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Madonna in Space? Not Yet

After feeling the need to mobilize 10,000 soldiers and riot police for Madonna's concert in Moscow earlier this week, you'd think the Russians would be only too happy to send her into space. But a proposal to do just that was rejected yesterday by the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.

The proposal was brought forth by Duma member Alexei Mitrofanov, based on a comment the Material Girl allegedly made during her Tuesday night concert, saying that she would like to visit the International Space Station.

Mitrofanov apparently envisioned Madonna's space visit as a great goodwill publicity stunt, and suggested that it be scheduled for 2008 to coincide with U.S. and Russian presidential elections. "Because of the television possibilities, it would be a pretty serious event," the Liberal Democratic Party legislator explained to the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.

Unfortunately, the Duma voted down Mitrofanov's proposal. Perhaps they were heeding the words of space agency spokesman Igor Panarin, who said that no seats for space tourists would be available on Russian spacecraft until 2009. Or maybe they were fearful of a zero-gravity reenactment of Madge's onstage crucifixion stunt, which had Russian Orthodox Church leaders up in arms and prompted the over-the-top show of anti-riot force at her Moscow concert.

That concert, by the way, went off with no major disruptions. An estimated 50,000 fans attended, adding to what is on pace to be the best-attended and highest-grossing tour ever by a female solo artist.

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
09.14.06