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She is a true American original
- trendsetting, mind-bending Madonna.
An icon for the past three decades, if sometimes a controversial one.
She is tiny in person but her accomplishments are huge.
She is quite simply the top selling female recording artist of all time.
You might think that would be quite enough, you’d be wrong.
She’s busier than ever.
On February 3rd, a film she co-wrote and directed called W.E. opens,
two days later she performs at the Superbowl.
The last time we saw the reigning Queen of Pop,
she was on her eighth tour, aptly named, Sticky and Sweet
- doing it all from jumping rope, to her signature Vogue.
She’s come a long way since Like A ***.
Now the best selling female rock artist of the 20th century
is about to go on tour again
and has just signed a new music deal reportedly worth $40 million dollars.
Are you buying lunch? That’s what it says. Forty million dollars.
Nobody’s handed me forty million dollars. I don’t know about that.
It looks good on paper.
It sure does but that's not all she’s up to.
And walk!
Madonna is also directing her first feature film.
Perfect. Check the gate.
Directing seems to come naturally. She even directs us.
You need to open this flat. You wanna light us?
I like that. Your director thing kicks in.
Here, move.
What are you doing?
Now we’re both in the light.
The film, which she also co-wrote but doesn’t appear in, is called W.E.
Happy birthday W.E.. Who’s W.E.?
Wallis and Edward.
It explores the controversial love story of King Edward the eighth and the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson
- a union that would rocked the British Empire.
Your family will never stand for it. The Prime Minister won’t stand for it.
Then I’ll give up the throne.
And I will be the most despised person in the world.
Indeed she was. Edward gave up the throne for the woman he loved in 1936.
Have you ever been loved like that?
I’ve certainly fallen in love with people who were willing to make big sacrifices for me.
Possibly not as big as I would liked them to make
and I’ve made very big sacrifices for the people that I’ve loved.
And the great discovery that I made whilst doing this research is that there is no such thing as perfect love
and I obviously know that at the back of my head.
I’m not an idiot but you know,
I have my hopelessly romantic strangely naive moments.
You’re a romantic.
I am. Sorry.
Still after all these years?
Why not? Yes I am.
Madonna’s love life certainly had its own ups and downs.
It’s been three years since her highly publicized divorce from British film director Guy Ritchie.
Her new love, twenty-four year old dancer Brahim Zabat.
You’re famously dating younger men, lots of talk about that.
Is there lots of talk. Aren’t people tired of that subject?
No.
Boring old chestnut. Okay, what do you wanna know?
Why?
You know I didn’t like write down on a piece of paper
“I’m now going to have a relationship with a younger man."
It’s just what happened. You see that’s the romantic in me.
I just met someone that I cared for and this happens to be this age.
And what’s appealing about him?
I don’t feel comfortable with this conversation but you know, I don’t want to live my life on my own.
I love being a mother.
My children fill me up in many ways and inspire me in many ways but I need a partner in life.
I’ve never really lived a conventional life so I think it’s quite foolish for me
or anyone else to start thinking that I’m going to start making conventional choices.
So how are things going with her new beau?
I’m the easy one.
I believe you, millions won’t. Are you the easy one?
No, I don’t know. I mean,
I go home and I go wash my wash and I put on my sweatpants and I lay down on the bed and I say,
“oh please rub my feet” and you know, he says, “no you rub my feet.”
So you know, behind the curtain I’m just like everybody else.
But she’s also a master of controversy.
The film dives in with sparks flying around whether the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
were as has been widely reportedly, Nazi sympathizers.
‘Cause you could have side stepped the issue.
I’m interested that you didn’t. You didn’t need to deal with that.
Why? I didn’t but I wanted to because I think it was something a real shadow that they had to live under.
That’s a huge libelous accusation.
But what about those pictures proving that the couple did meet with Hitler in 1937.
I do not believe they were Nazi sympathizers.
