Madonna (36 page)

“I can never speak for Sean,” said Madonna with regard to his fear of the media. “He will always deal with the press in his own way. For myself, I have accommodated the press a great deal.”
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Citing their differences, she admitted that she courted and invited controversy, while Sean had a different attitude. His concept of being a serious actor had nothing to do with seeking publicity. Several times during this era Madonna expressed her sense of exasperation to the press. She was getting weary of Sean's disputes with them, and she was also becoming tired of seeing him provoked. It was to become a true “no win” situation, and the frustration was beginning to get to her.

In November 1987 Madonna had two new releases in the record stores. Her fourth non-soundtrack album,
You Can Dance
, was a compilation of extended dance remixes of six of her up-tempo songs, including “Holiday” and “Into the Groove.” Also on the album was the song “Spotlight,” which had been recorded during the
True Blue
sessions.

Some interesting people from Madonna's past and future worked on this album. Jellybean is represented in his mixes of “Holiday,” but he was also brought in to do some additional production on “Spotlight.” Shep Pettibone, who had remixed Madonna's single of “True Blue” when it was released earlier that year, worked on remixing “Into the Groove” and “Where's the Party?”. Pettibone was later to become one of Madonna's most harmoniously successful collaborative producers.

Madonna was also one of the featured performers on the all-star rock-and-roll Christmas album,
A Very Special Christmas
. It has gone on to become one of the most successful Christmas albums ever released. Keith Haring did the cover art, and the stars featured on the album included the Eurythmics, the Pointer Sisters, Sting, Stevie Nicks, Run-DMC, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and several others. Madonna is heard on the album in an updated version of the fifties Eartha Kitt hit “Santa Baby.” It's kind of a holiday version of “Material Girl”/”Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend,” with Madonna giving Santa her list of what she wants for Christmas. The proceeds from the album went toward funding the Special Olympics.

When
Forbes
magazine tallied a list of the forty top-earning show business personalities for the year, Madonna ranked seventh. At an estimated 1987 gross income of $26 million, she had become the top-earning female in the entertainment world. Unscathed by the failure of her last two movies, she was the reigning queen of pop stars.

Now if only her personal life would go as smoothly. As the holidays rolled around, things were less than jolly at the Penn house. This became quite evident on Friday, December 4, when Madonna filed for divorce in Santa Monica Superior Court. Via her attorney, Michael K. Inglis, she petitioned for the restoration of her maiden name and asked that the couple's property be distributed as per the prenuptial agreement. The divorce papers were filed on the grounds of “irreconcilable differences. “
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Madonna had reportedly warned Sean in July that if he didn't pull himself together, she was going to divorce him. They parted company in Chicago on July 31, and that night she performed in concert at Soldier's Field. When Sean returned to California to finish off his jail sentence, it was in a more rugged setting: Los Angeles County Central Jail. On September 17, when Sean was released—his punishment lessened for good behavior—Madonna was optimistic that it was going to be a turning point in their relationship. “I think Sean will emerge from jail as a better person, and as an even greater actor.”
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Sean had spent a total of 33 days of his 60-day sentence in jail.

In October, Madonna consulted with realtors about finding a new house—for herself. As quickly as she began her quest for a new abode away from Sean, she changed her mind and canceled the search.

On November 1, Madonna attended an AIDS benefit concert in Los Angeles, and Sean accompanied her, in spite of the fact that he is uncomfortable around gay people. There was a backstage flare-up when Madonna started talking with a male exotic dancer.

On November 15, Madonna was in New York to discuss the possibility of starring in
Evita
, with Oliver Stone directing. Gossip columnist Liz Smith reported that when Sean, who was in California, didn't get in touch with Madonna for four days before Thanksgiving, she became very perturbed. According to Liz, he showed up at the couple's New York apartment, expecting a grand turkey dinner. Publicists for Madonna and Sean claim that Penn's disappearance did not happen. Regardless of whether Madonna served Sean turkey or not, the fact remains that she served him with papers a week later.

