1991 Madonna

Interview with Jennifer Lawrence and Director Lori Petty (what they’re discussing must take place between July 1991-July 1992)
http://collider.com/interview-jennifer-lawrence-and-director-lori-petty-on-the-poker-house/4174/


LAWRENCE: I’m going to let you forget this. I know this happened like three years ago, but she told me that if I made this one – whatever, I’m an actress, I don’t do math –

PETTY: I had her do one free throw.

LAWRENCE: She goes, ‘If you can do this, I will give you the bike -’ the bike that’s in the movie. Then I made it and you never gave me the bike. We’ll talk about it later.

PETTY: I didn’t not give you the bike.

LAWRENCE: I know. Somebody put it on a truck and lost it or whatever.

PETTY: Okay, that’s what I’m saying. I would not do that. Madonna did that to me.

LAWRENCE: About a bike?

PETTY: No, about Michael Jackson. She was talking to Michael Jackson on the phone. I said that number twenty three was Michael Jordan’s number which was my number which was why I picked number twenty three in ‘A League of Their Own’. She said, ‘Nuh uh.’ I said, ‘Uh huh.’ She said, ‘No it isn’t.’ I said, ‘Yes it is -’ because no matter what she’s saying she thinks she’s telling the truth which is just not true. I said, ‘This is Michael Jordan’s number. If this is Michael Jordan’s number, then I get to talk to Michael Jackson on the phone.’ She said fine. Then she found out that it was Michael Jordan’s number and I said, ‘Call Michael Jackson.’ And she said, ‘No.’

LAWRENCE: Whoa.

PETTY: Take that Madonna.

Rocky Mountain News, Sep 12, 1991


Madonna wanted to make Michael over, to play Henry Higgins to his Eliza Doolittle. But shy as he may be, Jackson is willful as well (“Nobody controls Michael Jackson,” said his spokesman at the time), especially when Madonna threatened to send him for a week to the House of Xtravaganza, a clan of Harlem drag queens who are featured in her video Vogue.

Michael resisted, Madonna got bored, and that was the end. Their celebrity alliance served neither.

Re: The Then Unkown Female Voice on In The Closet, Boston Globe, Nov 24, 1991


She sounds suspiciously like an understated Madonna, who planned a duet on the album before she reportedly had a falling out with Jackson after he took her to the Oscars this year.

What others have said about Michael and Madonna during this year:


From Kit Culkin’s (Macaulay’s father) book Lost boy:


In a moment of unintended self-revelation, he [Michael Jackson] told me (with his hand cupped over his mouth in a gesture of ”I shouldn’t”) about how a highly popular female entertainer (I’ll withold the name) had once exposed herself to him (his words) just to see how he would react; a confession that caused him to visibly blush.

Andrew Morton’s biography


MADONNA has had her share of men, but she couldn’t bag Michael Jackson. According to Andrew Morton’s new biography, “Madonna,” excerpted in People magazine, the Material Mom “told one of her lovers that she had tried to seduce [Jackson] shortly after the 1991 Oscars – but . . . failed to arouse his interest.” According to the lover, Madonna and Jackson were on the couch at his place when she put the moves on him. When they touched he would start giggling like a little boy. Nothing happened, he was giggling so much – making Jackson “the man Madonna couldn’t conquer.”

Sandra Bernhard:


“Every time I call her she’s either talking to or about Michael Jackson”.

Madonna, Michael and The Closet, USA Today, Mar 19, 1992


This time, the Dangerous One and Her Blondness are in the closet. Maybe. Tuesday, E! Entertainment Television reported that Madonna will appear in Jackson’s upcoming video, In the Closet.

“That’s not her voice, though it’s obviously someone who sounds like Madonna.” Rosenberg says Madonna, in L.A., will have no part of Jackson’s video.

Joe Mantegna, talking about the filming of MJ’s Pepsi Commercial, sometime May 4th -22nd 1992


Joe Mantegna who worked on a commercial with Madonna in 1992 remembers that Michael was also working on a commercial in a studio nearby. He said that Madonna walked in and Michael was telling him something like, “You know Madonna can be naughty, a bad girl. Sometimes she needs to be spanked.” He hadn’t realized Madonna was standing right behind him.

