Madonna (51 page)

One of the most amusing and insightful things that Corliss said in his
Time
article was the statement, “It's tough to stay on top by spanking somebody's bottom. In her recent work, Madonna has pursued dominatrix fantasies until she may be the only one getting off on them.” (255) This fact was painfully evident; her recent erotic attempts were viewed as blatantly silly.

Madonna actually seemed surprised that her most supportive critics had taken their fill of her antics, blasting her
Sex
book and
Erotica
album. On March 31,1994, Madonna guested on the popular CBS-TV
Late Show with David Letterman
. The episode unpredictably became her most infamous appearance on that show since she and Sandra Bernhard had teased the audience (and Letterman) with their supposed lesbian affair in the 1980s.

Proving that she had not yet had her fill of being crude and lewd, Madonna strode onto the Letterman set wearing a clinging black velvet dress and black combat boots, her hair slicked back and dyed black. Smoking a cigar, she immediately caught David off guard by handing him a pair of her panties and demanding that he smell them. From the minute the interview started, she proceeded to speak her mind on a number of topics, denouncing Letterman as “a sick fuck.” She chided him for being obsessed with her sex life, claiming, “You can't get through a show without talking about me.”

Then she accused him of kissing the rear ends of his guests. “You used to be real cool,” she said, “[now] you just kiss up to everyone on your show.”

Quick on his feet, Letterman laughingly replied, “I can suspend that behavior tonight if you want.”

Continuing her tirade, Madonna puffed her cigar and proceeded to pepper her dialogue with the word “fuck” twelve more times during the interview, until David finally cried out in mock horror, “She can't be stopped! Something's wrong with her.”

She replied, “Something
is
wrong with me—I'm sitting here.” (256) At that point the studio audience actually began to boo her, yelling out for her to leave the set.

Among the topics she discussed were why it is good to urinate in the shower. When the interview finally ended Letterman said to her, “Thank you for grossing us all out.” (256) The totally bizarre appearance gave the Letterman show huge ratings for that episode and landed Madonna in the punchline of dozens of jokes spoofing this high-profile misadventure. According to
Time
magazine, “If basketball groupie and sometime pop singer Madonna was hoping to remind the world of her randy reputations, she succeeded.” (257) Matt Roush in
USA Today
said, “Madonna reclaimed her title as the raunchiest act on TV with a bizarre, combative and shock-a-minute appearance.” (256)

Reflecting from a 1998 perspective on this strange moment in broadcast history, she told
TV Guide
magazine, “That was a time in my life when I was extremely angry…. The press was constantly beating up on me, and I felt like I was a victim. So I lashed out at people and that was one of them. And I am not particularly proud of it.” (258)

After a bestselling book about sex, a double-platinum album about sex, two disastrous films about sex, and her verbal-fuck fest on the Letter-man show, she lost some of her appeal and her audience. However, ever the phoenix, Madonna spent the rest of 1994 creating a huge splash on the music charts. She had a hit single from a new soundtrack album, and she launched a great new album that dealt with sex and love in a more appealing fashion. Her first entry onto the pop charts that year was the song “I'll Remember,” featured on the soundtrack from the film
With Honors
. The triumvirate of Sire Records, Warner Brothers Records, and Madonna's own Maverick Records released the LP.

Beautiful and sentimental, “I'll Remember” continued her romance with radio programmers and record buyers alike. For all her shocking pronouncements and controversial dance songs, Madonna proved once again that she could do an about-face from time to time and deliver a moving ballad. It went to Number Two on the
Billboard
charts, inaugurating a year in which she placed four consecutive singles in the Top Five, a feat she had not accomplished since her
True Blue
era of 1986—1987. In a marketplace in which record companies were complaining about the decreasing sales of singles, “I'll Remember” sold over a million copies.

The material found on
Bedtime Stories
was more appealing than that on
Erotica
. Instead of tackling sex head on, this time Madonna is actually sexy in a musically seductive fashion.
Erotica
more closely represents musical masturbation, while
Bedtime Stories
enticingly invites the listener into the action.

