Madonna (28 page)

It was a nice try on George's part, but Sean's absence from the press conference spoke louder than words. That day in London, Madonna recemented her relationship with the British press, but it was just the beginning of Sean's media scuffles.

When Madonna was asked if she was one of George Harrison's fans, she replied, “I wasn't a Beatle maniac. I think I didn't really appreciate their songs till I was much older. But he's a great boss. Very understanding and very sympathetic.”
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In reality she was more concerned with her work on screen than she was with Sean's murky moods. With regard to her acting, she claimed that the most difficult part for her was the point in the script in which her character goes through a transformation and becomes more liberated. Another hard part, she complained, was the beginning of the movie, where her character, Gloria Tatlock, is quite repressed and so opposite of her own temperament. To portray innocence on camera was a real stretch for Madonna, and she realized she had gotten herself in over her head.

She was, however, able to illuminate the reasons why she wanted to portray a repressed character on the screen: “You have to think about the political climate in the U.S. at that time,” she said of the film's 1938 setting. “Rather than stay home and raise children, I wanted to do something exciting with my life—so I go to Shanghai to be a missionary.”
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When the press started to get personal with their questions, George jumped into the fray on her behalf. “Do you fight with Sean?” one reporter asked Madonna. Answered Harrison, “Do you row with your wife?”
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Although he was a tonic for frazzled nerves that day at the press conference, Harrison was a bit put off that Sean and Madonna had acted so poorly off screen.

“The Beatles always handled the press brilliantly, and we had far more press than any pop star today,” George said, a year after
Shanghai Surprise
had come and gone. “We also had a sense of humor about it,” he said with reference to press relations and giving interviews.
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In his eyes, Madonna and Sean took it all too seriously.

In January, while Sean and Madonna had been in China filming
Shanghai Surprise
, her lawyers had finalized negotiations to secure an apartment on Central Park West. It cost an estimated $850,000. The lease, however, was not in both of their names—it was in hers alone. Her lawyers were careful to keep all of Madonna's belongings in her name, a practice which also fit the prenuptial agreement they had signed before they were married.

With the new co-op, the couple was officially bicoastal. In April 1986, with their work on
Shanghai Surprise
completed, the Penns were back in Los Angeles and basically walking on thin ice as far as the press was concerned. It was this month that a split seems to have occurred—one that found Madonna soaring and Sean sinking. Their next moves were perceived as crucial in determining how they were going to be treated in public.

Also that month the first single, “Live to Tell,” off Madonna's soon to be released third album, hit the airwaves. Like “Crazy for You” a year before, “Live to Tell” was a sensitive and powerful ballad. She delivered it with sincerity and emotion, and it was an instant smash. It was the theme song for Sean's movie
At Close Range
, and that film's director, Jamie Foley, directed the stark and striking Madonna video. Without wild jewelry or a revealing outfit, her look had changed. Her hair was blonde and styled along the lines of the 1930s character she had just played in
Shanghai Surprise
.

While Madonna was proving her versatility with “Live to Tell,” Sean kept busy causing conflicts. He went out of his way to comment candidly about the helicopter film crews that took photos of his wedding last summer. “I would have been very excited to see one of those helicopters burn and the bodies inside melt,” he claimed. “Those were non-people to me!”
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On April 12, Sean and Madonna went to a Los Angeles club called Helena's. Also there that evening was songwriter David Wolinski, an old friend of Madonna's. When David spotted Madonna in the club, he walked over to say hello and kissed her on the cheek. Seeing this, Sean went into a rage and savagely began beating and kicking David with his fists, his feet, and a chair that he grabbed. The club's proprietress, Helena Kallianiotes, and Madonna had to drag Sean kicking and screaming outside.

Madonna was totally freaked out. This wasn't some aggressive journalist jumping out from behind a door, this was a friend of hers. Wolinski pressed charges against Sean. Penn in turn was fined $1,000 and got off with a year's probation.

Suddenly everyone was taking sides in the great “How long will this marriage last?” debate. Even Camille Barbone managed to put her two cents' worth in. “I don't think having a husband who throws tantrums and bricks is going to seem all that endearing much longer,” said Madonna's former manager. “She is going to realize he is not a rebel, just a child.”
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On June 6, Sean again blew up in public. This time, however, his anger was aimed at his wife. The pair was out on the town in New York with friends, and they couldn't seem to agree on anything. According to the gossip columns, the pair dined in Little Italy and then went uptown to the East Village to the trendy little underground dance club Pyramid. Martin Burgoyne had gotten a job as a disc jockey there, and Madonna and Sean stopped in to visit with him. Once they arrived, they got into a heated argument. At one point Sean grabbed Madonna and shoved her up against a wall. They quickly exited the club and hopped into separate cabs.

On June 30, Madonna's third album,
True Blue
, was released, along with her latest single, “Papa Don't Preach.” Her new songs and a new video all received glowing reviews. Especially talked about was Madonna's new look: short-cropped blonde hair, fifties-style peg-legged pants, sleek, form-fitting tops, and no jewelry. Her new look was a combination of Marilyn Monroe, Jean Seberg, and Kim Novak. Gone was the assemblage of crucifixes and hair rags. In its place was a new gamine Madonna for 1986.

“I see my new look as very innocent and feminine and unadorned,” Madonna proclaimed. “It makes me feel good. Growing up, I admired the kind of beautiful glamorous women—from Brigitte Bardot to Grace Kelly—who [don't] seem to be around much anymore. I think it's time for that kind of glamour to come back.”
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The press really picked up on Madonna's fresh-looking makeover. Of this acting foray,
Vanity Fair
said that she looked like “a knocked-up blue-collar Italian Jean Seberg in the ‘Papa Don't Preach' video.”

