Madonna Gives $2.6 Million to Kabbalah

Madonna Gives $2.6M to Kabbalah | Noth By Southwest; Cain Is Able; Revolutionary Rude; Gossip Kings

Madonna was very charitable in 2007. According to newly available tax filings for her Ray of Light Foundation, the ex Mrs. Ritchie gave away $3.1 million last year. Nearly all of it went to the Kabbalah Center of Los Angeles.

In hard numbers, Madonna really showed her devotion to the group — a total of $2,626,529 to the Kabbalah Center itself and another $4,025 to the group’s offshoot, Spirituality for Kids. The latter likely represents her promised donation from royalties from her children’s books.

More interestingly, Madonna gave no money to her other charity, Raising Malawi, in 2007, even though that was the year she adopted little David Banda from that country. The tax filing wasn’t submitted to the IRS until June 2008, so it could have been amended to show Madonna’s appreciation to the African country for letting her change their adoption laws. She sent zero dollars to any groups currently working in Malawi.

In fact, considering that Madonna made a documentary about Malawi and threw a fundraiser for her cause last February with Gucci and UNICEF, it does seem a shade odd that she didn’t spread her wealth to a region that so needs it. The whereabouts of that $3.7 million that was claimed from that fundraiser still have not been reported. When they file their Form 990s, it will be interesting to see if that’s where Madonna’s Kabbalah money went.

Madonna’s other donations of note include $250,000 to Mobilization Against AIDS — notable because in 2008 she stumped for another AIDS fundraiser, AmFAR. She gave $15,000 to the recording industry’s pet charity, the TJ Martell Foundation for Leukemia and Cancer Research.

Madonna also gave money to All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., and to Los Angeles Jewish Big Brothers and Sisters. There were several smaller donations to left field health organizations, none to groups like the Red Cross, Save the Children, or even Doctors Without Borders. She also gave almost $23,000 to a group that sets up playgrounds in Russia.

Noth By Southwest; Cain Is Able; Revolutionary Rude; Gossip Kings

Chris Noth and partner Steve Walter are not shutting down their popular club, The Cutting Room, for long. Despite urgent notices yesterday, I am assured by the owners that they are currently scouting a great space in Tribeca and should move there not long after the last show in the West 24th St space on January 13th—that will be Joan Rivers. I’m told that the current site hasn’t had heat regularly for weeks, and that the landlord has been extremely difficult. And the block, 24th St. between Broadway and Sixth, has changed for the worse over the years. “A couple of weeks ago, Leon Russell got a parking ticket in front of the club,” says a source. “The police look the other way on the west end of the block, where it’s all hop hop clubs, shootings, whatnot. But on the east end, they’re making up for it.” The Cutting Room is one of the last great New York clubs, so here’s hoping the Tribeca deal is closed soon. Meanwhile, Noth is spending the holidays setting up a new home in suburban Los Angeles with his girlfriend and one year old daughter…

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