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By Glenn Kenny
Special to MSN Music

From the very outset of her career, Madonna has been committed to demonstrating that sensational pop commercialism and artistic credibility don't have to be mutually exclusive ideas. For that and several other reasons, it's hardly surprising ... morethat her most recent venture is as a film director firmly based in what critics call the auteurist mode. The much-mutated "auteur theory" holds the director as the bringer, or non-bringer, of a very personal creative stamp to a given film. Madonna's first feature, "Filth and Wisdom," was a cheeky and indulgent look at the hungry years of some aspiring creative types, no doubt heralding back to the Material Girl's lean Lower East Side origins. Her new feature, "W.E.," which has been widely slagged on by critics on the festival circuit, is a quasi-meta look at the love story of Wallis Simpson and the non-King Edward, and is likely an effort in the "rich unpleasant people have feelings, too" genre. Upon the film's release and, perhaps, the same box-office oblivion that was "Filth and Wisdom"'s fate, we look at the filmmaking efforts of other pop and rock icons to find out if this dabbling ever really takes.