... The source said: “Despite huge attempts to patch things up they both knew deep down that divorce was on the cards.
"It wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. They tried hard over the last few months but their fighting was getting out of control.
“The final straw came before Madonna started her US tour.
“Madonna wanted a highly stage-managed separation, with their split being announced when it was convenient for her.
“She didn’t want the distraction while she is trying to concentrate on her tour.
“But a series of rows around Guy’s 40th birthday last month were so bad that Madge ended up storming out of the house and Guy’s had enough.
“Guy said if they were going to split, it has to be now — and their marriage will finally be over in a matter of weeks.
“Madonna was dithering at first about whether a separation would be best or whether to go ahead with the divorce.
"She has now agreed with Guy that a divorce is the best thing to do.”
Guy has flown back from France, postponing filming of his new movie Sherlock Holmes, to break the news to his parents.
This week he will take his possessions from the couple’s London home, which Madonna owns, and move into their Wiltshire home, which he owns.
Madonna — in New York on Monday night for the premiere of her new movie Filth And Wisdom — initially planned to move back to the US with their three children in July.
The source said: “She was adamant that she was leaving Guy and not coming back.”
But talk of the separation leaked out — along with rumours that Madonna was secretly seeing a married baseball star — and Guy flew out in a public last-ditch bid to repair the marriage.
The Sun led the way in reporting the couple’s ups and downs.
Madonna instructed her spokeswoman to put out a strongly-worded statement insisting there were “no plans” to divorce.
And the couple put on a show of unity at the UK premiere of Guy’s film RocknRolla, at Madonna’s birthday party and then at his birthday bash.
They also shared a weekend in Italy. It was planned as a romantic break but ended with them sleeping in separate rooms.
The source said: “Lately Guy has been putting his foot down about a lot of stuff.
“He is sick of his career taking a backseat to hers and was determined to spend as long as he had to promoting RocknRolla here, even if it meant being away from Madonna rehearsing in the US.”
They went on: “When Madonna first moved to the UK, she loved the idea of becoming an English rose. But slowly it turned sour. She decided she hated hunting and quickly dropped her ‘hobby’ of going for a pint of bitter with Guy in the local pub.
“She doesn’t have many friends here and as she has turned 50 she has become very philosophical and started wondering what it’s all about.”
Other arguments raged about their kids Lourdes, 12, Rocco, eight, and David Banda, two.
The source said: “Guy wants Madonna to stop uprooting them and let them stay in one place.
“It doesn’t help that Lourdes has decided she wants to spend more time with her real father, Carlos Leon, in New York.
“Guy is very keen for Lourdes to have a good relationship with him, but it means Madonna can use that as an excuse to spend more time in America.”
Dancer Carlos has been living in Madonna’s New York apartment for the last few months, overseeing renovations in preparation for the star’s return. During that time they have rekindled a close relationship.
Madonna and Guy have also rowed about her desire to adopt another baby.
Guy did not want to adopt initially because of his own family’s experiences.
His mother Lady Amber Leighton was forced to give up a baby boy for adoption when she was an unmarried 17-year-old, and his stepmother Shireen Ritchie struggled for years to find the truth about the adoption of her mother.
Guy was persuaded by Madonna to adopt David Banda but has since resisted her pleas to adopt a baby girl.
The source said: “Guy adores David and is glad they went ahead with the adoption. But he doesn’t want to adopt another child when their marriage is rocky. It’s a real bone of contention.
“Everyone agrees it is unfair on the children to witness such terrible arguments and so the divorce has been agreed.”
Last night a spokeswoman for Madonna declined to comment.
And as Guy’s dad John left his Chelsea home with Guy's sister, he refused to answer questions about his son.
Guy’s sister said: “We are not going to say anything today.”
Friday, October 17, 2008
More from Liz on Madonna/Guy Divorce
Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie are ending their almost-eight-year marriage, a rep for the singer confirmed Wednesday.
"The main concern for Madonna and Guy are their children - the security of their children in all senses of the word and the wellbeing of their children," rep Liz Rosenberg tells PEOPLE. "That's the priority for both of them moving forward. It's a sad situation."
The former couple, who have Rocco, 8, and David, 3, together and Madonna's 12-year-old daughter Lourdes with ex Carlos Leon, announced their divorce in a statement.
"Madonna and Guy Ritchie have agreed to divorce after seven-and-a-half years of marriage. They have both requested that the media maintain respect for their family at this difficult time," says the statement.
The statement says they have not agreed to a settlement.
"The main concern for Madonna and Guy are their children - the security of their children in all senses of the word and the wellbeing of their children," rep Liz Rosenberg tells PEOPLE. "That's the priority for both of them moving forward. It's a sad situation."
The former couple, who have Rocco, 8, and David, 3, together and Madonna's 12-year-old daughter Lourdes with ex Carlos Leon, announced their divorce in a statement.
