Madonna's Charity Work

“It has pretty much, taken over my life, and I’m so grateful it has…I’ve started an organization called Raising Malawi…and any of your help would be greatly appreciated by me.” – Madonna

Madonna's Charity Work.

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Lady Gaga Tells Leno The Vampyre Gave Her Hiss Of Approval For "Born This Way"

Jay Leno asked Lady Gaga about the utterly lame "Born This Way" vs. Madonna's "Express Yourself" controversy last night on the Tonight Show.

Here's what she said:

“There is really no one who is a more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan, personally and professionally. Well the good news is I got an email from her people sending me their love and support on behalf of the single. And if the queen says it shall be, then it shall be!”

So there.

2011 Grammy Awards Winners

If you slept under a rock all day, you missed The Grammys. I'm mentally fried from live-blogging the event over at Idolator, but here are some performances, plus some main winners...

Lady Gaga, "Born This Way"



Cee Lo Green & Gwyneth Paltrow, "Forget You (aka Fuck You)"



Rihanna & Drake, "What's My Name"



Rihanna, Eminem, Skylar Grey & Dr. Dre, "Love The Way You Lie/I Need A Doctor"



Album Of The Year: The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
Song Of The Year: "Need You Now" - Lady Antebellum
Record Of The Year: "Need You Now" - Lady Antebellum
Best New Artist: Esperanza Spalding
Pop Vocal Album: The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga
Female Pop Vocal Performance: "Bad Romance" - Lady Gaga 
Male Pop Vocal Performance: "Just The Way You Are" - Bruno Mars 
Pop Vocal Performance, Duo Or Group: "Hey Soul Sister (Live) - Train 
Pop Collaboration: "Imagine" - Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal
Short Form Music Video: "Bad Romance" - Lady Gaga  
Dance Recording: "Only Girl (In The World)" - Rihanna
Dance/Electronic Album: La Roux - La Roux
Remixed Recording, Non-Classical: "Revolver" - Madonna 
Country Album: Need You Now - Lady Antebellum
Country Song: "Need You Now" - Lady Antebellum 
Rap Album: Recovery - Eminem
Rap Song: "Empire State Of Mind" - Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys 
Rock Album: The Resistance - Muse 
Rock Song: "Angry World" - Neil Young
Alternative Music Album: Brothers - The Black Keys
R&B Album: Wake Up! - John Legend and The Roots
R&B Song: "Shine"- John Legend and The Roots 
R&B Male Vocal Performance: "There Goes My Baby" - Usher
R&B Female Vocal Performance: "Bittersweet" - Fantasia
R&B Vocal Performance, Duo Or Group: "Solider Of Love" - Sade
Urban/Alternative Performance: "Fuck You" - Cee Lo Green

Piers Morgan Further Rips Into Madonna In 'EW'

America's/Britain's Got Talent loud mouth Piers Morgan is heavily shilling his new CNN talk show Piers Morgan Tonight, which premieres tomorrow night, to anyone who will listen.

So yesterday I was flipping through the new issue of Entertainment Weekly and almost spit out my watermelon Jolly Rancher over this hot quote—yet another good dig on Madonna, who Piers has said is banned from his show.

"I was interested to see she doesn't know who I am because Madonna and I have been feuding for 25 years... When I watched her in the days of 'Holiday,' nothing was sexier than Madonna. Watching Madonna at 52 going out with 22-year-old kids called Jesus and stripping her clothes off for magazines, it's like, Please, it's over. We have a new one, it's called Lady Gaga."

Clearly, Piers has been reading Chart Rigger for awhile now.

SEE ALSO:
* Lady GaGa Hammers A Giant Stake Into Madonna's Undead Corpse
* Madonna: Banterview With The Vampyre
* Lady GaGa Again Spanks Madonna
* Madonna: Truth In Advertising
* Lady Gaga: 4, Madonna: 0
* Madonna's New Single Is A Hit Somewhere!
* Lady GaGa Renders Christina Aguilera Irrelevant (Say Hi To Madonna, Christina!)

U.S. Chart Roundup: Nothing I Can Say Will Be Better Than This Screencap From The Hot 100

...or this one.

Thank god Billboard hasn't updated its Lil Wayne info since "Revolver."

