From the National Enquirer:
Madonna wasn't bothered in the least when her driver got ticketed for parking illegally in a drenching rainstorm so she could be dry when he picked her up.
She'd just finished performing in a play at London's Wyndham's Theatre when her chauffeur got nailed by a meterman.

   

This weeks Hello magazine (02 July 2002 issue) has a mini-article devoted to Madonna's fashion this summer.... After a gruelling evening performance of Up For Grabs, Madonna could be forgiven for not putting much thought into her homeward-bound outfit. Yet playing on a constant theme of trousers and Jackie-O style shades, she manages to step out into the night looking relaxed and stylish.

       

From www.nypost.com
Only time will tell what the demanding movie critics will think of Madonna's latest big-screen adventure, 'Swept Away.' (This is her husband, Guy Ritchie's remake of the 1974 Lina Wertmuller classic about a rich, unpleasant woman marooned on a desert island with a guy of the 'lower classes.')
But you can take it from me, this new 'Swept Away' has a moment everyone can enjoy. It shows Madonna, dressed in a gold evening gown, dancing while lip-syncing to Della Reese's hot version of 'Come on-a-My House.' As Della sings about giving you 'figs and grapes and a pomegranates, too,' Madonna catches and discards the various fruits with lightning precision. She camps it up like there's no tomorrow. For die-hard Madonna fans, it's a moment to die for.

From the Evening Standard:
A £49,000 diamond bracelet Madonna borrowed from a jeweller to wear on her wedding day has been stolen in a raid on a London store.
The 19 carat diamond French filigree bracelet, which was picked by designer Stella McCartney to complement the pop star's gothic-style gown, was among 13 items, valued at more than £100,000, taken in the raid.
The robbers, posing as builders, used a steel girder to smash a security door at Moira's Antique Jewellers, New Bond Street, as it opened for business. They then threatened staff with a handgun before escaping in a white van which was found burnt out in nearby Jones Street.
The bracelet, which Madonna wore to marry film director Guy Ritchie in December 2000 at Skibo Castle in Scotland, dates from 1910.
Today Moira Cohen, the director of the jeweller's, confirmed the piece worn by Madonna had been stolen. A £100,000 reward has been offered by a firm of Lloyd's underwriters following the raid on 4 May.

The Remix exhibition at the Liverpool Tate Gallery, includes a Madonna inspired painting by Dawn Mellor.
The Sunday Times in reviewing the exhibtion had this to say her piece entitled 'The Leader of the Pack' (2001):
In any of her many roles, Madonna is a big target. Since she took up wounding English pheasants for fun, she has made herself an even bigger one, and the habitually angry painter Dawn Mellor cannot resist portraying her as the leader of a pack of huntin', shootin' hyenas in the Liverpool Tate's lively examination of the fertile relationship between art and pop.

The exhibition is at the Tate Liverpool until August 26 2002. For more information visit Tate Liverpool.

The wonderful fansite Where Life Begins has reproduced an interview with the director of Up For Grabs Laurence Boswell from the Ambassador Theatre Group inhouse staff magazine.
Also included are more photographs of Madonna and cast which haven't been since previously. Check it out!

Madonna's offical fanclub MadonnaFanClub.com has now joined forces with Madonna.com and as a parting present they left this new picture from Swept Away on their website.

From the Daily Mail:
A humbled Madonna barking like a poodle is something to behold. Mrs Ritchie plays a wealthy but miserable wife - a bitch with a capital B - in Swept Away, Guy Ritchie's £4million update of the version of Lina Wertmuller's 1974 movie of the same name.
Adriano Giannini plays a handsome fisherman working on the luxury yacht taking Madonna's character and friends around the Mediterranean.
On screen, Adriano (whose father Giancarlo was in the original film) and Madonna spark off each other well. At one point, an exasperated Adriano snaps: 'She's a lizard who should be made into a belt, bag and boots!'
Tables are turned when the two are shipwrecked on a deserted island and Adriano can tell Madonna what he really thinks of her - including forcing her to bark like a dog.
Guy does a little tribute in the sand to the surf-bon scene in From Her To Eternity and his wife and the leading man romp naked on the beach (discreetly shot of course). They both look very fit.
There's a fab moment when Adriano imagines her dressed in gold lame singing Come On-A My House, but perversely, it isn't Madonna actually singing, but lip-synching to Della Reese.
Wicked whispers unfairly dismissed the film as a disaster. An uncompleted version was screen tested in the spring and it scored poorly. Major editing ensued and a suprising bittersweet romance is the result, which left Claudia Schiffer in tears.
I also caught up with Madonna on stage in Up For Grabs and though her charisma shone through.

