TV WEEK – Were you responsible for choosing Amercian Pie for this film?

MADONNA – No, I wasn’t. At the start of TNBT a character dies, and Rupert wanted the song to be included and for the characters too sing it in protest against the family and how uptight they are. It was also Rupert who said “You should do a cover of it”. At first I was like, “no way”. I loved the song when I was growing up, but it never occured for me [to cover it]. Also the lenght of the original song is eight minutes and I just couldn’t imagine anybody playing the song on the radio. But he kept bugging me about it, so then I said, “OK, I’m embracing this idea now”.

TVW – How long is your version of American Pie?

MADONNA – I only did 2 verses of the five that are in the original song, and Rupert is my backup singer.

TVW – How do you rate him as a backup singer?

MADONNA – He’s good – he can carry a tune. Honestly we were all suprised, like, “Uh-oh, Rupert is coming to sing today”. but he’s good. He made a couple of records earlier in his career.

TVW – Continuing the theme of TNBT, are you going to have more children?

MADONNA – I have thought about it, and I would love to. We’ll see what happens.

TVW – Are you in the Barney years with your daughter Lourdes, or is it Pokemon?

MADONNA – Neither of those, becuase my daughter doesn’t watch tv. She doesn’t even know who Barney is. She knows who POkeon is becasue everyone gave her a POkemon thing for Christmas, but she’s never sen anything with POkemon in it.

TVW – How do you think having a baby has changed your life?

MADONNA – I have to be more organised with my time, and I really don’t have any free time anymore.

TVW – Is Lourdes a little performer?

MADONNA – Yeah…”little” doesn’t fit the picture! Funnily enough, she ’s a very good singer and dancer. I’m telling you, she has the perfect pitch. She memorises the words to songs instantly and sings them back to you. It’s unbelievable.

TVW – Does she sing your songs to you?

MADONNA – She sings everything. She likes the Spice Girls, she likes me.

TVW – Does Lourdes do yoga?

MADONNA – Not the kind of yoga that I do.

TVW – Is it true you’ve formed a partnership with the guy you’re dating and called it Mad Guy Films?

MADONNA – You’ve got things all mixed up. Guy Oseary is my partner, he’s my business partner. I run my record company with him, and my film and television company Mad Guy with him. Guy Ritchie is the boyfriend. That’s the beginning and end of it. There are two very important Guys in my life and I adore both of them.

TVW – How did you meet Guy Ritchie?

MADONNA – A mutual friend of mine – Trudie Styler, the wife of Sting. She produced Guy’s last movie and invited him to her house for lunch one day, and I was invited too

TVW – Even when you’re Madonna, you’re friends still fix you up?

MADONNA – I don’t think she actually intended to fix us up, but she’s always having lunches and dinners with loads of interesting people/ he just happened to be there.

TVW – Have you ever been at a point where you’re thinking “There are no good guys out there?”

MADONNA – Yeah, every five minutes…..

TVW – Have you ever thought you’d forget it?

MADONNA – No, never. I’ve had moments of “Oh, all men are pathetic”. But five minutes later, I change my mind. All men are babies. That’s my thing. All men are babies.

TVW – And five minutes after that?

MADONNA – Another five minutes later, my tyre is flat – that’s whn men come in handy. Men do have redeeming qualities.

TVW – Has motherhood taken your rebliiousness away from you?

MADONNA – No, I’m just quieter about it

TVW – What do you do to rebel now?

MADONNA – I’m still totally anti-establishment. Whatever people expect me to do, I don’t want to do. It’s just my nature.

TVW – In TNBT, your character does yoga. Whose idea was that?

MADONNA – That was my idea. Originally they wanted me to be a swimming instructor. I said, “look, I’m not going to be in a chlorinated pool for eight hours a day. Can I have a different job?”. I like the idea of being a teacher. We went through the list of what I could teach, and as I practise yoga, we said “OK, I can be a yoga teacher”

TVW – Is it true that you don’t work out any longer, that you only practise yoga? How can your body be so toned?

MADONNA – That’s from my yoga

TVW – Does it hurt when you do things like put your ankle behind your neck?

MADONNA – It hurts in the beginning. I began practiseing yoga agter I had my daughter. It takes baout three years of really intensive practice to get that good, to get that flexible.

TVW – How long do you spend on it?

MADONNA – AN hour and a half

TVW – There are a lot of Hindu images in TNBT, and they are all accurately representing the Himdu faith.

