Madonna Gets McCartney's Divorce Attorney And Guy Quits Kabbalah: Reports

Update:
Friday's UK Sun reports that Guy Ritchie told wife Madonna he is quitting Kabbalah:

"Guy threw himself into it at first and even filled his movie Revolver with obscure references to the faith.

"He was genuinely into it and it helped the bond between them. But then he backtracked a little with his gestures of public backing, like wearing the bracelet, because he didn't like being such a high-profile follower.

"He also became suspicious of all the Kabbalah crowd living off her money.

"But he always told Madonna he had kept his faith -- until now.

"A few weeks ago he told her he doesn't want anything else to do with it. It didn't go down well."

Friday's Mirror claims that Madonna asked for a divorce, and Guy easily agreed.:

Madonna told Guy Ritchie she wants a divorce after the couple agreed they had fallen out of love.

They admitted to each other that their seven-year marriage was doomed because they had simply drifted apart.

A friend said last night: "They were both very calm. Madonna told Guy: 'I'm sorry, I want a divorce'. And he agreed. It was quite painless but very sad."

Story continues below

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Last night Guy was holed up alone in his country mansion last night hoping against the odds that he can rescue his doomed marriage to Madonna.
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Guy, 39, reluctantly agreed to 49-year-old Madge's request for a divorce to end their turbulent relationship.

But friends said he still nurtures the dream that the final break can be avoided.

Previously:
A UK paper reports Madonna has hired Paul McCartney's divorce attorney, Fiona Shackleton, furthering rumors she and husband Guy Ritchie are going to split:

She did it for Macca - now can she do it for Madonna? Fiona Shackleton, the divorce lawyer who ensured that Sir Paul McCartney retained all but £24.3 million of his £825 million fortune, has been lined up by the pop star.

Madonna, whose fortune is estimated to be worth £300 million, is understood to be seeking legal advice on a possible divorce from her husband of seven years, the film director Guy Ritchie. Ms Shackleton, 52, is the lawyer of choice for the rich and famous after what was regarded as the spectacularly well-handled split of Sir Paul from Heather Mills, who was rumoured to be pushing for £80 million.

Dubbed the "steel magnolia" for her tough but pragmatic negotiation tactics, Ms Shackleton instructed the top divorce silk, Nicholas Mostyn, QC. They secured such a successful result that Ms Mills emptied a jug of water over Ms Shackleton's head after hearing the judge's ruling.

Ms Shackleton also acted for the Prince of Wales in his divorce. Yesterday Madonna's spokesman refused to comment on the claims.

The Sun reports they sleep in separate rooms.

Shackleton is the same attorney on whom Heather Mills dumped a glass a water.

In May Madonna and Guy walked the red carpet together at Cannes, having rarely been spotted as a couple, and stories flew that the pair was living a civilized separation.

Comments

[kellygrrrl]

next

[CrabbyGolightly]

NO TRUER WORDS HAVE PROBABLY BEEN SPOKEN BY MADONNA AS WHEN SHE TOLD VANITY FAIR, "You have to get to a point where you care as little about getting smoke blown up your a-- as you do when you become a whipping boy in the press. Because, ultimately, they both add up to s--t."

What is relevant is that Madonna admits to being impervious to having "smoke blown up" her xxx. So what follows is either 1) She is a very poor listener. Or 2) She is every bit as capable of scattering scat herself.

And now we have some evidence: Madge has been seen scouting out the offices of high-profile divorce lawyer Nicholas Mostyn allegedly to begin divorce proceedings against the best sex she's ever had, Guy Ritchie.

The rumored divorce comes mere months after Madonna was slogging the "happy" sh-- while promoting her new album Hard Candy. During her much-ballyhooed press tour, Madge pooh-poohed rumors that she and Guy were having marital difficulties and talked about how great sex is with Guy. On Monday, her longtime spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg outright denied the rumor saying that the story was "totally not true."." So which comes first: Smoke-blowing? Or words adding "up to s--t." We don't want to know what goes on in your bedroom, Madonna. Just get off the s--t-spewing merry-go-round when you're selling something so we know who to believe.

CrabbyGolightly.com/Divorce.html

[cyguy]

Relax. Its coming from the same magazine that has reported her divorce at least 9 times.

