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Lessons From Madonna
By Raina Kelley

I’m turning 40 in a week. But I have no plans … I was thinking of staying home and compulsively turning the lights on and off like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. What else is there to do? I don’t want to be 40 but, as my dad says, what’s the alternative? So I’ve decided to sulk. Really, this is not an elaborate public manipulation to get Steve Jobs to pity me and send me an iPad.

Well, it’s not just an elaborate manipulation, since an iPad would make me feel better. Seriously, the number 40 is sitting on my chest like a lead weight. Those of you who read my column regularly will know that I am extremely dramatic and unusually self-obsessed, even for a journalist.

So trust me, I used to like nothing better than my birthday. Over the years, I’ve thrown parties in my own honor so elaborate, they make the Super Bowl halftime show look like amateur hour. People are still shaking their heads about my 27th at that bowling alley near NYU. There are drag shows that don’t use that many feathers. So the fact that I’m willing to let this birthday go by without so much as a drink after work is a worrying sign that a nervous breakdown is looming. And I don’t have time for a mental collapse—I have a toddler.

Jennifer Lopez has revealed how her priorities have shifted now that shes a mum. The singer-actress said turning 40 and giving birth to twins Max and Emme made her rethink her career and ambitions.”You start out young and confident, thinking you want to be an actress and singer – then you actually do it and its great for a while, but then you have all this success and other things start becoming important,” she told OK! magazine.”You have to know what is most important to you. And I think you have to realise that as much as you put into work, you have to put into your relationship and your children – but more so.

For me, my family is the most important thing and everything else comes after that.”Jennifer, whose husband is singer Marc Anthony, chose to withdraw from the spotlight because of the children.”I do have more of a personal life now. That part of my life has changed from the past. I just didnt want to be that person any more,” she said.

via J-Lo: My priorities have changed – Celebrity News & Gossip, Independent Woman – Independent.ie.

Early in his career, actor Christian Slater was often compared to Jack Nicholson, but he soon broke free of that unintended shadow and became a star in his own right.

Having acted since he was 9, he experienced sudden fame after the release of “Heathers” in 1988. But with fame came trouble and as a young man he had several run-ins with the law. Since he turned 40 last month, those are distant memories. Slater has been married and divorced, and he has two children. He stars in ABC’s new crime drama, “The Forgotten,” which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

Tyler Perry took to his website to reveal in a letter to his fans his childhood physical and sexual abuse.

Hi there.

I know I’ve been a little quiet lately but I’ve been in silent reflection, quiet meditation, and prayer. Turning 40 is such a blessing. Especially because as I child I always thought I would die before I grew up.

If life begins at 40, then I owe the little boy that I was my life. Case in point, not long ago, I was brought a film to watch to see what I thought of it. It’s called PRECIOUS, based on the novel PUSH by Sapphire. I sat at home watching this movie not knowing what to expect. After the movie was over, I sat there for a long time just thinking about what I had just witnessed. I watched all the things that Precious, a 16-year-old girl in the film, went through. I watched her mother be unusually cruel to her and I realized at that moment that a large part of my childhood had just played out before my eyes. It hit me so hard, I sat there in tears realizing that somehow, by the grace of God, I made it through. My tears were tears of joy, being thankful that I made it.

Believe me when I tell you, PRECIOUS is a powerful film. After seeing it, I had to be involved. I didn’t write it or direct it, nor am I making any money from it. Oprah and I both are giving any proceeds we would make to charity. I just wanted to get as many people to see it as I can. It gave me so much hope after watching it. For everyone who has been a Precious, male or female, this movie will make you so glad you made it through.

It took me through some raw emotions and brought me to some things and places in my life that I needed to deal with but had long forgotten. It brought back memories so strong that I can smell and taste them. Like, when I was very young, my mother decided to leave my father…she had had enough of his insanity. She loaded me and my two sisters up in an old Cadillac that he had bought for her, and drove to California. When he realized she was gone, he called the police and reported the car stolen, as it was in his name. My mother was arrested and my two sisters and I were put in the cell with her. He and my uncle drove from Louisiana to California to get us. We spent several days in jail waiting for him. He bailed her out and couldn’t wait to get her into the car. He got into the back seat with us and beat her black and blue from California to Louisiana, as me and my sisters watched  Even though I was only two or three, I know that this had to have some effect on me.

I’m tired of holding this in. I don’t know what to do with it anymore, so, I’ve decided to give some of it away…

Brett Favre held his weekly press conference Wednesday and naturally he was asked about turning 40 on Saturday.

“I was thinking coming out to practice today, ‘You know, I’m about to turn 40, I don’t need to be out here practicing today,” he said, laughing. “Of course I was out here practicing. I’m just thankful that I am still able to do it and up to this point do it at a high-level. I think that is a pretty good testament.”

In 1969 Richard Nixon became president, the “Miracle” Mets won the World Series, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the very first lunar stroll, and Led Zeppelin’s debut album was released. In addition to these historic events, 1969 was also the birth year of several Hollywood A-listers, including Jennifer Aniston, Renee Zellweger, Cate Blanchett, and this month’s birthday girl, Catherine Zeta-Jones.

While there are plenty of reasons to venerate the year 1969, there is one catch to having it be your birth year. And that would be that the time has now come to bid your 30s adieu and face the most dreaded of b-days, the big 4-uh-0. Up until not too long ago, turning 40 in Hollywood meant that an actress’ career was about to enter a middle age induced coma.

“There are only three ages in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, and ‘Driving Miss Daisy,’” an indicative, little wisdom pearl from Goldie Hawn’s character in the 1996 comedy “The First Wives Club.” Fortunately, however, turning 40 in Hollywood is no longer likened to having leprosy. The aforementioned quadragenarian actresses are still among the most beautiful and most bankable stars in the industry, and they are showing plenty of staying power.