MADONNA – There was no way that I was going to allow any inaccuracies to happen. One of my yoga teachers is a girl in LA called Kimberley, and I insisted that she got involved in the movie. I based my character on her. I would go in and help her, and I taught yoga for a coupl eof months before we starting filming. She got very involved with the production designers, in terms of the colours of the walls and the Hindi deities. I really wanted it to be authentic.

TVW – Do you think that the storyline in TNBT, of a woman and her gay friend raising a child, could work?

MADONNA – I personally could never have made that choice. I’m much to o selfish. I would not agree to live with someone that I wasn’t going tohave a physical relationship with. In the film, I’m the put-upon staright man to Ruperts diva….and that’s probably our relationship in real life too.

TVW – Can you empathise with what yuor character goes through in the film?

MADONNA – To a certain extent. Fortunatly when I had Lourdes, I was in a relationship with somebody I was in love with. But of I hadn’t been in a relationship, I might have gone into a bit of a panic, yeah. I can understand where muy character is coming from, defintely.

TVW – Do people think their time is running out when they are in their mid 20’s and 30’s?

MADONNA – Yeah, you just sort of think “what of I don’t meet the love of my life before my child-bearing years are over?”

TVW – Do you think your devoted gay audience will be upset by the film?

MADONNA – Perhaps.

TVW – Was that interesting to you, in terms of shaking heads?

MADONNA – No, I wasn’t thinking about it. that is the choice my charater makes. She’s not me.

TVW – What do you belive is the next best thing to motherhood?

MADONNA – Writing a song

TVW – Are you doing that now?

MADONNA – Yeah. I’m working on a record right now. Let me rephrase what I just said…writing a great song.

TVW – When is the album going to be released?

MADONNA – Sometime in the 21st century! It’s very electronic, but very melodic. I can’t really describe it more than that.

TVW -Did the success of your last record Ray of Light make you happy?

MADONNA – Uh-huh. It made me very happy.

TVW – Did you know it owuld do so well?

MADONNA – No. It was a great suprise

TVW – Is there any discimination against older performers in the music business, with all these young kids coming up?

MADONNA – I think there;s less ageism in the music business than in the film bsuiness. look at Cher and Tina Tuner – there are still lots of older woman that are still doing well.

TVW – And in the movie business?

MADONNA – Therere probably is ageism, because your work is based on that other people give you. In the music business, you give yourself th eowrk. It’s self generated.

TVW – It’;s been 4 years since your previous film Evita. Why so long?

MADONNA – It’a combinaton of things. I want to spend time ith my daughter. I also only wanted to to a movie project that I felt good about doing, that I thought was going to be fulfilling and challenging. Until TNBT, nothing came along that made me feel that way.

TVW – If someone wanted to be like you, what advice would you give them?

MADONNA – I couldn’t imagine giving that advice. You’d have to live my life

TVW – What qualites would you suggest those people strive for?

MADONNA – Perseverance and resilliance. You need a sense of humour and you hav to be a tireliess workhorse.

TVW – Do people approach you in public?

MADONNA – I can go out. I’m not a prisoner. I keep my sense of humour becasue I realise how fleeting everyhting is. While my creative life is incrediuosly important to me, it’s aslo important to be a parent and have friends and have a relationship, and to nurture those things, because you never know what is going to happen

TVW – Has acting always been what you wanted to do?

MADONNA – Yeah, I love acting, and I love the art of film-making. When I started in this business, I never intended on being a singer – I was studying acting and I was a dancer. Somehow, the singing thing sort of happened when I auditioned for musical theatre, and I ran off in that direction.

TVW- After your success with ROL at last years Grammy Awards, where it won best pop album, do Grammy nominations means anything to you now?

MADONNA – Well, I went for about 15 years without getting a nomination, so now I have a little laiseez-faire attitude to it- like “OK, that’s ice”. But you can’t get caught up in stuff like the Grammys. it’s not that important. It’s silly to decide that these five poeple made the best record, or these five poeple made the best movie. It’s so subjective. What the “best” anyway?

TVW – Are you bored with things?

MADONNA – You guys were all complaining about me when I was provocative and now I’m being a good girl.

TVW – Is that sort of thing, being provocative in the past for you now?

MADONNA – the thing is, I was always a good student when Iw as growing up, a model child. I never rebelled against my father. I never had moments where I took drugs or didn’t go to school. I never really had a rebellious stage until I was about 30.

TVW – Do you have any regrets about thay?

MADONNA – No, not at all.

© TV WEEK