[martymartymarty]

Divorce is always sad for the children, especially since this one is going to be done in public. I suspect there is an iron-clad pre-nuptial agreement that will make this a simple legal matter -- how Madonna chooses to go about it in the press will say a lot about her character and how much she loves her children. Whatever they may have become to each other, she still has a son with this man and I just hope she keeps that in mind, considering her own family history.

[TimMcGrawfan99]

Not a big fan of rock, pop, whatever. But to say Madonna is not talented is stupid. She has had some of the greatest songs in music history. Even this stupid Tennessee boy knows that. I saw her concert on TV and it was very impressive. If she writes her own songs, and from what I googles she does, then to write all those monster hit songs, songs that everyone knowsand likes the world over, she has an major gift.

As for her divorce. Its from a conservative rag paper. Murdochs. Don't buy it for a second.

[JohnJames]

"Like a Prayer" was astonishing. Whether she wrote it herself seems destined to be an eternal mystery.

[cyguy]

No its not a mystery since she has the hand written song on a cocktail napkin on display in some museum. She wrote all the lyrics. Her and Patrick Leonard wrote the music and Prince played guitar on it.

[mivogo]

Isn't Madonna sleeping with Lara Logan?
(Oops, sorry, but guess that's what happens when you get all your "news" from the Enquirer, Post and HuffingtonPost)

[MrsPeel]

Good one.

[martinspringfield]

Coming of age in NY and London during the era of the Dolls, Ramones, Talking Heads, Television, Sex Pistols, Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Elvis Costello, etc. etc. Madonna just seemed very late to the party sartorially, dull musically, and with absolutely zero shock value, sexual or otherwise. I have never really understood her appeal, especially to alleged intellectuals. I guess in a perfect world Nico or Patti Smith or Exene or Courtney Love (yes, Courtney Love - Hole has more great songs on one album than Madonna has in her entire career) or Liz Phair would be the megastar and Madonna would be the footnote.

[cyguy]

Liz Phair is on record as being a big Madonna fan, admirer. As is Alanis, Tori Amos, to name just a few.

Have you bought a Madonna album? Have you listened to some of her songs that aren't hits. She has some very daring, crazy, avante-garde songs. Mer Girl Drowned World andSkin from Ray of Light, Paradise( not for me) from Music? Bedtime Story from Bedtime Story? Those are just a few examples. She has some great great lyrics. She tends to the more commercial side of course. Which is why I can understand you not getting her as much. But for mainstream music, Madonna has set the bar very high. She has gotten progressively non-mainstream up until "4 Minutes" and Hard Candy. She pushed the boundaries of what radio would play. Most of her songs are great lyrics. I think you are entirely too focused on her hits and not her album tracks, many of which are great.

But if you have, to each his own. Musically, she is top of the shelf all the way.

[MrsPeel]

Madonna's voice has improved over the years, but mostly I've always thought that if you like the sound of a chipmunk singing, you'd like Madonna.

[cyguy]

Come on MrsPeel. If anything, her voice is deep. Her "chipmunk" voice came from the record company speeding up her vocals because they thought her natural voice was too deep. She stopped them doing this for her True Blue album. The result: a much much better voice.

[leftoflennon]

I love you Madge!

[JohnJames]

But I hate this dish washing liquid.

[DKLA]

oh, but see, you're soaking in it.

[SILVANUS]

She is a crafty businesswoman with a nose for trends and very good at knowing where to steal. And she is great at that. Some of her tunes are fun and memorable. Is she Gershwin....? Dvorak? Joni Mitchell even in her off years? 'Fraid not.

[CowgirlAmy]

Joni Mitchell in her off years. Bwhahaahaha oh how quaint.

When the likes of David Foster and Rick Knowles say Madonna is one of the best songwriters they have ever worked with, they say she is right up there with Billy Joel and Carole King, I don't think an opinion from an anonymous poster is going to inflict pain on her. She is renowned for her songwriting ability. As for stealing trends? Ummm she created the biggest trends in the world. Some where plucked from the underground, some, like her style, were not.

