Billboard’s new pan-European sales charts show Madonna starting a fourth week at No. 1 on European Top 100 Albums.
‘Celebration’ loses its remaining No. 1 European berths, in Ireland and the Czech Republic, but is back up 3-2 in Italy, 4-3 in Norway, 7-4 in Spain, 10-9 in Switzerland and is new in the Hungarian top 10 at No. 7.

“It’s still in the early stages. It’s about two intermingling love stories - one with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the other one a modern day love story. It’s not a musical but will likely have a musical component. Madonna did a lot of research on the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.”

Rumour has it that Material Girl and Papa don’t Preach are to be performed on the show…
Wait and see…

And what of her age and retirement, which the media wants to push her into? Madonna sighs deeply:

“Oh, please! Why should there be a time limit on working or giving of yourself? Or on love and looking attractive? Or trying to give back and make a saner world? Look, work isn’t everything, because if it was, I’d never have tried marriage, I never would never have had children. But one set of circumstances does not complete you. Maybe nothing ever does. So you work on your life and you work on your work and you try to live every single day like it’s your last. And you try to be better, to yourself and to others. I don’t always succeed. But I try and it’s my goal.”

Read the full article…

“I didn’t get rid of Tracy, no! It is just that I move around a lot and I like to try different workouts and programs to stop me getting bored. I take trainers with me when I travel. I also have gyms in all my houses and make sure there is a gym in the hotel. ”

We can let you know that processing and shipping of the advance orders have started. Buyers in the USA are getting their copies this week and international buyers should start receiving their issues this coming weekend and into next week, depending on their local postal carrier.

Enjoy your magazines!

(Thanks to Dagon & David)

One of your best friends is Madonna. How did you meet her?
I used to work at a nightclub for some extra money, in the evening. It was called Danceteria. She would come into the elevator and she was this kinda cute girl, but she had this real presence. She said to me, “Hey, you wanna dance to this song with me?” and I’m like “Yeah.” and I park the elevator, got out on the dancefloor. I was the operator… We just had this… We tore the floor. We had the greatest time and I turned her on to like clubs like Trax and Paradise Garage. We used to have the best time hitting the dance floor.

This was when she was new or practically fresh out of Michigan then?
She hadn’t even got a record yet. She was like, “I’m gonna be a big star one day”, and I’m like “That’s nice.” Who knew?!

Do you call her Madonna or Madge?
Madonna. Never Madge (laughs), no. Her friends don’t call her Madge, they call her M. I call her Madonna. I mean, no-one calls me D.

Over the years there were rumours that you and Madonna weren’t friends anymore. So you are still friends?
Oh God… We’ve always been friends. That’s what always amazes me. I’m like the only friend who really doesn’t kinda of like the publicity-part of our friendship, ’cause she is the biggest popstar in the world. I just don’t like defining it. People have always talked about the fact that, you know, the whole Kabbalah thing. She respects my beliefs, I respect hers and our friendship has always been very deep and… We get into it! We’re both Leo’s, we’re both born in August. We go at it! But, you know, in terms of being friends, we keep it real.

The finalists for the Top Tour and Top Draw awards, which acknowledge the top grossing and ticket selling tours, respectively, are the same three global treks: U2’s 360 tour, Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet tour, and AC/DC’s Black Ice tour.

Source: billboard

While the Queen of pop’s boyfriend, model Jesus Luz, is this season’s face of the Italian brand, and the design duo has created costumes for the star on several occasions, it seems that Madonna is content with her roll as muse rather than model. For now at least…

Jesus Luz is also the face of underwear brand Intimissimi…

The English Roses’ number-one teacher, Miss Fluffernutter, is getting married —to Binah’s father! The Roses couldn’t be happier for their beloved teacher, or for Binah, whose own mother died when she was just a baby. And Binah is thrilled at the idea of having a stepmother like Miss F —that is, until she realizes that a new woman in her father’s life means less time for Binah. Binah misses her father terribly. And it doesn’t help that Charlotte is driving everyone nuts trying to plan the perfect wedding. Can the English Roses save this walk down the aisle from going totally awry?

Source: Amazon

Madonna is becoming something of a skinflint. She’s certainly not into using her enormous wealth to help those less fortunate.

