from Malawi who Madonna is hoping to adopt, has gone into hiding on the singer’s orders after the girl’s father [Kambewa] came forward, saying he wanted them to be reunited.
Staff at the Kondanani children’s home, where Mercy has been living, said Madonna had told them to shield the child from James Kambewa, who is believed to have spent the past week attempting a reunion with his daughter.
....Kambewa [Mercy's alleged father] is now living in Blantyre, the country’s second-largest town, where he works as a night watchman. His paternity claim has been attacked by representatives for Madonna.
Madonna
Adoption Denial Appealed...Guess She Has To Offer More Bribe Money
Madonna recently released an artistic, sepia-toned photographic portrait of herself holding Mercy James to the media: I call this a shameless ploy to gain sympathy, using a baby as a prop.
I'm not the only one who thinks it's nothing but propaganda:
The
Power of Sepia - an Expert's Take on That Madonna Image
Martin Parr: Choosing sepia is all to do with trying to make the image look romantic and idealistic. It's sort of a soft version of propaganda
Madonna has released an image of herself holding Mercy, the Malawian baby she hopes to adopt. It's in sepia.
Why?
Choosing sepia is all to do with trying to make the image look romantic and idealistic. It's sort of a soft version of propaganda. Remember when the colour supplements used to run black-and-white pictures of famine and hardship?
Some still do.
They do that because they want to make it look more authentic. But it's a fabrication. You can't shoot in sepia, so converting into black and white and then into brown makes everything feel less real.
Madonna is a clever person and this image is all part of a rigorous attempt to persuade the Malawian courts that her adoption should be allowed to go ahead.
As well as the photo being sepia, there appears to be a subtle soft pink hue on Madonna herself. I guess this is the color of reassuring, concerned maternity.
You can imagine Madonna and her team thinking this through in the same way an advertising campaign is orchestrated.
....Sepia in particular tends to make everything look a bit romantic and almost sentimental, hence the fact that it remains such a popular choice for wedding photographs.
Madonna
launches PR campaign to salvage adoption of baby girl from Malawi
Excerpts:
April 15, 2009
By Richard Simpson[snip sepia tone photo of Madonna with baby]
[the photo's caption on the page reads:]
PR bid ... Madonna holds the young girl named Mercy, whom she hopes to adopt. Picture: ReutersIt could be a still from a classic Hollywood movie: A dewy-eyed white woman holds a sleeping black child warmly to her breast.
Her caring motherly character positively oozes from the photograph, which is lent further drama with its sepia tone.
The image is part of a carefully orchestrated PR campaign that pop star Madonna, 50, hopes will win over those who are stopping her adopting a second child from Malawi.
Days after the singer's adoption of Mercy James was rejected by authorities, she mounted a charm offensive to accompany her appeal against the decision.
The photo, released to media outlets around the world, is clearly designed to present Madonna the matriarch. It was taken during her recent trip to the African country and seems to have been airbrushed to make the pop star appear angelic, blemish-free and young.
The child she is holding is Mercy, the little girl she wants to adopt as a sister for her other Malawian child, David Banda.
Madonna
Releases New Photo of Mercy
(The following material was first published in April 2009, which is why it's listed here rather than under May 2009.)
Mercy
dad: 'Madonna lacks good morals' - Digital Spy
Madonna
criticised by the biological father of the girl she wants to adopt
'Naked'
Madonna can't have Mercy - Metro
Mercy's
Dad Says Madonna Isn't Fit To Adopt - X17
Mercy's
Father Tries to Block Madonna's Adoption - The Insider
Madonna
criticised by the biological father of the girl she wants to adopt
- FameTastic
Madonna's
Adoption Bid Challenged by Mercy's Dad - Hollywood.com
Father
moves to block Madonna Mercy adoption - The First Post
Mercy's
father says Madonna's life a 'scandal'
Mercy's
Dad: Stop Madonna! - New York Post
By Cathy Burke
Apr 30, 2009He's showing Madonna no Mercy.
James Kambewa, 24, the surviving parent of a 3-year-old Malawi girl named Mercy whom Madonna is trying to adopt, is demanding full custody.
And he says he wants to spare his child from a life of "scandal" in the house of a Material Mom he claims lacks "good morals," Britain's Daily Mail reported last night.
Kambewa, 24, a security guard who's never met Mercy, is seeking a permanent injunction against Madonna.
"She is my daughter; she is my blood; she needs parental love," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "She lost one parent, yes, but I am still alive and so she is not an orphan."
Besides, Kambewa claimed, "I don't think Madonna is a model mum. I have seen her in movies of her songs. She doesn't portray good morals."
Referring to Madonna's handsome boy toy, model Jesus Luz, Kambewa said:
"That's scandalous. How can a normal woman fall for a boy who can as well be her son? No, spare my Mercy that scandal," he told the newspaper.
A court has already denied Madonna, 50, the chance to adopt Mercy. She hopes to overturn the ruling at an appeal Monday.
Madonna
Too Immoral To Adopt, Says Mercy James' Father
Mercy's
Dad: Madonna Lacks Morals to Be a Good Mom
Madonna
lacks morals to bring up my Mercy, girl's father claims
The father of Mercy, the Malawian child whom Madonna is hoping to adopt, has begun a bid to claim full custody.
By Ben Leach
30 Apr 2009James Kambewa reportedly said he wanted to spare his three-year-old daughter the "scandal" a life with Madonna would bring.
The 24-year-old, who has never met his daughter after walking out on her mother when she was pregnant, also accused the singer of lacking "good morals".
Mr Kambewa has written a letter to lawyers asking for a permanent injunction against Madonna adopting her.
He has insisted he would give Mercy, who has been living in an orphanage since her mother died, a good home.
He told the Daily Mail: "She is my daughter; she is my blood; she needs parental love. She is not an orphan. She lost one parent, yes, but I am still alive and so she is not an orphan.
"Madonna has millions of dollars but that doesn't make her a good mum. Parental love is more than money."
He added: "Besides, I don't think Madonna is a model mum. I have seen her in movies of her songs. She doesn't portray good morals.
"How can a woman of 50 dance almost naked on stage? I wouldn't want my daughter to grow up like that! In Malawi women respect themselves. Cultured women do not go about half-naked.
