Intelligencer

Madge, When She Nags

What are Madonna and Guy really like?

By Bennett Marcus & Amy Odell
Published Dec 8, 2007

(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

At the Tribeca Grand premiere for Guy Ritchie’s shoot ’em up Revolver, Madonna wouldn’t stop talking to him and her manager, Guy Oseary. Two girls spent two hours-plus standing in the aisle next to them, acting sometimes as coatracks, sometimes as cocktail waitresses. At the after-party atop the Gramercy Park Hotel, Ritchie and Madonna stayed until the bitter end, downing green martinis and sequestering themselves in a corner with Donna Karan, Steven Klein, and Sarah Jessica Parker. But earlier, they spoke with a group of reporters, while bantering and correcting each other the entire time, and coming across as a more or less normal couple.

NEW YORK: You had to reedit the entire movie. Do you think you got a bad rap from critics the first time around?
RITCHIE: “Do I think? I know!” [Laughs]
MADONNA: “Yes.”

Why do you think that is?
RITCHIE: "Well, I don’t think they liked it.”
MADONNA: “No, I don’t think they bothered to really watch it. I think they were criticizing Guy, not the movie.”

So, Guy, have you heard Madonna’s new CD?
RITCHIE: “I have. I have heard her CD. I think it’s her best CD, and I’m not just saying that. [Pause.] Well, I am just saying it, but I also mean it.”

You’re more of a hip-hop guy?
RITCHIE: “No is the answer to that.”
MADONNA: “He’s an Irish-folk-song guy.”
RITCHIE: “I like republican, political …”
MADONNA: [Interrupts.] “No, not republican, baby. That’s different here.”

Yes, that’s different in the U.S.
RITCHIE: “Oh, okay. We don’t like Republicans, then.”

How long have you been doing jujitsu?
RITCHIE: “About ten years.”

What color belt do you have?
RITCHIE: “No, I’m not going to tell you, ’cause it’s embarrassing what belt I’ve got.”
MADONNA: “It’s the lowest one.”
RITCHIE: “No, it’s not. It’s somewhere in the middle.”

INSTYLE REPORTER cuts in: What have you learned about fashion from Madonna?
RITCHIE: “Not to wear the same dresses as her.”

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