Living in a Material World

Nov. 18, 2005 — -- It's been 22 years since Madonna released her first album, and the "Material Girl" has come a long way. With musician, actress, author and mother among the many hats she wears, it's hard to imagine what the mega-star's life is really like.

So "Primetime" gave Madonna a camera to shoot her daily life and then talked to her about her recent horseback riding accident, motherhood, religion and living in a material world.

'He Just Went Crazy'

In August of this year, Madonna was horseback riding with a friend at her English countryside home.

"It was a lovely ride," she told "Primetime's" Cynthia McFadden. "Everything was perfect. The sun was shining, sky was blue, the birds were singing."

When the friends reached the bottom of a hill on the star's property, her friend insisted Madonna try out the other horse.

She tried to dissuade her friend, saying she had jet lag and wasn't used to riding this kind of horse. But her friend insisted and Madonna finally gave in.

"He just went crazy," she said. "I said, 'I can't handle this, I'm going down!'"

And down she went. But for Madonna, even getting thrown from a horse was no reason to accept defeat.

"I'm like, 'I'm graceful, I'm a dancer, I'm gonna land, I'm gonna roll, it's gonna be fine,'" she said.

But when she tried to stand up, Madonna says it felt like her whole skeleton collapsed. She fainted, but she says she tried to fight it -- it was her birthday and she wasn't going to be put out of commission that easily.

In the end though, she had to succumb to the fact that she was in pretty bad shape.

"I broke my collarbone," she said. "I broke my scapula in two places. I broke four ribs, and I broke my left knuckle."

Someone's Thrilled With Star's Fall

She says she was in an intense amount of pain. So much so that tears streamed down her face, even with her husband, Guy Ritchie, close by for comfort.

"I was in so much pain, I think I must have screamed at him for so long that he left the room -- I'm not really sure," Madonna said. "Oh, I just kept screaming, 'Morphine! Morphine!'"

On the other hand, her children -- 5-year-old Rocco and 9-year-old Lourdes -- were delighted by their mother's injury.

"My daughter was thrilled, because it meant that I had to stay in the house all the time," she said. "She said, 'Mom, can you break your arm more often, because we get to see more of you?' which is not really what I wanted to hear."

Madonna says she's still in pain, but it doesn't seem to slow her down.

The Semtex Girls

Pain or no pain, Madonna has been out and about promoting her new album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor."

In one long night in New York City, the Material Girl hit club after club and didn't appear to have lost a beat.

"I always feel like when I come to New York, I put my finger into an electric socket," she said. "I feel alive and charged."

Her first stop was at 3 a.m., when she played DJ at a hip New York night spot, spinning her new record for the crowd. Then it was off to the Roxy to go dancing -- to her new record, of course.

All the while, right beside her were her three assistants, whom she affectionately calls the "Semtex Girls" after the plastic explosive.

It always seems controversy is never far from Madonna, and lately it has been about her new documentary, "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret." Critics in the press claim that in the movie, the Material Girl actually renounces the material world.

Living in a Material World

"I have not given up the material world," she explained. "Look at the world I live in. Look at the dress I'm wearing. It's really about putting things in perspective. How controlled are you by the material world?"

Madonna says everyone is addicted to something, whether it's approval, alcohol, sex or something else.

"It's ultimately going to be our undoing, if we don't have things in perspective," she said. "But I never say -- not once -- that I have rejected the material world, or that I'm not enslaved by it myself. I just hope that I'm working towards being less attached to it."

Madonna's much-publicized belief in Kaballah, the study of Jewish mysticism, has deeply affected the star. Is the young woman who once so publicly rejected the Catholic faith of her childhood now attending Jewish services?

"Well, that's what some people think," she explained. "I go to Torah reading. I hear the Torah. But I am not Jewish, and nor have I converted to Judaism."

Still, she says there is a part of her that still connects with Catholicism.

While attending a funeral for a friend in London, she says that when the priest spoke she felt like she'd come home.

"I guess I don't consider myself a Catholic. But I was raised to believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, which is to love your neighbor as yourself," she said. "I don't know what that makes me, but you know, not everything that I was taught, you know, being raised Catholic, was wrong. I think there were some good aspects to it."

So has this once bad girl mellowed out?

"It depends on who you're talking to," she said. "I mean, I think I'm good, but other people think I'm bad. Or I think I'm being naughty and other people think I'm not naughty enough."

Be sure that by the time you've made up your mind, she'll change again.