Madonna

Madonna

Books by Mark Bego

The Captain & Tennille
(1977)

Barry Manilow
(1977)

The Doobie Brothers
(1980)

Michael!
[Jackson] (1984)

On the Road with Michael!
[Jackson] (1984)

Madonna!
(1985)

Rock Hudson: Public & Private
(1986)

Sade!
(1986)

Julian Lennon!
(1986)

The Best of “Modern Screen
” (1986)

Whitney!
[Houston] (1986)

Cher!
(1986)

Bette Midler: Outrageously Divine
(1987)

The Linda Gray Story
(1988)

TV Rock
[The History of Rock & Roll on Television] (1988)

Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul
(1989)

Between the Lines
[with Debbie Gibson] (1990)

Linda Ronstadt: It's So Easy
(1990)

Ice Ice Ice: The Extraordinary Vanilla Ice Story
(1991)

One Is the Loneliest Number
[with Jimmy Greenspoon of Three Dog Night] (1991)

Madonna: Blonde Ambition
(1992)

I'm A Believer: My Life of Music, Monkees and Madness
[with Micky Dolenz of the Monkees] (1993)

Country Hunks
(1994)

Country Gals
(1994)

Dancing In The Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva
[with Martha Reeves of Martha & the Vandellas] (1994)

I Fall To Pieces: The Music & the Life of Patsy Cline
(1995)

Bonnie Raitt: Just in the Nick of Time
(1995)

Rock & Roll Almanac
(1996)

Alan Jackson: Gone Country
(1996)

Raised On Rock: The Autobiography of Elvis Presley's Step-Brother
[with David Stanley] (1996)

George Strait: The Story of Country's Living Legend
(1997, 1998 & 1999)

Leonardo DiCaprio: Romantic Hero
(1998)

LeAnn Rimes
(1998)

Jewel
(1998)

Matt Damon: Chasing a Dream
(1998)

Will Smith: The Freshest Prince
(1998)

Vince Gill
(2000)

Madonna: Blonde Ambition [Updated Edition]
(2000)

Rock Rules
(2000)

Cher: If You Believe
(2000)

Madonna

Blonde Ambition

Updated Edition

Mark Bego

 

 

 

 

 

To Ann Bego
“Well now, lassie!”

First Cooper Square Press edition 2000

This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of
Madonna
is an unabridged republication of the edition first published in New York in 1992, with the edition of a new chapter and updated appendices. It is reprinted by arrangement with the author.

Copyright © 1992 by Mark Bego

Updated Edition copyright © 2000 by Mark Bego

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Cooper Square Press,

An Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

150 Fifth Avenue, Suite 911

New York, New York 10011

Distributed by National Book Network

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bego, Mark.

Madonna : blonde ambition / Mark Bego.—updated ed.

     p. cm.

“First cooper Square Press edition”—T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8154-1051-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Madonna, 1958- 2. Singers—United States—Biography. 3. motion picture actors and actresses—United States—Biography. I. Title.

 ML420.M1387 B44 2000

 [B]

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America.

 

T
he afternoon I finished writing this book, I went to a cocktail party to celebrate. When I arrived there, the host said to me, “Congratulations! There's just one thing I want to know. At the end of the book, how does Madonna come across—is she a bitch, or is she a goddess?”

After thinking for a moment I replied, “Actually, both.”

“How marvelous!” my friend exclaimed. “A bitch goddess!”

In a very simple way, the term “bitch goddess” cuts to the essence of the subject of this book. Madonna represents different things to different people. As her career progresses and she slowly peels away various layers of camouflage, new dimensions of her personality are exposed. She is often so revealing that her attentive audience is treated like voyeurs in a church confessional. Among other things, she is a hard-as-nails workaholic, an egotistical mistress of media manipulation, and a progressive-thinking iconoclast who will do and/or say anything to shock people.

Since I was born in Pontiac, Michigan—the city Madonna grew up in—to me she will always be a pushy local-girl-made-good. Although I didn't know her at the time, like Madonna I too moved to New York City in search of fame. We met on several occasions in the early eighties, when she was at the beginning of her singing and acting career and I was enjoying the initial success of my writing career.

