Material Girl Rankles Brits

Across town from Madonna's palatial London mansion, the residents of a rundown housing estate were up in arms over the Material Girl Wednesday.

The reason for their ire? They called the pop superstar rude, arrogant and ridiculous for complaining that public housing projects were a blot on the London landscape.

"She's talking rubbish. You can't pass judgment on the working classes. If she doesn't like it, then get out," said George Moore, 76, who has lived for four decades in Caithness House on the Bemberton Estate in north London.

In sharp contrast, Madonna and her film director husband Guy Ritchie live in a luxury home in the elegant Kensington area of the British capital.

In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, she said her love affair with London's gardens and architecture was far from wilting.

"I love the way the city looks, minus all the council estates (public housing projects) randomly and profusely built up everywhere," Madonna complained.

That prompted outrage from the housing estate up the road from the seedy King's Cross area that is renowned as a haven for the down and out and for drug addicts.

"If she likes, she can buy me a castle. I'd be up for it," said Lisa Clift as she cleaned up a mess from a leaking pipe. "I'd like her to come here for a week. We'd give her pie and mash down at the local (pub), or maybe not if she is a vegetarian."

Charles Orgill added: "She is rude to say that. She is arrogant because she has got money. She can live wherever she likes. She has no right to condemn council flats."

By Paul Majendie