Celebrity Mound

Madonna may have jumped off a skyscraper after her messy divorce from Guy Ritchie last year – if only she had the time.

“It was a challenging year,” the icon admits in the November issue of Rolling Stone, which hits stands tomorrow. “I may have thrown myself off a building. I think work saved me, and I’m very grateful [for that].”

Some of that work included teaming up with Justin Timberlake, whom Madonna describes as a “sort of Cary Grant,” on her hit “4 Minutes.” She also collaborated with Lil Wayne on her new tune “Revolver,” which she calls “bad ass.” But there is one person she can’t attribute her busy year to: Eminem.

“I wanted to work with him,” the Material Mom admits candidly. “But he didn’t want to work with me.”

Why would anyone – even bad boy Em – not want to collaborate with her Madgesty? “Maybe he’s shy,” she offers.

Regardless, the songstress powered on – a skill she acquired early in her career when now-infamous nude photos surfaced in Playboy and Penthouse.

“That was the first time I was aware of saying ‘F- you’ with my attitude,” she says. Her response, she says, was: “You’re trying to put me down because of this? I [wasn't] going to let public opinion dictate my own feelings about myself. I [wasn't] going to apologize for anything I’ve done.”

Those pictures may have been the finishing touches on an already-risqué persona, but the Queen of Pop insists she was more “Like a Virgin” than anyone thinks.

“I didn’t really have my first drink until I got divorced the first time – from Sean Penn – when I was 30,” she admits. “I was kind of a geek in high school.”

Not so much anymore. At 51, Madonna is perhaps just the opposite – especially since she acquired 23-year-old arm candy Jesus Luz. Although she stays mum about her Brazilian boyfriend in Rolling Stone (“Isn’t this about music?” she asks), she does share an anecdote that makes it obvious she was destined for cougardom from the start.

Madge explains how she was friends in the early ’80s with legendary graffiti artists Keith Haring, who died of AIDS in 1990, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died of a drug overdose in 1988. Their “crew” – which included “Entourage” actress Debi Mazar – would graffiti everything. “Walls, subways, sidewalks,” Madge admits.

And her tag? None other than “Boy Toy.”

(source)