Less than a year ago, there was a solid rumor going around that Madonna had her heart set on financing and starring in a film about Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee girlfriend (and later, wife) of King Edward VIII. Wallis was much maligned in her lifetime, especially since the general story goes that King Edward gave up the throne of England to marry Wallis. But, I’ve always felt there were other factors at play (including King Edward’s sympathy for Adolf Hitler), but Wallis has yet to have a major historical rewrite, or major cultural defense. Madonna, it seemed, had found her next project.
Since the initial flurry of rumors, things got quiet. My main problem with the whole idea of the project was that Madonna would not be up for the role of Wallis – Madonna doesn’t have the acting chops, and Wallis is an acting challenge. Fortunately, the latest rumors have Madonna stepping away from playing Wallis – but Madonna still has her heart set on writing and directing the film, doing the music, and maybe playing a supporting role. This isn’t going over well – and now Madonna can’t cast the Wallis role to save her life:
Madonna hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with her acting. So the Material Girl is turning her hand to directing a musical biopic based on the life of Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom King Edward VIII gave up his throne in 1936.
Except no one wants to Madge’s leading lady! Keira Knightley and Cate Blanchett have already passed.
“There are worries that Madonna will get too involved because she wrote the script and the music,” says a source. “And there the concern that she may want to take a small role which would discredit the film. But don’t cry for Her Madgesty – she’ll always have Evita!
[From Star Magazine, print edition, January 11, 2010]
Keira would be terrible as Wallis, so I’m not upset about that. But Blanchett would rock. Fortunately, Cate has too much sense to sign on for anything involving Madonna, so well done Cate! This seriously would be an amazing project if only Madonna would take herself and her ego out of it. Seriously, why couldn’t she just executive produce and be like Oprah? Give the project to some smart British director, like Stephen Daldry or someone like that.
Here are some old photos of Wallis and King Edward (when he became the Duke of Windsor, post-abdication):
Madonna should just leave well enough alone. The definitive film on this was a Masterpiece Theatre mini-series done in 1978 starring Edward Fox and Cynthia Harris, and was outstanding. Both characters were totally realistic and the attention to detail was amazing. I cringe when I think of Madonna creating a screenplay and music to this story. In the original series they used strictly musical recordings of the day and no contrived banter or tarted up sex scenes, and I can’t begin to see Madonna even in a small character role like Lady Thelma Furness (Edward’s lady friend prior to Wallis). She’d ruin it.
What a dapper couple!
Madonna sucks – this is hard for me to say because I am 35 and grew up LOVING LOVING Madonna. I was totally obsessed with her but she is just way to much to take these days. I just wish she would fade away peacefully so I can hum papa don’t preach without thinking of her gross arms or stupid boyfriends…
This would make for a fantastic film, and I can see how someone inexperienced in film like Madonna wouldn’t be capable of doing it justice. I think eventually some actress who hasn’t worked in awhile will take the role, money talks and roles are hard to come by.
Jaded: you 100% right!! Thanks
First: This story is not true because the script is all ready writen by someone els and Madonna did buy the right of the script. only to directing the film and she didnt look for no actress because she doesnt have the financing for the film.
Second: Keira Knightley and Cate Blanchett were never approach by Madonna for the film. lies lies lies gossip
@ Dorothy:
“What a dapper couple!”
There a reason history doesn’t look kindly on this pair. Edward and his wife were Nazi sympathizers. They wanted Britain to make a truce with Germany! His brother on the other hand, King George fought to keep Britain safe and sided with the allies.
Let’s not forget the ugly mess this two were involved in while hollywood gives them a “romantic” rewrite..
Madonna should leave her ego out of it – LMAO @ that one!
Love their pugs!!
I’m sorry – but Madonna can’t act. That is not her talent, she is a fabulous entertainer and singer though.
I could see Cate Blanchett playing that role, if Madonna wasn’t involved. On another note – PUGS!!
On a more superficial note – Has Madonna had more work done?
Whatever Madonna had done to her face earlier in 2009 (last year already!), it’s definitely worn off. It was amazing though – couldn’t believe how her skin looked at awards season.