"Madonna and Guy Ritchie have agreed to divorce after seven-and-a-half years of marriage. They have both requested that the media maintain respect for their family at this difficult time," says the statement.
The statement says they have not agreed to a settlement.
Madonna takes to the stage following split
Madonna put aside her impending divorce last night to take to the stage in Boston for the latest gig in her world tour.
Ever the consummate professional, the 50-year-old declined to mention the end of her marriage to Guy Ritchie as she performed to a sold-out crowd.
Those expecting her to mention Guy on stage were instead treated to yet more political talk, with the singer urging fans to vote for Barack Obama.
Madonna and Ritchie confirmed they were to divorce on Wednesday, as the singer left New York to travel to Boston for the next stop on her Sticky & Sweet World Tour.
The gig at the city's Banknorth Garden was the 23rd concert of the tour, which started in Cardiff in August and is expected to end in December.
Madonna cryptically announced to a New York concert audience on October 6: 'In exactly 29 moves, the Queen will dump the King.' She then had 29 more dates on her U.S. tour.
Ever the consummate professional, the 50-year-old declined to mention the end of her marriage to Guy Ritchie as she performed to a sold-out crowd.
Those expecting her to mention Guy on stage were instead treated to yet more political talk, with the singer urging fans to vote for Barack Obama.
Madonna and Ritchie confirmed they were to divorce on Wednesday, as the singer left New York to travel to Boston for the next stop on her Sticky & Sweet World Tour.
The gig at the city's Banknorth Garden was the 23rd concert of the tour, which started in Cardiff in August and is expected to end in December.
Madonna cryptically announced to a New York concert audience on October 6: 'In exactly 29 moves, the Queen will dump the King.' She then had 29 more dates on her U.S. tour.
Lawyers line up for Madonna divorce
Two of London's most formidable female lawyers will go head to head over Madonna and Guy Ritchie's divorce.
The pop superstar will be represented by Fiona Shackleton who acted for Sir Paul McCartney in his £24.3 million split from Heather Mills earlier this year.
Facing her will be Helen Ward, who secured £48 million for Beverley Charman when she split from her insurance magnate husband John in 2006.
Mrs Charman's payout is thought to be the biggest divorce award in English legal history.
A spokesman for the film director confirmed he had hired Manches, the firm where Lady Ward is a partner, but would not say which lawyer would represent Mr Ritchie. Manches refused to comment.
According to the firm's website Lady Ward "specialises in family law, with emphasis on the financial consequences of the breakdown of relationships with particular expertise in cases involving substantial assets, complexity and an international element."
It adds: "Where it is necessary she also deals with cases involving the resolution of disputes relating to the children."
Arrangements for the couple's children are likely to be central to Madonna and Mr Ritchie's divorce.
The singer has a 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes, from a previous relationship. The couple have an eight-year-old son, Rocco, and adopted their younger son, David, three, from Malawi.
The divorce was announced in a joint statement released on Wednesday, nearly eight years after the couple's lavish wedding at Skibo castle, Scotland, on December 22, 2000.
The pop superstar will be represented by Fiona Shackleton who acted for Sir Paul McCartney in his £24.3 million split from Heather Mills earlier this year.
Facing her will be Helen Ward, who secured £48 million for Beverley Charman when she split from her insurance magnate husband John in 2006.
Mrs Charman's payout is thought to be the biggest divorce award in English legal history.
A spokesman for the film director confirmed he had hired Manches, the firm where Lady Ward is a partner, but would not say which lawyer would represent Mr Ritchie. Manches refused to comment.
According to the firm's website Lady Ward "specialises in family law, with emphasis on the financial consequences of the breakdown of relationships with particular expertise in cases involving substantial assets, complexity and an international element."
It adds: "Where it is necessary she also deals with cases involving the resolution of disputes relating to the children."
Arrangements for the couple's children are likely to be central to Madonna and Mr Ritchie's divorce.
The singer has a 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes, from a previous relationship. The couple have an eight-year-old son, Rocco, and adopted their younger son, David, three, from Malawi.
The divorce was announced in a joint statement released on Wednesday, nearly eight years after the couple's lavish wedding at Skibo castle, Scotland, on December 22, 2000.
Divorce Surprises Madonna's Ex
In an interview Wednesday on syndicated radio program The Billy Bush Show, Leon said that Madonna and Ritchie's divorce "was news to me." He added, "all I know is I just support Madonna and Guy and of course my daughter, and I support all the children and I show them love, and it's all I can do."
In regard to his own relationship with Madonna, Leon says, "Any parents that stay friends, it's really good, good for the children. It's good for family values. It's good for a lot of reasons."
In regard to his own relationship with Madonna, Leon says, "Any parents that stay friends, it's really good, good for the children. It's good for family values. It's good for a lot of reasons."
