A source close to Jeffrey Fulvimari, the illustrator who drew the children in Madonna's debut children's book, 'The English Roses', tells New York magazine that while Madonna has been 'sweet' to the artist, her 'people' have urged him to avoid selling drawings too similar to the book’s, citing merchandising concerns.
Fulvimari is said to be negotiating for a slice of the merchandising revenue, though, which may give him reason to change up his drawing style.

The Mail On Sunday's 100 Highest Paid Women in Britain list was published today.
Madonna appears at number 8 with earnings of £18 million last year, and was the highest placed showbusiness personality.
Madonna has been included in this list because she lives predominantly in London with her British film producer husband, Guy Ritchie.
She made £18 million last year as a result of a new album, American Life and advertising campaigns for Estee Lauder and GAP.
However, Madonna was 2003's biggest faller in earnings, in 2002 she made £27 million, which meant a drop of £9 million in her earnings for this year.

From JewsWeek:
Rock the vote:
As we reported here a couple weeks ago, our favorite Kabbalist has been supporting the presidential campaign of General Wesley Clark. We suggested that Madonna's fascination with Clark was because his dad was Jewish, but now Madonna is speaking out on why she is supporting this candidate.
'He's interested in spirituality - I mean, those things mean a lot to me,' the pop icon told CNN. Guess Lieberman's Jewish observance doesn't mean much.
Madonna merchandising madness:
Madonna is really raking it in with this Kabbalah craze. Word now is that she's making dolls to tie in with characters from her Kabbalah-themed kids' books. The first one up is a Binah doll from The English Roses.
The dolls, which are supposed to promote the ideals of inner beauty and the perils of jealousy, are expected to rake in more than $10 million the first year.

French newspaper Le Parisien is reporting that Madonna will take part in the forthcoming NRJ Music Awards in Cannes on 24 January 2004.
Madonna is nominated in three categories - Best International Female, Best International Album and Best Internet Website.
French TV guide Tele 7 Jours reports that Madonna and Mylene Farmer will performing together although this has not yet been confirmed.

The 17th edition of the Guiness book of British Hit Singles will be published in the new year, and from this book the annual list of all-time music greats has been released.
The list is based on the number of weeks ever spent on the singles chart and is again topped by Elvis Presley. The top 10 remain the same as before, though David Bowie needs just five more weeks on the chart to top the Beatles.

Top 10 (weeks in chart)
1. Elvis Presley (1193)
2. Cliff Richard (1152)
3. The Shadows (771)
4. Elton John (623)
5. Madonna (606)
6. Diana Ross (560)
7. Michael Jackson (509)
8. Rod Stewart (477)
9. Beatles (456)
10. David Bowie (452)

80 pictures have been uploaded to the Galleries - you can view these latest uploads here.

Three years ago tomorrow (22 December 2000) Madonna and Guy got married in Skibo Castle, Scotland.

Happy Anniversary from Madonnalicious!

From BBC News:
Madonna may live in Britain but this has not kept her out of US politics.
She has given her public support to retired general Wesley Clark in his bid for the US Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
'I endorse him because I think he's a great guy,' she told CNN, describing him as a 'natural born leader'.
Mr Clark is one of nine candidates competing to run against George W Bush in the presidential election due in November 2004.
The singer said she believes the former Nato commander's military experience would mean he 'knows how to deal with pressure'.
'He has a good handle on foreign policy,' she added.
Mr Clark's spokesman Jamal Simmons said he was delighted with Madonna's support for the campaign.
'We have a superstar supporting a four-star,' he joked, referring to Mr Clark's rank as a general.
He added that Madonna had organised a dinner for Mr Clark at her Los Angeles home when he was fundraising in the area.

Forget the flat-caps, Madonna's latest fashion accessory is the Von Dutch truckers cap.

She has been seen wearing various versions of the cap out and about in Los Angeles. In this picture Madonna is seen leaving The Kabbalah Center.

