The Maternal Girl Speaks
"I was watching the movie with one of my best friends," Madonna recalls, "and she, like, slugged me in the middle of the screening. She's like, 'How could you do that?' I'm like, 'I didn't do that! My character did it!"
The slug-worthy behavior Madonna exhibits in her new movie, The Next Best Thing, includes lying about her baby's paternity, skipping town on the baby's supposed father, and sparking a whole big custody suit. Madonna's not necessarily denying she herself is capable of such conduct. But she does say of her character, "I guess I was a *%!$."
If there were ever a Madonna movie (outside of Suddenly Seeking Susan) that stood a chance of offering a stained glass window into her soul, The Next Best Thing would seem the closest thing. So many real-life similarities! In both the diva's real and reel lives, she's best buddies with gay man Rupert Everett. She's a young, single mother. She does yoga.
In the movie, Madonna's Abbie and Everett's Robert have one martini too many and wind up pregnant. The Los Angelenos decide to set up an unmarried household together and raise their son in an alternative family (she still dates guys and so does he). All is well enough, until Madonna meets a handsome, charming banker (Benjamin Bratt). All is not well after that and gets even worse when the banker wants to make Abbie and son his own family, and take them back to New York. Jealousy, broken hearts, and courtroom drama ensue.
"I probably wouldn't have made a lot of the choices she made," Madonna says. "But you know, people do lots of crazy things when they're in love, when they're afraid of losing things they care for. I think Rupert and I both did stupid things in the movie."
Says Everett of his part, "The two of us both make enormous mistakes. And, before we do, we both had the opportunity to resolve things, but we don't. I think this is the story of any family, actually—outside the law or inside. There's always a time bomb at the beginning of every relationship. It's always going to explode somewhere. Either it shatters the whole building and there's nothing left to be built up or there are foundations and the rubble women, like in Berlin, come and piece it all together again. And I think our relationship is going to be pieced together."
By Madonna's reckoning, Everett could also be talking about their real-life relationship, or her relationship with many of her infamous buddies, such as talk show host Rosie O'Donnell or nightclub owner Ingrid Casares. "I've had moments of not speaking to all those people," she says. "But that's just the way it goes. If they're true friendships, you bounce back and that just adds another layer to them."
Despite the gross dysfunction that befalls The Next Best Thing's untraditional family, Madonna believes in such households. She herself is now one, a Material Girl gone Maternal irl, unmarried and raising daughter Lourdes solo.
"More than anything, I think it's important that people understand and accept that families come in all shapes and sizes," she says. "If a gay couple wants to have a child, they shouldn't have any prejudices against them. And if a woman wants to have a child on her own and she's not married and she's not in love with anybody, she shouldn't have anything held against her. I think people have to learn to be much more open and tolerant of these family situations so that people don't feel strange. And the notion of the nuclear family and two parents together with the kids that they gave birth to—that's a pretty rare scenario these days. I mean, I don't know that many."
She rebuts any notions that she could be the poster girl for such families. "I'm not the first single parent, that's for sure," she says. And of raising her daughter (fathered by former lover Carlos Leon) alone, she points out, "I didn't plan it to work out that way."
She is, though, hoping for a repeat performance. For that one, buddy and costar Everett says, "I've already proposed myself as a sperm donor and have been turned down. She wants a live-in lover."
"Hopefully, I'll have another child," Madonna says, "and I won't be a single mother."
At this moment, the media is buzzing that the father of her next baby may very well wind up being director Guy Ritchie ( Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) her current love interest. As for Everett, he'd just as soon leave fathering to someone else.
"I love children," Everett says. "I adore children. But I spend most of my time with the children of my friends and I get the chance to give them back. They frazzle you, kids. It's amazing. Just working with the kid (in the movie) all the time…they're extremely demanding. And I'm too selfish and set in my ways."
Written by Rob Medich