Madonna

[Rasputin]

Pop singer Madonna hits a milestone when she turns 50 years old on Saturday.

Over the decades, the singer, born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone on Aug. 16, 1958, in Bay City, Mich., has ruled as a pop princess, and her character has been defined as much by her music as her fashion.

The 1980s saw her break out into the public eye with getups like the one she sported for "Material Girl," lace gloves and dyed blond hair that barely disguised her darker roots. And of course, anyone spotted wearing anything that looks like underwear on the outside can thank her for making that style popular, too.

Musically, Madonna has evolved over the years, and though her material doesn't smash the charts as regularly as it once did, she still manages to grab headlines. She's had two children -- including one with film director husband Guy Ritchie -- took on the spiritual practice of kabbalah and adopted a Malawian child.

There's been controversy, too, from her MTV Video Music Awards kiss with Britney Spears to, most recently, reports of romance with New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez -- which she denies.

[Rasputin]

Sitting on a diamante "M" throne in a fringed black leotard and over-the-knee leather boots, Madonna kicked off her Sticky and Sweet tour Saturday night at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in Wales, opening with "Candy Shop."

The 40,000-strong audience was in for a night of treats, including onscreen appearances by Kanye West, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, who dueted on "4 Minutes."

The image of rapper West encircled the stage for "Beat Goes On" as fans screamed and Madonna cruised through on a white vintage convertible car.

Spears made her virtual guest spot during "Human Nature," writhing while trapped in an elevator as Madonna played the guitar. The popster departed with her trademark line "It's Britney B–!"

Madonna switched themes multiple times, going sporty for "Into the Groove" in diamante-encrusted shorts and a hoodie, and invoking the Far East for a segment that had her in a cage with computer-generated water gushing around it. "La Isla Bonita" turned the stage into a Mediterranean street party with Greek dancing and a flamenco solo performance.

While fans went wild, husband Guy Ritchie was lending support backstage, according to the singer's rep, who also said Madonna had spent the day rehearsing. "She's been putting the finishing touches to some of the dance routines today, in a good way, she's a perfectionist!"

The 50-year-old singer pulled out all the stops, even using a video interlude to send a political message with images of peace campaigners, Al Gore, Bono and Barack Obama mixed with scenes of war-torn continents and poverty.

Religious messages flashed on the screens behind her for a remixed house version of "Like a Prayer," which was met with mass cheers.

At one point the singer shouted to the crowd, "This is the bit where I take requests," and started singing "Express Yourself" – then changed her mind. "F– that s–. I choose the songs."

After two hours, Madonna left the stage as the screen flashed "Game Over."

The singer heads back to London before traveling to France to continue the tour around Europe before arriving in New Jersey on Oct. 4.

[abadani69]

khoda ziadesh kone pire zane ro

[DokhtarIrooni]

Madonna and Guy are getting divorced

مدونا و گای ریچی طلاق می گیرند



مدونا، خواننده سرشناس پاپ و همسرش گای ریچی، فیلمساز بریتانیایی، تصمیم گرفته اند طلاق بگیرند.

بنابر گزارش ها، سخنگوی مدونا در یک پیام الکترونیک گفته است این زوج هنری هنوز در ارتباط با شرایط طلاق به توافق نرسیده اند. او از رسانه ها تقاضا کرد که به حریم خصوصی مدونا و ریچی احترام بگذارند.

هشت سال از ازدواج مدونا و گای ریچی می گذرد اما در چند ماه گذشته شایعه شده بود که زندگی مشترک آنها با مشکل روبرو شده است.

در ماه ژوئیه مسئول روابط عمومی مدونا انکار کرد که مدونا و ریچی در حال تصمیم گیری درباره طلاق هستند و گفت که "ازدواج آنها نیاز به نجات دادن ندارد."

این زوج ماه گذشته با یکدیگر در مراسم نمایش اولیه فیلم جدید گای ریچی به نام "راک ان رولا" شرکت کردند و در برابر دوربین خبرنگاران در کنار یکدیگر ظاهر شدند.

[Rasputin]

Pop star Madonna has been urged by Save the Children to reconsider her apparent plans to adopt another Malawian child.

Malawian officials have indicated she will arrive in the African country this weekend in an attempt to adopt an orphan called Mercy James.

The UK-based charity said ideally orphans should be cared for by their extended family or community and taking them abroad was "not a solution".

Madonna took then 13-month-old David Banda to the UK from Malawi in 2006.

The Reuters news agency reported that it was told Mercy James has "no father and mother, they both died", and an assessment had been completed on Thursday.

