The A-Rodless Madonna was spotted out and about in Buenos Aires, Argentina this weekend enjoying a nice dinner with friends (including manager Guy Oseary) at El Clan restaurant. Maddy brings her Sticky & Sweet World Tour to Argentina this weekend (having to delay the opening night show for a couple of days due to the late arrival of her tour equipment) for a 4 night stint 12 years after she was there last to film her epic movie Evita. Here are pics of Madonna, Guy and co. making their way out the the restaurant this weekend:

Interestingly, New York Yankees player Álex Rodriguez was nowhere to be seen on this particular night. Since A-Rod has been seen with his “just friend” Madonna pretty much every day since Thanksgiving, I’m surprised that he didn’t make the trek down to South America to be with her this weekend … eh, mebbe he finally had to go back to the NY Yankees … or mebbe to his family. In any event, Madonna‘s children — Lourdes, Rocco and David Banda — did make the trip down to South America with her and were spotted enjoying a fun afternoon together by (and in) the pool at their hotel:

HMMM … I guess it’s Maddy‘s weekend with the kids. Looks like they are having a blast tho, I doubt they miss the cold London weather right about now. It’s unclear if the kids will be staying with Madonna in South America as her tour rolls on (she heads to Chile and Brazil after her dates in Argentina) but I suspect they will all be back home in NYC by Xmastime.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Here are new pics of Madonna and her children Lourdes and David Banda (little Rocco was there as well but he was hidden behind his mum scrum) making their way out of the Kabbalah Centre in NYC yesterday after attending services. Altho they look a bit dour-faced, it seems clear that Madge and her children remain resolute in their unity in the wake of the sad news of the dissolution of her marriage:

Honestly, it looks like biz as usual for Maddy and the kids. Even when she was “happily married” to Guy, the sight of Madonna and the kids making their way into and out of various Kabbalah Centres on a weekly basis was the norm. There are some reports that Kabbalah actually played a big role in the demise of the Madonna-Guy marriage (ie. that Guy wasn’t fully on board with the religious practice) but only the two of them know the truth reasons for the end of their union. As strong as Madonna is, I still feel sad that her marriage didn’t work out. I really believe that she and Guy were truly happy for a long time … for much of their 7 1/2 year marriage. She may not like to show it but I’m sure she’s hurting … deep down inside … somewhere. But, again, she is a rock and I know she’ll be totally fine after all is said and done. At least, that’s what she’ll make sure we all see on the outside.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Here are a few pics of Madonna and her children Lourdes, Rocco and David Banda enjoying an afternoon of sightseeing together in Athens, Greece (in between tour stops on Maddy‘s Sticky & Sweet World Tour) over the weekend. Daddy Guy Ritchie was not along for the little family holiday (presumably, he was bizzy promoting his new movie RockNRolla elsewhere in the world) but it looks like a fun time was had by all nonetheless … behold:

It’s nice to see that her Madgesty toweled off before hittin’ the sights with her kids, she looks pretty good in these pics … tracksuit notwithstanding. I can’t believe how much notsolittle David Banda has grown just this year already. He looks like a little kid now. It’s nice to see that Madonna is carving out some freetime for her kids as she tours the planet … it’s great to see that mommy duty still takes center stage even while she is on a world tour.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Material Motown Girl Madonna brought her daughter, Lourdes Maria, and her new documentary I Am Because We Are to the Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan this weekend. Co-founded by Flint, Michigan’s own documentarian Michael Moore, the Traverse City Film Festival, which is in its 4th year, scored a major coup by getting Madonna to show her documentary at their fest … here are a few pics of Maddy, Lola and Michael on the red carpet and at her screening in Traverse City this weekend:

She might be known worldwide as the Material Girl, but there’s more than a little of the small-town Michigan girl left in Madonna. The pop superstar arrived in this northern Michigan resort town Saturday to introduce her documentary, “I Am Because We Are,” a highlight of the Traverse City Film Festival. The event was co-founded by filmmaker, author and fellow Michigan native Michael Moore. Hundreds of fans cheered from behind barricades as Madonna, wearing a black dress, high heels and sunglasses, stepped out of a black sport utility vehicle that pulled up in front of the State Theatre. She hugged a waiting Moore, who sported an orange baseball cap, and posed for photos with him. Madonna and Moore shared the stage at the theater before a screening of the movie, which deals with the orphans of Malawi, the African nation where she and husband Guy Ritchie adopted a son. “It’s great bringing my movie to a place that I feel familiar,” Madonna told the audience. “Not like the Cannes Film Festival, where nobody’s speaking English, or the Tribeca Film Festival, where no one sits down. There’s something poetic about coming back to the place where I used to come for holidays — camping trips with my dad and stepmother and my very large family,” said the 49-year-old singer, born to the southeast in Bay City and raised in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills. Madonna was accompanied by her 11-year-old daughter, Lourdes, and the film’s director, Nathan Rissman. Ritchie was not present. Moore, who won an Oscar for his 2002 documentary “Bowling for Columbine,” said he was humbled to be able to call Madonna a friend. “She has such an incredible heart and such a generous spirit,” he said. “She does so much out of the glare of the lights to make the world a better place.” Madonna had praise of her own for Moore, 54, a Flint-area native who has a home near Traverse City. “There aren’t a lot of role models for us in the world, or people we can look up to,” she said. “People who are not afraid to stick their neck out, people who are not afraid to stand up for things and be unpopular, to go against the grain, think outside the box. And we need, and I need, Michael Moore in my life.”