Critics, as well as her fans, loved
Bedtime Stories
. Edna Gundersen in
USA Today
called it “Gorgeously romantic…. This time, S&M means silky and mellow…. A solid creative effort.” (259) Jim Farber in
Entertainment Weekly
observed, “More than any previous Madonna album, the latest finds her telling us the truth about her life…. A sustained mood suite for the boudoir…. Madonna's lyrics mingle sex and romance in more personal ways than ever.” (260)

The infectious and snappy beat of “Secret” is one of her best recordings of the 1990s. Her dominatrix-stance on the frank “Human Nature,” as well as her sentimental and exotic “Take a Bow,” make this an appeal-ingly varied album. To her credit, she has always had a knack for aligning herself with brilliant collaborators. The song “Bedtime Story,” written by Nellee Hooper and Icelandic innovator Bjork, is the album's centerpiece.

It was also a star-studded album. On the song “Sanctuary” Madonna worked with Herbie Hancock; the haunting “Forbidden Love” and “Take a Bow” she wrote, sang, and coproduced with Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds. Me'Shell NdegéOcello (whom Madonna had signed to Maverick Records) played bass on several cuts, while Sting and Babyface contributed synthesizer and drum programming. Once again, Madonna had an album that found her in top form.

She also managed to snipe at the press and the public outrage over her
Sex
book and
Erotica
album. On the song “Human Nature,” she sings about being “punished” for telling us her “fantasies.” Madonna actually displays a fleeting touch of believable vulnerability here, making
Bedtime Stories
a warm and snappy album.

Her music also benefits from bringing in some of the new hit makers on the mid-1990s charts. According to her: “The idea was to juxtapose my singing style with a hard-core hip-hop sensibility. I began by meeting with hip-hop producers whose work I most admire.” (261) Her coproduc-ers included Dallas Austin, Babyface, and Dave Hall.

According to Austin, 22 years old when he worked with her on
Bedtime Stories:
“Madonna is the kind of artist you really have to hang out with and get to know before you can start working with her. Because she's who she is, she might otherwise be sort of intimidating if you don't establish yourself with her beforehand. So we hung out, went to some ball-games, that sort of thing, before we started working. In the studio she could actually be very relaxed and playful, but also very outspoken about what she wanted.” (262)

Bedtime Stories
debuted at its peak chart position of Number Three in
Billboard
, ultimately selling over 2,000,000 copies in America. The single “Secret” hit number three; “Take a Bow” went all the way to Number One. With “Take a Bow,” Madonna became the first solo female artist to log eleven number one hits, putting her in fifth place behind Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Supremes, and Michael Jackson. After seven weeks at number one, “Take a Bow” became the longest-running, chart-topping single of her career (“Like a Virgin” had been Number One for six week).

In 1995, when she released the fourth single from the album, the title cut “Bedtime Story” had an accompanying video that was one of the most visually elaborate and special effects—filled videos productions ever. At a cost of $2 million, it also set the record as the most expensive music video of all time. The pulsing song—on which Madonna repeats over and over, “Let's get unconscious”—is a 1990s techno masterpiece.

To assure the album's continued success, Madonna made several high-profile appearances on television programs and at televised awards shows. She and Babyface performed “Take a Bow” on
The American Music Awards
on January 5, 1995. One of her most talked-about TV appearances came on February 13, when Madonna appeared on the
Late Show with David Letterman
to make amends for her raunchy guest spot the previous April. She brought Dave a box of Valentine's Day candy and a bouquet of long-stemmed roses as peace offerings. Her hair was back to platinum blonde. She wore a black Gaultier halter-top dress, and seemed more at ease with herself. “I'm a changed woman,” she proclaimed. However, proving that she was sorry—but not too sorry—she announced on camera, “I'm not going to say
fuck
anymore.” (263) That Madonna: always a lady.

A week later, on February 20, she opened the fourteenth Annual BRIT Awards at Alexandria Palace in London by singing “Bedtime Story.” In March she appeared before an audience of 1,500 pajama-wear ing fans and read aloud the children's bedtime story
Miss Spider's Tea Party
. The event, held at New York City's Webster Hall, was broadcast live on MTV.

