How Madonna Got Her Groove Back

Have you ever witnessed a Madonna moment?

Allow me to share one with you.

It begins with the words "nice boots." Those are the first words Madonna says to me when we meet. The next words are "I approve," letting me know that we are now in her world, where a strict code of standards and practices applies.

But this is not the Madonna moment. She is just, in her own way, being fun and friendly.

The Madonna moment comes two hours later, when she changes into knee-high silver boots for a television performance.

As she walks past, she looks down her nose at me and says, "Who's got the better boots now?"

This is a Madonna moment.

One can't help but wonder sometimes how this boy-crazy outcast from Michigan ended up selling some 250 million records worldwide. But watch her closely for a while, and that answer will come in a Madonna moment, when, despite the ego-shedding lessons of Kabbalah, her competitive nature emerges.

She is probably a good person at heart. And if not, she's at least struggling to be good. But there's a tripwire in her head, and when it's crossed, you understand that it's no accident she became one of the most famous women in the world and has retained that title for more than twenty years.

There are Madonna moments in her tour documentaries, when she refers to herself as "the boss" and "the queen" when talking with her crew and dancers. And there was a golden Madonna moment on Late Night With David Letterman in October, when Letterman offered her the smaller of two horses to ride. Mistake.

"I don't want a tiny one," she snapped. "I want a big one. I want the prettiest one. Well, I want the best horse."

Madonna moments are not bad things. They are the telltale signs of a woman who believes she deserves the best the world has to offer -- the best boots, the best horse, the best career, the best stage show, the best seat on the plane. For the most part, thanks to her confidence, intelligence and single-minded work ethic, she's gotten it.

That is, until she had her first experience with mortality a few months ago. In a well-reported incident, Madonna attempted to ride an unfamiliar horse at Ashcombe, the eighteenth-century estate in western England that she shares with her husband, director Guy Ritchie. She fell from the horse, breaking eight of her bones. It was the first time she'd ever broken a bone and a wake-up call to her own vulnerability.