“Love exists; I’m still a romantic, but it’s not that fairy tale that we’re all led to believe ... where the prince comes and kisses you.”

— Madonna talks about ‘W.E.’

THE focus in the days ahead is on Madonna the musician.

    She’s set to perform the halftime show at the Super Bowl on Sunday and her new single, “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” with the white-hot Nicki Minaj, hits radio airwaves this week.

    But the 53-year-old superstar is surely hoping that some of that spotlight will shine on her new movie, “W.E.,” about the celebrated romance between divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson and Britain’s King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne for love in the 1930s.

    “To me their lives were so diverse, complex and interesting, and there were so many different points of view to approach the story from,” said Madonna during a recent interview about the film, which opens Friday.

    Madonna doesn’t star in “W.E.” — she’s the film’s director. It tells the story of Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) through the vantage point of a modern-day woman (Abbie Cornish) obsessed with the fabled romance between Simpson and Edward.

    The union is often portrayed as the ultimate example of true love: Simpson was married when the pair began their relationship and was forever scandalized in royal circles. When Edward became king, he planned to marry her, but opposition to the union was so great, he chose to give up his kingdom. The two later wed and became known as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

    For some, it was a modern-day fairy tale, but it’s a notion Madonna debunks in “W.E.”

    “I think a lot of women have that fantasy of about what’s going to happen to them when they meet Mr. Right, Mr. Perfect, Mr. Complete Me, and then you realize that that doesn’t actually exist,” said the twice-divorced icon as she spoke about the film. “Love exists; I’m still a romantic, but it’s not that fairy tale that we’re all led to believe ... where the prince comes and kisses you.”

    She added: “I think ultimately we have to save ourselves. You’re going to be seriously setting yourself up for failure and disappointment if you think that one person is going to save you.”

    Wally, the main character of the movie, learns the same message in “W.E.” She finds out the romanticized story of the couple told throughout the decades wasn’t what it seemed after delving into deep research about the subject.

    Madonna’s interest in the duke and duchess was piqued after she moved to the United Kingdom during her marriage to Guy Ritchie.

    “I started kind of studying about, like, being a foreigner, being an outsider, trying to understand this new country that I lived in with a class system which America doesn’t have,” she said.

    (SD-Agencies)