Has the Kabbalah driven Madonna and Guy Ritchie apart? It’s been widely reported that the singing star and her film director husband have been experiencing marital problems, but now a “friend” of Ritchie has told the Sunday Mirror, that Madonna’s fixation on Jewish mysticism has been a major source of tension. “Guy told me recently: ‘It could have been worse — she could have become a Scientologist’,” revealed the source. “He said it sarcastically. He had grown tired of the obsession.” However, the marriage rumours could all be nonsense. Ritchie’s mother, Lady Amber Leighton, told The Mail on Sunday, “They are not getting divorced; the speculation is ‘TT’ — that’s total tosh.”
Fans were no doubt delighted that Amy Winehouse was able to perform at both the recent Nelson Mandela gig in London’s Hyde Park and at the Glastonbury festival. But I imagine the odds were on some sort of incident taking place, and so it came to pass. Winehouse appeared to scuffle with one member of the Glasto audience after climbing down from the stage to meet fans. Her spokesman brushed off the incident: “The ‘lashing out’ was when someone tried to grab her hair and she reacted.” In future, fans wanting to get up close and personal with Winehouse need only pop along to Madame Tussauds in London where a waxwork model of the singer is being unveiled this summer. Possibly even more controversial than the Glastonbury fracas was Winehouse’s changing the words to a song honouring Mandela — generally agreed to be the most heroic figure on the planet — to celebrate the imminent release of her jailbird husband, Blake Fielder-Civil. So “Free Nelson Mandela” became “Free Blakey, my fella”. Bless.
London-born actress Rachel Weisz is rumoured to be returning to her roots. The Mummy star is quitting her home in New York to move to the very desirable Primrose Hill, only a few miles away from Hampstead, where she grew up. Her hubby, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, and their two-year-old son Harry, will be accompanying her.
At the premiere of his movie, Kung Fu Panda, comedian Jack Black demonstrated his martial-arts moves and hugged and high-fived fans. Probably a good way of keeping him out of trouble. During a previous interview promoting the film, he accidentally confirmed that Angelina Jolie was pregnant with twins. Keeping relatively shtum, he told reporters on the red carpet: “I don’t want to spill any beans because I got in trouble last time I spilt the beans. I’m keeping all my beans to myself this time.”
DJ Mark Ronson was paid a reported £1 million for performing a 45-minute set at the 21st birthday party of Freya Dawson, daughter of haulage tycoon Peter Dawson. Ronson’s mate Amy Winehouse got a similar sum this month for singing for Roman Abramovich’s fiancée at her gallery opening in Moscow.
Pain in Spain for Bob Dylan, who has attracted the ire of environmentalists. Dylan was playing in parkland west of Madrid last weekend, but Spanish Greens complained that concert-goers would cause huge damage to local flora and fauna.
