Is Madonna planning Dubai home with dolphins in her living room?

Celebrity architect who has designed homes for Cristiano Ronaldo and Penelope Cruz, makes claims

 

We are not sure which piece of this news had us sit up to attention: one that Madonna owns a home in Dubai, or that she has dolphins swimming in her living room as entertainment.

In a week where the world has rallied around to save the fate of the 250 dolphins that were trapped in a cove in Taiji, Japan, fated to be slaughtered or sold to a life of imprisonment, Madonna grabs headlines once again in a controversial manner that has angered animal advocates around the globe.

The news came to the fore, when a profile of celebrity architect Joaquín Torres, revealed the plan and a rendering of Madonna’s new Dubai pad, complete with a dolphinarium in her living room.

Torres is best known to have designed the homes of high profile sporting stars, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and a majority of the Real Madrid team; also, let’s not forget styling the plush villa for Hollywood’s golden couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

However, as news of Madonna sprawling new Dubai home failed to meet the standards of most environmentalists, the diva’s rep was quick to type up a comment that claimed this entire episode reeked of slime.

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton carried a statement by the Grammy winner’s rep, which simply said: “Despite reports to the contrary, Madonna does not own a home in Dubai with dolphins.”

Interestingly, the comment does not deny that she owns a home here, per se (or in Abu Dhabi where she staged two concerts back in 2012), just one with one of nature’s most beloved creatures swimming in circles around her.
Meanwhile, the controversy has been further fuelled with Torres himself taking to micro blogging site Twitter to counter the claims made by the ‘Express Yourself’ singer.

When Twitter user Julian posed the question to Torres, whether he has built a home with a ‘dolphin area included’, the architect did not deny this.
He replied: “Yes, we did.”

When Stephanie Wireman asked whether the dolphins were captive or free, Torres simply stated: “Captive.”

However, when Shona Polona asked him whether the house has been physically constructed, Torres further explained: “No, it has not been built. It is just a project.”

He later added to a similar query: “This is just a concept. I am not the developer I am just the designer.”

Swimming amidst these murky waters are enraged activists such as Tina Campbell, who tweeted: “Ridiculous! She knows what these animals endured for her amusement?”

Umami said: “That’s why Madonna is called ‘Material Girl’. With all her money, she should be helping animals not exploiting.”


This month has seen the American singer embroiled in one controversy after another, with the 55-year-old issuing an apology this past weekend for using a racial slur whilst referring to her son on Instagram.

On Friday night, she posted a picture of her 13-year-old son Rocco boxing and used a hashtag that contained a variation of the N-word.
When fans objected, she called them haters, but in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday she was contrite, saying: “Forgive me.”
  Madonna reiterated she was not racist and had used the word as a term of endearment for her son.

At the beginning of the year, the mother of four also came under fire after uploading a picture of the underage Rocco holding a bottle of alcohol.
When coming under fire, Madonna’s response was that people didn’t appear to have a sense of humour anymore.