Last July, when Christopher Ciccone published his gosspy memoir Life With My Sister Madonna, I paged through it to see if I would be mentioned. Not because of that torrid romance Madonna and I had when I was one of her back-up dancers–that was really just a big rumor–but because in the summer of 1993, when I was at Us magazine, I wrote an article called “Immaterial Girl”, which maintained that while Madonna would no doubt go on to have many hits, she had nonetheless reached her peak as a cultural figure. It was kind of a no brainer point to make–nobody stays hot forever, and by that point Madonna had kind of played her last card with her Sex book, a lousy, cheaply made book that degraded her and robbed her of her mystery. Well, long story short, there was no mention in little brother’s book. But now, thanks to Jossip.com, we know that Christopher, at least for a while, was blogging about all the stuff that was left out of the book. Take it away, Jossip:
“Now that he’s exhausted all avenues of publicity — namely, Good Morning America and Chelsea Lately — Christopher Ciccone is taking his book tour to the web. As if there aren’t enough places on the information superhighway trashing Madonna, Ciccone’s started a blog to add to the fray where, he says, some of the material that lawyers kept out of the book appears. Which means you will find tales of Madonna pooping herself and Madonna sucking a guy off while the guy blows Christopher. Lawyers indeed! But our favorite part of Ciccone’s blogging so far? Madonna whining, in August 1993, about a savage Us Weekly article:
“We are rehearsing the song Erotica when Liz Rosenberg walks in and informs Madonna that they need to talk. They go into a room and all of us suddenly hear Madonna cry like a baby. “My tour is selling, “Rain” is a hit and they are still saying this about me!” she shouts. Liz and her then walk out the door as Madonna keeps crying, “Why am I being punished?” I walk in Liz’s office and see an article by US Magazine called “Immaterial Girl” which has to be the most nasty article ever written about Madonna. It reads like it has been written by a jealous 12 year old and has quotes from several industry insiders about the supposed end of her career. It was written by some unknown writer (Jamie something) who was never heard of again after the article. Madonna and her team know how to stop people’s careers, especially when they try to stop hers.”
Thankfully, a reader entererd this comment:“A simple search shows the immaterial girl article was not published until 10/93 and the writer jamie whatever is still a published writer.” Yes I am, though I wonder how much more successful I would be if Madonna was not out there night and day wreaking her vengeance against me.
(Above, the illustration by the gifted, prolific Anita Kunz that accompanied the Us article, which Anita was kind enough to send to me. Thanks, Anita! To see more of Anita’s work, click here.)