"I also heard after her marriage failed she is already seeing two men, both very younger than her and her ex-husband. I hear one of them is even less than half her age.
"That's scandalous. How can a normal woman fall for a boy who can as well be her son? No, spare my Mercy that scandal."
A court has already denied Madonna, 50, the chance to adopt Mercy, but she is said to be "confident" of overturning that ruling at an appeal next Monday.
Show
the Children Some Real Mercy - editorial by Susan Goodson
Excerpts:
...But in the end the important thing is a rich famous white woman wants to “adopt” a child from a poor country and take her home with her – she has already adopted a young boy from the same area.
I guess a matching pair is what Madonna is aiming for.
To put it bluntly Madonna – leave the children of the world alone.
If you really cared you would not be trying to adopt a child and take it away from its family, culture and country.
You would be putting some of your extreme wealth into helping organisations, such as the orphanages, to do their jobs to help the people of the country.
When Madonna adopted her first child from Malawi she did not even stay in the country long enough to bring him home with her – she had a far more important engagement back in her then home Britain.
Her “people” brought the little boy, David, home.
The next day when he was just settling in to his new “home” she was photographed going to the gym.
It sticks in my mind because a friend had recently “adopted” a kitten from a shelter and she said with some shock: “I never left him the next day with someone else, how could you possibly leave a child?”
Good point.
March 2009
Charity / Donations
Madonna’s
fund raising: where is the money?
March 31, 2009
By Roger FriedmanBefore Madonna “adopts” another child from Malawi, maybe someone should ask her where the money went from her big star studded 2008 fundraiser for that country.
We tried: this column has tried to ascertain from The Gucci Foundation and from Madonna’s Kabbalah-backed Raising Malawi, where the estimated $3.7 million has gone from the February 6, 2008 extravaganza. So far: No answers.
.... The fundraiser had some problems, however. Even though Raising Malawi had been in business for two years, it was still not approved as a sanctioned non-profit at the time.
Instead, Gucci formed its own Foundation — known as a 501 c3 — to collect the money.
They brought UNICEF on board to give the event a feeling of legitimacy.
But in the end, the efforts expended were for Raising Malawi, an organization founded by the Kabbalah Center of Los Angeles. Raising Malawi teaches the Kabbalah curriculum, called Spirituality for Kids, to Malawi orphans.
Now, fourteen months after the fundraiser, there’s no accounting for the money that came in.
....What the [Daily] Mail and other sources have pointed out is that Madonna has changed her entire persona for this process [the attempt to adopt a little girl from Africa named "Mercy"].
She’s dropped the 20-year-old Brazilian boy-toy she’d been parading around New York, and gotten away from the scandal of her relationship with ball player Alex Rodriguez and the consequent break up of his marriage.
In Malawi she dresses conservatively, as if in a movie role, and not at all as she lives in the U.S. or U.K. It’s doubtful that the Malawi HRCC has ever seen her “Sex” book, for example.
Meantime — call it a coincidence, but the day after tomorrow — Thursday, April 2nd — Madonna is suddenly launching a charity auction on eBay for Raising Malawi. The auction is so last minute that there are no details.
Baby Stealing
Madonna is trying to steal another kid from Malawi; this time it's a little
girl named Mercy.
Related news items (
Hat Tip to discussion board participant SWR, South West Ranger, for this
first editorial):
Sorry,
but I was fooled by selfish Madonna - editorial by Allison Pearson
Excerpts from above link:
....Adorable four-year-old Mercy James has been picked as the perfect accessory, oops, sister, for David Banda, whom the star [Madonna] adopted two years ago.
Back then, I wrote a passionate defence of Madonna's right to rescue a motherless child from one of the poorest countries in Africa.
Above all, I trusted Madonna to be a good mother and to put her adopted son first. Well, today I am feeling sadly disillusioned, not to mention a bit of an idiot.
Since she adopted David Banda, he has lost not one daddy, but two. His adoptive father, Guy Ritchie, to whom the little boy is devoted, now lives on the other side of the Atlantic and they hardly see each other.
Madonna, who is legendary for striking the right pose, convinced David's natural father, Yohane, that his son would have a happy, stable family life with two committed parents.
She failed to mention the possibility of a bitter divorce, a baseball player and a toyboy model called Jesus.
By giving his son to the famous white lady, Yohane was hoping to save him from the lethal African disease of poverty.
How cruelly ironic that, with Madonna as his mother, the boy has come into contact with the West's own contagion of selfishness and 'personal fulfilment'.
'David is only three years old and already he has been through so much. I don't think God meant it to be like this,' says Yohane.
Indeed. But how can the Almighty hope to compete with the despotic rule of Her Divine Madj (estimated fortune: £300 million) as she mysteriously silences dubious relatives and starstruck African court officials?
When parents are splitting up, they generally make every effort to keep the childcare stable.
Not Madonna. Recently, she dismissed David's Australian nanny. Angela Jacobsen had complained on her Facebook page that she couldn't 'take any more s**t'.
With Madonna so often on tour, Angela must have provided a precious fixed point in the little Malawian boy's rapidly changing existence. Yet, after handing in her notice, she was reportedly given just a few hours to get out.
When the Madonna Show is on the road no little baby, no vulnerable child, or indeed African country, is allowed to get in the way. It's a pretty disgusting spectacle.
Now it is Mercy's turn to be signed, sealed and delivered. Despite angry objections from charities, the four-year-old is Madonna's latest must-have item.
But, unlike David Banda, Mercy is no longer a baby. Quite how she is going to make the transition from dirt-poor Christian orphanage to macrobiotic kabbalah penthouse is unclear.
....Perhaps most disturbing of all is the sense that there is something racist about this traffic in angelic black children. Somehow Africans aren't allowed to answer back. Their protests and objections carry less weight.
If she chose to, Madonna could pay for half of Malawi's Aids orphans to go to school. Or she could put her extraordinary charisma behind the White Ribbon Alliance, the admirable charity supported by Sarah Brown which campaigns to reduce unnecessary maternal deaths in childbirth.
This is exactly how David Banda lost his original mother. What a remarkable gift to her son that would be.
