Madonna: My sex scene terror

Madonna today admitted that shooting graphic sex scenes with co-star Adriano Giannini in her new movie, Swept Away, had been "terrifying" - as the film was directed by her husband, Guy Ritchie.

Madonna, 44, said: "We saved the physical stuff to the very end of the shooting - and I think everyone expected, like, bombs to go off. The whole crew was waiting for Guy's head to explode off his body."

The 33-year-old British film director admitted that the sex scenes involving another man and his wife - in the first film they had made together - had been "an issue".

Ritchie said: "I directed the scenes from about three feet away... with a very sharp stick."

Asked if Giannini had felt intimidated by her husband's presence during the scenes, Madonna said: "Yes, he was. We were all intimidated. We were terrified."

She went on: "Truth be told, they [the scenes] were all difficult. The whole thing was weird because, after all, he's my husband and he's the only person I make love to."

She said filming sex scenes is "always very awkward and not any fun. It's strange to find yourself in intimate situations with someone you don't know".

Swept Away - a re-make of an original Seventies Italian "sex and sand" cult movie - is the story of a rich, arrogant American woman who is cast away on a desert island with a young Italian sailor, only to become his "love slave".

The Ritchie-Madonna version - strongly criticised for its sex and violence - is due for release in the US next month. In the interview in the New York Times, Madonna said that working with her husband had taught her "thousands of lessons about life in general".

She said: "When we were having our husband-and-wife time or our time with our family, there were times I wanted to talk about the film.

"Then I thought, better not to do it. I had to figure out what was a good time, when to keep my mouth shut. And there would be times when I was angry with him about stuff in our personal life, and I had to let it go when we were on the set."

Although the star has made her home in Britain with her children Lourdes, five, and Rocco, two, Madonna admitted she finds driving on the left-hand side of the road daunting. "One thing is, I don't know how to drive on the wrong side of the road yet.

"In America, I can drive by myself ... and I can't do that here. I don't know how to get around yet, and I can't drive on that side of the car yet."