Madonna is back in the studio — just not the music one.
This week, the pop legend was spotted in Venice on the set of the Apple TV original series The Studio. The 13-time Emmy-winning comedy series was co-created by Seth Rogen, who also plays the lead character. The show follows Matt Remick (Rogen), a newly appointed head of a failing film production company, as he tries to revive the business while remaining true to his own hopes and dreams for the industry.
Season 1 starred Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, Kathryn Hahn, Bryan Cranston and the late Catherine O’Hara, who died in January at age 71. While it’s unknown in what capacity Madonna will be joining The Studio, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that she’s set to make an appearance.
Nodding to her European work trip, a photo posted on her Instagram Story shows Madonna reading a script (with a strategically placed heart emoji blocking the dialogue) inside a glass-top boat with the caption “The Italian job.”
Madonna’s role on The Studio would mark her first live-action acting gig in more than two decades. The “Like a Virgin” singer’s last live-action film role was in the 2002 romantic comedy Swept Away, in which she starred opposite Adriano Giannini. In 2003, she made a cameo on the TV series Will & Grace.
Though it’s been 20-plus years since her last acting job, Madonna has not fully stepped away from Hollywood. In 2020, she announced that she was working on a biopic on herself. Fellow The Studio guest star Julia Garner was set to play the Queen of Pop in the film, however, the production was put on pause in 2023 while Madonna focused her energy on her Celebration Tour. The 81-stop retrospective tour featured some of Madonna’s greatest hits from her 40-year career and grossed more than $200 million. The tour ended with a record-setting free concert on on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro where she performed for more than 1.6 million fans. In 2024, after the tour ended, Madonna teased a return to the biopic project.
Though production has started on The Studio season 2, a premiere date has not yet been announced.
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