Filth and Wisdom - New York Times Review
Pop go the dialectics in “Filth and Wisdom,” a tale of bumping and grinding your way to happiness from the hardest-working hard body in show business, that precision sex-and-beat machine turned first-time movie director known as Madonna. Set in London, the loosely threaded 84-minute story written by the Big M and Dan Cadan (a former crew member for her soon-to-be ex, Guy Ritchie) involves three roomies who are peddling body and soul in order to follow their different dreams, all of which should sound familiar to the Madonna faithful: music, dance and ... saving impoverished African children.
Though she might be in an autobiographical mood, Madonna never appears on camera (two of her songs get a workout), letting the low-profile cast go through the motions and emotions for her. First and foremost is A. K. (Eugene Hutz, of the self-styled Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello), a Ukrainian musician who earns his keep British style by punishing naughty (adult) boys and dressing up in women’s clothing. A charismatic string bean adorned with gold hoop earrings and a kitten-sized mustache, A. K. shares a flat with Holly (Holly Weston), a ballerina with no discernable personality, and Juliette (Vicky McClure), a pharmacist’s aide whose obsession with African children leads to the worst line (and idea) in a movie this year: “She don’t know she’s starving too,” explains A. K.
She’s not really, though you might fervently wish that she were if not for the playful Mr. Hutz, who, whether loping through London or ogling the camera, lightens this otherwise heavy endeavor. Seriousness per se isn’t the problem (never is); the problem is the air of self-consciousness about being serious (or being taken as such), a tendency that has plagued Madonna’s own acting ever since her breezy 1985 breakout in “Desperately Seeking Susan.” That self-consciousness weighs on “Filth and Wisdom,” creating moments that are as cringe-inducing — Richard E. Grant as a professionally sensitive blind poet pulling books off his shelves in a rage — as the ill-advised director’s statement in which she name-drops Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Luchino Visconti.
Well, better Visconti than most. “Filth and Wisdom” is a ridiculously easy target, but it also creaks and strains with more ambition than most mainstream throwaways that just recycle the usual guns and poses. Not that Madonna has gone in for originality, which isn’t really her thing: rather, instead of repurposing a genre, she has riffled through the art-house catalog for inspiration, as evidenced by the film’s intentionally grubby visual texture, jumpy editing, direct-address commentary, freeze frames and other tricks. Although the somewhat rough visual style doesn’t feel especially organic or natural for a director who has built a slick international brand with mind-blowing calculation, it does keep you interested from scene to scene, which is a more generous compliment than it might seem.
As to that story: A. K. pines for Holly, who remains oblivious until she learns to love herself or something by becoming a pole dancer at a men’s club. Juliette learns something else, though I’m not sure what, partly by ducking and then embracing her infatuated boss, Sardeep (Inder Manocha), an Indian immigrant with a noisy brood and a jealous wife (Shobu Kapoor). Madonna spices up these human ingredients and others with light bondage and grave affirmations (there’s even some marital advice), and while her movie meanders hither and yon, it all works out because life is a giant virgin-whore paradox and filth leads to wisdom and wisdom leads to filth and Gogol Bordello leads to a merry blowout with horn blasts and yelps.
Though she might be in an autobiographical mood, Madonna never appears on camera (two of her songs get a workout), letting the low-profile cast go through the motions and emotions for her. First and foremost is A. K. (Eugene Hutz, of the self-styled Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello), a Ukrainian musician who earns his keep British style by punishing naughty (adult) boys and dressing up in women’s clothing. A charismatic string bean adorned with gold hoop earrings and a kitten-sized mustache, A. K. shares a flat with Holly (Holly Weston), a ballerina with no discernable personality, and Juliette (Vicky McClure), a pharmacist’s aide whose obsession with African children leads to the worst line (and idea) in a movie this year: “She don’t know she’s starving too,” explains A. K.
She’s not really, though you might fervently wish that she were if not for the playful Mr. Hutz, who, whether loping through London or ogling the camera, lightens this otherwise heavy endeavor. Seriousness per se isn’t the problem (never is); the problem is the air of self-consciousness about being serious (or being taken as such), a tendency that has plagued Madonna’s own acting ever since her breezy 1985 breakout in “Desperately Seeking Susan.” That self-consciousness weighs on “Filth and Wisdom,” creating moments that are as cringe-inducing — Richard E. Grant as a professionally sensitive blind poet pulling books off his shelves in a rage — as the ill-advised director’s statement in which she name-drops Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Luchino Visconti.
