Posts Tagged ‘hard candy’

The Real Life of the Ritchies

April 10th, 2008 / Author: OK! Staff

Despite just being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and her gazillionth new album, Hard Candy about to drop, Madonna insists that life inside her sprawling English manor is really a very quiet one.

"We have chickens and build tree forts there," the Michigan native, 49, says of Ashcombe House, the English countryside estate she shares with her hubby of eight years, Guy Ritchie, 39, and their three children, Lourdes,11, Rocco, 7, and David,2.

The Material Girl tells OK! that she drags herself out of bed every morning at 7:15 a.m. and has breakfast with her kids before sending them off to school. A strict disciplinarian, Madonna says it’s strong-willed Lola who most reminds the singer of herself.

"Lola rules the roost," the singer says. "She is extremely maternal toward David but is in major competition with Rocco. But he’s starting to fight back."

Of not allowing her kids to watch TV or read magazines, Madonna says, "You have to show them who’s in charge. If you give in to them, they’re going to run your life."

The singer tells OK! a typical day for her includes regular Pilates and dance aerobics, shooting, fishing and riding horses. "I love horses," she says. "I think I may have been one of Henry VIII’s knights in another life, riding through a great forest."

At the end of the day, Madge sits down to a dinner of "fish, some kind of grains, some kind of cooked vegetable and salad." An admitted control freak, the singer reveals she and Guy are addicted to their blackberries, even sleeping with them under their pillows!

"We lie right next to each other with our blackberries under our pillows," she laughs. "I often wake up in the middle of the night and remember that I’ve forgotten something so I jump up and make notes. Guy’s always waiting for me to come to bed, so he plays Brick Breaker on his blackberry until I’m ready!"

When asked if she has any advice for people wishing to know her secrets, Madonna tells OK!, "If you want to know how I look like I do, it’s diet and exercise and constantly being careful," she says. "There is no shortcut to being Madonna!"

Madonna on Britney: “Let’s Go Save Her”

March 28th, 2008 / Author: cwillett

Madonna wants the media to leave Britney Spears alone. "They need to step off," she told the Yo on E! satellite radio show. "For real… Let’s go save her."

Madonna, 49, said her daughter Lourdes, 11, feels the same way.

"She knows Britney, but she doesn’t really watch TV or read gossip stuff," the pop queen said in the interview. "I think she sort of gets the drift of what’s going on, and I think she feels very protective of Britney."

Madonna, who also has a son, Rocco, 7, with hubby Guy Ritchie, are raising a Malawian boy, David, who they hope to adopt. "He’s the life of the party," she said of David, who she brought home from Africa in 2006. "He loves music, he’s an amazing dancer… he’s a character."

When it comes to caring for David, Madonna says it’s no different from raising her biological children. "I thought it was gonna be, but it feels the same to tell you the truth."

 

And as for those rumors that her marriage is on the rocks? Madonna says, "It is ridiculous… I don’t pay much attention to it."

Madonna, whose new album  Hard Candy, arrives April 29, told Yo on E! that she plans to spend the summer in New York, and that she might kick off a tour this fall.

Madonna: I Would Get Cut on American Idol

March 27th, 2008

These days, struggling and aspiring artists can take the fast track to fame thanks to American Idol, but back in the day, you had to work your way up and no one knows that better than Madonna.

"I did it the hard way," she tells New York radio station Z100 in an interview to air tomorrow. "I had to teach myself how to play the drums, I had to get into a band. [I played] in crappy little clubs for years before anybody would even pay any attention to me. [ I had to] take my tape around to record companies and have them shut the door in my face. It took a long time. I came up the hard way."

It’s all worth it, though, for the 49-year-old, who was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame this month, because "doing all of that is what’s given me staying power."

If an Idol-esque show had existed back in the ’80s, the Grammy-winning superstar doesn’t think she would’ve fared well on it.

"I went to a lot of auditions for musical theater and conventional mainstream things and I always got cut immediately, so I’m pretty sure the same thing would happen to me."

She continues, "Now the music business, the entertainment business is a different game. Different things happen for people and I think playing live is not something people focus on very much."

She certainly is though. Following promo tours in April and May for her upcoming album, Hard Candy, Madonna is plotting a larger summer tour in full support of the disc.