She is credited as creating the early 80's sound. She is widely considered a musical genius. Would I say on par with Prince? No. But why even compare artists? They are all different and talented in different ways.

[ENK727]

Bwhahaahaha.. could you kiss Madge's ass any more?

[novatom]

Where does it say that she "created the early 80's sound?" To me the early 80's were Culture Club, Stray Cats, Human League, Soft Cell and XTC. Madonna didn't really make it on her own until the middle of the decade.

[CowgirlAmy]

Live Nation press release. That poor Madonna. She is so irrelevant. NOT! Hahahahaha


Material Girl Leaves Doubters In The Dust For Biggest Tour Of 2008

Neither wind, nor rain, gas prices, nor the economy can slow down the momentum of Madonna fans who are turning out in record numbers all over the globe to scoop up tickets for the upcoming "Sticky & Sweet" Tour. Today, Live Nation confirmed that Mexico City's Foro Sol Stadium shows scheduled for November 29th and 30th sold more than 100,000 tickets in just three hours, resulting in back to back sellouts at the famed stadium.
Mexico City joins the growing list of sold out Madonna shows in Paris, Lisbon, New York, Zurich, Boston, Chicago, Denver, East Rutherford, NJ, Oakland, Las Vegas, Houston, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver all of which sold out within hours of going on sale.

To date Madonna has sold out 90% of the tickets available for her 42-date global tour, which kicks off in Cardiff, Wales on August 23rd.

[Southrnbelle]

Madonna - She's still alive????

[JDJase]

Gosh, her album that she released a couple months ago only reached number 1 on the charts in THIRTY SEVEN different COUNTRIES. And her tour a couple years ago was the highest grossing tour of any female artist...EVER.

Yes, she's still alive.

However, I'm going to question whether you're alive or not.

[wanked]

Dead or alive, her music has sounded the same forever....BORING

[CowgirlAmy]

Oh I get it. Madonna, she's still alive? You're trying to suggest she is irrelevant, right? Wow. Your wit is unmatched. You shouldn't try to be so obtuse. Some here won't get it. You know try this "Like OMG, Madonna is soooo 80's. Like, does she even make music anymore. Like, I haven't heard her name in years. Like, ummm, OMG. She's so old".

There. No need to thank me. You can save time by copy/pasting from all the Madonna haters on this blog. They repeat the same insults over and over. Like they are trying to convince themselves she is irrelevant????????????

[AtTheMoon]

I liked her when she backed Wes Clark for president. But she had him over to her house and made him promise to study kabbalah. I mean what the hell? She thinks she's going to educate the Rhodes scholar and top of his class 4 star general? She really is full of herself. But at least she isn't a republican.

[InformedSources]

I recently got off a train in Hamburg, Germany Main Station, only to be confronted with an H&M photo-mural of Madonna that was literally 100 metres long, 30 metres high, covering almost a whole wall of the terminal. Really ugly! I'm so sick of seeing this self-centered woman in all her stupid get-ups and guises, everything blown up to 50 times larger than life.

I don't know her personally (who'd want to?), but I'd venture to guess she's one of those pathological narcissists who feeds on the admiration and submission of others. I'm sure she's got major food and body-image issues. Clearly, she is way over-exposed, and has far too high an opinion of herself. She has become a sort of one-woman visual pollution, littering the entire world with Madonna-detritus.

As for the husband, he's a mildly talented filmmaker of a certain type--not making any great contribution to humanity or art. He and Quentin Tarantino are about on par, consciousness-wise. I can't imagine this marriage was very satisfying for either of them. He's probably a handful, too! I really pity their kids. This could get very ugly for them.

[JDJase]

wow, You took all that time to write that and none of it is fact it's just all your opinion because you're cranky from seeing a poster you didn't like.

Grow up and get a life.

[CowgirlAmy]

Yes, he/she put way too much effort into that. They suffer MDS- Madonna Derangement Syndrom.

[martymartymarty]

Only someone who condemns others for their - in this case, strong - opinions needs to "grow up and get a life". Madonna has always evoked strong reaction, that is what she has long banked on. InformedSources is as entitled to trash her as you are to praise her. Arguing over pop stars is insipid -- put your time and energy into charity work instead, make the world a better place.