Instead Madonna chooses to wrench another child out of their environment to act as a prop in her ongoing mid-life crisis and to make herself look good.
All I can say is, may the Lord have mercy upon Mercy. Save The Children has said Madonna's conduct verges on 'a puppy parade' and pointed out that rich people like her are only looking for a beautiful child.
Hat Tip to discussion board participant Mihoshi Marie for this editorial::
Celebutard
of the Week: Madonna
by Andrea Peyser
This is an emergency Madonna update, a warning that the one-time Material Girl has turned from a bra-baring, Britney-slurping, intercourse-simulating extrovert into a greedy baby-collector.
At mid-life, an unmarried Madonna is, right now, in the African nation of Malawi, choosing a matched child to go along with the tot she already purchased from the African nation like so much luggage, David Banda.
This is why Madonna is my Celebutard of the Week, in keeping with my book, “Celebutards: the Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberals and Pandering Politicians Who Are Destroying America,” (Kensington).
Madonna is asking a judge to let her adopt 4-year-old Mercy James, a child who, like David, has a biological father but no mother. Her grandmother was incensed.
“Why doesn’t the singer pick other children?’’ fumed Lucy Chekechiwa to the Sun newspaper in London.
“It is stealing. I want to go to court. I won’t let her go.’’
It seems a repeat of her earlier adoption. The granny fumed, but Madonna still plucked the child from his home and took temporary custody. On her own turf, the adoption was a done deal. She also broke Malawi’s adoption laws, which prevent prospective parents from getting their hands on children without first living in the country for 18 months. Technicalities.
One has long wondered if Madge is fit to raise a house plant, let alone a child.
Her vegetarian diet, free of wicked dairy products, should be enough to preclude her from raising ice-cream-deprived kids.
It comes with great remorse that her ever-expanding brood, which includes Lourdes, 12; Rocco, 8; and little David, 3; will never, at least in childhood, taste the summer staple.
But in the diet-crazed Celebutard world, this is par for the course — Gwyneth Paltrow gets to keep her little ones even after publicly cleaning out her gastrointestinal tract.
Money buys anything. Including flesh.
TV is also banned in the house of Madonna, 50, which might be a blessing; the kids are protected from their mothers’ egregious sexual actings-out –- at least until the babysitter breaks the rules.
But why should I complain about dairy products when, in 2003, Madonna took the stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York where, in full view of then-husband Guy Ritchie and 7-year-old daughter Lourdes, tongue-kissed Britney Spears and Christian Aguilera, giving an advanced lesson in sex education. Child service authorities looked the other way.
The environmentalist – she made the cover of Vanity Fair’s “green’’ issue – also imported 1,000 unfortunate pheasants to her British estate, Ashcombe House, so that rich friends including Brad Pitt might pay $19,000 a day to shoot the poor birds to death.
Mercy lives in same orphanage from which she plucked David. She wants the little girl to join a brood whose size has yet to be curtailed, despite Madonna’s ridding of a husband Guy Ritchie and discarding of Lourdes’ baby daddy, Carlos Leon.
It is not known whether the new child’s health will be carefully screened in Africa, as was David’s. With millions of orphans afflicted with AIDS and other diseases, Madonna got herself a good one.
David, like Mercy, lost his breast-feeding mother as an infant, and the family, unable to afford formula for him, put him in an orphanage, expecting to take him back after he was old enough to eat solid food. But Madonna chose the bright-eyed youngster.
The case against Madonna was closed when she told her adoption story to a credulous and approving Oprah Winfrey. “God bless you!’’ cried Oprah.’’ She also condescended to David’s dad, Yohane Banda, as a “simple’’ man. (Ouch!).
Reportedly, David’s father upset when he learned Madonna was divorcing. Too late.
In return for Africa’s generosity, Madonna founded Raising Malawi, a girls’ academy that preaches hefty doses of Madonna’s pet belief system, Kabbalah.
She might have simply made a large donation to the Bandas’ extended family, including a grandma and aunts, so they might be reunited with their biological child. But what do I know about Hollywood?
This begs another question: What is wrong with American-born orphans? Mixed-race children, for example, badly need parents, even rich ones – and can be taken home without the need of an international plane flight.
I guess those kids don’t make such good conversations with Oprah.
Expert
Slams Madonna Adoption Bid As “A Need for Endless Attention”
Mar 31, 2009
Just as Madonna’s rep finally confirms the singer is in the process of adopting again, a renowned expert on personality attention disorders told RadarOnline.com she is wary of the singer’s attempts and believes it links back to her own childhood trauma.
“Madonna has a need for endless attention - she just has to be in the spotlight,” said Alice Aspen March who runs a private practice in Santa Monica, Calif., and has treated several celebrities. “It’s really not her fault because her own mother died when she was just a child and her maternal developmental process was interrupted as a result.”
March takes a skeptical perspective on why Madonna chose to adopt from Malawi of all places. “She is being criticized on many fronts but by going to Africa she is getting as much international publicity as possible.”
“[Since her divorce from husband Guy Richie] she wants to give the little boy [David Banda, who she adopted from Malawi in 2006] a sibling and this is fueled by the fact that she may not be able to exert her full control of her biological son with her ex-husband but she can totally control the other three kids.”
“In my professional opinion she is suffering from post-traumatic stress because her own mom died when she was so very young,” March explained. “Surrounding herself with children fulfills this primary need.”
Madonna
adoption: Star's Chanel tracksuit raises eyebrows in Malawi
By Caroline Hedley in Los Angeles
31 Mar 2009
Madonna has been accused of courting sartorial controversy after touring an impoverished Malawian school dressed in a $2800 (£2000) Chanel tracksuit.The 50-year-old singer, who is in the African country to adopt a four-year-old girl, chose a casual $1600 (£1150) velour jacket and matching $1200 (£850) trousers from the French fashion house to walk around the educational facility, the Huffington Post reports.
I’ll
stop Madonna stealing our girl
Excerpts:
The granny of the Malawi girl Madonna wants to adopt has vowed to stop the singer “stealing” her.
Madge, 50, is nearing the end of a 19-month battle to make orphaned four-year-old Mercy James legally her daughter.
But Mercy’s grandmother Lucy Chekechiwa, 61, hit out at the millionaire pop icon.