After all that talk of her donating millions to Malawi, here’s the way it boils down thanks to a newly obtained tax filing for her Ray of Light Foundation.

According to Ray of Light’s 2008 Form 990, Ray of Light is now worth over $6 million in assets.

But Madonna gave away a total of $459,000 last year. Forbes, on the other hand, placed her annual take at $110 million and put her at number 3 on its celebrity earners list. Her last tour grossed $280 million.

Ray of Light has cut down to just a handful of charities, too. Madonna gave most of that money to Kabbalah or its associated causes. She sent $231,000 to Raising Malawi, which is a front for the Kabbalah Center; $150,000 to Kabbalah’s Spirituality for Kids; and $53,00o to the Gucci Foundation, which in turn was for Raising Malawi.

Her other two charitable contributions were to Jewish Big Brothers/Sisters of Los Angeles ($10,000) and $15,000 to the T. J. Martell Foundation for Cancer Research. Ray of Light actually paid more than that in “investment fees” ($37,000). That’s pretty sad.

What this also means is that in the year, 2008, that Madonna was special guest at AmFar’s Cinema Against AIDS in Cannes, the singer donated no money from Ray of Light to that charity or to any other conducting AIDS research.

She doesn’t even give money to MusiCares or the Grammy Foundation. I guess we can scratch her name as a contender for MusiCares’s Person of the Year.

Madonna fares very poorly by comparison with buddies like Rosie O’Donnell and Barbra Streisand, or even Oprah Winfrey. All of them are professional charity donors of the highest rank. And she’s way behind Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Paul Simon, Steven Spielberg, Sting and Trudie Styler’s Rainforest Foundation, and other charitable minded celebs.

Source: Showbizz 411

Madonna’s “Sticky & Sweet” Show which was filmed in Buenos Aires’ River Plate Stadium, where she performed for 256,000 fans will make its world premiere on EPIX. The announcement was confirmed by the multiplatform entertainment service today. TV and online audiences will be able to see “Sticky & Sweet” for the very first time when it debuts across all EPIX
“An unstoppable force and the ultimate entertainer, Madonna gives an amazing performance,” said EPIX president Mark Greenberg. “She’s in a category of her own.”

For more information on Madonna’s “Sticky & Sweet” world television premiere on EPIX, follow epixHD on Twitter.

Do you still get star-struck sometimes?
FB: Yes, of course. I guess everyone does.

When was the last time?
FB: When I met Madonna for the first time. I met her at her home on Central Park West to talk about working on her Sex book. It was very comfortable but very uncomfortable at the same time, which is a very interesting feeling. She’s very imposing and knows what she wants. She’s very informed and opinionated, which makes her genius. She takes you in and swallows you up—and you don’t mind it, you actually enjoy it. There’s an unspoken seduction that goes on. I was young, She was young, too, and beautiful.

That was an unforgettable era.
FB: Yeah, she put that book out at the best moment. She timed it very well. She knows what she’s doing. And such drive. Some people want to lift stones and see what’s under it. She’ll be on a beach with millions of stones and want to lift every one of them.

According to the New York gossip column PageSix, “(DJ) Jus Ske was joking around and alternating their songs Holiday and Poker Face, and then they both started going at it.

“Madonna seemed to be the winner. People were going wild.”

Her lawyer John Kelly told the court she would be donating the undisclosed damages to her Raising Malawi charity.
Madonna, who was not at London’s High Court on Tuesday for the settlement, had been seeking more than £5m in damages in her action against Associated Newspapers.

“She’s a manifester, if there ever was one. First-rate manifester. Madonna makes things happen. Put Madonna up against any twenty-three-year-old, she’ll outwork them, outdance them, outperform them. The woman is broad.
And, of course, here you go: I still love her
But she’s retarded, too.”

It’s rocky getting a divorce, innit?
“You can’t tell someone when they’re getting divorced that their pain is an illusion,” he says. “I’m fucking telling you, I feel it, I’ve been through that. You have, too. No one can say you don’t feel that.”

“Working with Madonna was an amazing experience for me. She is such a professional, always on time, her work ethic is unbelievable. I had a great time with her, and we had a hit together that together that we wrote called ‘You’ll See,’ which was on her Greatest Hits album.”