While she was busy logging four hugely successful, consecutive chart singles, her catalog of past albums and videos continued to sell. Her recent chart successes spurred the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to announce in September 1994 that her video compilation,
The Immaculate Collection
, was certified Gold for having sold over 300,000 copies. In February 1995 the RIAA acknowledged her album
True Blue
for having sold 7,000,000 copies and
Like a Virgin
for 9,000,000 copies sold. In March the RIAA announced that her greatest hits collection, also entitled
The Immaculate Collection
, was certified six times Platinum for having sold 6,000,000 copies in America alone.

The fifth single from
Bedtime Stories
, “Human Nature,” with its sadomasochistic video, became the first Madonna single that failed to crack the Top 40 in
Billboard
. It peaked at Number 46 in April 1995.

On May 29, 1995, while Madonna was away from her elaborate fortress of a home in Hollywood Hills, her security guard, Basil Stephens, shot and wounded an intruder attempting to scale the wall of the house. The wounded man was 37-year-old Robert Hoskins. In the struggle he had attempted to grab the security guard's gun. Recovering in Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Hoskins was booked on stalking charges. Wishing to avoid a media circus, Madonna first declined to testify when the case went to trial. However, Judge Andrew Kauffman threatened to arrest her if she didn't comply. Hoskins had a previous criminal record, and the judge wanted to make sure that this latest charge stuck. On January 3, 1996, Madonna did indeed testify. Because of her testimony, and the other criminal charges, Hoskins was convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned.

Meanwhile, Madonna was appearing in three new films, released in 1995 and 1996, and preparing her next album release. Because she had been lambasted by critics for starring in
Body of Evidence
and
Most Dangerous Game
, Madonna wisely chose supporting roles to build her list of on-screen credits. Although these subsequent three films all starred top-notch actors, the general public had very little knowledge of these titles or of Madonna's appearance in them.

The first was 1995's
Four Rooms. A
small film with an impressive cast, the movie's four segments each had different directors and different casts. The exception was the central character, Ted the bellman. Working at a seedy Los Angeles hotel called the “Mon Signor,” Ted is involved in four different scenarios in four different rooms on one single misadventure-filled New Year's Eve night. The directors were Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino.
Four Rooms
featured an A-list of actors, including Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Beals, Marisa Tomei, Valeria Golino, and an unbilled appearance by Bruce Willis.

The episode that Madonna appears in is called “The Missing Ingredient,” and stars Sammi Davis, Amanda de Cadenet, Valeria Golino, lone Skye, Lili Taylor, and Alicia Witt. It turns out that these women are witches who are renting the room to cast a spell. However, much to their surprise, they have forgotten one of the main ingredients: a man's semen. Surprisingly, Madonna isn't pressed into duty to gather the missing liquid. Instead, they simply contact Ted, the unsuspecting bellman, to supply them with what they need. The segment is amusingly funny, although the movie itself drags in several points. Madonna, as Elspeth, is stunning in her low-cut, skin-tight, black vinyl dress. The film came and went without much notice. Movie critic Leonard Maltin labeled it a “bomb,” claiming it was “embarrassingly awful… what a cast… what a waste!” (264) It actually has some funny moments but is somewhat uneven.

Blue in the Face
, also released that same year, resembles a giant improvisation by some of the biggest Hollywood names in the 1990s, including Lily Tomlin, Lou Reed, Michael J. Fox, Mira Sorvino, RuPaul, Jim Jarmusch, Roseanne, Harvey Keitel, and Madonna. Written and directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster, it is a film in search of a script. In this sequel to the 1995 film
Smoke
, Keitel again appears as Augie, the manager of a Brooklyn cigar shop frequented by an ethnically varied mix of odd characters. Lily Tomlin, dressed as a male bum, stands outside the smoke shop dreaming of Belgium waffles. Roseanne visits to complain about her lover. Toward the end of this meandering film Madonna comes to deliver Keitel a singing telegram. She is made up like a tart and wears a short little Rockettes-like costume and a pillbox hat. After she performs her singing message, for the grand finale she bends over and moons him with her buttocks barely covered in panties and fishnet stockings. The film also intersperses documentary footage of actual colorful Brooklynites talking about their beloved, conflict-filled borough.