“Director Joe Pytka tells US she [Madonna] visited him [Michael Jackson] on the set of an ad once: “They hung out for a while. It was a big surprise!”

Ryal Haakenson, An Extra Who Was On The Set


As it turned out, I averaged 14 hours a day, 5 days a week from Monday, May 4, 1992 through Friday, May 22, 1992. “Body of Evidence” was a movie starring Madonna and Willem Dafoe.

Other things were going on at the studio while we were there, most notably a Pepsi commercial. Michael Jackson was there, and it amused me that some of the older female extras that were working with Madonna every day were awe struck when they saw him.

I saw him twice, once as he walked by, surrounded by bodyguards. The other time, he was by himself driving a little cart with some children in it. I was walking down the alley toward the rest room as he drove toward me. When he saw me he turned his vehicle around and went the other way. Later he drove his cart by our holding area, waving to the women who were yelling “Hi, Michael.” A few times Michael Jackson’s double walked by all by himself, a contrast with Michael and his entourage.

Seattle Times, October 16, 1992
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19921016&slug=1518974


Madonna breaks the unwritten codes of celebrity. When she was in the middle of planning a duet with Michael Jackson, she told the lesbian and gay magazine The Advocate how she wanted to change his image, get him to hang out with a gay dance troupe and write a song that “went all the way, not some stupid ballad or love duet.” Jackson was reportedly horrified and the collaboration was called off.

“What, am I supposed not to tell things?”

No, but you seem to be breaking unwritten rules.

“Yeah, because I’m an outspoken person. I’m opinionated and people ask me things and I say them. If I don’t want to say something I’ll say I don’t want to, but I don’t understand why celebrities become celebrities and then spend the rest of their life hiding. I’m not ashamed of a lot of the things I do, so I don’t feel like I have to hide it. Also a lot of interesting things happen to me and I like to tell interesting anecdotes.”

Were you disappointed that the duet didn’t happen?

“No, not at all.”

You did sound very keen to make it special when you talked to The Advocate.

“No, I mean, I think Michael Jackson is a very talented man, but I think he’s gone past a certain point. He operates in a world that I don’t want any part of. I don’t want to cut myself off from the world. I don’t want to alienate myself from humanity. I could have pushed myself out into his world, but I’ve spent all my time trying to be in touch with people, and he spends all his time hiding, cloaking and padding things around himself. It’s very evident when you see him work.

“Don’t get me wrong, he’s very talented, but I think he’s killing himself. I was interested in working with that part of him. But there’s so many other things in the way right now. I’m an artist who likes to be honest and confront; he operates in a completely different way. We’re like oil and vinegar, oil and water. We just don’t mix.”

Chicago Sun Times, Nov 15, 1992


Singer Michael Jackson reportedly went shopping in an LA bookstore for Madonna’s new book, Sex, wearing a black surgical mask and a baseball hat. The book was out of stock. No word on who Jackson startled next.

Blond Ambition Tour/Dangerous World Tour, Leothong vs Gaultier Corset, 1990/1992
http://www.threadforthought.net/2009/07/08/who-inspired-michael-jacksons-fashion/





“The body suits of the 1990s were generally worn by women, and then underneath pants. Jackson’s body suits worn over his pants, served as inner-as-outwear, much as Madonna used Gautier’s external corset/body suit in her Blond Ambition tour (1990). Though they were a female fashion, Jackson actually uses them to emphasize his crotch (Madonna did as well), both confusing gender lines and emphasizing male ones.”

MTV Awards, September 2nd 1994


Madonna’s comment on the LMP/MJ kiss:

”Hmm, hum, I thought it was interesting how Lisa Marie curiously turned her mouth away from his. (Looking at the camera) I think she didn’t want to smear her lipstick though. I didn’t think it was anything personal.”

Herald Journal, Nov 19, 1994


Slapped back. According to “Michael Jackson Unauthorized,” the new biography by Christopher Andersen, the oddball pop legend called Madonna a heifer.

