Madonna's new advertising campaign

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The 50-year-old singer - who starred in the French fashion label's spring adverts earlier this year - is said to be teaming up with photographer Steven Meisel later this month.

Fashion website Karen Kooper wrote on social networking website Twitter: "Madonna does Louis Vuitton Fall Winter 2009 campaign. By Steven Meisel again."

Steven shot the last se of pictures featuring Madonna after taking over from Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, who had worked on Louis Vuitton campaigns for six years.

The pictures showed a scantily-clad Madonna in a series of raunchy poses, including one where she was reclining on a sofa with a bag dangling from her stiletto heel and several where she wore fishnet tights.

Creative director of the brand Marc Jacobs said at the time: "I just blurted out, 'I think we should do Madonna.' I had just seen her in concert and I was totally just blown away by it, and moved by her performance, by what she had to say, and her energy. It was her idea to do the fishnets."

Madonna has previously spoken of her love of working with Steven, telling America's Vogue magazine: "I know that I love him. You get sucked into his aura. He knows things.

"Before I worked with him, I just showed up in the clothes I was wearing, stood in front of the lights, and got my picture taken. With Steven, a team of people descended on me, started to undress me. Someone grabbed my hair, another grabbed my face, another started helping me try on various bits of clothes. He was the first person to introduce me to the idea of reinvention."

Madge & Guy's personality clash

Was Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s marriage doomed by their too-similar personalities? That’s the inside scoop from British actor (and longtime friend of Madonna) Richard E. Grant.

Grant is currently starring in the Sydney production of My Fair Lady but took time out from playing Professor Henry Higgins to give aspiring actors the benefit of his wisdom at the Sydney Theatre Company yesterday.

Talking about Madonna, who directed him in her recent film Filth And Wisdom, he recalled how last year he was telling her about a theory that men and women have a dominant masculine or feminine personality.
He told the audience: “I told her that my personality was feminine-masculine while my wife’s was masculine-feminine which was why our marriage worked, and said I could see that she was really masculine-masculine – she agreed. “But then I realised that Guy is really masculine-masculine as well and I said, ‘God how does that work?’ She said, ‘It’s a war zone all the time.’ “

Grant added: “It’s really sad because she’s a lovely woman but she keeps going for these very masculine men who are never going to work for her.”

ninemsn

Madonna directs on-stage blast at husband

Madonna has made a bold statement on her Sticky and Sweet tour.

(AAP)By ninemsn staff

Madonna divorce shocks Malawi fatherMadonna's millions safe in divorce deal: expertsMadonna's pending divorce from husband Guy Ritchie has apparently taken a bitter turn, with the pop queen launching an on-stage blast against the "emotionally retarded".

The pop queen performed to 20,000 fans in Boston overnight declaring "this song is for the emotionally retarded" before launching into her song 'Miles Away' .

"You might know a few people who fall into that category — God knows I do," she said.

The song about an embattled relationship includes the lyrics "You always love me more, miles away… and when I'm gone you'll realise that I'm the best thing that happened to you."

In another bold statement, Madonna told the adoring crowd: "That's right I'm not sorry". She then launched into her song 'Human Nature' — another song about a bitter relationship. "I’m not your bitch dont hang your s*** on me… I’m not sorry it's human nature," she sang.

Madonna boarded the flight to Boston just hours after confirming her divorce plans with her film director husband of eight years, Guy Ritchie.

Media reports have claimed their marriage was torn apart by a string of rows and by Madonna’s desire to live in the US while Guy has been filming in the UK.

Madonna, Guy confirm split

(AAP)

Splits ville for pop queen Madonna and her British film director husband Guy Ritchie have agreed to divorce, a spokeswoman for Madonna has confirmed.

"Madonna and Guy Ritchie have agreed to divorce after seven and a half years of marriage, their representatives confirmed today," the spokeswoman said in a statement.

"They have both requested that the media maintain respect for their family at this difficult time."

The spokeswoman would give no other details.

The confirmation followed a report in Britain's Sun tabloid quoting a source who said Ritchie, 40, had pushed for the split.

Madonna, who is in the middle of her "Sticky and Sweet" world tour, married Ritchie in December 2000 in a lavish ceremony at a Scottish castle after meeting at a dinner party given by British rock star Sting.