She told The Sun: “Why doesn’t this singer pick other children? It is stealing.
“I want to go to court, I won’t let her go.”
Mercy has been living in a Malawi orphanage and Lucy claimed she was badgered by officials there over the adoption.
....She [Lucy] said: “They [orphange workers] told me when I visited her last month that they want to find a better education and home for Mercy.
“But I am sticking to the initial agreement that Mercy will return home to me after she reaches six years old.”
Mercy was placed in the orphanage after her 18-year-old mum died five days after her birth.
Madonna
should not adopt baby Mercy, says Save The Children
Excerpts:
Madonna is setting a bad example by attempting to adopt a second child from an orphanage in Malawi, according to British charity Save The Children
By Anita Singh
Last Updated: 27 Mar 2009The singer is expected in the impoverished African nation this weekend to begin adoption proceedings for Mercy James, a toddler whom she picked out during a previous visit.The little girl's parents have died, according to government officials, but she is believed to have surviving family members including uncles and aunts.
....Save The Children said Mercy should not be taken from Malawi. "The best place for a child is in his or her family in their home community. Most children in orphanages have one parent still living or have an extended family that can care for them in the absence of their parents," said the charity's spokesman, Dominic Nutt.
"International adoption can actually exacerbate the problem it hopes to solve. The very existence of orphanages encourages poor parents to abandon children in the hope that they will have a better life. International adoption and the orphanages that often provide the children to adoptive parents from overseas can divert money that could be better spent keeping families together and preventing children from having to be taken away from their parents in the first place.
"We urge any celebrity to set an example, to follow internationally agreed procedures to protect the child, and to ensure that the child in question has no other options in their home community."
Madonna
urged to rethink adoption - BBC
Children's
charity cool on Madonna Malawi adoption
Regarding the next section of news stories:
Madonna has always been immoral, trashy and sleazy; I do not understand why Malawian adoption officials did not notice this before she adopted David Banda.
These adoption officials should have been questioning Madonna's morals a long, long time ago.
Madonna's
fling with Jesus Luz and her rumored hookup with A-Rod may foil adoption
plans
Madonna's
Men Ruining Her Adoption Plans?
Madge's
fling may doom her adoption plans
Madonna's
Morals May Stop New Adoption
March 25, 2009
Madonna's love of a toy-boy model and her rumoured fling with an American footballer and her divorce may stop her plans of adopting another child from Africa.
Malawi's adoption officials say Madge's sizzling fling with 22-year-old Brazilian hunk Jesus Luz - and her rumored hookup with Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez may doom her desire to adopt three-year-old Mercy James, The New York Daily News reports.
"Our official policy is that we do not encourage our children to be sent into broken homes," a senior official from Malawi's Ministry of Women and Child Welfare Development, noting her split from hubby Guy Ritchie, told the paper.
"(Madonna's) relationships may negatively affect the adoption of Mercy," the official said.
"The news she is linked to another woman's husband and a young man less than half her age makes us question her morals."
Officials are unhappy the 50-year-old Material Mum, who adopted toddler David Banda in Malawi in 2006, flaunted her relationship with Luz in a recent racy W Magazine spread.
Madonna's
Lifestyle Could Affect Adoption Process
Bimbo
Madonna is such a huge bimbo that she's being used as
an example (warning?) of how being promiscuous can get a person an S.T.D.
(sexually transmitted disease). See the following for more information
(
hat tip to board member Anshirk for first link):
You
Shag Madonna, You Shagged Vanilla Ice
MTV is using rock stars and their super-sluttiness to teach all Brazilians about safe sex. Thanks, Madonna and Mick Jagger, you sluts! And thanks to everyone you screwed, as well.
These are new ads from MTV Brazil, via Copyranter. Use condoms or you are basically screwing Tupac, Deniro, and Paris Hilton all at once. [visit link above to see scan of advertisement]
Six
Degrees of -- Some Lesbian --Sex with Madonna
Cheapskate
Madonna
Guitarist 'Left To Die'
March 8, 2009:
Michael Jackson and Madonna have been criticised for failing to help a former guitarist who died after he could not afford medical bills.
Both superstars had toured with David Williams – who had also performed with Chaka Khan, Lionel Richie and Jessica Simpson – over three decades.
But he was left to die alone on Friday after blood pressure complications.
....A family friend lashed out at the stars for failing to support the musician.
'David, who supported them on stage all those years, has nothing,' she said.
Check
Please? Tip, Maybe - ABC news
Excerpts:
Madonna is reportedly a notoriously bad tipper.
According to the British Mirror, the pop singer and then-husband Guy Ritchie once left an $18 tip on a $400 dollar bill.
A Web site called "Bitter Waitress" claims that Madonna left only a small tip after eating with her friend, Ingrid Casares, at a New York City restaurant
Pedophilia & Madonna
Why have I classified Madonna's supposed "relationship" with Jesus Luz, the 22 year old model, under "Pedophilia" in entries below, since he is technically an adult and not a kid?
Because it is more evidence that she has always had an unhealthy interest in and attraction to people who are much younger than she is. (This is assuming she is having sex with Luz, and maybe she is not. I tend to believe that this is a fake relationship, staged only for publicity.)
According to old magazine interviews with friends (such as her first manager, Camille Barbone, old friend Erica Bell, and Mark Kamins) and according to biographies, Madonna used to French-kiss and have sex with boys who were under the age of 18, back when she was in her mid-twenties and living in New York.
Slams and Put Downs / Pedophilia / Madonna is a Terrible Boss
Madonna
staff quit 'demanding' star - Digital Spy
Five
staff walk out on 'too demanding' boss Madonna
Excerpt (click link above to read entire thing):
March 29, 209
By Marc Baker...A source said: "Bank holidays are normal working days and there's no special allowance for Christmas.
"Her [Madonna's] attitude is she is a superstar and is expected to work, so why shouldn't her staff."
Madonna expects her closest aides to travel the world.
An insider said: "They don't really have a life of their own."
Excerpts:
March 29, 2009
Five of Madonna's staff have walked out on her.
The singer has been hit by the resignation of two personal assistants, two nannies and a chauffeur - who all cited long working hours as the reason for quitting.