The U.S. Top 10:

1. "Just The Way You Are" - Bruno Mars" *3 weeks*
2. "Like A G6" - Far*East Movement
3. "Teenage Dream" - Katy Perry
4. "Just A Dream" - Nelly 
5. "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" - Usher feat. Pitbull
6. "Dynamite" - Taio Cruz
7. "Love The Way You Lie" - Eminem feat. Rihanna
8. "Only Girl (In The World)" - Rihanna
9. "I Like It" - Enrique Iglesias feat. Pitbull
10. "Club Can't Handle Me" - Flo Rida feat. David Guetta

Throwback: This Used To Be My Playground

Since today marks Madonna's 62nd birthday, I couldn't let the occasion slip by without a particular tale of when I was under Ye Olde Vampyre's sway. Yes, chyldryn, we must go back into the mists of time as we did once before in Chart Rigger's Throwback series for Madge. And you'll like this one—it involves teenage boy drama.

****

First off, here's my confession on a dance floor: the first Madonna album I ever owned was The Immaculate Collection. It was a Christmas gift from a friend of mine named Mandy, and we used to hang out in her bedroom playing it over and over. She was 14 and I was 16. We'd also alternate with INXS' X, Deee-Lite's World Clique, Pet Shop Boys' Behavior and Morrissey's Bona Drag, but usually it all came back to Madonna. We had a stupid dance we'd do to "Material Girl."

I actually used to defend the Vampyre a lot in those days. My mom once complained that her music sounded "mechanical," and I let her have it. (It was ironic to me, since she bought my dad Madonna's first two albums upon their release.) Anyway, that was then...

****

A year-and-a-half later I graduated from high school. A friend invited me and some other broad on her family vacation to Ocean City, Maryland. It was summer 1992, and everything was "Baby Got Back," The Simpsons, Beverly Hills 90210 and Kriss Kross will make you jump, jump.

That was the first vacation I'd ever gone on with friends, sans my parents. We stopped in Baltimore on the way there, and that was the first time I ever heard a car alarm. It was also the first time I developed a crush on a guy.

The three of us hung out on the beach all week, and I played my Madonna "This Used To Be My Playground" and Elton John "The One" cassette singles a lot. One of the girls met this other boy named Jason on the beach who was our age and was vacationing with his mother and younger brother. The four of us hit it off instantly.

Of course, I think the reason for that is that the three of us Pennsylvanians were equally smitten with the athletic blond guy from Maryland. One night Anji's (the girl who invited us on the trip) parents went out, and we had Jason over. The girls made dinner and we all got drunk in the rented condo. There's a tragic picture of Jason and I singing along to Mariah Carey's cover of Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" to each other, holding remote controls up as microphones. I had on a black Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt and denim jean shorts (Christ!). On the TV in the background, the very first episode of Melrose Place was airing.

The four of us were inseparable that week. We spent days on the beach and nights on the heavily-populated, touristy boardwalk. One evening we debated over whether to see Unlawful Entry or Cool World at the movies. (Unlawful Entry won out—unfortunately. I've still never seen Cool World.) In retrospect, it feels silly to note that Jason seemed like a big kid, because, really, we were all kids (I was 18 and the three of them were 17). But there was something very childlike about him.



Me, I was all broody and listening to "The One" on my walkman over and over:

I saw you dancing out the ocean
Running fast along the sand
A spirit born of earth and water
Fire flying from your hands

In the instant that you love someone
In the second that the hammer hits
Reality runs up your spine
And the pieces finally fit 

****

On our last night together in Ocean City, the four of us went to the amusement park at the end of the boardwalk and rode all the rides. We made the most of it, but there was that nagging melancholy that we'd all connected for a brief moment in time that was about to end. Another year of high school beckoned for the three of them. As did lives in different states. And I had the uncertainty of a freshman year of college looming.

Us three vacationers walked to the hotel Jason and his family were staying at on the morning we left and we said our goodbyes. I'd stayed up the night before writing a long (and probably impossibly embarrassing) letter to him that said something along the lines of the fact that I'd never met another guy like him before. I guess in hindsight, those scribbled words were probably a thinly-veiled acknowledgment of me having a total guy crush for the first time. We all gave Jason a hug and I slipped him the letter.

On the five-hour car ride back to Western Pennsylvania, I kept rewinding and listening to "This Used To Be My Playground" on my headphones. I recall looking away from the rest of them, out the window, and quietly tearing up for a minute.

And looking back, I didn't cry so much over some guy we'd all just met a few days earlier. I think I was simply beginning to realize that a younger fraction of myself got left behind on that beach—the innocent part that still believed in the magic and possibilities that one week at the ocean could offer.

Well, the ocean...and, of course, Madonna.



