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KID INCORPORATED Madonna and daughter Lourdes

I'm an entertainment agent at ICM. I work with Angela Becker, who's one of Madonna's managers. We're trying to shop around ideas for a book and gauge initial interest.
Oh, wow! Yeah.

Her daughter, Lourdes, has written an essay that Madonna's interested in turning into an illustrated book. It's an essay for school on global warming—she's in fifth grade now. It's basically tips on global warming for kids. Madonna read it, and her teacher loved it, and we're thinking it could make a good illustrated book for kids.
Okay.

I haven't seen the essay myself, but they gave me some bullet points to run through with you to see if it might be a possible idea. Basic tips like "bike whenever possible, don't take car services." I guess it's more for upscale kids and how they can reduce global-warming footprints.
Do you want to set up a meeting in person?

I'm actually just calling around a bunch of places now to see about initial interest, and then we'll definitely set up meetings later on.
I'm sure [REDACTED] would be interested in talking to you about this.

Does this seem like a possibility—upscale kids?
I don't think we would want to aim for a specific market that way. I think you'd probably have to make it a little more universal.

These tips—you tell me if you think they aren't universal enough. "Don't buy plasma screen TVs," for instance.
[Laughs.]

I know it, I mean, she's Madonna's kid, you know?
Is she open to brainstorming different ideas for a global-warming book?

We could certainly talk to her. She's a good kid. You'll see by these bullet points that she's had a very sheltered upbringing. The third bullet point she has for me is, "Plant as many trees as possible around your home and estates." I could see tailoring that to saying, "Plant trees in your neighborhood," for instance.
Uh-huh.

She also says, "Ask your parents to make your homes solar-powered." She uses the plural homes, but I could see her saying, "Have them make your home solar-powered."
Okay. How would this be illustrated? Is she interested in getting an illustrator?

That's the other thing that's great. Madonna is close friends with Sting, and Sting's son, he's 14 or 15, they're talking about having him illustrate it. They faxed me over one of his drawings, and he's a very talented artist. Could we do that, or do you handle your own illustration in-house?
Generally, we match up illustrators ourselves, but sometimes things come attached to an illustrator. What's Sting's son's name?

I think it's Jeffrey.
Okay, great.

I don't deal with Sting. That's a whole other set of situations. If this were to happen, what kind of publicity department do you have?
We have a standard publicity department, six or seven people. They're really good.

Do you do much TV publicity?
Yeah! This is the Disney book group, so we have really close ties with TV. Definitely.

Great. Madonna of course has MTV connections, but MTV might be skewing a little too old for Lourdes' book. Would you be amenable to Nickelodeon stuff, or do you stick to Disney and Disney subsidiaries?
That's a good question. We don't just do Disney subsidiaries, so I think that's a possibility.

Lourdes is thinking about getting into acting in the next couple of years. We're in preliminary talks with Disney TV productions about a made-for-TV movie. Have you ever done product placement with books in movies?
Definitely. Are you thinking of making a Disney Channel movie?

If we went with Hyperion, we'd definitely do whatever we could to tie it in. We've been talking with Disney about some sort of TV show, a serial show, or a TV movie where Lourdes is the star. She's 12 now, but they're thinking about starting her early, and any tie-ins would be amazing.
I'm sure if the project suited that, they'd be open to it.

People are always eager to point out hypocrisy when people do environmental things. The last bullet point is, "Don't fly in private jets." She actually does herself fly in private jets. Her people are concerned that Lourdes' lifestyle is in contradiction with her tips.
[Laughs.] Oh, in general, I don't think it would be good for the book if it's really message-driven that way. So if she's open to adjusting the style of the book, I don't think that would even matter if she does fly in private jets.

Madonna would be interested in getting involved somewhat, but she really wants to make it Lourdes' project. Not have it be "I got this because I'm Madonna's daughter."
Right.

Can you think of any ways that we'd be able to get Madonna behind it, but without making it so clear that she got it because she's Madonna's daughter?
Is she open to doing publicity for it? Like if she had appearances on TV, would she give a shout-out for it?

I'm sure she'd do that. I'm thinking about book tours. I don't think she's the kind of person who'd go along on the book tour with her daughter. She'd feel she was stealing her thunder. She's trying to build up self-esteem for Lourdes, and doesn't want her to think that everything she got is because of her mom, you know?
Right. That's fine. So she's just willing to promote it in her own ... yeah.

Madonna obviously has a bit of a checkered reputation. Are you okay with Madonna promoting a book for kids?
Oh, definitely. It's Madonna!

Yes, she is.