Upon handing in her notice to the 'Miles Away' singer earlier this week, Australian nanny Angela Jacobson was immediately told to leave.
Another nanny, Elodie, who had worked alongside Angela looking after the singer's three children - Lourdes, 12, Rocco, eight and adopted David, three - has also quit.
They are joined by personal assistants Denise Lambertson and Johanna Edholm, and chauffeur Alistair Mitchell, who was Madonna's driver for seven years.
Telling of her strain at being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Angela, 29, wrote on her Facebook internet profile: "Not putting up with this s**t anymore. Never have, never will.
....A source told Britain's People newspaper: "Angela was with her for two years and was particularly close to David. He and Rocco are devastated she is leaving.
"And Elodie, who's been with Madonna for about 15 months, was also close to the children.
"But all Madonna's employees work incredibly long hours."
Personal assistant Denise is due to finish working for the 50-year-old star this week, and Johanna quit saying she lost a boyfriend due to Madonna's work demands. Alistair left Madonna to drive her ex-husband Guy Ritchie.
Madonna
: ‘Tough boss’ Madonna ‘fires’ adopted son’s
Australian nanny
Nanny
Angela Jacobsen describes strain of working as Madonna's nanny
Melbourne's
nanny Angela Jacobsen tells of life with Madonna
by Kelvin Healey
March 28, 2009 12:00amA Melbourne nanny has told how the strain of working 24 hours a day, seven days a week for Madonna drove her to the brink.
A week after she was sacked, Angela Jacobsen arrived home yesterday with nothing but kind words for the pop star.
But her Facebook website told a different story.
"Not putting up (with) this s--- any more," a furious Jacobsen wrote last month.
"Never have, never will. Standing up for my rights regardless of consequence. Sick of always being the one who compromises."
The next day she wrote: "You know the score!!! No one messes with my party."
....While Ms Jacobsen's website postings paint Madonna in an unflattering light, they also reveal the jet-set lifestyle of a pop star's nanny.
The
gruelling life of Madonna's Australian nanny
Luz's
Ex Girlfriend Lashes Out At Madonna
'Madonna
is a ridiculous old bag'
Madonna
is a 'ridiculous old bag' says Jesus Luz's former girlfriend
March 17, 2009
Madonna is a "ridiculous old bag" who should get a boyfriend her own age, the ex-girlfriend of the singer's new companion Jesus Luz has said.
....Miss Franca told the Daily Mail: "When I heard about him and Madonna I couldn't believe it.
"I think the age makes a difference and it is ridiculous for her. It's like my mum with a boyfriend my age, or even my grandmother. I think it's very weird.
"She [Madonna] is a ridiculous old bag, jumping around on stage at her age.
"I think she has some kind of an age complex, she still thinks she is a young woman, she can't accept her age. I can't remember him ever speaking about her or listening to her music. She is famous but she is from a different generation altogether."
Miss Franca and Mr Luz dated for 18 months until 2006 but she insisted they are still friends.
September
[pop singer] Unimpressed By Madonna
Disco babe SEPTEMBER, who is heading for the Top 10 with Can’t Get Over, has hit out at MADONNA.
The sexy Swede said: "She either looks great and sounds awful, or looks dreadful and sounds amazing.
"She doesn’t seem to pull off both together."
Excerpt:
Piss off looooong list of ex boyfriends [refers to Jose Conseco], check! Make it perfectly clear that she no longer loves her one-time protege [Britney Spears], check! Pissing off her #1 fans -- the gays, sassy check [Madonna allegedly threw a hissy fit at a homsoexual night club after a Britney Spears tune was played]! What's next, peeing on some sort of priceless heirloom? "Leaking" a sex tape with Jesus [Luz, the 22 year old model]? Dating someone even younger? I hear Nick Jonas is single, Madge! What do you think is next?
Madonna
Acts Like A Spoiled Child, Stomps Away [in a nightclub, after hearing
a Britney Spears song]
Canseco
Not Impressed With Ex Madonna's New Toyboy
Jose
Canseco slams Madonna for dating a younger guy
Madonna's
Ex Attacks Over Jesus Luz
Jose
Canseco Rips Madonna for "Crazy" Cradle-Robbing
The Material Girl is too old for her new boy toy, according to an ex.
Slugger Jose Conseco slammed 50-year-old Madonna for dating Brazilian model Jesus Luz, who is 20, Usmagazine.com reported.
"Oh my god! Doesn't she realize she is 60-years old? Come on!" he told the publication on Saturday. "When she is 80, what is she going to date -- a guy who is 10 years old? It's getting crazy!"
Conseco said Madge asked him to marry her but that he was "never interested in her and was just fascinated by her as a person," according to his book "Juiced."
The baseball star told Us in July 2008 that Madonna tried to seduce him while he was married.
"We went downstairs [at her house] and she came over and said, 'What would you do if I kissed you? and then sat on my lap and kissed me," he told the publication.
The 30-year age difference doesn't seem to bother Madonna and she and Luz shared a romantic dinner with in New York Sunday night, the magazine reported.
"She loves showing her ex that she can still get the youngest, hottest thing out there," an insider told USmagazine.com.
Animals / Pedophilia / Fashion
Madonna
tops PETA's worst-dressed list - Zap2It.com
Madonna
Makes PETA's Worst Dressed List - OK Magazine
Madonna
Tops PETA’s 2009 Worst-Dressed List - Access Hollywood
Madonna
is PETA's Worst Dressed
Madonna
Named Worst Dressed Celebrity -Showbiz Spy
March 6, 2009
Madonna has been named the worst dressed celebrity by animal rights group PETA.
The Material Girl singer, 50, topped the list - which also includes Kanye West, Kate Moss and Mary J Blige - because of her use of fur.
The annual poll highlights celebrities' 'crimes' against anti-fur fashion.
In a statement, Peta said: "When you see Madonna in fur, you realize why nobody has copied her style since 1984.
"We know she's on the prowl for a young cur, but someone needs to tell Madge that wearing fur doesn't make you a cougar."
Here's the article that ties in pedophilia with animals and fashion, if you were wondering:
Did Madonna ruffle PETA's fur with cougarish coat?
Predatory pop star Madonna was on the prowl in Manhattan last night.