Awww … sounds like a good old fashioned lovefest going on in the great State of Michigan. I think it’s very cool that Madonna agreed to screen her film in Traverse City for the Film Festival. It’s very rare for Maddy to step foot back in Michigan these days (the woman hasn’t even brought a concert tour to her homestate since the Drowned World tour) so it’s very nice for her to deign to return home again. Hopefully Madonna‘s appearance and the Film Festival as a whole will bring a financial boon to the area … that’s my home, y’all :)

[Source]

Madonna and her family spent part of their weekend enjoying a movie together (sans David Banda) seeming to show the world that everything is hunky-dory in their collective lives and nothing and no one is going to stand in their way of family bliss. If it weren’t for those horrible CROCs shoes that little Rocco insists on wearing (why, Madonna … why would you let such a travesty continue to occur?), I’d say that these pics are damn near perfect:

There was no word on what film the happy family were heading out to see (my guess is Journey to the Center of the Earth) but I’m sure a lovely time was had by all. The family already spends much of their time worshiping together or enjoying amusement park rides together … and now they’re off seeing movies together … next up, we should be seeing pics of the happy family picking posies as they skip hand in hand thru fields of lush green grass and colorful flowers. Nope … no family trubs here.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Madonna‘s marriage managed to survive another week of rumor and conjecture as reports of the dissolution of New York Yankees baseball player Alex Rodriguez‘s marriage to his wife Cynthia swirled in the tabloids … not to mention the drama that her brother Christopher Ciccone is trying to kick up with his new book. Making very sure to stay as far away from A-Rod‘s messy break-up with his wife (and totally mum on her brother’s book), Madonna and her family continued to put forth a united front together. Here are pics of Maddy and her entire family as they made their way out of their weekly Sabbath visit to the Kabbalah Centre last night:

Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie put up a united front as they clasped hands during a family visit to the Kabbalah Centre in New York. They did a good job of playing the happy couple in a week which has seen the pop veteran rocked by divorce rumours and allegations she is behind the marriage break-up of baseball player Alex Rodriguez. The 49-year-old has also had to endure hurtful allegations from brother Christopher Ciccone who claims in his tell-all book that she loves her career and herself more than her husband. In one of many barbed comments in the book Life With My Sister, which is due for release on Tuesday, Ciccone wrote: “I hope that it is Kabbalah’s lesson that she is not the centre of the universe.” But yesterday Madonna showed she had bounced back from a miserable week and the smile on her face suggested she found some spiritual peace at the Kabbalah Centre, which preaches about the mysterious Jewish movement followed by the star. Dressed in a casual black tracksuit and sunglasses, the pop star emerged with Ritchie having arrived late at the venue. Also in attendance were children Lourdes, Rocco and adopted baby David Banda … Madonna has refuted reports she is behind the £50million marriage break-up of Rodriguez, the world’s most expensive baseball player, and his wife Cynthia. Her denial follows reports that Rodriguez, 32 – in the first season of a £139million, 10-year contract with the New York Yankees – made a series of visits to Madonna’s New York flat, and that he converted to Kabbalah. Cynthia, 34, has filed for divorce earlier this week. In a statement Madonna said she has “nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study”.

Folks, Madonna is made of sterner stuff than all of this drama that is whipping up around her. Some maintain that she and Guy are merely holding their marriage together until after she completes her Sticky & Sweet World Tour but I maintain that they are just dealing with the same old shizz that they’ve been dealing with for years now. She’s keeping her family together, that says a helluva lot about the woman, I think.

[Photo credit: Splash News, Source]

Here are a couple pics of Madonna‘s eldest child, Lourdes Maria Leon, as she stepped out in NYC this morning with one of her handlers … and homegirl was lookin’ pretty fierce, if I do say so myself:

Clearly, Lola is too old to be hanging out with her little brothers at the park all the time so she needs to step out on her own from time to time (well, maybe with just one nanny in tow). She is growing up quite nicely, something tells me that this one is going to shy away from the trials and tribulations of Hollywood “It” Girld-om.