As far as her wardrobe went, this represented a new era for her. “I wanted to change my clothes,” she said. “Obviously, if you spend a couple of years wearing lots of layers of clothes and tons of jewelry and it just takes you forever to get dressed and your hair is long and crazy, then you get the urge to take it all off and strip yourself down and cut your hair all off just for a relief.”
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Not everyone could do such an about-face with their looks and not lose their audience. However, Madonna pulled it off—as she would time and time again. Although her fans loved it, not everyone was ecstatic, especially her old fashion stylist cohort, Maripol. A year before, Maripol's rubber and metal religious symbol jewelry was a huge seller. As the summer of 1986 rolled around, it signaled the end of Maripol's shop on Bleecker Street and bankruptcy for her company. According to one of her acquaintances, “Maripol had it made until Madonna instantly changed her image. In her loft on Broadway, Maripol still has cases and cases of ‘Lucky Star' jewelry she thought she was going to market—stars and rubber crosses. Madonna simply took off ahead of Maripol, and basically said, ‘Hey, tough!'”
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Critics and fans alike praised the music on
True Blue
. Madonna admitted that it was her most personal album to date, and it encompassed a lot of her own thoughts and viewpoints. According to her, “Most people think there's something secret or magical to being a singer or writing a song. But you can do whatever you want. You have to throw out all the rules and all the advice everyone gives you about how to make it… and follow your own vision if you have one.”
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She claimed that these new stances worked, because they were just different extensions of the same Madonna the world was crazy about on her previous albums. “Listen to a song like ‘Like a Virgin,' and then listen to ‘Live to Tell,'” she said. “There's a different mood in each one. They're the same person, but it's just my desire to focus on something different because of the mood I'm in.”
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One of her personal favorite cuts on the album was “Jimmy Jimmy,” which was about the late actor James Dean. “I used to fantasize that we grew up in the same neighborhood and that he moved away and became a big star.”
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Sort of the way that her former classmates at Rochester Adams High School must have looked at her by then.

The song “Papa Don't Preach” had a life all its own, and the song's message and plot were brilliantly brought alive in the video that was directed by Jamie Foley. The song's story is set in a working-class community on Staten Island. In the video, Madonna is seen as a teenager who is in her first months of pregnancy and is determined to keep her baby. She is first seen in a tight-fitting pair of jeans and a striped boat-neck sweater walking down the sidewalk with a determined gait. When she reaches her house, images of her past are flashing in her mind. Flashbacks tell the story of her life as an only child with only her father to raise her. While the song plays, Madonna convinces her father that this shouldn't compromise their love for each other. Danny Aiello portrays the father, and Alex McArthur is the strapping young boyfriend that Papa doesn't approve of.

In several scenes, Madonna is seen wearing a black T-shirt with the words
ITALIANS DO IT BETTER
emblazoned on it. Although Madonna's character is pregnant in the plot of the song, she herself is sleek and trim.

The story's action is intercut with footage of a black-bustier-clad Madonna. Dancing against a fade-to-black background, she appears to be the story's victorious narrator. With her blonde hair, red lips, and alabaster skin, she is strikingly glamorous.

Recalling his casting call for the video, Alex McArthur says, “I was out in the garage working on my Harley. I answered the phone, and a voice said, ‘Hi, this is Madonna. I would like you to be in my next video.'”
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Madonna had spotted him in a small role in the film
Desert Hearts
and decided to track him down herself.

When Madonna first heard the song, she was already weighing it for its controversial value. According to her, “ ‘Papa Don't Preach' is a message song that everyone is going to take the wrong way. Immediately they're going to say I am advising every young girl to go out and get pregnant. When I first heard the song I thought it was silly. But then I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this song is really about a girl who is making a decision in her life.'”
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When several pro-life groups jumped on the bandwagon, praising the song's message, the misinterpretation was taken to a whole new level. Madonna claimed that she certainly didn't mean to pin an antiabortion message on the video. “I had no ambitions for this to be adopted by any special interest groups. I don't have any banner to wave. I just wanted to make this girl a sympathetic character,” she explained.
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Since the videos Madonna makes are meant to bring her songs to life, she says she retains a much stronger control over their production than she can in the roles she lands in other people's movies. According to her, “I can never be JUST in front of the camera.”
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By the end of August, both “Papa Don't Preach” and the album
True Blue
were Number One in America and in several countries abroad. Again the name “Madonna” was on everyone's lips.

Amid all this summer activity, Madonna received some tragic news: her old friend, artist Martin Burgoyne had AIDS. The first week in August she was in all the New York gossip columns—spotted on Columbus Avenue buying books “for a sick friend.”
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It was Martin, who had remained one of her few close friends from her salad days. He had gone down to Florida where he was spending time with his family. In the next couple of months Madonna would do all that she could to help and support him.

While
Shanghai Surprise
was still being prepared for release, Madonna and Sean embarked on their next acting venture. It was a David Rabe play called
Goose and Tomtom
, and it was a pet project of Sean's. It was about two criminals and a gun moll. Cast as one of the criminals, it was Sean who came up with the idea of Madonna playing the gun moll.

The last week in August, the play was staged as a work-in-progress and played four performances for an invitation-only audience. Among the friends and celebrities who caught one of Sean and Madonna's only scripted live performance together were Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, Tatum O'Neal, John McEnroe, Liza Minnelli, Griffin Dunne, Andy Warhol, Martin Burgoyne, Keith Haring, Cher, and Melanie Griffith. Although no press members were knowingly invited, the
Wall Street Journal
reviewed it, calling the play an “inarticulate and incomprehensible meditation on human grubbiness.”

The word on the street was that the play was a complete disaster, and that Madonna and Sean's combined onstage presence couldn't save the production from obscurity. The show was never presented beyond those four “in rehearsal” nights, played in front of an audience of their friends.