In a bid to help the Democrats win back the White House in the 2004 US Election, Madonna is giving her backing to Democrat General Wesley Clark.
The New York Post's gossip column Page Six is reporting that Madonna is giving a concert in her home in Los Angeles as a fund-raiser for Wesley Clark.

To find out more about the Clark For President campaign click here.

From Contact Music:
Madonna has been forced to drop the asking price for her Beverly Hills mansion after failing to sell the renovated home she bought from actress Diane Keaton.
The pop superstar put the property on the market at $10.9 million earlier this year, but she has recently shaved $1 million off her top price.
The 650 sq metre (7,000 sq ft) home was designed by Wallace Neff.

UK magazine Star (13-19 December issue) published more pictures of Madonna cycling around in Los Angeles last week.

     

Love Profusion was a new entry in the UK singles chart today at number 11.

It isn't a French and Saunders Christmas special if Madonna isn't somehow featured in one of their sketches....last year the comedians took off Up For Grabs and this year it is a Madonna and Britney/Me Against The Music sketch.
The UK comedy duo's Christmas special entitled French and Saunders Actually airs on BBC1 at 11.00pm on 26 December 2003.

Click on the image for an enlarged version.

It is that time of year again....Madonnalicious is having trouble with its webhosts!
This site was suspended by my webhosts for using over 30% of it's shared server memory on a server which hosts hundreds of sites.
The site was just getting too popular with around 10,000 hits in a day, so now it is looking for a new home.

With much appreciation this news page is being hosted by MADONNAinter.net while I find a new host and I hope to have a full service running up again by the New Year.
So for the time being only the NEWS page will be available - although I may put together some picture uploads for you all in the next few days.

Love Clare - Webmistress of Madonnalicious

Slant Magazine's Review of 2003 has a category that looks at Singles, Videos and Guilty Pleasures - and Madonna's American Life video is at number 2. Here is what they had to say about it:

The sad sequence of headlines went something like this: February 14, 2003, 'Madonna Defends Her Violent 'American Life' Video'; March 28, 2003, 'Madonna Edits Controversial 'American Life' Video'; and, just two days later, 'Madonna Yanks Controversial 'American Life' Video.'
Sure, she's made better videos, and she's caused bigger controversies, but to release 'American Life' during the lynch-mob mentality of Bush's war on Iraq would have required bigger balls than even Madonna has, and she knew it.
The video, directed by Jonas Akerlund, juxtaposes images of war with the most capitalistic, materialistic, and seemingly superficial industry in the world: fashion. Models dressed in military garb and gas masks (one male model sports a half-shirt that reads 'Fashion Victim') and three Middle Eastern children strut down a runway while Madonna and her troupe of decidedly unconventional beauties prepare for their fashion terrorism in a backstage restroom.
Madonna carves 'Protect Me' on the partition of a stall, giving the otherwise militant proceedings a sense of desperate humanity, before she and her disciples engage in some fiercely aggressive choreography (intercut with images of a detonated atom bomb), and crash the fashion show and pummel the photographers with an industrial-strength water hose.
Madonna may have never actually been on the frontlines of a battlefield, but she's been spotted in the front row of more than a few fashion shows. It's this hypocrisy that makes the video so damn intriguing. It's the same contradiction that runs through the 'American Life' song itself:: the Material Girl is denouncing material things? You mean she was being ironic back in 1985?
Madonna's made it clear she's not anti-American, just pro-peace: The new Madonna writes morality tales for infants, not bomb-making manuals for infidels. Disappointing for sure.
In a time when most pop singers are too afraid to stand for much of anything at all, seeing the most famous woman in the world pull a grenade pin out with her teeth and toss the bomb into Bush's lap (the typical, Madonna-style twist is that the grenade is actually a lighter, the moral being, presumably, that something destructive can be turned into something useful) is nothing short of explosive.