She was spotted wearing a tres cougarish Thomas Wylde leather trench coat with what looks like a real gray fur collar.
Has anyone informed PETA about this? She's been on their hit list for years and this isn't going to make them very happy. Expect a condemnatory press release shortly!
And she may also have risked the ire of Child Protective Services by wearing her new Brazilian model boy toy, Jesus Luz, on her arm.
Just kidding, but the dude is 28 years younger than her.
Seriously, isn't this getting a little creepy?
Or is Madonna becoming the Benjamin Button of Hollywood?
If she lived in your neighborhood, you'd be calling Predator Alert.
Homosexuality
Madonna
said in an old interview that she is not "promoting" the homosexual
lifestyle (or any lifestyle), that she is only depicting them. Well, that
message is bound to go over the heads of most viewers.
Whether Madonna intends to or not, it is a fact that depicting homosexuality in music videos and on stage is perceived by a lot of homosexual people as being an endorsement. Case in point, this disgusting story:
Singled
Out: Madonna Made Me a Lesbian, by Mona Elyafi
February 2009
Dry and Sour Tour
Man-donna is extending her terrible "Sticky and Sweet" tour
into 2009, at least in areas of Europe. Here's a nice article about it,
from some European paper:
Visit
Bucharest and Screw Madonna out of €22!
So as you may have heard, world famous pop singer/limitlessly narcissistic husband-torturing dragon lady Madonna is playing Budapest in August.
As usual, Madge is doing her best to rape her fans, in this case charging between Ft 15,000 and Ft 110,000.
But you have options, because it seems the cheap tickets for her show the same week in somewhat nearby Bucharest are almost 50% cheaper than here.
Or you can do like us and save 100% by avoiding the whole ugly spectacle altogether! [realitatea.net]
Polls, Awards, Lists
Madonna did NOT make the Mtv "Top Ten Albums of All Time" list.
Excerpt:
February 26 2009
By David Balls, Entertainment ReporterColdplay and Madonna have been snubbed by MTV in their search to find the greatest ever album.
A vote launched this week to find the Top 10 best albums across the network's three UK channels has drawn criticism over the acts nominated.
Mtv:
Greatest Albums Ever List
Looking Old / Ugly
Red-Faced
Madonna Hides Behind Large Sunglasses
(Hat tip to board member Anshirk for finding the above story)
Guy Ritchie Related
Guy Ritchie refers to his ex-wife MADONNA as IT, pals have revealed.
The British director started making jibes at the star even before their divorce.
A source revealed: "Guy will say, ‘Oh, It’s in a bad mood today’.
"Even towards the end of their marriage, he would call her It. He told people, ‘We can’t make It angry’.
"There is absolutely no love lost between them."
It is not known if Guy, 40, is referring to the hairy monster from The Addams Family films — who we’ve imagined in Madge’s hat and bra.
Slams and Put Downs
Sean
Penn Takes a Dig at Madonna
Oscar-winner Sean Penn took a dig at his former wife Madonna when the two crossed paths at an after-show party.
The 48-year-old, who won the Best Actor gong for his performance in ''Milk'', was congratulated by the Queen of Pop, who went public with her 22-year-old lover Jesus Luz at the bash after splitting with Guy Ritchie in January.
‘The Sun’ reports, gesturing towards Luz, Penn said: "Thanks. Another kid already?"
Madonna's
Oscar Run In With Ex-Husband Sean Penn Over Toyboy Jesus
Is
it Madonna or Her Shtick That's Getting Old?
To answer the question above: BOTH.
But here are some excerpts from the editorial:
Is Madonna getting too old for "sexpot"?
As much as Madge observers like to talk about her amazing capacity to reinvent herself, it's wearing a little thin.
And her latest attack in an ongoing insurgency against aging -- a 46-page spread in W magazine -- is derivative on many levels (Her own "Sex" book, "The Graduate," cheap porn).
....the brand Madonna -- despite all her various permutations ... it's getting a little bit old.
Okay, so here's Madonna's new "controversial" photoshoot for the March 2009 issue of W Magazine.
In it, the photographer takes on a sensual journey through an alternate reality where a 22-year old Brazilian model willingly has sex with a 50-year old hag with no apparent dental insurance. How sexy!
Sacrilegious Actions / Comments by Madonna
Madonna
Controversial W Magazine Photos: Remove the Christian Cross
Feb 10 2009
by Jack RyanWe're just not sure when enough is enough for 50-year-old pop star Madonna, who has been a controversial so-called "sex symbol" since she was in her 20s.
Madonna, who is best known for her promiscuous image and controversial songs, photos, videos and concerts, is at it again - she's aggravating the religious community.
....Apparently the singer is strictly an object of sex and incapable of any other image. The star is depicted in her new photos being intimate or 'intimately interested' in a young, Brazilian naked guy.
The best photo is of her and this man sharing a sexual smooch with a cross placed strategically on her neck. This is reminiscent of the concert Madonna held, in which she was "hung" from a cross in the image of Jesus Christ.
What's her obsession with insulting the Christian religion?
Go here for the photos, if you must.
Feminism
You can't really cuddle up to a career on a cold, lonely night, so I've
never really understood feminism's appeal.
Madonna
syndrome: I should have ditched feminism for love, children and baking
Excerpts:
A playwright who embraced the feminism espoused by her mother and flaunted by Madonna now feels betrayed
by Zoe Lewis / Feb 5, 2009
I never thought I would be saying this, but being a free woman isn't all it's cracked up to be.
....Now, nearly 37, those same [feminist] values leave me feeling cold. I want love and children but they are nowhere to be seen.
....I was led to believe that women could “have it all” and, more to the point, that we wanted it all.
To that end I have spent 20 years ruthlessly pursuing my dreams - to be a successful playwright. I have sacrificed all my womanly duties and laid it all at the altar of a career.
And was it worth it? The answer has to be a resounding no.
....Lesley discovers, along with Madonna, that trying to “have it all” is a huge gamble. I wrote the play because so many of my girlfriends were inspired by this bullish woman who allowed us to be strong and sexy.
I still love her and always will, but she has encouraged us to chase a fantasy and it's a huge disappointment.
