Tip your hat to the impoverished, but proud, nation of Malawi.
Leaders of the small African country have accomplished a feat that no human has had the nerve to try: They said “No’’ to the spoiled, entitled, rich, aging pop singer Madonna.
Malawi proved that wealthy and fabulous celebrities can’t always run roughshod over poor folks.
Last weekend, Malawi unceremoniously sent Madonna packing from the country, making her 15-person entourage walk through checkpoints, endure personal searches, and sit among the huddled masses in the airport’s steerage section, London’s Telegraph reported.
Accustomed to being treated like a VIP, Madonna was said to be furious. Don’t you care who she is? Nope.
Madonna traveled with her kids, including two Malawians she adopted, under questionable circumstances, treating human beings like trophies for her single-mom’s child collection. This fanatical bartering in human flesh seems to be the source of scorn from the Malawi government.
From the start of her weeklong “humanitarian’’ trip, Madge’s antics angered President Joyce Banda, who took office last year and refuses to bow to Madonna.
“She just came unannounced and proceeded to villages and made poor people dance for her,’’ Banda groused to a reporter.
Yesterday, Banda had enough. She slammed the “bullying’’ 54-year-old singer.
“Madonna feels that the Malawi government and its leadership should have abandoned everything and attended to her because she believes she is a music-star-turned- benefactor who is doing Malawi good,’’ Banda said. “Granted, Madonna is a famed international musician. But that does not impose an injunction of obligation on any government under whose territory Madonna finds herself, including Malawi, to give her state treatment.’’
Madonna has gotten loads of press for claiming she built 10 schools from scratch. Not so fast, Madge.
“For her to tell the whole world that she is building schools in Malawi when she has actually only contributed to the construction of classrooms is not compatible with manners of someone who thinks she deserves to be revered with state grandeur,” Tusekele Mwanyongo, a State House press officer, said.
The root of the problem is much more personal: Madonna’s acquisition of David Banda (above right), now 7, in 2006 and Mercy (above left), also 7, in 2009. Madonna was allowed to circumvent strict Malawi adoption laws. Required to live in Malawi about 18 months, she didn’t. She also ignored the pesky fact that David had a living, breathing, dad.
“Kindness, as far as its ordinary meaning is concerned, is free and anonymous,’’ President Banda said. “If it can’t be free and silent, it is something else. Blackmail is the closest it becomes.”
Blackmail? Madonna’s camp was mad, and claimed Banda got revenge for Madonna firing her sister, Anjimile Mtila-Oponyo, for alleged theft. “For her to accuse Mrs. Oponyo for indiscretions that have clearly arisen from her personal frustrations that her ego has not been massaged by the state is uncouth, and speaks volumes of a musician who desperately thinks she must generate recognition by bullying state officials instead of playing decent music on the stage,” Banda’s statement read.
Ouch!
Madonna is not alone.
Every year, celebrities skip to the front of long and winding adoption lines, here and abroad. Angelina Jolie. Sandra Bullock. Charlize Theron recently joined the ranks of celebs who flaunt their adopted babies like so many precious baubles.
“You hit the nail on the head for a big problem: What celebs are doing is for their reputation in the First World and the Second World, not the Third World,’’ said David Webb, the Tea Party 365 founder who knew Madonna in the 1980s.
“Madonna’s long history of being a diva is well, well, well documented,’’ said publicist and author Michael Levine.
“Can she be stopped? No, no, no,’’ he said. “The world fortifies her flair and her arrogance.’’
One celeb who play-acted a humanitarian has been cut down to size.
Will others follow?
Twisted costume drama
Beware, “Sesame Street” freaks. Osvaldo Quiroz-Lopez walks those wretched Times Square pedestrian plazas, dressed as an ill-tempered, man-sized puppet. He was arrested for allegedly pushing a boy of 2, cursing him and his Indian-actress mom.
“Give me money! I get $2 for a photo,’’ a criminal complaint alleged Quiroz-Lopez screamed at former beauty queen Parmita Katkar, after posing for pictures with little Samay. When Katkar said she had no cash, the beastly character allegedly called the lady a “bitch’’ and Samay a “bastard,’’ then shoved the boy nearly to the ground. He was charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
“I don’t like the Cookie Monster,’’ the traumatized tot told his mom.
Previously, an Elmo shouted, “I hate Jews!’’ A Super Mario groped a grandma. But Mayor Bloomberg said even sociopathic panhandling is legal. It shouldn’t be.
Kick these clowns out of town.
Bag this bad idea
Those $20 “Prada’’ handbags you buy in Chinatown, then throw away when they fall apart 10 minutes later, could get you busted if a politician has her way.
Councilwoman Margaret Chin wants to make it a crime to buy, not just sell, faux Chanels — punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, a year in jail, plus disappointment from the folks back home in Des Moines who expected a real New York bargain. Crazy.
Anyone who invests in a flimsy Coach bag is punished enough.
A smart Alec would let ‘stalker’ slide
Alec Baldwin is having a bad month for a psycho-bully who, it’s been reported, may be headed to a late-night TV- hosting gig.
In an awesome display of passive-aggression against the dad who once called her a “rude, thoughtless little pig,’’ Alec’s model-daughter, Ireland, 17, posed in sexy bathing suits in the pages of The Post, her father’s most-detested newspaper.
Now, Canadian hottie Genevieve Sabourin, 41, wants to drag the Bloviator and pregnant wife Hilaria into court. Genevieve, who says Alec dumped her after a 2010 one-nighter, this week turned down a no-jail, no-record “guilty’’ plea to charges she stalked and harassed the Baldwinators. The cracked couple could be compelled to sing at a Manhattan trial.
Ask prosecutors to drop the charges, Alec. You can’t win.
Maggie beat snobs and skeptics
This line was buried in otherwise obscenely critical Associated Press obituary of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher:
“A grocer’s daughter, she rose to the top of Britain’s snobbish hierarchy the hard way, and envisioned a classless society that rewarded hard work and determination.’’
Baroness Thatcher single-handedly rescued her country from the brink of economic ruin. She was a great leader, loving wife and a tough dame. Well done.