People talk 01/30/03

Madonna's defection from London temporary

LONDON -- Is the love affair over between Britain and the superstar it likes to call Madge?

Recent press reports claimed adopted Londoner Madonna has decamped to Los Angeles, defeated by the dreary English weather.

But Madonna's spokeswoman said the absence is only temporary.

"She'll be back in London in the spring," Liz Rosenberg said Wednesday. "Madonna has homes in the States, she has homes in England, and she moves between the two."

A spokesman for Madonna's British husband, Guy Ritchie, said the couple split their time evenly between Britain and the United States.

British newspapers reported this month that Madonna had withdrawn her 6-year-old daughter, Lourdes, from a London school, and quoted the singer as telling friends she was fed up with "everything that is English."

One magazine quoted Madonna's father-in-law, John Ritchie, as saying: "Madonna is very happy to be out of London because the harsh winter weather was getting her down."

The reports of Madonna's departure cheered some sections of the British press.

"Madonna the Brit," wrote David Thomas in Wednesday's Daily Mail, was "a classic case of the rich, crass, clueless American playing at English tradition."

How things have changed since the singer married Ritchie in December 2000 at a Scottish castle.

Soon, Madonna sightings were as common as double-decker buses in London.

But critics trashed Madonna's West End acting debut in the satire "Up For Grabs" last May. And distributors decided not to release last year's "Swept Away" in Britain after the film -- directed by Ritchie and starring Madonna as a spoiled socialite marooned on a deserted island -- failed spectacularly in the United States.

Sarandon tired of 'anti-American' label

LONDON -- Susan Sarandon said she's weary of being labeled "anti-American" because she's questioned the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq.

The 56-year-old actress, well-known for her political activism, said there are many questions that need to be asked about the prospect of a war with Iraq.

"I'm tired of being labeled anti-American because I ask questions," she told reporters before the premiere of her movie "The Banger Sisters," co-starring Goldie Hawn, which was released in the United States last year.

Sarandon also said she couldn't understand why British Prime Minister Tony Blair has shown so much support for President Bush.

"What's happened to Blair? I don't understand his reasoning or his logic. I don't understand his evolution," she said. "I can see him being seduced by Clinton but don't understand what he and Bush speak about."

Hawn, 57, was less outspoken on the prospect of a war with Iraq.

"I'm an optimist -- I don't think there will be one," she said.

Weaver and husband promote Sept. 11 film

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Sigourney Weaver and her husband-director Jim Simpson promoted their new film about firefighters who died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks during a visit to the state Capitol.

"The Guys" tells the story of a Brooklyn fire captain (Anthony LaPaglia) who enlists the help of a reporter (Weaver) to write eulogies for men he lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

"It shows a little bit of light that came out of that catastrophe," Simpson said Monday. He showed a trailer of the film at a news conference attended by state senators and local firefighters.

Weaver and Simpson, who have a second home in upstate New York, made Albany their first stop on a five-city tour. Other stops were scheduled in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago.

The low-budget film is adapted from an off-Broadway play written by reporter Anne Nelson and directed by Simpson. The play, also starring Weaver, opened Dec. 4, 2001, in Simpson's Flea Theater -- about 11 blocks from ground zero -- and ran for about a year.

"The Guys" is slated for release March 28.-- From wire reports