Iggles, yes but they were hardly stand-alone in that. I mean the overture from Germany to the British (well and truly prior to open conflict) it was fairly well received by a large portion of the population. I mean it wasn’t like they were saying ‘come let’s kill everyone together’ it was more like ‘we are the superior aryan brotherhood, yay us, we should be friends and stuff (with some fine print).’ There are enough people who believe that today let alone circa 100 years ago. So if we are going to raise it about them then I sort of think it should be in context of ‘not wildly outlandish opinion at the time.’ Given the level to which pop culture drives historical knowledge these days I just always want to see that context, lest we get misled. *cough*ahem*U571*coughcough*
Just elaborating and expounding :o)
Maybe Madonna will get her BFF Gwyneth to take the role. Gwynnie needs a comeback.
What’s the name of the Masterpiece Theater miniseries? I can’t find it on Netflix. Thanks!
I think that Wallis Simpson was a convenient excuse for the British government to get Edward off the throne. I think it had a lot more to do with his Hitler sympathies and a general lack of confidence in him than with Simpson, really. And his father, George V, really wanted his second son and Elizabeth to suceed rather than Edward:
George V had had severe reservations about Edward, saying, “I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne.”[28] ^ Ziegler, Philip (1990), King Edward VIII: The Official Biography, London: Collins, p. 199, ISBN 0-002-15741-1
Madonna is well known for box-office bombs. She puts the same into her movies as she does her face -plastic and poison.
Any serious actor or actress is smart to stay clear of her.
@ Alarmjaguar – it’s Edward & Mrs. Simpson – I just added it to the top of my queue! It’s a two dvd set.
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Edward_Mrs._Simpson/70020216?trkid=191776
How about Marion Cotillard? Or Gwyneth, yeah. Haha
Those are such adorable pugs. Awh!
Last night I watched Tim Burton’s Batman Returns and realized that Christopher Walken’s character looks just like 2110 Madonna. It’s uncanny.
@Trillion, I know that’s a typo, but with Madonna it seems prescient–she just might be around in 2110!
Jaded, YES, YES, YES! I agree 100% with all your points.
It was a fantastically well done series—-and Edward Fox was absolutely perfect in his portrayal of Windsor.
Cate could probably play Wallis convincingly, but what’s the point? If the goal is historical revision of two narcissistic Nazi sympathizers, that would be a shame.
And that’s probably exactly what will happen. I can see it now. Wallis and Edward as the Goose Stepping People’s Royals, brought down by an evil conspiracy. Doomed to a lifetime of jet-setting from the south of France to Palm Beach.
what delusions of grandeur — she sure loves herself alot.
wish Madonna would just go away.
she has no talent whatsoever.
and she’s a nauseating hypocrite.
As a (very) amateur historian I say YAY to the historicaly accurate and in context of the times comments on this article! Things are never as cut and dried as Hollywood and glowing (or glowering) biographies make it seem. However Madonna needs to continue to do what she is best at and STOP this lifelong obsession with being in the film industry. Her success with Evita has proven to be a fluke rather than a preview of greatness to come so why not accept it and move on. She has given us some great pop music and has entertained millions for decades, is that not enough of a legacy?
By the way Tess, still laughing at your prospective “script” of the movie Madonna would make you are right on the money!
Yep, I agree. Madonna needs to step back and let someone do this story justice.
Now then, which one of yowse is gonna tell her? I vote for Jaded or Firestarter.
what happened to her face in that picture??
“No actress wants to get near Madonna”. Neither do I.
Those are awesome pugs!
I think actress Joely Richardson also starred as Wallis in a movie made in last few yrs. I have it: can’t recall the date but it is excellent. She plays a convincing Wallis. The Dutchess was very difficult to describe outside her correspondence and it is said no photograph or painting actually captured her true essence. She is a fascinating personality to read about.
Check the pics., Bessie Wallis Windsor was not a middle aged tart, like Knightley or Blanchet or Winslet, she was an old tart, and the Duke was gay, and ancient, never had any kids, not even by artificial insemination, never wanted any, so had to pass the vibrator to his neice sometime. And since his brother wasn`t even ready to be king, just smiling/waving, he wasn`t remotely ready to be the double agent, cozying up to the nazis Britain needed in case Germany won the war (and if Hitler had waited, fought Russia and Britain one at a time, they might well have won). But Ed was cuddling with the US more than Germany, didn`t go for a German like Dietrich. But Germans are the largest share of Americans, so what if the US sided with Germany in the war? It was the `30s, the US didn`t side against Germany until the `40s. And don`t think Hitler didn`t know the duke was gay and pro Brit, not pro German. That is why Hitler did not support Hess. Very strong Saxon ties between Netherlands and Britain, but Hitler was Austrian, not Saxon. And a commoner. You think any Prussian related royalty supported a Prussian hating commoner from Austria? 52% of Germans voted against Hitler, and virtually all Prussian royals were among those against. This was NOT WWI. France was involuntarily WITH Germany in WWII, not against, like in WWI. Japan was NOT the Ottoman/Turkish empire, II. Yeah, Bess and Ed were narcissists. So? You think DeGaulle wasn`t, or Winnie Churchill wasn`t? Straight love/lust never has anything to do with the strange bed fellows in politics. HollyWeird wants Romeo and Juliet? Juliet was a french GUY, played by a GUY, women were not ALLOWED in Shakespeare`s companies. This was power politics, life and death, war and peace, not bloody virgin romance.
