Rapper Nicki Minaj wearing a Madonna corset.

Nicki Minaj has asked a number of high-profile female stars to appear in her new music video.

The ‘Moment 4 Life’ rapper, who mentions a total of 16 female celebrities in her new single ‘Girls Fall Like Dominoes’, revealed that she wants them all to appear in the video.

“There’s every chance the big names will oblige. Everyone loves Nicki. It’s already causing a stir in various camps,” a source told The Sun.

Minaj tweeted her plans to organize cameos earlier in the week, writing: “Two questions: How many divas did I name in Girls Fall Like Dominoes’ and who should make a cameo in the video?”

Stars the rapper mentions include Mariah Carey, Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Beyoncé and Rihanna amongst others.

Minaj recently revealed that she has submitted a verse to be included on Lil Wayne’s upcoming album. She has also recorded a collaboration with David Guetta and Flo Rida, which is thought to be released soon.

Source: http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a311846/nicki-minaj-wants-madonna-rihanna-for-vid.html

An attorney representing eight workers from Madonna’s charity Raising Malawi says his clients are suing the singer for unfair dismissal and non-payment of benefits, reports Reuters. Board members were let go last week and replaced with an interim board that includes Madonna, after mismanagement of funds halted plans to construct a girls school near the African country’s capital, Lilongwe, according to the New York Times. ”Their employment was terminated by the trustees of Raising Malawi Academy for Girls ostensibly following the change of plan not to build the school as planned,” noted the workers’ lawyer, Mazondi Chirambo, who said that Madonna had 14 days to respond to the workers’ concerns. “My clients are also being forced to sign a discriminatory termination agreement before they are paid their benefits.”

The organization’s executive director, Philippe Van Den Bossche, resigned his post in October after auditors complained of excessive spending on the project — to the tune of $3.8 million — with few results. Madonna has lent $11 million to the charity, which has raised $18 million to date. Madonna’s reps did not immediately respond to EW’s requests for comment.

Source: http://news-briefs.ew.com/2011/03/27/madonna-lawsui-malawi-charity/

Madonna and her Raising Malawi charity are considering legal action after the foundation they set up to build a school for impoverished girls dramatically collapsed despite millions having been poured into it.

The superstar’s plan to build a $15 million school for 400 girls in the African nation has been abandoned after the organization plowed $3.8 million into architects, design and salaries but never broke ground.

Raising Malawi Executive Director Philippe van den Bossche left in October and has been criticized in a report provided by the Kabbalah Center that read: “Philippe’s level of mismanagement and lack of oversight was extreme . . . and the lack of success of the players on the ground is in large part a result of his inability to effectively manage project plans, people and finances.”

Auditors reportedly found outlandish sums spent on salaries, office space, a golf-club membership, housing and a car and driver.

In a statement to Page Six, a rep for Madonna confirmed, “Raising Malawi is examining its legal options.”

Madonna, who lent $11 million to the organization she founded with the Kabbalah Center’s Michael Berg, is said to be furious about the school’s failure. Her pals, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Alex Rodriguez, are said to be among the project’s donors.

Madonna has had a difficult relationship with van den Bossche. We reported in 2009 that she fired her trainer, Tracy Anderson, after she became romantically involved with him. Van den Bossche moved to New York to be with Anderson, leaving Madonna furious that it could distract him from his work with the foundation. Anderson and van den Bossche broke up more than a year ago.

Van den Bossche didn’t respond to e-mails, and his cellphone was disconnected. He earlier said he was bound by confidentiality agreements.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/madge_eyes_action_on_school_J2hrzhzDNH0HdX7gZFWHDK

The Live version of Madonna’s “Miles Away” is included on the “Songs For Japan” album to be released on iTunes today.

Taken from her 2008 “Sticky & Sweet Tour”, “Miles Away” is featured along with songs by REM, U2, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Beyonce and many more…

All of the monies earned from “Songs for Japan” will be directed to the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) to support its disaster relief efforts. The society will use the funds for the ongoing provision of immediate relief and for eventual recovery support to the affected population. The artists participating on Songs for Japan, the major music labels – EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group – and music publishers have waived their royalties and proceeds from the worldwide sales of the album to ensure that the JRCS receives as much support as possible from this global initiative. In addition, iTunes will donate all proceeds from the album’s worldwide sales to the benefit of the JRCS.

Visit your local iTunes Store now to download

Source: http://www.madonna.com/news/title/madonna-donates-song-to-japan-benefit-album

***And a BIG Thank You to our member ‘jwad’ for sharing this news!

(Madonna with daughters Lourdes and Mercy in Malawi)

Madonna’s high-profile effort to build a $15 million school in the impoverished country of Malawi has collapsed after her organization put $3.8 million into the now-abandoned project.

Raising Malawi—the charity Madonna co-founded with fellow Kabbalah enthusiast Michael Berg—announced that in spite of the $18 million raised thus far, the project has been shelved.