Well, better Visconti than most. “Filth and Wisdom” is a ridiculously easy target, but it also creaks and strains with more ambition than most mainstream throwaways that just recycle the usual guns and poses. Not that Madonna has gone in for originality, which isn’t really her thing: rather, instead of repurposing a genre, she has riffled through the art-house catalog for inspiration, as evidenced by the film’s intentionally grubby visual texture, jumpy editing, direct-address commentary, freeze frames and other tricks. Although the somewhat rough visual style doesn’t feel especially organic or natural for a director who has built a slick international brand with mind-blowing calculation, it does keep you interested from scene to scene, which is a more generous compliment than it might seem.
As to that story: A. K. pines for Holly, who remains oblivious until she learns to love herself or something by becoming a pole dancer at a men’s club. Juliette learns something else, though I’m not sure what, partly by ducking and then embracing her infatuated boss, Sardeep (Inder Manocha), an Indian immigrant with a noisy brood and a jealous wife (Shobu Kapoor). Madonna spices up these human ingredients and others with light bondage and grave affirmations (there’s even some marital advice), and while her movie meanders hither and yon, it all works out because life is a giant virgin-whore paradox and filth leads to wisdom and wisdom leads to filth and Gogol Bordello leads to a merry blowout with horn blasts and yelps.
Christopher Ciccone on Madonna's Divorce
from the Sun :
Madonna’s brother says her split from husband Guy Ritchie was brought about by the singer’s devotion to Kabbalah.
Christopher Ciccone - who recently penned a tell-all book on his big sis - also says there is no chance of the star couple getting back together.
The gay interior decorator told German newspaper Bild: “The Kabbalah sect, to which Madonna is completely devoted, played a large role in this marriage.
“It was based on it. And that is not enough on which to base a marriage and it couldn’t have survived.
“As for a reconciliation - I really don’t think so. With two such ambitious and headstrong personalities, it would just be too hard.”
Christopher, who had a big falling out with Guy, added: “He is not the easiest guy to get along with. We don’t really see eye to eye.
“I really have no idea what my sister loved about him. I suppose I could have tried to stop her.
“But I always wanted to welcome those people whom Madonna let into her life. Whether it was Warren Beatty, Sean Penn or Carlos Leon.
“They were and are good friends of mine. Guy was the first who couldn’t bear how close Madonna and I were."
Madonna’s brother says her split from husband Guy Ritchie was brought about by the singer’s devotion to Kabbalah.
Christopher Ciccone - who recently penned a tell-all book on his big sis - also says there is no chance of the star couple getting back together.
The gay interior decorator told German newspaper Bild: “The Kabbalah sect, to which Madonna is completely devoted, played a large role in this marriage.
“It was based on it. And that is not enough on which to base a marriage and it couldn’t have survived.
“As for a reconciliation - I really don’t think so. With two such ambitious and headstrong personalities, it would just be too hard.”
Christopher, who had a big falling out with Guy, added: “He is not the easiest guy to get along with. We don’t really see eye to eye.
“I really have no idea what my sister loved about him. I suppose I could have tried to stop her.
“But I always wanted to welcome those people whom Madonna let into her life. Whether it was Warren Beatty, Sean Penn or Carlos Leon.
“They were and are good friends of mine. Guy was the first who couldn’t bear how close Madonna and I were."
These Shoes are made for Shooting
Don’t mess with Madonna!
She debuted some Chanel shoes that were something fierce at the New York premiere of “Filth and Wisdom” last night.
An homage, perhaps, to husband Guy Ritchie’s new buzz-worthy film, “RocknRolla”?
Her dress was Dolce and Gabbana, who also styled her for last night’s premiere.
Madonna directed the film, which marked her feature film directorial debut.
access hollywood
She debuted some Chanel shoes that were something fierce at the New York premiere of “Filth and Wisdom” last night.
An homage, perhaps, to husband Guy Ritchie’s new buzz-worthy film, “RocknRolla”?
Her dress was Dolce and Gabbana, who also styled her for last night’s premiere.
Madonna directed the film, which marked her feature film directorial debut.
access hollywood
Express Yourself Obama Tee
Don't go for second best, express yourself with this Madonna Obama Tee! Printed in the Sticky & Sweet Tour colors this tee features an image of Obama and reads 'Express Yourself' on the front and 'Vote Obama 2008' on the back. Black. 100% cotton. *Will ship on or around October 23rd.
Madonna's Grammy Submissions
http://www.grammy.com/pdfs/entry/album_year.pdf
Album of the Year
Hard Candy
http://www.grammy.com/pdfs/entry/record_year.pdf
Record of the Year
4 Minutes
http://www.grammy.com/pdfs/entry/song_year.pdf
Song of the Year
4 Minutes
http://www.grammy.com/pdfs/entry/pop.pdf
Best Pop Vocal Album
Hard Candy
Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals
4 Minutes
http://www.grammy.com/PDFs/entry/Music_video.pdf
Best Short Form Music Video
4 Minutes
http://www.grammy.com/pdfs/entry/dance.pdf
Best Dance Recording
Give It 2 Me
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