She may have missed out on a number one for new single 'American Life', but she's doing a good job getting herself plenty of media exposure. Madonna is currently busy doing the marketing rounds for her new single and the album of the same name.
VH1 in the US dedicated a whole show to the queen of pop prior to airing the reworked video for the new single. As previously reported the original video to 'American Life' was dropped because its violent depiction of war, initially intended as a 'pro-peace' message, was deemed unsuitable once America was at war. The new version features Madonna dressed in a military uniform singing in front of a backdrop of ever-changing flags of different countries.
Talking about the decision to change the video she told reporters: "Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect to the armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video." However, when questioned about the US backlash against the Dixie Chicks after they made anti-Bush comments, she told the VH1 programme: "You know, it's ironic we're fighting for democracy in Iraq because we ultimately aren't celebrating democracy here. Because anybody who has anything to say against the war or against the President or whatever is punished, and that's not democracy - it's people being intolerant."
Elsewhere Madonna told People magazine that sex in her forties was "better than ever". But she admitted her latest marriage to Guy Ritchie had turned out differently than she'd expected: "Guy and I have done a lot of growing up in the last few years and we understand that marriage is about having shared goals. We have things we each want to do, but we're clear that the partnership comes first."
Finally on the Madonna front, this weekend saw some strange goings on at official website madonna.com - it may have been a case of clever marketing, though it seems more likely it was all down to some clever hacking. As previously reported, Madonna's label has put spoiler MP3s online to victimise fans trying to download a free copy of the single. They are titled 'American Life' and are the same length as the single, but they consist of the singer saying "what the fuck do you think you're doing" on a loop. In response a hacker altered the madonna.com home page to read "this is what the fuck I think I'm doing" with links to MP3s of every track on the up coming album. We assume it was an unofficial hacking because it had been taken down within a few hours.