Here is a personal account of one lucky fan who got to meet Madonna at the Borders book signing in Los Angeles:

Wow, meeting Madonna was great! As a radio winner from KISS FM, I got to meet her and got a signed copy of her latest book.
However, I'm the Arts and Entertainment editor of my high school paper and my journalism teacher said that it was such a cool thing that I won that I can write an article on it.
So I contacted the publishers from Callaway and told them I was the Arts and Entertainment editor of my high school paper and that I was doing an article on the event....so they arranged for me to get a press pass!
Before Madonna starting meeting the contest winners like me, she was reading the book to a group of first-graders. So I got to go to that, which I was allowed to tape record and take pictures of. I was the only kid there....it was me, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, E!, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, and Ryan Seacrest's show.
I also now have an audio tape of Madonna reading the book and I have pictures of her....which none of the radio winners were allowed to take! Then, once the reading was over, I found my mom in line and then got to meet Madonna.
I told her that I've been a fan since I was 9 (I'm 17 now....that's almost half of my life) and she asked me my name and told me she recognized me from when the press was there! (I guess I stood out because I was the only kid).
Then my mom asked if I could interview her for my paper and it looked like she was going to say yes but her people cut her off and said no!
So on the way out I asked her when her new video (love Profusion in the US) was coming out and she said January.
So I am really happy right now...it was an amazing experience.

Madonna appeared at the Westwood, Los Angeles branch of Borders bookstore yesterday to read her new children's book Mr Peabody's Apples to a group of 30 students from the Community Magnet School.

From Moviehole 
Madonna could be set to star as the villain in a new female Bond movie.
Now I’ve been hearing a lot about this writer/producer from London, Ben Trebilcook. He’s written a treatment for 'Die Hard 4' and he’s also the man behind the long-in-the-works spy film 'Semper Occultus'. Yesterday, we mentioned a rumour that Madonna might be in talks to star in the latter film.
Today the man himself checked in to confirm there are talks to that affect.
'To clarify yesterday's bite: Yes, I have sought Madonna and her company Maverick for assistance and yes, I did pen a role for her. It's a villainous role. One of two. The other baddie was written for Mr. Jason Statham, whose team I'm in close contact with.
There are some very exciting prospects for this project and although slowly, it is heading towards a satisfying destination. I have already penned a treatment for a second adventure for Kelly Brook's character, Daisy Norton-Hall, which will probably be released in book form.'
For the uninitiated, 'Semper Occultus' was first announced as a possible vehicle for popstress Geri Halliwell, and later Sean Connery.

There are 28 animated avatars for you to choose from the Love Profusion video.

To view the avatars click here Offline at present.

Despite the video being released only last Thursday, Love Profusion is at number 8 in the UK midweek singles chart.

She may be loaded, but even Madonna recycles. In fact, the white suit she wore in Britney's 'Me Against The Music' video is the very same one she wore when she was bridesmaid at Stella McCartney's wedding earlier this year.

If you are using one of Madonnalicious' avatars you may have to change the URL of the avatar due to a change of web server.
Any that have the address http://www.thelittlestar.co.uk/avatars/avatarname.gif will not work from tomorrow - but to keep that avatar all you have to do is change the URL to http://www.madonnalicious.com/avatars/avatarname.gif

Madonna will be appearing at the Westwood branch of Borders Book Store on Tuesday.
Radio station Star 98.7 is holding a contest to win tickets to the event.

From the Sunday Mirror:
Mum-to-be Gwyneth Paltrow is to invite Madonna to be her maid of honour when she weds rocker Chris Martin.
The Oscar-winning beauty, who is expecting her first child in the summer, is planning a low-key ceremony - which could take place in days.
Gwyneth will ask the singer to perform the same duty she did for Madonna's wedding to movie director Guy Ritchie in Scotland three years ago.
Bridesmaids are likely to include fashion designer Stella McCartney and Gwynnie's oldest friend, Julia Cuddihy.
The couple, who have been dating for 14 months, are determined to tie the knot away from the cameras after being impressed by how Madonna kept her nuptials at Skibo Castle under wraps.
'They will do it in their own time and on their own terms,' said an aide yesterday. 'This is not going to be a circus.'

