Verity
(Madonna)
Character
Madonna plays Verity,
a lesbian (implied) fencing instructor at Blades Club. She coaches James Bond
before he takes on Gustav Graves in am energetic sword fight. Ally to James Bond.
Biography
Born:
16th August 1958, Bay City, Michigan, USA
Singer, songwriter, actress.
Born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, on August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan.
Madonna won a scholarship in high school to study dance at the University of Michigan.
She left in the late 1970s and moved to New York City where she studied and danced
with Alvin Ailey and Pearl Lang, acted in underground films, and performed with
rock bands. Her albums Madonna (1983) and Like a Virgin (1984) sold over a million
copies each and included several hit singles. Her movie performances, except for
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) and Evita (1996), were less well-received. Known
for her provocative stage and video performances, a somewhat ambiguous symbol
of a new feminism in her combination of vulgarity and shrewdness, she was arguably
the best-known woman in the world at the height of her popularity.
In 1992,
her book Sex was published, featuring provocative photographs of her and others
accompanied with text of her erotic musings. Much of the controversy stirred by
this publication carried over into the casting of her in the feature film version
of the musical Evita (1996) critics believed her morally unfit for the role of
the beloved Argentinian Eva Peron. But she performed the role earnestly and effectively,
demonstrating her versatility once again. She became a proud single mother in
1997, and got in touch with her spiritual side on the Ray of Light (1998) release,
a musical and thematic departure from her earlier works.
In early 2000,
she starred in The Next Best Thing, as a yoga instructor who becomes pregnant
after a drunken one-night-stand with her homosexual best friend, played by Madonna's
real-life close friend Rupert Everett. The soundtrack featured Madonna's remake
of the Don McLean's classic anthem, "American Pie."
Madonna released
her album Music in the fall of 2000. Driven by the success of the title track,
Music received several Grammmy Award nominations, including Record of the Year
and Best Vocal Pop Album. In the summer of 2001, she kicked off her first world
tour in eight years, the Drowned World Tour.
In 2002, Madonna appeared
on the London stage as the star of Up for Grabs, a comedy by Australian playwright
David Williamson. Later that same year, she teamed up with husband Guy Ritchie
for Swept Away, where she plays a repressed upper-class woman who falls for a
sailor when caught stranded on an island. She and Ritchie also announced plans
to collaborate on a spiritual book for children.
Madonna was married to
actor Sean Penn from 1985 to 1989. She has a daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon,
by former companion Carlos Leon. In 2000, she married British film director Guy
Ritchie, best known for the 1998 hit Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The
couple had a son, Rocco Ritchie, on August 11, 2000.