UK's Daily Mail reports Madonna's friend and oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow had spent the past few months trying to convince her not to separate from Ritchie for the sake of their three children.

The couple have an eight-year-old son, Rocco, and a three-year-old son adopted in Malawi, David Banda. Madonna, 50, also has a daughter, 12-year-old Lourdes, by her former fitness trainer Carlos Leon.

Ritchie is expected to move out of the couple's London home and into his Wiltshire property in south west England.

It is not yet clear where the children will live.

In July, Madonna took the rare step of issuing a formal denial of reports linking her to US baseball star Alex Rodriguez, adding in a statement: "My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce."

But according to The Sun, Ritchie — famous for gangster films including "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" — has become frustrated, seeing her as a "dead weight around his neck" and now wants a divorce to be agreed quickly.

ninemsn

Madonna shows how to be sexy at 50

Sure, Madonna may have scandalised the Vatican and shocked nearly every parent in America at some point during her long and provocative career full of shrewd image transformations.
But as the Material Girl hits the half-century mark this weekend, she may be stepping into a role that even she, with all her marketing savvy, might not have dreamed up: poster child for the 50-and-fabulous set.
Who cares about those recent tabloid headlines linking her to the Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez, or that tell-all book by her brother?
Many women of a certain age look at Madonna and see a wonderfully fit, stylish, vigorous woman who's made a fortune based on smarts, talent and ambition and just keeps on going. Her latest world tour, Sticky & Sweet, kicks off in Wales a week after her August 16 birthday.
Talk about your New 50.
"I just think she's awesome," says Dale Lieberman, a 55-year-old mother of two grown daughters who works at a Marleton, New Jersey, dress shop and seemingly shares little with Madonna, save their age demographic. Yet Lieberman thinks Madonna is a great example of what 50 can be like these days.
"Here's a woman that's successful, takes care of herself, looks amazing - and she took the steps to get there. It doesn't happen unless you take charge. She's a great role model for many, many women."
And if Madonna has any qualms about reaching this milestone - she isn't speaking publicly about it - Lieberman wants to reassure her: It'll be just fine. In fact, better than fine.
"When I was in my 30s, 50 just seemed so ancient to me," says Lieberman.
Now, she says, her kids are both out in the world. She exercises regularly for the first time in her life. She's weeded out the unsatisfying relationships in favour of the truly genuine ones, enjoys nature, and loves to travel with her husband (they're planning a trip to the Amazon next.) "Sometimes it's scary how happy and fulfilled I feel," says Lieberman.
That's good news not just for Madonna, but for all the others reaching 50 in 2008 - and some famous names pop up.
Michael Jackson and Prince are two of the most discussed. But there's also Ellen DeGeneres, Sharon Stone, Christiane Amanpour. Alec Baldwin, Viggo Mortensen. Andie MacDowell, Jamie Lee Curtis, original Sex and the City columnist Candace Bushnell. Michelle Pfeiffer, Annette Bening, Prince Albert of Monaco. And, linking them together as in one of those Six-Degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon trivia games: Kevin Bacon.
Madonna's milestone should inspire men as well as women, says David Zinczenko, editor in chief of Men's Health magazine.
"I was in high school when she hit it big," says Zinczenko, who's in his late 30s. "Now that her first young fans are in their 30s, we look at Madonna as sort of a harbinger of the future for us. And the future looks pretty good."
What it tells us, Zinczenko adds, "is that aging is not the inevitability that we might have assumed by watching our fathers, now in their 50s and 60s. Madonna is proof that exercising and eating right at an early age pays off."
Of course, some could rightly point out that it's easier to stay fit when you can afford private trainers and servants. Or possibly a little nip and tuck? Madonna's face appears on the current cover of New York magazine as an example of the latest hot looks in plastic surgery, though she hasn't said whether she's gone under the knife or needle.
More power to her, says Lesley Jane Seymour, editor of More, a magazine for women over 40.
"So she's had some work - I'll take it," says Seymour. "I want to know who her doctor is! It's really hard to believe she's 50. She looks 40. And she just keeps going at it, living life and loving life."
To Seymour, Madonna's not only an example to women on how to grow older - she's a reflection of how, as a society, our perceptions of age have changed. Especially 50, which used to be seen as the beginning of a depressing decline, not a new chapter.
It starts with looking different. "Put a picture of a 50-year-old woman today next to one from my mother's generation," says Seymour, who recently passed the mark herself. "We look at least 10 to 15 years younger than they did." She attributes it to exercise, better skin care, sun protection, less smoking, and generally a different standard of health and wellbeing.
"Also, 50 really is a new beginning for so many women," says Seymour, who notes that life expectancy rates show the average US woman has another 30 years to live past the half-century mark.
"Many have accomplished a number of their goals already. Their children are getting older. For the first time they can really think about themselves, and ask: What do I want from life?"
So how does Madonna feel about the impending birthday? The pop star is not speaking publicly about it, says her longtime publicist, Liz Rosenberg. "I'm sure she's happy to be an inspiration to women and men of any age," Rosenberg wrote in an e-mail. But the birthday, she noted wryly, "is not quite the benchmark for her as it seems to be in the media, who have been talking about her 50th since she turned 40!"
Yahoo! 7 News