Hard Candy is her 11th studio album and features a tune, "4 Minutes," with Justin Timberlake, who famously recounted a bootylicious incident in the studio with Madge at her Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The 27-year-old shared that Madonna ordered him to drop trou to give him a B12 shot when he complained of a cold. For her part, Her Madgesty insists there was no ulterior motive in her offer.

"The reason I gave him a B12 shot is because we only had a certain amount of days in the studio and I didn’t want him using that as a lame-ass excuse to not to come to work," she says. "It’s got nothing to do with butt, I promise you. I don’t need to give him a shot to see his butt!"

OK! Interview: Ellen Page

December 3rd, 2007

Ellen Page certainly doesn’t mind stirring up controversy.

The Nova Scotia-born actress, 20, plays the pregnant teenage star of Juno, which is fast becoming a lightning rod for both sides of the pro-choice/pro-life debate.

Wearing a green “UAB Blaze” T-shirt topped by a black jean vest, she sips Voss water and plays with her coke-bottle glasses when she meets OK! at NYC’s Union Square Hotel. The dramedy, in theaters Dec. 5, also stars Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and Allison Janney.

“People get so hot and heavy about everything,” she explains to OK!. “But whatevs. I’m completely pro-choice. I feel like older white men with money should definitely not be able to decide what happens to a woman’s uterus unless we want to go back to clothes hangers.”

Jennifer, who is mom to 2-year-old girl Violet with hubby Ben Affleck, gave her some advice about playing a pregnant character believeably. “She was extremely helpful in regards to when I would get stuck with ‘how far should the body language go?’ ”

The actress, who started her career in Canadian TV at age 10, has worked steadily in film and TV, but she is best known for Hard Candy, the 2006 thriller in which she gets gory “revenge” on a pedophile. Although the film was not widely seen in America due to its unsettling content, it was a huge success in other parts of the world.

“I was backpacking in Eastern Europe, and I’d get recognized in every hostel," Ellen recalls to OK!. "It was the weirdest experience. One Irish girl freaked out. She was screaming. It was weird for me, because I’m dirty, I’m in Serbia, and I’m playing the guitar. This Irish girl is baffled at how I’d be there, and I’m baffled at how she’s doing that. It’s very bizarre.”

Following that controversial role, the young star says that some men are afraid of her, but she doesn’t care. “I’m like ‘you know what? You can get over it.’ There are how many shows on TV that could be called Naked Women in the Dumpster Part 7 — Who Did it? Who Raped Her, and Cut Her and Threw Her in the Dumpster? Guys can handle one movie.”

Like her character in Hard Candy, her pregnant teenager in Juno could be considered feminist. “I find it funny that whenever a young woman has remote strength," she explains, "she’s considered abrupt because she speaks her mind.”

And after already winning awards at both the Hollywood Film Festival and last week’s Gotham Awards, the Oscar buzz around Ellen is growing quickly. However, just like everything else, she appears to be taking it in stride. “I try not to think about it. I’ve seen For Your Consideration,” she jokes, referring to the Christopher Guest-directed spoof about a small film that garners unmerited award attention.

As for the actresses whose work she admires, Ellen mentions Laura Linney and Catherine Keener, saying, “I don’t feel like you can be successful and talented without being a pretty awesome person. Laura came up to me after the Gotham Awards, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God, you’re flawless.’”

She calls working with Catherine in the upcoming drama An American Crime one of the best experiences she’s ever had. “She’s one of the most genuine, down-to-earth, solid human beings I’ve ever met. I was extremely inspired by the way she handles herself in all situations at all moments of being. She’s just one of those people — you’re like, ‘Wow, thanks for existing.’ It makes me feel better about being alive. She’s egoless.”

Ellen remains grounded by keeping up with her hometown pals.

“I feel like things will change as much as you let them to change. I can go to Nova Scotia and be in the woods with my friends and dogs, and be like, ‘Oh wow, last week I was in L.A. wearing Miu Miu and high heels, isn’t that funny?” That’s so what I am, and this is what I do, and I want to make sure that there’s a balance.”

As for becoming a mother herself one day?

“I’m not even 21 yet, so I could change my mind obviously, but yeah, would I be stoked to have a little rugrat to take camping and climb trees with? Hells yeah. But I’m also not ready to listen to it cry and want the toy at Wal-Mart. I’m going to be like ‘consumerism – bad!’ Freak out on my child. I don’t know if I’m balanced and selfless enough yet to be selfless to a little munchkin. I’m definitely into someday being able to have someone to shift my attention. I think it would be a cool process.”

By Valerie Nome

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