Madonna Tribe’s Year End Review: Next Best Thing Director Died

We would like to remember this year the sad departure of English filmmaker John Schlesinger, who directed Madonna in her film The Next Best Thing.
Schlesinger, the Oscar-winning director of “Midnight Cowboy,” was taken off life support Thursday, July 24, 2003 at Desert Regional Medical Center.

The 77-year-old filmmaker had a debilitating stroke in December 2000, and his condition deteriorated significantly in the first couple of weeks of July.
“The Next Best Thing“, the comedy which starred Madonna as a straight woman who decides to have a child with her gay friend, played by Rupert Everett, was the last film he directed and released in 2000.