[InformedSources]

>...took all that time to write...

Thanks for your concern, but I type fast. And saying how I feel is an important activity for me.

Have a great day!

[sophieozz]

"one-woman visual pollution." That's it! And it just keeps replicating over the years. Her degree of popularity makes me wonder about the world.

[StaggerLee]

She should have hired Mill's attorney instead of McCartney's. He got raped in that divorce settlement.

[nomadicexpat]

the man is worth a BILLION dollars and had to give her 50mm ... and u think he got raped?

how many people getting divorced would like to give 5% of their wealth to be able to walk away!

[Village]

The 50 million included HER real estate. He didn't have to give her 50 million. It hasn't been well described in the media because 50 mil sounds better, but she only got 20 mil out of him, with an additional 5 million for a house in London, (which she apparently switched to NYC). She also got an additional 4 million, because she had incurred that debt during the separation.

So she got to keep the two homes she already had, got a new NY pad, and 20 million, with no debt. A great settlement, but Paul didn't give her 50 million.

Child support is $70,000 year. (She was asking for 2.5 million.)

[Johnz52]

If Guy Ritchie is smart he'll hire the same attorney that represented the former Mrs. McCartney. That woman didn't have a leg to stand on and still made off with millions from the former Beatle. On the other hand Ritchie deserves what he gets. Anyone foolish enough to spend more than fifteen minutes with a narcissist whose ego dwarfs the Grand Canyon and talent the size of a gnat's ass has no one to blame but themself.

[ObamaEdwards]

"MADONNA’S countryside retreat has lost £455,409 in value since January — making her the A-list celeb hardest hit by Britain’s housing slump." I always find myself commenting on Madonna stories. She's so successful, yet so dismally unaware of what she represents. She went to the UK at a time when nobody was stupid enough to try and run a country estate and live like the lady of the manor, unless they had a title to uphold and made ends meet by letting the public take weekend tours of their homes. Even royalty. Yet here comes Material Girl with her naive and gauche idea of Jolly Old, picked up from 1930s films, and she bought an estate, served high tea, and took riding lessons. She even adopted an accent long before it could have occurred naturally. She is, and always has been, a woman in search of herself. She's an image, a front, a fraud. Her philosophical pronouncements don't have any appeal, because they come from a woman who started poor but has been rich most of her life. She doesn't see that she has nothing in common with us, and that the few things she has to say musically are no longer relevant to the culture.

[drumz]

Do you have a live?

[flydoghead]

do you have dictionary ?

[CowgirlAmy]

LOLOLOL yes because you are a bitter, obsessed Madonna hater. You're pathetic. She is still racking up hit after hit, millions are buying seats for her latest tour( she sold out everywhere except Dodger Stadium but that is 5 months away). Spare us, that goes for all the Madonna haters that descend on any thread of hers. You are changing NO ONE'S opinion of her. She will always be relevant, popular, talented, critically acclaimed, and successful. Sometimes I think some of you Madonna haters are like the NeoCons. Trying to convince everyone of something so opposed to the facts its just insane.

This same paper reported they have been divorcing for 5 years. Grain of salt.

[helonias]

Talent?

You want to see real musical talent go see the Return to Forever reunion.

And you wont hear a single drum machine

[martymartymarty]

In this:

"Spare us, that goes for all the Madonna haters that descend on any thread of hers. You are changing NO ONE'S opinion of her."

I would change just one word: "haters" should be "lovers"

Opinions are interchangeable, neither someone who praises nor trashes something decides for me what *I* think of it. So stop trying to, please and thank you.

[nomadicexpat]

she is worth $600mm, blowing a million bucks on her weekend house's upkeep is meaningless. she will make considerably more then that in one night playing to 70,000 people at wembley later this year!

as for her not being musically relevant, Hard Candy (her new album) debuted at #1 in 27 countries!

-not a madonna fan, but i do respect her!

[BigGuy]

I think she's a hard working business woman who's an entertainer. The only person comparable is Oprah, who's even more successful. But Oprah doesn't work as hard to stay in shape.

i also think she' a little lost with all the Kabbalah stuff, since the Bergs (the father and son behind the new-found popularity of Kabbalah) are charlatans.