Madonna jokingly defended her title as “Queen of Pop” on Thursday, quipping she would never give up her throne for love like King Edward VIII — the subject of her latest film screened in Venice. The blonde diva’s second directorial work, W.E., starring British actors James D’Arcy and Andrea Riseborough, tells the tale of the king’s famous romance with American divorcee Wallis Simpson — and his subsequent abdication. “Would I ever give up my throne for a man or a woman?” a flirtatious Madonna said after the advance press screening at the 68th Venice Film Festival. “I think I can have both… or all three!” she told journalists. Madonna said she had wanted to capture the “world of luxury, beauty and decadence” of the 1930s, as well as the “rarefied air in the modern world,” which is also one of wealth and sensuality, but “does not guarantee happiness.” Style icon Madonna said there were “elements of myself” in the film, and said she could sympathise with Wallis as an outsider, an American living in London. “I empathise with Wallis. Public figures or icons are often just reduced to a soundbite, just a handful of attributes. I think people tried to diminish her… I tried to make her human,” she said.

 thehiberniantimes.com