[Photo credit: INFdaily]

With rumors swirling at a fever pitch that Madonna‘s marriage to Guy Ritchie is (yet again) on the rocks, it makes sense that Maddy would want to regroup and center herself at her place of worship. Actually, Madonna makes it a habit of attending services at the Kabbalah Centre of whatever city she’s in on a weekly basis but maybe this weekend’s visit is especially necessary for her considering the reports going around about the alleged dissolution of her marriage. Here are a few pics of Madonna, her children Lourdes, Rocco & David Banda and her daughter’s father Carlos Leon making their way into the Kabbalah Centre in NYC last night:

With no wedding ring on her finger and no husband in sight, Madonna and her three children – and Carlos Leon, 11-year-old daughter Lourdes’s biological dad – visited Manhattan’s Kabbalah Centre Friday night for Sabbath services and returned again on Saturday. So where was Guy Ritchie, rumored to be splitting with Madonna? British tabloid reports had him in London, but headed to New York this weekend. Britain’s Sun has an unnamed source saying Ritchie seeks to keep the couple’s marriage going, although Madonna is focused on rehearsals for her upcoming world tour. On Thursday, it was reported in the London Times Madonna had consulted noted divorce British attorney Fiona Shackleton, who had represented Paul McCartney and Prince Charles in their bitter divorces from, respectively, Heather Mills and Princess Diana. On Friday night, Madonna’s group [arrived at the Kabbalah Centre] in three waves … The service had just about ended, with a dinner about to begin. Madonna stayed some 20 minutes before leaving with Rocco and David for her home on Central Park West, according to a source. On Saturday, Madonna and her three children returned to the center for services. Her presence didn’t create any kind of stir, as congregants gave her hardly any notice. With Lourdes at her side, Madonna sat in a front-row seat, wearing a black baseball cap and tight black T-shirt. David, in a white baseball cap and Rocco sporting a Yankees cap, spent much of the time playing quietly with some other children on the floor of the sanctuary. A bar mitzvah took place, and at its conclusion Rocco joined all the congregants in throwing Sunkist fruit gem candies at the bar mitzvah boy. At the service’s conclusion, Lourdes wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck and gave her a big, long hug.

People magazine also reports that Maddy is in NYC right now to prepare for her upcoming Sticky & Sweet World Tour, sticking to a regiment where she works out at home in the morning before heading out to a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to rehearse with her dancers for the tour. I don’t imagine that all the speculation about her marriage helps out with all of the stuff she’s got going on in her life these days but I’m not ready to jump aboard the divorce bandwagon just yet. Madge and Guy have been rumored to be heading for divorce for years so these latest reports just sound like more of the same. In any event, Madonna‘s got work to do and she’s gonna do it, no matter what difficulties come her way.

[Photo credit: Splash News, INFdaily, Source]

Yesterday we saw pics of Lourdes Ciconne Leon (first born child of Madonna) enjoying a nice afternoon in Central Park here in NYC with her little brothers Rocco and David Banda and today we get pics of Miss Lola lookin’ totes fabulous as she took to the streets of NYC earlier this week with her father Carlos Leon … behold:

While I can still see shades of Avril Lavigne‘s influence in this outfit, I gotta admit that the little girl does have decent taste in fashion. The knee-high socks are cute and that headband thing around her forehead is pretty popular these days (it’s just about to break into the mainstream I think, meaning that it’s almost over already). I seriously doubt that she has handlers helping her dress, especially at her age and deffo when she stays with her father. Mother Madge may offer some help with her dress when she’s at home (then again, Lola may not solicit help from even her mother) but I tend to believe that all the fashion choices we see in this little stylista are all her own. I imagine that Lourdes doesn’t want for anything fierce or fabulous to wear so it’s prolly easy for her to pull together a nice little ensemble … even still, she’s doing a pretty good job so far for being an 11 year old.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

The fruit of Madonna‘s loins — Lourdes, Rocco and her newly adopted son David Banda — spent a lovely afternoon playing with one another in Central Park here in NYC earlier this week. With their nannies at the ready, Lola and Rocco frolicked near and in a fountain while little David kicked back and relaxed in his stroller. Here are a few pics:

Sure looks like a fun way to beat the heat. Madonna‘s kids are really enjoying all the fun things that NYC has to offer. Last weekend they enjoyed a baseball game at Yankee Stadium and this week they got to enjoy an afternoon in Central Park … like normal kids. I love it. It’s great seeing all the kids getting along so well … it looks like Madonna has got herself a very happy family.

[Photo credit: Splash News]