THIS PIECE FOLLOWS:
* Mix Tapes, CD Singles And Being Boring—Tales Of A Lonely Teenage Nobody

IT PRECEDES:
* These Are Days You'll Remember
* Pet Shop Boys' 'Very' At 15: How Can I Even Try To Explain?
* Coffee, Drugs, Death And Ace Of Base
* Return To Innocence
* Threesomes, Term Papers, Erasure And The Book-End of Gen X
* Someone Who Won't Leave Me Feeling...
* You Can Depend On Me

Madonna Sexy Picture

Madonna Picture

Madonna Sing

Madonna Best Picture Singing

Madonna Top Image

Madonna Cute Girl

Madonna Kissing

Top Image Madonna

Madonna's Louis Vuitton Ads

In the ads shot by fashion photog Steve Meisel, Madonna shows over her agile frame with a smoldering glance into the camera.

“I just blurted out, ‘I think we should do Madonna,” respected designer Marc Jacobs, the French fashion house’s creative director, says of the decision to have the pop music icon front this season’s campaign.

“I was totally just blown away by it, and moved by her performance, by what she had to say, and her energy.”

Britney, Madonna and Justin perform

Madonna brings together Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake to perform at Dodger Stadium for the Sticky & Sweet tour on Thursday night.

Brit performed “Human Nature” and Justin sang “4 Minutes.” Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Lopez, Heidi Klum, Isla Fisher, Dennis Quaid, Ryan Seacrest, Kate Walsh, Kate Moss, Heidi Klum, Hayden Panettiere, Lucy Liu, Amanda Bynes and other celebs were all spotted in the audience. Watch the video below!

Celebrity Baby Style Check

Here they are - a toddler-style showdown! Which is the cutest baby? Here is Madonna and youngest son, David Richie.

Angelina Jolie seems to go with classic white for Shiloh's wardrobe. Pax & Maddox are all about trends, while Shiloh keeps it classic.

We've all read about Suri Cruise's fashion sense.Mom, Katie Holmes, claims Suri picks out her own dress fabrics. She is often spotted in outfits worth more than $300 each.

Kinston & Gwen Stefani always looks hip and casual.

Daniellynn seems to stick with traditional girlie clothes, much like her late Mom, Anna Nicole Smith.

Lourdes Photo Gallery

Madonna's Daughter Lourdes is growing up and getting out more. Here are some pictures from the past year. I threw in a couple of pictures of Madonna's sons, too: Rocco and David.

Madonna's daughter, Lordes, and her Papa

Carlos Leon and Madonna made Lourdes, who is a tween now! Here's Lourdes with her daddy walking the streets of NYC yesterday. He looks tough! I assumed he was her bodyguard.

Gweneth Paltrow's Post-Partum Depression

Gweneth Paltrow told Vogue Magazine that after she suffered from post-partum depression after giving birth to Moses. She stated that she felt "out of her body", "disconnected, "down" and "pessimistic”. She is pictured here with Madonna looking kind of depressing.

Madonna Scraps Plan for Second Adoption

Instead she will support the orphan financially from Britain. The 49-year-old singer told aides she has been left exhausted by a mountain of red tape.

Her adoption of Malawian son David Banda, two, was finalised this month. Pals were sure she would be bringing home Mercy, also two, as a sister for him.

Gwyneth Supports Madonna's Charity

Gwenyth Paltrow came out to Madonna's Malawi Benefit despite health problems earlier this year.

Pregnant Gwen Stefani at Benefit

Gwen and Gavin at Madonna's night to benefit the malawai unicef fund.

Maddona and Daughter Lourdes at Benefit

Madonna hosted a night to benefit the malawai unicef fund. All the stars came out, and so did her daughter. There has been speculation that Madonna looked a little too refreshed and perhaps had a lift.

Madge Candids

Madonna shows two very different sides to photographers: earth mother and material girl. It is nice to see Guy Ritchie, Lordes, Rocco and David all in one photo.

Madonna Leaves Malawi

Madonna jetted out of Malawi on Sunday after a six-day visit to the impoverished homeland of the toddler she wants to adopt, carrying the boy in her arms as she boarded her plane.

It looks like she left with the same number of children that she arrived with!

source

Madonna Not Adopting Grace

Madonna is pictured with David in Malawi, yesterday. There have been reports that she plans to adopted a 3-year-old girl named Grace. Her agent told The Source last night that Madonna had not even met Grace and that she "has no plans to adopt her or any other children".

After spending some US 3 million on an orphan day care centre in Mphandula, she attended its opening this week where hundreds of children sang hymns and performed dances for her.