Queen Madge Conquers King Louis (Vuitton)

Madonna, yoga-holic Kaballah enthusiast and mega pop star, is the latest in a long line of celebrity models to front a Louis Vuitton advertising campaign. Among previous Louis luminaries include Jennifer Lopez, Uma Thurman, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Connery, Andre Agassi and Mikhail Gorbachev (less of a celebrity, but still a shining star - questionably so or otherwise).

The latest campaign is less of a luxe setting, with Madge perched in a quintessentially Parisienne cafe, legs akimbo shot by photographic star Steven Meisel. It's not the first time for Meisel to get up close and sepia-toned with Madonna - he shot her in her highly controversial (at the time - it was the '90s after all..) pictographic, Sex.

Marc Jacobs, the creative brains behind LV at the moment was adamant that Madonna be his latest model, noting "I wanted the campaign to be very bold, very sensual and very atmospheric. To carry off all these references and all this sophistication, we needed the ultimate performer - and for me, that is Madonna." (He watched her performance in her latest Sticky & Sweet tour before making the offer). The collection is said to incorporate African tribal and Parisian chic influences.

Apparently the fishnets were Madge's idea. What a surprise.

Certainly, Madonna is still huge even after about 20 years in the limelight. As a performer, yes she's definitely got it, but after so long in the game, so much exposure (we've seen her nude several times over) and publicity - good and bad - I can't see her being as iconic a "face" as someone with a little more mystique which was certainly captured by previous (particularly female) stars at the time of their career in which they were shot - J.Lo was in the early stages of her relationship with Ben Affleck and had that untouchable star quality, despite her insistence that she was still "Jenny from the block"; Uma Thurman had just completed Kill Bill to considerable acclaim and unsubstantiated rumours were flying about her marriage breakdown and muse-relationship with Quentin Tarantino; and Scarlett Johansson was at the start of the peak of her film career - just in the early days of Woody Allen discovering her and, like Tarantino-Thurman, developing a mystical muse relationship. I can't help but think that Madonna is well past her use-by date, despite her desperate attempts at yoga-induced youth. Maybe the 1940s-style shots will resonate as gloom circles the globe, and we pretend not to be quite such material girls. Perhaps the African tribal look will emerge (egads!). I'll watch with interest.