Reuters reported that Mercy James was four years old, while the AFP agency said she was three.

Madonna is expected to arrive in Malawi to attend a procedural hearing at the country's High Court on Monday.

Adoption papers

Save the Children spokesman Dominic Nutt told the BBC's Newshour programme: "For the most part so-called orphans in poor countries tend to have family still available to them, if not actually a parent still living.

"It is vital, we say, that children should not be taken abroad to be looked after but should be cared for in their own environment by their own community, ideally by their own family, particularly their extended family."

You cannot literally take every poor child who may only have one parent living, or no parent living, across the world and transport them all into Kensington in London

Dominic Nutt, Save the Children
He said even if an orphaned child had no extended family, it was "much easier and better" to continue looking after them in their own country.

"The thing to do is to support the community, to support local agencies and charities who can look after the child so that the child is at least cared for in their community," he said.

"You cannot literally take every poor child who may only have one parent living, or no parent living, across the world and transport them all into Kensington in London. It's not a solution."

Madonna took David Banda to the UK from an orphanage three years ago and the official adoption of the boy was confirmed last year.

An official at the Malawian department of women and child welfare told the BBC's Raphael Tenthani that the pop star had already filed adoption papers and her case could be heard as early as next week.

The official later told the Reuters news agency: "We expect her over the weekend or earlier than that... but without a doubt she is coming before the end of this month."

Madonna's spokeswomen, Liz Rosenberg and Barbara Charone, and her lawyer in Malawi, Alan Chinula, have not commented.

However, a US government official - speaking under condition of anonymity - told Reuters that an adoption bid was under way.

'Role model'

Writing in response to e-mailed questions from Nation readers last week, Madonna said: "Many people - especially our Malawian friends - say that David should have a Malawian brother or sister.

"It's something I have been considering."

In 2006, critics accused the Malawian government of sidestepping laws banning foreign adoptions in order to allow the celebrity to take David home with her.

After the adoption was legalised, Madonna said the difficulties had arisen because "this adoption essentially was the beginning of the creation of adoption laws in Malawi".

She hoped it would make it easier for others to adopt from the country and explained: "I am the template or the role model, so to speak, for future adoptions."

The star also has two biological children - Rocco, her son with former husband Guy Ritchie, and Lourdes, whose father is Carlos Leon.

Film director Ritchie and Madonna's divorce was finalised in November.

Malawi does not, as a rule, approve adoptions for single or divorced people, but the official at the country's welfare department said that each case was considered on merit.

[siamak]

Madonna Lands in Malawi Amid Controversy

Madonna landed in the African nation of Malawi on Sunday – but not without controversy.

The singer, 50, was accompanied by her daughter Lourdes, 12, and sons Rocco, 8, and David, 3, whom she adopted from Malawi last year. And she and Lourdes visited Chinkhota Village, where Madonna has purchased a large tract of land to construct a girls' school there, which sources say is modeled on the Leadership Academy for Girls that Oprah Winfrey built in South Africa.

Although the village chief thanked the singer for her "generosity," some residents were less enthusiastic amid fears that they would lose their ancestral lands and crop fields.

"We are told to leave our gardens after this year's harvest; we are told our houses are to be pulled down – but nobody is talking about compensation," said Esinati Nkhoma, a local mother of four. "Where will we move to?"

A senior government official said issues of compensation for the land are being handled by Raising Malawi, the charity established by Madonna.

When a journalist asked Madonna whether she was worried about the land concerns, she shouted back, "No!" Later, Madonna and Lourdes were heard asking villagers "Muli bwanji?," which translates to "How are you?" in Malawi's native tongue, Chichewa.

On Monday morning the star is scheduled to appear before a high court judge to process her second adoption. When a bystander asked, "Are you adopting another kid from Malawi?" she replied, "I don't know."

But courts records show she plans to adopt 3-year-old Mercy James, whose single teenage mother died at age 18.

[Rasputin]

Madonna has filed an appeal to a court ruling that rejected her bid to adopt a second child from Malawi, her lawyer said Friday.

"I have just filed a notice for the appeal," said the lawyer, Alan Chinula. He added that no date has been set for the appeal yet.

Earlier Friday, a residency requirement in Malawi prevented Madonna from adopting 3½-year-old Mercy James from that African nation, a judge and a lawyer told the Associated Press on Friday.

The news service described the judge as a witness not involved in Friday's court ruling, and the lawyer as another who was present at the time of the decision. Both the judge and the lawyer spoke on conditions of anonymity.

The residency requirement for prospective parents is 18 to 24 months in Malawi. Madonna has homes in New York and London.