....Sas Taylor, 38, single and childless, runs her own PR company: “In my twenties I felt I was invincible,” she says. “Now I wish I had done it all differently. I seem to scare men off because I am so capable. I have business success but it doesn't make you happy.”
Nicki P, 35 and single, works in the music industry and adds: “It was all a game back then. Now I am panicking. No one told me that having fun is not as fun as I thought.”
January 2009
Polls, Awards, Lists
Madonna did NOT make the AskMen.com's "Most Desirable Women of 2009" list.
Eva
Mendes beats Megan Fox for World's Most Desirable Woman title. Britney
Spears & Madonna left out
Excerpt:
January 23, 2009
by Dominic PattenNow, Madonna, who is 50, doesn't make an appearance on the Top 50 either. In fact, Madonna didn’t make it in the Top 99 at all. Perhaps this is a sign, we are witnessing the beginning of her decline and fall.
Looking Old / Ugly | Tacky Fashion
January 22, 2009: A new batch of 'Hard Candy' promotional photos, taken
in 2008, have appeared on the web this week. Madonna looks horrid, aged,
and trampy in them - and the clothing she is wearing is very ugly.
Some of these photos have been uploaded to the Vogue Gallery; to the bottom left, you can view two small versions from this shoot.
Trying
way too hard - New Madonna photo reveals her Hard Candy is no Britney
Spears
Excerpts:
January 22, 2009
by Dominic PattenLet’s not pretend, let's not mince words - someone needs to tell Madonna that she's pushing herself well past her sell date.
In the UK, they call Madge an "old slapper" and that's just in polite company. In the US, we're too star struck to tell the Empress she's wearing no clothes, or rather that the clothes she is wearing are totally not age appropriate.
Even more than her spread eagle Louis Vuitton ad campaign, newly leaked pictures of Madonna, taken last year as promos for her Hard Candy album, makes that disturbingly clear. And its time she took a real look in the mirror, cause what was once sexy has become sad.
With a stern face that could launch a 1,000 Botox needles and a weirdly mangled and shorten arm, for the first time in her long career, the former Mrs. Ritchie looks thoroughly uncomfortable.
Maybe its the laced up leather boots, maybe its the yanked up thong or the broken wrist wraps or maybe its the unmistakable smell of desperation, but this is not Madonna reinventing herself. This is Madonna corseting and contorting herself into the fetishism of embarrassment.
...[Madonna] needs to stop competing with the Britney Sprears and the Rihannas. She needs to stop because it's pathetic. Don't even try to get in the ring with new ingénue on the charts Taylor Swift, Madonna, because someone who can write her own songs and sing them will knock you out.
As
Madonna poses for yet ANOTHER raunchy album picture, will she still be
doing this at 70?
What
were you thinking, Madge?
Excerpts:
Bandaged hand and knuckle duster
Two words, babe: Christina Aguilera. Three more: video for Dirrty. Presumably her next outfit will be Britney-esque school uniform. And, lo, the former innovator becomes the tragic copyist [note from site owner: Madonna never was an innovator; she's always ripped off her fashions from other people].
Open-toed lace-up boots
So you know those really tacky Soho sex shops, where a woman called something like Mistress Tantra works the till? Where everything on sale looks like it would cause sweating or staining? Where the concept of sexiness seems to be based on a suburban tarts-and-vicars party? Yeah, just like that.
Madonna's
'Hard Candy' Outtakes: Not So Sweet
Excerpts:
Outtakes from the album's photo session have recently been leaked onto the Internet. The pictures were shot by photog Steven Klein.
.... The outtakes show the singer looking every bit of her 50 years, in a variety of bizarre outfits.
One photo set shows the Material Mom laced up in knee-high boots and boxing gloves. Another finds her sporting what appear to be an adult diaper and chest bandages.
What
Madonna REALLY Looks Like Without The Smoke And Mirrors
Some un-doctored, un-photoshopped pics of Madonna have leaked to the internet from a photoshoot she did for her Hard Candy album.
As you can see, this is NOT the kind of thing Madonna wants the public to see. Unlike all those airbrushed, professional shots we are used to seeing, this is the real Madonna, and it’s kind of a shock to see considering the lengths she goes to in order to protect her “image.”
....But at some point, even Madonna’s going to have to throw the towel in and call it a day. She can’t be a sex-kitten forever. Eventually, even kittens grow up to be crotchety, arthritic old pusses, and Madonna’s no different.
...she does NOT however, look younger than 50, as she clearly wishes she did.
And what this tells me is no matter how much you spend on beauty products, plastic surgery, specially blessed Kaballah [water] or 3-hour a day killer workouts, you are what you are.
Jan 19, 2009
I'm not sure what Madonna was going for in these pictures; The Crypt Keeper? Jeffree Star on Meth? Or were these from her audition for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Can someone get this woman a little photoshop over here?
Madonna
poses in skimpy outfit again - pictures
By Victoria Kennedy 19/01/2009
Madge's crotch: Part II
Oh dear. We begged her to cover up - but it seems Madonna just can't help herself.
In skimpy white knickers, tight bandages and thigh-length boots, the 50-year-old mum of three manages to flash even more of her crotch than she did in her last promo pic. The latest tacky shots - to plug her album Hard Candy - see her again thrusting her hips provocatively at the camera.
Madge caused a stir two weeks ago when she posed legs apart in an ad for Louis Vuitton. It prompted the Mirror's Polly Hudson to plead: "Put it away, grandma." But the singer's personal trainer Tracy Anderson insists we should all be grateful to her for "showing it's possible to be ageless".
Tell you what, Madge. Next time why don't you use a few more bandages and go for the full Egyptian mummy-look? It might stop you looking so Toot'n'Common.
The site "Awful Plastic Surgery" has an
entire section devoted just to Madonna alone! Here are a couple of
examples from "Awful Plastic Surgery.com"-
Madonna is simply scary looking. Her hands reflect her true age. They look old and veiny. Madonna’s face waxen and stiff. Is she embalmed already?
Madonna is starting to look like a Spitting Image puppet and sufferer of ‘madamism‘, a term for the puppet like features caused by too much plastic surgery. Remember, people, plastic surgery does not make you look younger, it only makes you look plastic!