I’m here to inject the note of shallowness: so, Madonna and Wallis have one thing in common, that is hatchet faces. Bloody hideous.
I wonder if Madonna’s interest in the project is based on her marriage to Guy Ritchie, or how she sees it anyway — the glamourous rule-breaking American married to the weak-willed Brit upper-crusty.
Madge looks just awful. All of her implants are going south.
Totally agree with Dorothy here…
Have all the Hollywood pugs with agents turned down the roles the semi-royal pets as well?
@Giles, wow, that rant made absolutely no sense. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that France was against the Nazis, what with them being invaded and all. Ever heard of the French resistance?
And I’ve no idea why you brought Shakespeare into it, it’s fairly common knowledge that only guys could act back in his day. What’s your point?
i feel kinda badly for Madonna bec truth is that if she could act, i would understand her fascination with this role.
better question: who will play Madonna when a movie eventually comes out about her life? i am shocked that celebutards like Hohan aren’t already lining up.
You know who would rock the part of Wallis? Kate Winslet. She’d be perfect for the role. Kudos to Keira and Cate for saying no. You’re absolutely right, if Madge took her ego out of it, it would be a great story. I’m surprised they’re not looking to Emily Blunt to star in it, considering her role in The Young Victoria. She brought that role to life.
Giles –
Keira (24) a middle aged tart? What bio are you looking at? Are Cate Blanchett (40) and Kate Winslet (34) even old enough to be called middle aged? I’d better start picking out caskets if they are.
The rest of your rant was too ridiculous – well, even the Kiera, Cate, Kate part was too – even to finish reading. Paragraphs are your friend.
Out of curiosity, why a musical? I can imagine no one wanting anything to do with the stinkbomb if Madonna’s writing the music. It’ll be a bondage, crotch-grabbing, cone-boob Mamma Mia when she gets done with it.
la chica-I think they’d need two different people to play Madge. Maybe Lourdes could do the younger, human one, and then they could just CGI the gristle.
I think Madonna’s pal Gweneth Paltrow will play Wallis.
Well, whoever directs it, you need Cate Blanchett as Wallis Simpson and — please — Hugh Laurie as the Duke.
Even Madonna isn’t ugly enough to play Wallis.
lol @ emily!!
Not likeable?
Bitchy looking and ugly?
Rich relatives and had connections?
ARE YOU CRAZY??? GWYNETH IS PERFECT FOR THIS PART!!
That chin implant is dreadful, set off by the granny-applied-her-own-lipstick mouth.
She is not-so-slowly morphing in Wildenstein.
I found this link that had interesting info on Wallis as well as other “scandalous” women. Gwyneth annoys the crap out of me, but she was born to play this.
Seriously now.
http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com/2007/12/duchess-of-windsor-woman-who-would-have.html
Thank God Cate said no. Madonna should get her BFF Goopy to star in the movie.
Jane Seymour would be the perfect Wallis Simpson!
History Lessons:
Being a Nazi sympathizer in the 1930’s was hardly a crime or social faux pas. Great many people were admirers of either Italian Fascism or Nazism or both.
For your info, BOTH FDR and Churchill were great admirers of Mussolini, Hitler’s partner in crime, and FDR’s New Deal was attacked by many as being an imitation of Mussolini’s Fascism.
The French were anti-Nazi, but they were not really. They were anti-German and no matter who ruled in Germany, be him a democrat or a Nazi, the French would have hated him. In the 1930’s, France had but one goal and one goal only: Weak Germany France could bitchslap around. Anyone who made Germany strong, like Hitler did, would have pissed France off.