Madonna, 50, adopted her son, David Banda, now 3, from Malawi in 2008; she was granted custody and allowed to take him out of the country two years earlier. That adoption caused controversy, including claims that her application received special status because of her celebrity.

The singer, a single mother, was planning to adopt Mercy James, whom she first met in an orphanage in 2006. Her other children are daughter Lourdes, 12, and son Rocco, 8.


Madonna's Reaction
When her Malawian lawyer, Alan Chinula, broke the news that High Court judge Esme Chombo had rejected her petition to adopt a Malawian toddler, an incredulous Madonna "kept wringing her hands," a source at Kumbali Lodge, where the pop star is staying, tells PEOPLE. Madonna, who filed her adoption papers on Monday, was not present in court.

At the hearing, the judge said child welfare officers are required to find suitable prospective parents and "not someone who just flies in and out." In terms of the child, "I think the welfare of Chifundo ['Mercy' in one of the languages spoken in Malawi] will be better served if she grows within the environment of the culture of Malawi," she said.

The judge also said that because Madonna is already assisting other orphans, Chifundo will still benefit from star's generosity.

[Rasputin]

Madonna wants her children to give back – and says that son David Banda and the 3-year-old Malawian girl, Chifundo "Mercy" James, whom the star still hopes to adopt, "will one day return to Malawi and help the people of their country."

While a Malawian judge rejected Madonna's petition to adopt Mercy earlier this month over a residency requirement, the star's lawyer has filed an appeal and Madonna, 50, told the Malawian newspaper the Nation in an email, "I want to provide Mercy with a home, a loving family environment and the best education and health care possible."

No appeal date has been set.

In a statement from her rep to CNN, Madonna further stated, "Though I have been advised that I cannot publicly discuss the pending appeal regarding my desire to adopt Mercy, I do want to say how much I appreciate the level of support that I have received from the people of Malawi and my friends around the world."

In turning down Madonna's request to adopt, the judge admitted she had "a gripping temptation" to approve it, according to court records. The jurist feared, however, that such a move might open the doors to child trafficking. "Anyone could come to Malawi and quickly arrange for an adoption that might have grave consequences on the very children that the law seeks to protect," wrote Justice E.J. Chombo.

[Rasputin]

"She is a person who I admire a lot, a friend who is in my life," the superstar's frequent companion, Jesus Luz, tells the Brazilian TV show Fantastico. "More than that, I can't say. She is my friend, just a friend."

As for those photos of them buying jewelry featuring Kabbalah symbols, he says, "I received these pieces of jewelry because they are inspired by Kabbalah. If I want to present them to somebody, it could be my mother or a friend of mine. I don't have any marriage plans or any wedding present."

The friendship between Luz, 22, and Madonna, 50, began early this year after they were introduced on a photo shoot by photographer Steven Klein. "I found her wonderful, a person full of positive energy, a nice person, you don't see faults," he tells Fantastico.

The Brazilian model offered a few details from his own biography, saying, "I am a quiet guy. I grew up in Rio, always liked nature, the beach, to treat my body well, to work out, to be healthy. I went to evangelical church, Catholic, yoga, various ways to try and meet God within me."

And is he a ladies' man? "I always liked to date seriously," he says. "I never was just casual."

One thing his pal Madonna has taught him is to ignore media rumors, or taunts he's just another Boy Toy. "In truth," he says, "I never pay attention to what others say about me, because if I let negativity to enter into my life, I can't follow my route, my path."

[Rasputin]

Madonna's family has just gotten bigger, now that the pop star has legally won the right to adopt a daughter from Malawi.

"I am extremely grateful for the Supreme Court's ruling on my application to adopt Mercy James. I am ecstatic ... My family and I look forward to sharing our lives with her," Madonna said in a statement through her spokesperson Friday.

Preparations are already underway to bring Chifundo "Mercy" James, 3, from the African country to America private jet, after the singer stayed up throughout the night hoping for a courtroom victory.

"It's the early hours in New York now but my client has been awake all night waiting for this," Madonna's Malawi lawyer, Alan Chinula, tells PEOPLE. The attorney spoke to his client as soon as the ruling was made official, at around 2 a.m. her time Friday. "She was ecstatic when I broke the news to her. She said, 'Thank heavens.' "

Chinula says he is "now awaiting instructions from New York to start preparing travel arrangements for Mercy. I have to be there for her passports and everything."

It is likely to take three to five days before the paperwork is ready and the child is able to leave and join fellow adoptee David, also 3. He was formally adopted in 2008 after some controversy and legal challenges.