Thanks to Kim for posting this at www.dotmusic.com

Madonna was snapped leaving Wyndhams Theatre on Friday night wearing this patriotic tracksuit. Madonna was on her way to London's Incognito restaurant to have dinner with Gwyneth Paltrow.
Was it a present from Guy in anticpation of the England vs Denmark World Cup football match on Saturday?
The Addias tracksuit had a Union Jack flag on the front and was emblazoned with 'Great Britain' on the back.

To see the rest of the pictures go to the 2002 Gallery.

LittleStar has launched a new gallery today. It features Madonna out and about around town. This gallery contains over 110 pictures. Click here to enter.

From www.peoplenews.com
It's another day, another lesbian kiss for Madonna. Not content with a bit of racy girl-on-girl action in her West End play, Up for Grabs, the queen of pop's cameo in the new Bond film Die Another Day will, according to the New York Post, see the singer kissing Halle Berry, who plays Bond babe baddy Jinx.
Madonna, who also sings the theme tune for the film, is believed to have only agreed to perform if she was offered a cameo part in the movie, and was insistent that her short time on screen be memorable.

People News also reports that Claudia Schiffer cried when she saw Madonna's new film Swept Away

Whether this is a good sign or not, only time will tell!

Madonna needed a helping hand to get through the Jubilee enforced no-drive zone in Central London following her performance in Up For Grabs.
London's 'boy's in blue' were only too pleased to help Her Madgesty.

 
   

The official Madonna website was relaunched today with a GHV2-inspired look and lots of new content.

Go take a look at www.madonna.com

Madonna.com also confirmed that Madonna's new song for the Bond movie (which was originally called Can't You See My Mind) will be called Die Another Day.

From the Sunday Express:
Pop Queen Madonna has teamed up with her neighbour, classical guitarist Julian Bream, to harmonise a campaign against low-flying stunt pilots they claim make their lives a misery.
Pilots looping the loop near Madonna's luxury mansion, Ashcombe Manor in the heart of the English countryside are drving the musical giants, well, loopy.
But now Madonna is planning a spectacular stunt of her own - to buy the aerodrome so the planes cannot get off the ground. And Bream is beaming at the Material Girl's chequebook counter-attack.
He has had to shelve several recordings in his local chapel because the screech of dive-bombing biplanes was clearly audiable in the background.
Julian Bream said: 'Madonna may seem a strange ally for me, but she too is a musician. As a musician, your ears are attuned to every noise, and I feel for her too. I fully support Madonna in her plan to buy the airfield and close it down.'
Locals are furious with the duo and say they should put up with the fly-pasts. Crompton Abbass aerodrome, on the Dorset/Wiltshire borders, is a big employer and up to 300 jobs could be lost.
Flight Lieutenant Jez Hopkinson, team leader of the Yakovlevs, who rival the Red Arrows as one of Britain's best air-display teams said: 'The airfield was here long before Madonna. Thousands turn up to watch our practice sessions, which are held three times a week.'
'I think that is her real gripe - thousands of tourists on her doorstep.... Madonna may want to stop people flying over her back garden - but it's hard not too, because she bought up 1000 acres right on the flightpath.'
The current owner of the aerodrome won't say what stage the deal with Madonna has reached, but a former owner revealed: 'It is probably worth around £800,000 - small change to Madonna and a small price to pay for a bit of tranquillity.'

From: Yahoo/Launch News
Madonna's family needs to start signing non-disclosure forms - her father Tony Ciccone has said that the music icon is pregnant again. Not surprisingly, Madonna's publicity machine is denying the story.
'It's completely not true,' a rep from Liz Rosenberg Public Relations told LAUNCH. However, during an interview with the U.K. tabloid The People, Mr. Ciccone let slip, We are very excited that she is expecting again. It is always exciting when your children have children.'
However, the 70-year-old father of the 'Material Mom' also commented, 'I don't know if Madonna's child is a boy or a girl yet, we just want it to be healthy.'
Apparently realizing he'd already said too much, Mr. Ciccone refused to give any more details: 'It's an area I can't really talk about, we just want it (to) be healthy. Look, this is stuff I can't go into. Of course it's an exciting time, we were delighted when we heard, but I can't talk about it.'

Todays Sunday Express newspaper had added to the always present rumours that Madonna is expecting her third child.

Pop's Material Girl Madonna is pregnant again with her third child, her father revealed last night.
Tony Ciccone said he is thrilled that his 43-year-old daughter is going to be a mother again.
He said: ' We are very excited she is expecting again. It is always exciting when your children have children.'
But he said he didn't know if it was a girl or a boy.
Speaking from his home in Michigan the star's father said: ' We just want it to be healthy.'
Mr Ciccone added: ' It's an exciting time. We were delighted when we heard.'
But he refused to say when the star's baby is due or whether the child might be born in England or America.