At the time, as a magazine writer, I was meeting and interviewing lots of singers who had hit records, including Madonna. However, the second I was introduced to her, I knew that she was different. After an hour of talking to her, I knew that, whatever it took, she was somehow destined to become a star.

Since that time I was amazed at how many of my friends in the music business went on to work with her. While writing this book, I had the unique opportunity of being able to turn to my own personal phone book to get in touch with them. In my conversations with Madonna's co-workers and friends, I found that they each had one outrageous story or another that has never appeared in print, which added a fresh facet to her story.

In 1984 I was asked by a book publisher to propose a biography about someone at the forefront of the music scene, keeping in mind a release date of the following spring. When I proposed doing a book on Madonna, the editors loved the idea. I had just interviewed Madonna, only weeks after her prime-time television debut on the first annual MTV Awards. During our interview, we laughed about the cameramen who had angled the camera shots up her dress while she performed “Like a Virgin.” She was brash and bratty even then, but when she talked about her career, she was clearly focused. There was no doubt in my mind that she was going places.

A couple of weeks later I visited her on the set of
Desperately Seeking Susan
and watched her film the scenes that took place outside the fictitious Magic Club. I was also one of the invited guests at her “Like a Virgin” party at Private Eyes, which is described in this book.

As I predicted, in 1985 Madonna became the hottest new star of the year. When the book I had written about her,
Madonna!
, was released, it went on to sell a million copies. Since then I have kept tabs on her every move. I knew that the day would eventually come when I would write a much more detailed book on the life of Madonna. In 1989 I realized that that time had come, and I began work on this book.

The term “blonde ambition” was used in a 1985 magazine article about Madonna. When I first proposed writing this book, it seemed like a perfect title. After Harmony Books gave me a contract to do so, Madonna announced that her 1990 concert tour was going to be titled “Blonde Ambition” as well. It certainly seemed to be a favorable omen. It would be sheer egomania for me to say “great minds think alike,” but when you're dealing with a subject like Madonna, modesty should never enter the picture.

Madonna is a pushy bitch, an egotist, and an accomplished dominatrix at the art of self-promotion. Yet, underneath all of her accomplishments, there still lies a rebellious Catholic girl from Pontiac, Michigan, willing to do anything for attention. I am mesmerized by her, admire her creative talent, salute her hard work, and believe in her humanistic politics. There has never been a popular singer who has so totally captured the ears and eyes of the world, and who uses her power to make changes in our consciousness. While she has the spolight, she slaps the bigoted and narrow-minded masses around her for being homophobic, racist, and misogynistic. Not only has she become the biggest star in the show business galaxy, she's also determined to change the way we look at ourselves.

I've been following Madonna's career since the early days when she was showcasing herself at clubs in New York City like Paradise Garage and Studio 54. The book that you are holding in your hands is a product of several years of research. It is about a determined little girl from my hometown, who clawed, pushed, and finagled her way to the top of the entertainment world. She's the ultimate bitch goddess, and her name is Madonna.

M
ARK
B
EGO

If I weren't as talented

as I am ambitions, I would be

a gross monstrosity.
²

—Madonna

I
t is four
A.M
., New Year's Day 1991, and Madonna has just awakened in her luxurious Manhattan apartment, groggy from a drunken sleep. The previous night she had hosted a party for a circle of her friends, plus an invited fortune-teller. When the soothsayer read the singer's palm, she informed Madonna that her current relationship was nothing more than a passing fancy, and that she would never bear children. Upset, Madonna showed the fortune-telling woman the door, slugged down two martinis on an empty stomach, and passed out on the marble floor of her bathroom. This was highly uncharacteristic behavior for Madonna, a legendary control freak who works hard at never losing her composure.

The following morning her head is spinning. One of the things on her mind is the fact that in the past three years, her personal life has left her unfulfilled. The love life that she once had complete control over has turned suddenly sour. How can this be? Madonna is the steel-cold paragon of self-love, the hard-as-nails “boy toy” who has used love like a tool and tossed aside men like yesterday's newspapers. She's the “Material Girl” with every possession money can buy, the all-controlling star who supposedly “fucked her way to the top.” Yet, now that she sits at the summit of wealth and accomplishment, she sits there alone.