Madonna will be raking
in the green in Ireland

Plus: Tom Cruise calls out his lawyers

AP file

Madonna can live like royalty on her tour proceeds.

By Jeannette Walls

msnbc.com

updated 1:21 p.m. ET April 19, 2004

No wonder they call her the Material Girl.

Madonna is launching her Reinvention Tour, and some of the financial details of the concerts have been leaking out — leading one source to quip that it should be called her Reinvestment Tour.

Madonna is looking to play a one-day gig in Ireland, where she’s filed plans with a county council board, and according to local reports, Madonna has hammered out a deal where she will receive either 4.2 million pounds (over $7.5 million) or 98.5 percent of the box office — whichever is greater. With tickets rumored to be in the $200 range, that could be one hefty payday.

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Madonna’s rep, Liz Rosenberg, denies the figures, but declines to give specifics. She says final ticket prices haven’t been determined, but she also acknowledges that the singer will rake in plenty of cash during her Reinvention Tour. “Will Madonna make lots of money on her tour?” Rosenberg asks. “Absolutely. And she will earn every penny.”

Legal eagle
Stephen Shugerman / Getty Images file
Tom Cruise has called out his lawyers again.

Attorneys for the litigious actor have fired off a letter, demanding a retraction from the London Independent over an interview the paper did with famed acting coach, Susan Batson. According to the profile, Batson — whose clients have included Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington, Juliette Binoche, and Adrien Brody — “was asked to help Kidman and Tom Cruise, Kidman’s husband at the time, to give a convincing sexual performance in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut”

The passage raised eyebrows among some, because several years ago, Cruise successfully sued the supermarket tabloid the Star for alleging that a sex therapist was called in to make those sex scenes more believable.

Cruise’s spokeswoman says that Batson worked with Kidman, but not with Cruise, and confirmed to The Scoop that a “legal letter” has been sent to the Independent. Batson, however, was once quoted as saying that Cruise came to him for “Eyes Wide Shut,” saying, “You know, I’ve done this King of Hollywood thing. I really wanna act.”

Notes from all over
Ann Johansson / AP file
Ashton Kutcher got punked. The actor was filming “A Lot Like Love” in midtown Manhattan last Friday. “They closed off Grand Central in the middle of the day,” one eyewitness tells The Scoop. “It was a crowded mess and people were upset about having their commutes messed up. They were filming one scene, and then towards the end of the take, this angry commuter started yelling at Ashton, ‘You’re such a punk! You’re such a punk!’ The security people had to hush him up and usher him away, but he ruined the take and they had to do it over.” . . . Allegedly wronged woman Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham recorded a song warning an anonymous woman to keep away from her man — months before the current scandal in which her soccer-star hubby, David Beckham, is supposedly having an affair with his former assistant, according to World Entertainment News Network. . . . Looks like “The Apprentice” winner Bill Rancic is a “Friends” fan. The winner of “The Apprentice” has been staying in hotels under the pseudonym Chandler Bing.