Orlando Sentinel, Nov 25, 1994


Not to her face, of course, but Moo-donna heard about it anyway. Her response: “I’d rather look like a cow than a space-alien drag queen.”

Bed Time Story vs Scream, 1995
http://tarahanks.com/2009/07/05/when-the-king-danced-with-the-queen/





There are some intriguing parallels between their later works. The video for Madonna’s ‘Bedtime Story’, released in April 1995, was directed by Mark Romanek and showed Madonna alternating between a computerised, ‘conscious’ world and an inner life of fantasy, inspired by surrealist art. Romanek then directed Michael and Janet Jackson’s ‘Scream’, released May 1995, in which they are trapped inside a computer.

The Spectator, Jan 25, 1996


Michael Jackson is furious after hearing Madonna is writing a kiss-and-tell book in which she claims she tried to have sex with him … and he didn’t perform! The two singers were both stark-naked – but when the sexy blonde bombshell moved in on Michael, the King Of Pop froze, say sources. “Michael is mad as hell,” a Jackson family insider revealed. “He told a friend: ‘She’s going to say that I couldn’t. But what really happened was that I wouldn’t. Madonna turned me off because she was so freaky!’”

September 7, Prague, History World Tour, 1996


Reportedly, being pregnant with her first child made Madonna want to straighten out several things in her personal life that she regretted, one being her ongoing feud with Michael.

“In 1996, Madonna tried to mend their once short lived friendship with Jackson by placing a huge bouquet of flowers on stage for one of his concerts during his HIStory world tour. “

Madonna, Spin, April 1998


Spin : You’re one of the few celebrities who’s grown up in public in a positive way.

Madonna : Me and Michael Jackson [laughs]. Yeah, I guess I have. I look at pictures of myself 15 years ago or watch myself on television or read interviews and I think, « Who is that ? » It’s like looking at your high-school graduation picture and you sit there and go, « What a geek ! Why did I have my hair like that ?»

Spin : So many of your contemporaries have hit the skids, and even great talents like Prince, Michael Jackson, George Michael, U2, and R.E.M. are not so selling huge numbers, are not getting the same respect they once did. You’re still selling records, still moving ahead creatively. Why is that ?

Madonna : Everybody you mentioned is extremely talented, so I don’t think it has to do with talent. It’s a tricky life we lead. You really have to find that place of caring but not caring what people think. Where you are desirous of things and you want to be successful and you want to make music that reaches people but you also can detach yourself from it. That’s really hard to do.

TV Guide, April 11, 1998


TVG: Do you pay attention to the media when it’s not about you?

Madonna: When something’s happening that’s newsworthy. I did watch the Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley interview. And when Ellen DeGeneres came out and kissed a girl. What I think are milestones on TV.

Madonna Style Book, 1999


She cited Michael Jackson as an ally in her battle to break the mould of sexual stereotypes. ”Michael Jackson isn’t very masculine. He looks like Diana Ross. He has those beautiful doe eyes. He even talks like a girl and he’s conquered the world.”

Earth Song vs Don’t Tell Me, 1995/2000
http://tarahanks.com/2009/07/05/when-the-king-danced-with-the-queen/





The video for another track from 1995, ‘Earth Song’, shows Michael and various tribal peoples grabbing the soil in their hands, in a gesture of despair. Madonna makes a similar gesture in her 2000 hit, ‘Don’t Tell Me’, but its symbolic meaning is one of optimism and spiritual growth as she revisits the Midwest of her childhood.

