Madonna, in Berlin, Recalls 'Harsh Reality' of Not Being Famous

Sure, Madonna is mega famous, filthy rich, and looking pretty damn good for a woman who is about to turn 50. But as she told reporters yesterday following the debut of her inaugural filmmaking endeavor, Filth and Wisdom, at the Berlin Film Festival, life wasn’t always all faux British accents and Kabbalah bracelets. She explained how the movie evoked her own long-hard road breaking into show business (the good old Danceteria days!) through its storyline of three young flat mates in London who “try to finance their dreams while working unfullfilling jobs,” the Associated Press reports. And she recalled “the cold harsh reality” of arriving in New York “only to find that there were thousands of girls that wanted to do the same thing, and I wasn't so special after all — that I was never going to be able to pay the rent ... and that I was going to have to do other things to feed myself.” Sniff! The characters in Filth and Wisdom face similar woes. One of them, played by a member of the Gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello, is an aspiring actor; another a would-be humanitarian who wants to help the children in Africa; and the third, a failed ballerina turned pole dancer.