On Thanksgiving Day, Sean headed for the airport and flew back to L.A. The following night, Vinnie Zuffante was hanging out with Billy Idol at the bar of Helena's. When Sean spotted Vinnie, he insisted that Helena evict him from the premises. Although Vinnie didn't have his camera with him, Helena complied. Later that evening, Sean went to the men's room and, after seeing the long line, stepped outside and peed on the side of the club.

In a surprise move, Madonna suddenly called off the divorce proceedings, less than two weeks after she had filed the papers. On December 16 there was a request for the court to disregard the previous petition.

With regard to the ongoing saga of the yet-to-be produced film version of
Evita
, when Madonna met with proposed director Oliver Stone, they did not get along at all well. She also pissed off the show's composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber.

“I didn't audition, I was asked to do it,” she explains. “Because there were so many questions unanswered for me and there were too many cooks in the kitchen between Oliver Stone and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Robert Stigwood—who are all fabulous misogynists, I might add—I decided against it.”
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Before the year 1987 closed, it was announced that Madonna was going to join the cast in a film based on Damon Runyon's
Bloodhounds of Broadway
. Already in the ensemble cast were Jennifer Grey, Randy Quaid, and Matt Dillon. Madonna began filming almost immediately, completing her part by the third week in January. Produced for PBS's American Playhouse,
Bloodhounds
was the first of three films in a row that Madonna would appear in as one of the stars, not the headliner. It was a wise move. As she had so painfully learned, if you have the starring role and something goes wrong, you end up with all the blame.

The film was done on a tight budget, but the project intrigued her. According to director Howard Brookner, “Everyone's dressing rooms were separated by shower curtains. There was Madonna, Matt Dillon, Randy Quaid, Jennifer Grey, and Rutger Hauer, all separated by shower curtains with their names scrawled on in Magic Marker.”
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Madonna's role in
Bloodhounds of Broadway
was that of Hortense Hathaway, a 1920s nightclub showgirl in Newark, New Jersey. Damon Runyon, who is best known for having written “Guys and Dolls” and “The Big Street,” had a flair for capturing the spirit of that era. With such an interesting cast, the project seemed to have a lot of potential.

Aside from the demands of the script, there was an added complication: the film's director, Howard Brookner, was dying of AIDS. “I knew something was wrong halfway through the movie, but I wasn't going to press him,” Madonna explained.
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When he pressed her to tell him all the gory details about Martin Burgoyne's death she became suspicious about his health.

Twice in January 1988, Sean caught prowlers breaking into the Malibu estate. On the 7th, Steven Stillbower, a thirty-two-year-old Anaheim resident, ran his truck through the gates on the Penns' property, and Penn made a citizen's arrest. On the 20th, Sean again went into action when he and Madonna discovered five people on their property. While Madonna telephoned deputy sheriffs from inside the house, Sean called the Malibu Police Station from inside his car. One of the prowlers tried to punch Penn, and Sean grabbed the nearest object, a bottle of salad dressing, and bashed him with it. The police then arrived and took over.

The year 1988 was one in which Madonna concentrated on her acting career. She didn't release any new music in the entire year, but she was writing new songs for her next album. It was going to shape up to be a year in which she would surround herself with new people, and she was open to new experiences. With this in mind, in January it was announced that Madonna had been awarded the role of Karen in David Mamet's new play,
Speed-the-Plow
. For the next six weeks she was in rehearsal for the play, which was scheduled to open at Lincoln Center's 298-seat Mitzi Newhouse Theater.

Actress Elizabeth Perkins had originally been cast in the part, but she suddenly dropped out of the project. When Madonna found out about it, she telephoned the play's director, Gregory Mosher, and asked if she could audition. Madonna was a big fan of Mamet's film
House of Games
, which had starred Joe Mantegna and Lindsay Crouse. With Mantegna and Ron Silver as the male leads of the new play, Madonna really longed for this part.