Let's go back to the mid 1980's when a teenage Gwyneth Paltrow had started smoking....

When Bruce Paltrow found out his daughter Gwyneth had taken up smoking, he asked his friend Leo Penn to ask his new daughter-in-law, Madonna, to write a letter telling Gwyneth it was uncool to smoke.
The two-sided missive started with 'Dear Gwyneth, Just to jot down my average day....I wake up, I don’t smoke' concluding with: 'Love, Me, Madonna. P.S.: Good girls live longer.'
Gwyneth placed it in a frame on the mantel in her room. Does Madonna remember this? 'She thinks it’s funny,' says Paltrow who is one of Madonna’ closest friends.

To read the full article from The Scotmans click here.

A Madonna Fan Party being held to celebrate the release of Remixed & Revisited and Love Profusion/Nothing Fails in London this Saturday.
The party is being held at the G.A.Y Basement Bar, Old Compton Street, London from 1pm-7pm on Saturday 06 December.
No tickets are required, just turn up and say hello!

It was announced today that Die Another Day has been nominated for two Grammy Awards.
It has been nominated for Best Dance Song and Best Short Form Video

The video for Madonna's Love Profusion premiered on MTV Germany this afternoon.

You can now view a streaming version of the video by clicking here. (RealOne Player required)

64 pictures have been uploaded to the Galleries - you can view these latest uploads here.

From Madonnna.com 
A Christmas gift from Madonna is coming....If you are an Icon member, here is your chance to meet Madonna in person! M will be doing an exclusive in store signing of her new children's book 'Mr. Peabody's Apples' in Los Angeles on Tuesday, December 9th. E-Mail us now and have a chance to join her!
No hard questions to answer here: just send your full Icon member info, including your member ID, full mailing address, home and cell phone numbers and your valid e-mail address to instore@madonna.com before 10:00am (PST time) on Friday, December 5th.
We will randomly pick five members from the collected entries and will e-mail them with full instructions. Those selected will be notified by email on Friday, December 5th and will need to respond by 4:00pm the same day.
Please note that this opportunity is available to Icon members over 18 years old only. The lucky fan club members will be responsible for all and any travel arrangements. Only those selected will be able to access this event - no guests or relatives allowed.

Madonna's latest release Remixed & Revisited has gone straight into Number 1 on the UK's Dance Album chart.

More news on Madonna's musical has been passed onto Madonnalicious:

Madonna has been working on a musical with Patrick Leonard called 'Hello Suckers'.

The two of them have already been working on music and lyrics over the past year and have completed a large body of material.

Madonna plays a 1920's vaudeville-like tap-dancing star.

The Vancover Sun interviewed Nelly Furtado just after she appeared on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last week. Here is what she had to say about meeting Madonna on the show:

Madonna was also a guest on the show, and backstage, she requested a meeting with Furtado. The veteran rock star mom asked about Furtado's new baby, and signed a copy of her children's book for Furtado's little girl.
Furtado was taken aback that the larger-than-life Madonna was no bigger than herself. Doing the show was another matter.
'I actually got kind of nervous 'cause Madonna was watching me perform, like, from three feet away,' says Furtado. 'There's nothing that can faze me now.'

From TeenHollywood.com:
Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow has beaten her pal Madonna to play a London diamond thief.
Both superstars wanted the rights to the story of Joan Harrington - known as The Godmother - who stole $5 million dollars worth of jewels from London's top jewellers in the 1980s.
But it's Gwyneth who is now set to bring the tale, based on Joan's autobiography I Am What I Am, to the big screen and don a Cockney accent.
And Joan - who spent just 18 months in prison for her crimes - is happy the Shakespeare in Love beauty won out, because Madonna 'can't act'.
She says, 'They wanted Guy Ritchie to buy it, so Madonna could play me.'
'Number one, she can't act. Two, she can't do a Cockney accent and Gwyneth can.'
'She's really happy to be playing the part and she can't put the book down, apparently. I'm happy that she's doing it. I think she will do me justice. She's very lucky to be playing me.'