It looks like Madonna has had some facial refinements over the years. Her nose is different now, in particular, the bridge of her nose is higher.
Madonna’s cheeks are currently looking outrageously prominent and hardened as if she were a squirrel hoarding nuts.
Slams and Put Downs
Sorry
Madonna, but these days you're more sad than shocking
Editorial regarding Madonna's photo shoot for Louis Vuitton; excerpts:
Published Date: 08 January 2009
By Sheena Hastings....Supposedly set in some smoky Parisian bar, but actually shot in a LaLaLand restaurant, this pic [of Madonna with her legs spread apart] manages to be both silly and high in cringe factor.
....Her face appears to have been air-brushed to make her look, flatteringly, like a young and lovely Faye Dunaway.
....Far from crashing their cars with lust or admiration when they see this image plastered across hoardings in the street, men as well as women will surely be shouting: "Put it away!"
However hard she desperately tries to look sexy, Madonna just succeeds in appearing desperate when she poses for a stunt photograph like this.
What on earth can she be up to?
With her pedigree of profane lyrics, explorations of erotica in her book Sex and flirtations with gender-bending over the years, Madonna has long-since ceased to shock anybody.
....Despite the global exposure they'll receive, perhaps the Louis Vuitton pictures are only truly aimed at taunting one particular person – and if so the plan has misfired, because belly-aching laughter was almost certainly not the effect she was hoping for.
As much as I love the following headline and editorial (which comes from the UK paper The Mirror), the author, a Polly Hudson, is unfortunately setting up the scenario I've spelled out in threads at the Anti Madonna Discussion Board, such as in the Senior Citizen Sexiness thread.
For those feminists who have elected Madonna the representative of female empowerment, they will counter such editorials by being all the more stubborn, digging in their heels, and insisting that we should applaud Madonna for continuing to be a whore well into her senior years.
Then they'll begin arguing that all women age 50+ should be, act, and dress slutty - and that they should look to Madonna as a role model. I can see this template coming into place even now.
Indeed, I have already come across such an apologetic at a blog called "The Frisky" by someone calling himself or herself "Simca" who makes a feeble attempt to defend Madonna's crotch shot by proclaiming her a "MILF" (which stands for "Mother I would like to F*ck").
Sorry, Simca, but Madonna not only deserves to be booed for the crotch shot photo, but she should be booed for so, so much more.
I assume that the author of this editorial is a woman, since the author's first name is "Polly," and that's typically a female name. I mention this only because 99% of Madonna supporters frequently insist that the only people who "dog" Madonna and run her down are old, fat, 50 or 60 year old white men.
Put
it away, granny Madonna - you're too old to be flashing your crotch
By Polly Hudson
7/01/2009We've seen it in videos, on stage, in a book, magazines and now an advert for Louis Vuitton.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold: the first sighting of Madonna's crotch of 2009. And somehow I'm guessing it won't be the last.
I wonder if there's ANYONE who'll be able to look at these legs-apart pictures without thinking: "Put it away, grandma!"
Madge has pulled her battered old fishnets on again for a series of ads dreamed up by Louis Vuitton's creative director Marc Jacobs.
He says he just blurted out, "I think we should do Madonna" in a meeting after seeing her crotch in concert the night before.
Marc then texted her to ask if she'd be up for it and she replied within five minutes saying: "I'd love to."
The six pictures were shot by Steven Meisel, who collaborated on Madonna's Sex book. And suddenly it all makes sense.
The artist formerly known as Mrs Ritchie famously doesn't allow newspapers in her house, so there's no point appealing to her directly here.
But if any of her friends (not you, Gwyneth) are reading this, I beg of you, have a word.
WE GET that she's in incredible shape for her age (361). OK, then, 50.
WE GET that she's really bendy and flexible.
So why does she have to go to such ridiculous lengths to remind us all the time?
It's starting to look desperate.
If she really wanted to, Madonna could shock the pants off us without revealing hers.
All she'd have to do is make some decent music for the first time in years.
Madonna
Spreads for Louis Vuitton
Jan. 6, 2009
by Dominic Patten
[Re: Madonna's photos for Louis Vuitton, especially the image of Madonna with her legs spread open, flashing her crotch]
I know people praise her [Madonna] for being a chameleon, a notion I never bought into, but she really did channel her best Russian oligarch trophy wife look for this picture. Is this the next pose she aims to strike? Classy Ciccone classy.
What else can you really expect from Madonna anymore? The truth is she may have had a ton of headlines and the biggest tour of 2008, remarkably beating out the reunited Eagles, but the truth is, like the designer, she is irrelevant. A spectacle but not a star.
It seems the older Madonna gets, the more skin she insists on revealing.
The singer - who has made an art of flaunting her figure in high cut leotards - has stripped off again.
Sporting a skimpy pair of monogrammed briefs, the 50-year-old featured in a Louis Vuitton advertising campaign that seemed more lad's mag than high fashion.
With her legs apart, Madonna was pictured sprawled across a bench, revealing a little more than some would deem appropriate for a mother-of-three.
And despite appearing pale and exhausted over the Christmas period, she can cheer up now knowing she has made use the greatest celebrity gift of all - the airbrush
Thanks to some simple retouching, the blonde showed no sign of ageing as she sported flawless skin.
Sacha
Baron Cohen Insults Madonna At Golden Globes
Excerpt:
[Said Cohen:] "...And even Madonna has had to get rid of one of her personal assistants. (pauses) Our thoughts go out to you Guy Ritchie.”
Sacha
Baron Cohen mocks Madge in Bruno
Sacha
Baron Cohen takes swipe at Madonna in Bruno film
Cohen
makes Madonna jibe in 'Bruno'
January 1 2009
By Simon ReynoldsSacha Baron Cohen's new film Bruno will reportedly mock Madonna's adoption of Malawian child David Banda.
According to The Sun, a storyline from the movie shows Cohen's Austrian fashion presenter and his boyfriend adopting an African baby named David. The couple then take him on a tour of various cities across the globe.
Cohen featured in Madonna's 2000 promo video for 'Music' in the guise of Ali G. He later poked fun at her while hosting the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards awards as his character Borat, saying: "The singer before me - who was he? It was very courageous of MTV to start the show with a genuine transvestite."