Madonna reunites exes

ninemsn
Madonna is trying to reunite former lovers Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake on stage for her upcoming Sticky & Sweet Tour.

Although the exes haven't been close since JT dumped the cheating singer in 2002, Madge is hoping the duo will set the stage alight by performing together.

"Madonna is always trying to raise the bar and Britney and Justin on the same stage would be perfect," says a source. "They have both been asked but I think they are both a bit reluctant."

Madonna denies affair, divorce rumours

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Pop star Madonna has denied having an affair with Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez, saying in a statement to People magazine she is not planning to get divorced from her British husband Guy Ritchie.
Rumours that the London-based couple planned to split have been circulating for months, fuelled most recently by reports that she had hired a lawyer to divorce filmmaker Ritchie.
"My husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce," the singer told People.
"I brought my kids to a Yankee game. I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez. I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study," she said.
People magazine reported Rodriguez's wife, Cynthia, had left the Yankee baseball star over the alleged affair with Madonna, citing sources close to the situation.
The speculation about Madonna's marriage reached fever pitch in the last two weeks in London, where the Daily Mirror newspaper dedicated two front pages to the plight of the couple's relationship.
Madonna, 49, and Ritchie, 39, married in December 2000 at Skibo Castle in northeast Scotland. They met at a party hosted by ex-Police frontman Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler.
Their son, Rocco, was several months old on their wedding day, and in 2006 Madonna applied to adopt David Banda, a boy from Malawi whose mother had died shortly after his birth. The adoption was approved by a Malawian court in May.
Madonna also has a daughter, Lourdes, from an earlier relationship. She was married once before, to Hollywood actor Sean Penn, in the 1980s.
Madonna is one of the most successful rock stars of all time, with global album sales estimated at more than 200 million copies. A multi-Grammy award winner, she was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in March.
Ritchie is best known for his movies, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000), but he has come in for critical maulings since then, most notably when he directed Madonna in Swept Away (2002).
Madonna brushed off the rumours as media fabrication.
"I have learned over the years not to take accusations and the many false reports about me very seriously," she told People.
"Fiction and fact seem to be perceived as one and the same by people who read both newspapers and the internet."
Media reports later said that the wife of Rodriguez was planning to immediately file for divorce.
Cynthia Rodriguez, who married the New York Yankees star in 2002, says the marriage is over because of his extramarital affairs, according Miami news reports on Sunday.
Lawyer Earle Lilly, who said he was hired by Cynthia Rodriguez last week to launch the divorce case, told Houston TV station KTRK that the player's "relationship with Madonna was the final straw" for his client.
Another of her lawyers, Maurice Kutner, told The Miami Herald: "She feels that she has exhausted every opportunity to salvage the marriage, and that Alex has emotionally abandoned her and the (two) children and has left her with no choice but to divorce him."
The suit was expected to be filed immediately in Dade County Family Court, but as of Sunday the court's website did not list any divorce filing involving Cynthia Rodriguez.
Alex Rodriguez has refused to comment.