Doesn’t mean Hitler wasn’t crazy or evil– because he was, with capital “E” — but 1930’s was hardly the time when the world knew — or cared — about his crimes. His greatest evils were committed after WWII. In the 1930’s, he was harsh on the Jews, but the West had nothing really to say about that.
After all, while Hitler was oppressing Jews in the 1930’s, Americans were oppressing and lynching blacks in the South and elsewhere in the US. Including bombing black neighborhoods in Oklahoma City. I kid you not. In the 1920’s, a race riot brought out there, and the whites massacred blacks by any means neccessary, including, apparently, bombing from air.
Jane Seymour already played Wallis Simpson in a TV series…she did a great job…I think it was back in the 70s or early 80s..she had to be made up to look older and uglier like Wallis was since Jane was so young and beautiful back then, but she was very convincing in the role.
Feel better, Mike? I hope so, because you are wholly incorrect.
Two wrongs don’t make a right. Hitler was Evil with a capital E, he annihilated millions of people and reigned terror across the western world.
You are an idiot.
WTF?!?: I think you misread Mike’s comment. He is not apologizing for Hitler or saying that we can excuse Hitler because of what was going on in America. What I’m reading is that you can’t condemn someone for being a Nazi sympathizer in the 1930s. They didn’t have the knowledge that we do in the 21st century and it’s not like Hitler’s platform was “I want to kill 6 million Jews, Gypsys, homosexuals, socialists, the mentally and physically disabled, amoung others.”
Hitler was elected because he was a charismatic speaker who talked about German nationalism during a time when it was cheaper to burn money than buy wood or coal. The Treaty of Versaille humiliated and bankrupted Germany, so people were receptive to anything about strengthing Germany. Anti-semitisim was something he talked about but back then a lot of people believed there was some global Jewish financial conspiracy (and still do) so it wasn’t a red flag.
What Mike is saying is that the political climate was different than it was now, racism was not considered an issue like it is today. I’m not saying any of it is right, it is just the way it was.
OT: Madonna is screwing up her face and her legacy. I have a lot more respect for women who age gracefully, both physically and mentally. She tries so hard to be relevant and maintain an image that it just seems desperate. I still respect who she was in the 80s, 90s and early aughts so this just makes me sad.
Did you fail reading comprehension, WTF? He did not kill millions of people in the 1930’s.
Learn to read, dummy. His true evil became evident only after WWII started. In the 1930’s, he was not that bad, compared to what was happening in the world.
From the end of WWI to the start of WWII, a lot of things were wrong in the West. KKK was at its most powerful and lynchings at their height in the US. The British machinegunned innocent Indian civilians and gassed Iraqis from the air. Italians poison gassed and tortured to death hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians. The French and the Spanish bombed Moroccan civilians from the air and deliberately starved entire villages to deny resources to Moroccan freedom fighters. The Japanese raped Nanjing.
To be a fan of Hitler in the 1930’s was no big deal, not when the West had by far bloodier hands than Hitler. It was only with the start of WWII that Hitler committed his genocide against the Slavs, Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and social deviants.
During and after WWII, it was and is no longer okay to admire Hitler. But in the 1930’s, when Wallis Simpson and Edward mattered, whether you liked or disliked Hitler was a matter of politics more than anything else. People who feared strong Germany naturally hated him, while those who didn’t fear strong Germany were more nuanced.
Even Churchill in the 30’s respected Hitler as someone who got things done. Churchill didn’t like Hitler because he made Germany strong again, but he still respected his achievements. Churchill in the 1930’s certainly did not think Hitler was evil.
I guess they were the Charles and Camilla of their day as far as weak-willed princes loving homely horse-faced women.
just let me know if it’s gonna happen or not.
For the love of god I hope it’s not going to happen. I won’t be able to stomach the media for this one.
Madge, Esther, Madge, Material old Lady, Madge, whatever you want to call this old lady who just can’t accept that the world has moved on, and she’s stuck with that glow stick between her teeth trying to figure out how to make the “Mommy Dearest” look trendy.
*if you didn’t get the “mommy dearest” reference think about wire hangers and the name Christina
Christina = Lourdes
This is totally what Miley Cyrus is gonna look like in about 20 years. She’s even making her stupid “pout and look mildly retarded” face.
what is with her face?
Oh I just love pugs, they’re my favorite dog breed. Those are some cute royal pugs! This is probably the nicest dog breed out there. Winston (my pug) is a superstar in my neighborhood, everyone loves him.
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