Conversations With Rabbi Schmuley, 2000/1


SB: And by the way, that’s what happened to Madonna. Madonna overexposed herself. She’s still a celebrity but she’s not what she was.
MJ: Yeah, I know.
SB: She didn’t even overexpose herself, Michael, through TV and music. It wasn’t that she gave too many interviews. Rather, she overexposed her body. She was a sex symbol. People wanted to know what her body looked like, and she did that stupid, sleazy, disgusting book, and all you had to was buy the book. The mystery was permanently gone.
MJ: I know. I know. Exactly, right.
[...]
SB: Like Madonna, who’s often been criticized for taking advantage of the male sexual drive to sort of get all these guys hunkering after her to make her popular.
MJ: Yeah, uh huh. Aha.
[...]
SB: What about jealousy from other stars? Is there a lot of jealousy in your profession?
MJ: Absolutely. They admire you and know you are wonderful and great because they are jealous, because they wish they were in your shoes. And “M” is one of them. Madonna is one of them. She is jealous. She is a girl, a woman and I think that’s what bothers her. I think women don’t scream for other women. Men are too cool to scream for women. I get the fainting and adulation and she doesn’t.
[...]
MJ:Madonna has never apologized.She is jealous.
SB:She wants to be the biggest star in the world?
MJ:Yes, she is jealous
SB:You can’t understand that. You would say”What are you jealous for? You do your thing. I do my thing”.
MJ:But at the same time she will come to my concert and cry. She comes there and tears rolling down her face for the song and the presentation of the song. There are some good qualities in her.
SB: There are good qualities in her. But you’re saying she allows her jealousy to mask them at times. But if someone does that,they don’t even have to ask for forgiveness because you will just forgive them?
MJ:Yes
[...]
SB: You have around some mean women, as well, who behave in a masculine-aggressive way, like Madonna. You told me that she can be mean.
[...]
MJ: Remember the line I told you? Madonna laid the law down to me before we went out. “I am not going to Disneyland, okay? That’s out.” I said, “But I didn’t ask you to go to Disneyland.” She said, “We are going to the restaurant and afterwards we are going to a strip bar.” I said, “I am not going to a strip bar.” Guys who cross-dress [note: House of Xtravaganza, Madonna talks about it in The Advocate]! Afterwards she wrote some mean things about me in the press and I wrote that she is a nasty witch, after I was so king to her. I have told you that we were at the table eating and some little kids came up. “Oh my God, Michael Jackson and Madonna. Can we have your autograph?” She said, “Get out of here. Leave us alone.” I said, “Don’t ever talk to children like that.” She said, “Shut up.” I said, “You shut up.” That’s how we were. Then we went out again and went to the Academy Awards and she is not a nice person. I have to say it. She is not a nice person.
SB: Did the people around you feel that it was important to be seen with her?
MJ: They knew nothing about it. This was totally between her and me.
SB: So you gave it a chance and it didn’t work?
MJ: Yea, I gave it a chance like I try and give everything a chance.
SB: You basically saw that your values do not match those of most Hollywood people.
MJ: No, they do lots of crazy things that I am not into and at the time I was with Madonna she was into these boks, a whole library of women who were tied to walls. She said, “I love spanky books.” Why do I want to see that?
SB: I think a lot of it is the image. She once said something to the effect that she would much rather read a good book than have sex. I think the other vulgar stuff is part of the outrageous image she tries to cultivate.
MJ: She’s lying [about preferring to read a book]. I can’t judge. I don’t know if she has changed or if she [is] trying to claim she has changed.
SB: Why doe she say mean things?
MJ: I think she likes shock value and she knows how push buttons on people. I think she was sincerely in love with me and I was not in love with her. She did a lot of crazy things and that’s how that went. I knew we had nothing in common. But I am pretty sure that having a baby has to change you. I don’t know how much she has changed. I’m sure she is a better person than before.
SB: She has two children now.
MJ: Yea, I know. How would you like getting a phone call and she is telling you that she is putting her fingers between her legs. I would say, “Oh Madonna, please.” She said, “What I want you to when I hung up the phone is rub yourself and think of me.” That’s the kind of stuff she says. She does. When I see her she says, “This is the finger I used last night.” Wild, out of control.

SB: That kind of thing that Madonna was saying is only shocking at first. Then it quickly becomes humdrum and boring. That’s why she has to push the envelope and become more and more shocking just to sustain our interest in her. When people have their breasts out the whole time then you stop looking. Do you see that as vulgar?
MJ: What she does? Absolutely. She is not sexy at all. I think sexy comes from the heart in the way you present yourself.