He did have a meeting with Hitler but so did a lot of heads of states and that didn’t make them a Nazi sympathizer.
But I think people started to spin this tale and this yarn and it was easy for a lot of people to put that label on them.
Despite what our F.B.I base say in retrospect.
Well first of all the F.B.I is notorious for lying
and second of all there is actually no empirical evidence that can prove that they were Nazi or Nazi sympathizers.
And you won’t be able to give me any evidence, I promise you.
Do you end up liking Wallis Simpson?
I love her. Yeah, I do.
I see her as a human being.
Do you identify with her in some ways?
Of course I do. I identify with her ability to survive against all odds,
I think she was deeply, deeply misunderstood by people and I think you know obviously I can relate to that.
She can also relate to the fame and the infamy.
This is her movie,
this is her life.
The cameras are so intrusive and the paparazzi all of it, is so breathtaking in a kind of way.
Energy sucking.
Yeah. Is that how it feels to be on the other side of those camera.
Sure. I mean there’s a certain aspect to the cameras that feel like
a weapon being pointing at you and shooting at you.
Is it exhausting sometimes? Yeah.
Do I get to the end of a red carpet and feel dizzy and like I need to lay down and drink a Alka-Seltzer?
Sometimes I do yeah.
Sometimes it really does take your breath way but you know I’m not really in a position to complain.
It’s a high-class problem.
She’s got plenty of those, like what’s she going to do at the Superbowl at Half time?
We’re back now with Madonna who’s crazy busy these days;
balancing four kids, a new album MDNA and a new film.
Oh did mention a little thing called the Superbowl?
The public has all kinds of images of Madonna in its collective head;
the Material Girl,
to Express Yourself,
to save the world in 4 Minutes
but what’s most precious to her these days happens out of sight, her role as mother to four kids.
Lourdes is the oldest at fifteen.
Do your kids ever say “Mum you’re just not cool”?
Do you get the eye roll because I get a lot of the eye roll lately.
Um, they don’t say it’s not cool but my daughter does say
“that’s in appropriate, you’re not dressing like that” and sometimes she’s right.
Because it’s too, in what way inappropriate?
Well, like for instance, I went to the screening of my film the other night
and I was just feeling fun and frivolous.
So I put on this great beaded jeweled Dolce & Gabbana corset that’s just you know,
a little corset and fishnets and I put a cape on. She came into my dressing room she’s like,
“Mom, what are you doing?” and I said "I’m going to my screening of my film".
She’s like, “That’s not director, that not director. Take it off, take it off it’s inappropriate.”
And I was like, “Really? I just. I just, okay.”
She was right. She was right. I changed and I actually put on a better outfit and I liked it.
The day of our interview she was racing off to a dance rehearsal.
What’s happening now?
I have 250 dancers waiting for me right now and I’m …
Are they auditioning or are you …
Yes they’re auditioning for me.
For her much anticipated halftime show at the Superbowl.
So what’s more frightening, having the movie open or performing live at the Superbowl?
The Superbowl, for sure.
And I mean, have you planned on what you’re going to do yet?
I’m in the process of doing that and I have eight minutes to set up my stage,
twelve minutes to put on the greatest show on Earth and I have seven minutes to take it down
so that football field is clean for the second half of the game.
And that’s the challenge, how do you do what?
Do you have an idea of what you’re like to do?
Yeah I do and a few things have been shot down because I can’t do things that block sightlines or I can’t then I…
Jump out of a plane, or, no…
No there’s a roof on the stadium.
Oh well that wouldn’t work then. That would be an ugly conclusion.
It would be painful. I actually wanted to have a hundred drummers come from the ceiling.
I like it.
- It’s cool right? Cool. Drumline from the ceiling. - And?
No. Can’t take the weight.
I know. So there’s a lot of that.
You know I have ideas I get like, “oh my god this is amazing,” and then like, “not that’s not going to work.”
Something tells me that the director, singer, icon, mother, will come up something spectacular.