Publish date. 05-02-2012   Number of images. 7 Category. Entertainment

Madonna explores the real Wallis Simpson in 'WE'

By Maria Puente, USA TODAY Madonna, one of the world's most famous women, is trying to clean up the stained image of another famous American, Wallis Warfield Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor— "that woman" for whom King Edward VIII gave up his throne in ...

Madonna explores the real Wallis Simpson in 'WE'

  Madonna explores the real Wallis Simpson in 'WE'

Madonna explores the real Wallis Simpson in 'WE'

  Madonna explores the real Wallis Simpson in 'WE'

The temptation to apply layers of meaning to the story Madonna tells in her new film, the cryptically titled W.E., is irresistible.The pop superstar’s second feature film as a director, W.E. is a tal

Full View  The temptation to apply layers of meaning to the story Madonna tells in her new film, the cryptically titled W.E., is irresistible.The pop superstar’s second feature film as a director, W.E. is a tale of two women, two cultures, and two eras. Wallis Simpson was a real-life American socialite of the 1930s who was vilified for falling in love with England’s King Edward VIII; he abdicated the throne to marry the divorcée. Madonna’s movie attempts to reclaim Wallis’s image by turning a polarizing woman often perceived as a villain into a sympathetic figure.And then there’s Wally Winthrop, the other woman — this one fictional — in New York City in the late 1990s, at a time when Simpson’s jewels and other possessions were being auctioned off for charity....

King Edward VIII (James D’Arcy) whirls Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) around a dance floor. When Madonna first became famous, almost 30 years ago, she was defined by that very quality: She was n

Full View  King Edward VIII (James D’Arcy) whirls Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) around a dance floor. When Madonna first became famous, almost 30 years ago, she was defined by that very quality: She was no victim.For the gay men who were there in the beginning, when she was shaking it on the dance floors of New York City, the men who reveled in her early hits, Madonna was the ultimate expression of in-your-face sexuality. She was self-possessed and uninhibited. She dressed up for the party, and she took it all off for the after-party.Her impact wasn’t limited to gay men. Madonna boldly toyed with transgender imagery on a grand stage: She co-opted the Harlem drag balls for the “Vogue” video, she featured trans people and cross-dressers of all stripes in her banned “Justify My Love” video, and her coffee-table tome, Sex, posited couples in all sorts of configurations....

Anthony Souza/Weinstein Company Andrea Riseborough and James D'Arcy in Madonna's “W.E.,” about Wallis Simpson and also a modern New York housewife.

Full View  Anthony Souza/Weinstein Company Andrea Riseborough and James D'Arcy in Madonna's “W.E.,” about Wallis Simpson and also a modern New York housewife....

Madonna explores the real Wallis Simpson in 'WE'

  Madonna explores the real Wallis Simpson in 'WE'

While she doesn’t claim the title “most hated” for herself, she feels a connection to Simpson. “I mean, I certainly don’t engage [with the media] as much as I did,” she says. “When people are writing

Full View  While she doesn’t claim the title “most hated” for herself, she feels a connection to Simpson. “I mean, I certainly don’t engage [with the media] as much as I did,” she says. “When people are writing about you in the beginning and they’re saying nice things, you’re like, ‘Oh!’ You feel this lift of energy. Then they say bad things, and of course, you’re affected by that too.”Madonna spent a lot of time caring about the bad, but she claims to have moved on. “I don’t really dwell on it anymore. I used to be kind of fixated on it and think, It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair, but it is what it is, and I just have to get on with my life....


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