“A thoughtful decision has been made to discontinue plans for the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, as it was originally conceived,” Berg said in an email to past contributors.
An explanation as to why this project was abandoned has not been given, but it’s worth noting that last October the organization’s executive director—Philippe Van Den Bossche, the boyfriend of Madonna’s former trainer Tracy Anderson—stepped down after auditors decried the organization’s excessive expenditures for a school-building project that had not even broken ground.

Madonna issued a statement promising that the $18 million Raising Malawi has already brought together—much of it through Hollywood fundraising and the Kabbalah Centre International, of which Berg is the co-director—will still go toward unnamed charitable efforts in Malawi.

“There’s a real education crisis in Malawi,” she said. “Sixty-seven percent of girls don’t go to secondary school, and this is simply unacceptable. Our team is going to work hard to address this in every way we can.”

Following Van Den Bossche’s exit, Madonna brought in Trevor Neilson—a founder of Global Philanthropy Group and a charity advisor to Bono and President Bill Clinton—for consultation. Paraphrasing Neilson, the New York Times says that “he told her that building an expensive school in Malawi was an ineffective form of philanthropy, and suggested instead using resources to finance education programs through existing and proven non-governmental organizations.”

Whether the millions of dollars Raising Malawi is sitting on will go toward existing charities (as Neilson suggested) or another original project conceived by the organization remains to be seen.

Source: http://music-mix.ew.com/2011/03/25/madonnas-raising-malawi-school/

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LusZkuJ52jE

Thanks to Madonnarama.

In the wake of Elizabeth Taylor’s Wednesday passing, celebrities are sharing their memories of the 79-year-old screen legend on Twitter and with UsMagazine.com.

“I am so sorry to hear that this great legend has passed,” Madonna, 52, tells Us exclusively. “I admired and respected her not only as an actress but for her amazing and inspiring work as an AIDS activist. She was one of a kind.”

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/elizabeth-taylor-and-madonna-2011233

Happy Purim, y’all!! It is that time of the year of the Jewish Festival of Purim (which is an annual celebration that honors the deliverance of the Jewish people by dressing up in costume) and today we learn that Madonna — or Esther, as she is known in Kabbalah — got herself all dolled up as classic movie star Charlie Chaplin for the celebration. As you may recall, Madonna dressed up like her daughter Lourdes Maria Cicconne Leon for Purim last year but this year, she decided to dress in drag. You may also recall that Maddy celebrated Purim last year with her much younger toyboy Jesus Luz … but he was nowhere to be seen this year. Ah, what a difference a year makes.
source: http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2011/03/madonna-celebrates-purim-in-costume-as-charlie-chaplin/

Out magazine’s Ladies We Love issue, which featured pop chanteuse Britney Spears on its first cover that came out last week, just keeps delivering the gay goods: The issue’s second and final cover has hit, and it’s another lady they (and we) love from the world of music: Madonna.

But they didn’t put together just another profile of Madge. Instead, they’ve constructed a pretty cool (and never-before-seen!) photo portfolio from one of Madonna’s earliest photo shoots, just before she was about to hit it big. The gritty photos—shot in and around the apartment building that Madonna lived in in New York City’s East Village—were taken by now-famed photographer Richard Corman, who contributes a short essay about this experience with the diva to the package, in the summer of 1982. A preview of the cover is here, but you can find the entire set of photographs on Out.com. Love the name of the package: “I Shot Madonna.” Tee hee hee.

Corman recounts how Madonna was already an icon to the kids in the nabe. “She was like the Pied Piper of the neighborhood — they loved her,” Corman remembers. “They followed her, they danced with her, they sang with her. It was something they did on a daily basis, and it was remarkable. We just walked up and they gathered around. She put the boom box on—it was her music, though I don’t remember which song—and they just started dancing and singing. She was so alive and unpretentious. She was fierce, determined. Nothing was going to stop her.”

Can’t you just imagine? I die. Later, Corman recounts how things have changed for both he and Madonna since this innocent little shoot: “For me, like her, when I do a shoot now, I’ve got eight people around me—but that day it was just the two of us.”

It’s kinda sweet, thinking about Madonna as just a girl with a boom box and a bunch of neighborhood kids on her heels, right?

Source: http://music-mix.ew.com/2011/03/14/madonna-photo-portfolio-ou/

MADONNA is just about done editing her film, “W.E.” The star wrote and directed this tale of a modern young woman (Abbie Cornish) who is fascinated by the historic “fairytale” romance of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Frustratingly, I cannot say too much about the film. But I do feel safe in saying that Madonna is going to surprise just about everybody with her finesse here. “W.E.” is lush, compelling, romantic, funny and tragic. The pop icon is one hell of a director. But that’s no surprise to me.

Source:  http://www.wowowow.com/culture/liz-smith-are-we-better-than-them-dan-abrams-says-yes-we-are/

**And a BIG shout- out to our member ‘TheUnseenHand’ for bringing this to our attention!