Madonna is following in the footsteps of talk show queen Oprah Winfrey with plans to build a girls’ school in Africa.

The Material Girl is in the process of applying to found the educational establishment in Malawi, where she adopted her son David in 2006.

She tells Elle, “I’m buying land and getting permission to build a girl’s school. The women will play a big role in the future and rebirth of Malawi.”

Winfrey co-founded the all-girls Henley-On-Klip Leadership Academy in South Africa in 2006. And Madonna, who currently governs a Malawi based charity project, isn’t the only U.S. star helping students in the African nation - actress and TV personality Ricki Lake is helping to build a school founded by her Malawian nanny.

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She wore a tight tank which showed off her huge upper arms!

I just think that is so gross looking…it’s just too much.

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Madonna attributes her phenomenal success to the years she suffered at the hands of school bullies.

The Material Girl admits she was considered a “weirdo” during her high school days in the 1970s, but decided to use her classmates’ cruelty as a springboard to success.

She tells Vanity Fair magazine, “I wasn’t a hippie or a stoner, so I ended up being the weirdo. I was interested in classical ballet and music, so the kids were quite mean if you were different. I was one of those people that people were mean to. When that happened, instead of being a doormat, I decided to emphasize my differences. I didn’t shave my legs. I had hair growing under my arms. I refused to wear makeup, or fit the ideal of what a conventionally pretty girl would look like. So, of course, I was tortured even more.”

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Madonna isn’t done speaking out on Britney Spears.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the Material Girl — who recently told E! she wants to “go save” the singer — called Spears’ situation “very painful.

“When you think about the way people treat each other in Africa, about witchcraft and people inflicting cruelty and pain on each other, then come back here and, you know, people taking pictures of people when they’re in their homes, being taken to hospitals, or suffering, and selling them, getting energy from them, that’s a terrible infliction of cruelty. So who’s worse off?” she asked.

Madonna — who turns 50 in August — also opened up about her Detroit upbringing, admitting, “I didn’t fit into the popular group.

“I wasn’t a hippie or a stoner, so I ended up being the weirdo,” she added. “I was interested in classical ballet and music, and the kids were quite mean if you were different. I was one of those people that people were mean to.”

Rather than feeling sorry for herself, she said she “decided to emphasize my differences. I didn’t shave my legs. I had hair growing under my arms. I refused to wear makeup, or fit the ideal of what a conventionally pretty girl would look like. So of course I was tortured even more.”

But she said it “further validated my superiority, and helped me to survive and say, ‘I’m getting out of here, and everyone is a heathen in this school!’”

Madonna’s new album, Hard Candy, is out April 29.

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Madonna wants to relaunch her acting career with a remake of 1942 classic Casablanca.

She is reportedly keen to modernize the Oscar-winning romantic drama, which originally starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, and possibly set the film in Iraq. But the planned project has been met by stiff opposition among Hollywood executives, according to British newspaper The Mail On Sunday.

A studio source says, “She is still determined to make it in the movies. She and her representatives have been touting around a project which is a remake of Casablanca. The reception has been lukewarm to say the least. No one can understand why she wants to redo what many people consider the greatest film of all time. “Madonna is talking about taking the Ingrid Bergman role for herself, even though Bergman was in her 20s when she played Ilsa (Lund) and Madonna is nearly 50. “She wants to update the story and maybe set it in a modern war zone such as Iraq. There is no script yet. Madonna and her people are testing the waters to see if this is the right vehicle for her and if a major studio will get behind the project.”

A spokesperson for Madonna has so far refused to comment on the reports. Madonna’s last big-screen outing, in 2002’s Swept Away, was panned by critics and she has since moved behind the camera to direct forthcoming movie Filth and Wisdom.

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These days, struggling and aspiring artists can take the fast track to fame thanks to American Idol, but back in the day, you had to work your way up and no one knows that better than Madonna.

“I did it the hard way,” she tells New York radio station Z100 in an interview to air tomorrow. “I had to teach myself how to play the drums, I had to get into a band. [I played] in crappy little clubs for years before anybody would even pay any attention to me. [ I had to] take my tape around to record companies and have them shut the door in my face. It took a long time. I came up the hard way.”

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Madonna leaves her London home and walks to her next door gym with her trainer and assistant wearing a white transparent raincoat.

She wouldn’t wanna get wet or anything on that longgggggg walk, now would she?

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