Madonna was so impressed with
House of Games
that in September 1987 she wrote Mamet a letter of praise. She claimed that was the first movie she had seen in a long time that stimulated her. She didn't feel that it had been written for the masses, and that it was intellectually exciting.

Joe and Ron didn't audition for Mosher, but Madonna was another story. According to the director, he needed to see for himself if she could sparkle onstage without the colored lights and costumes. He was pleasantly surprised. Says Mosher, “Madonna's strength just astonishes you when she walks in the room.”
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“I pursued it like a motherfucker,” Madonna recalls of her struggle to land the role. “I was at lunch with some people and one of them was a director [Mike Nichols], and he mentioned that David Mamet had written a new play. I was a fan of his, so I just started bugging my agents and people I knew.”
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When she finally landed the audition, she was astonished at the way the director put her through her paces. Both Mamet and Mosher had her deliver multiple readings before they made their decision. She would read for them in one room, and then they would take their into another setting to see how her acting stood up. Madonna later complained that the duo put her “through the ringer” before they made a decision, but she remained calm and determined.
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Finally they made their decision, and Madonna was Broadway bound.

According to Mantegna, “Madonna didn't ‘Bogart' her way into the role. A lot of high-powered actresses also auditioned.”
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In fact, thirty other actresses auditioned for the part of Karen.

Sean, meanwhile, was busy in California with a stage production of a play he had written in jail.
The Kindness of Women
was presented twice at a sixty-seat theater in Santa Monica called The Pink. Sean also directed the play, which was viewed by several of his friends including Harry Dean Stanton and writer Charles Bukowski. It ultimately went no further than
Goose and Tomtom
did. Sean's next movie,
Casualties of War
, was set to begin production that spring.
Colors
opened that spring, and ironically the role he played in it was that of a police officer.

The play
Speed-the-Plow
is about two high-powered Hollywood film producers and a temporary secretary who changes their vision. The play centers on Bobby Gould (Mantegna), who has just gotten a huge promotion to the post of head of production at one of the movie studios. When he is visited by his friend Charlie Fox (Silver), Fox tries to call in a favor by railroading through a “green light” on a movie he wants to produce. When Gould's new temp secretary, Karen (Madonna), arrives at the office, Fox bets Gould $500 he can't get her into bed. When Karen gets wind of the two scripts Gould is juggling—a slick, meaningless one and an artistically and politically correct one—she gets into the act. By the end of the play, Karen, who was to be played like a pawn, ends up in a position of power.

As a theatrical experience,
Speed-the-Plow
is an excessively talky one to sit through. With so much dialogue, Madonna didn't fully grasp what her role was all about, until she found herself in the middle of the rehearsals.

With a bit of disillusionment, Madonna looked back on the production and explained, “It was a real mind-fuck of a script. Brilliant, but confusing. My part ended up being a plot manipulation. But at first I saw her as an angel of mercy who was coming down to save everybody. Little did I know that David Mamet and Greg Mosher and everybody else involved saw me as a vixen, a dark, evil spirit. That didn't dawn on me till halfway through rehearsals, when David kept changing my lines to make me more and more a bitch, a ruthless, conniving little witch. So in the middle of this process I was devastated that my idea of the character wasn't what she was at all. That was a really upsetting experience.“
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The inclusion of Madonna in the cast elevated the entire production to a new level. In March it was announced that instead of opening at the end of the month at the intimate theater at Lincoln Center,
Speed-the-Plow
was going straight to Broadway, where it would open at the Royale Theater. Previews were scheduled for April 6, and the play's premiere was slated for May 3.

According to Ron Silver, “Joey [Mantegna] and I weren't mesmerized initially, because we weren't part of her constituency, and we weren't really familiar with ‘Her Icon-ness.' It was only afterward that we realized the magnitude of her celebrity.”
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However, Ron was fascinated by the kind of audiences that Madonna's name on the theater marquee drew. Madonna fans who had never seen a Broadway show were suddenly showing up to see “Her Icon-ness.” According to Silver, “There were people coming for disparate reasons, and it was interesting to gather them all together under the tent.”
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