It seems that in the past week Madonna has become an item
for two very different reasons. First is the report that pop music diva Madonna has recently
joined the ranks of the billionaires. Not everyone agrees with conclusion,
however. Forbes, for one, disputes
this claim, asserting that “We estimated the singer’s net worth at $325 million
six years ago. Since then, our wealth team has chronicled the scads of cash
she’s earned via our Celeb 100 list, and while she’s earned a ton of money, the
numbers don’t add up to anything near $1 billion.” In fact, Forbes estimates that her net worth hasn’t
increased much since then, especially since that was before the economy and
stock market took a dive.
Nevertheless, that is still more money than 99.9 percent of
us can imagine. How does she make her money? Surprisingly, a relatively small
amount of her annual earnings come directly from sale of her music (we need not
mention her acting or directing career); most of it comes from touring, touring
merchandise (a $50 T-shirt, anyone?), and anything with her name or image
stamped on it. In other words, she is a professional self-promoter, albeit a
very good one—or one who has made a fool of a lot of people.
I confess that Madonna’s recording output in the 1980s and
early 1990s yielded some interesting songs, although critics were always mixed
in their reviews. The “Material Girl” was the living embodiment of the Eighties’
vapid “me” generation—unashamedly narcissistic and self-involved. They might have
claimed not to have like Ronald Reagan, but they didn’t mind his philosophy of personal
greed and misanthropy. Knowing that didn’t stop some people from discovering a
“higher meaning” of Madonna. I recall a feminist
college instructor in some media class gushing about Madonna and her considerable
influence on pop culture, particularly in regard to female empowerment—or at least
sexual empowerment. Madonna was in charge; she was in charge of the action and
didn’t care what you thought.
For me, “Like a Virgin” and “Express Yourself” are the only
songs Madonna ever done that “stick.” I also thought that she looked better in
her natural hair color; but with Madonna, the superficial is the reality. Even
those close to Madonna admit that her principle “talent” is of an artificial
nature. Joe Henry, her friend and brother-in-law, told The Telegraph in 2007 that "I've known her since I was 15 and
she was 17, longer than I've known my wife. We have had a great relationship,
and part of that was because I never needed anything from her. I recognized
that we were in two different occupations. Not to disparage one ounce of her
musicality, I was always of the belief that her persona was her career. Whether
she was making a movie or writing a song or punching a photographer, it was all
pushing a persona forward, and that was the real body of work.” This is what
“billionaires” are made of these days.
Julie Brown’s parody of Madonna’s Truth or Dare video, Medusa:
Dare to be Truthful is certainly a
truer portrait of what Madonna presents to the world, as opposed to the parade
of vapid banalities one heard behind the façade of the former. The only thing
missing was divining Madonna’s farcical attempt to transform herself from
trashy vamp to phony British blue-blood with the equally phony accent that she
tried out while promoting her film W.E.,
about the Nazi-admiring Wallis Simpson, American consort of Edward Duke of
Windsor (who also appreciated the Nazis); Madonna claims to feel some
“spiritual” connection to her. A “spiritual” experience or not, film critic
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone observed
that “Madonna directs again! Oh, no! Oh, yes! A hard lesson should have been
learned after Filth and Wisdom, but here's Madge one more time doing something
for which she is eminently unsuited – directing.”
Anyways, in Dare to be
Truthful there is a scene where Medusa is meeting her family, for whom she
feels a certain amount of embarrassment. She has them waiting for hours by the
vending machines before stomaching to meet them. “You guys are all so fat.
Hasn’t anyone in Milwaukee ever heard of Diatetic? There’s more to eat than
beer and cheese.” What about the real Madonna? In Truth or Dare, Madonna muses how “going home is--Well, it's just
never that easy for me. People always talk about how stardom changes you, but
they never talk about how it can change the people close to you.” Brother Marty is produced to illustrate this
“point,” much to his subsequent chagrin; he opines “I feel that there is a
pressure. Because of my sister people say. 'How come you're not that? How come
you're not the manager? How come you're not this, the other? You should be
this, that. There is something they measure against you. And sometimes I cop an
attitude. But I deal with it.”
For her part, Madonna claims that “my brother's crazy…He
can’t help it.” He’s late for an after-concert reunion, and she suspects that
he’s stopped at a bar and had 12 drinks. No, she is told; He's cleaned up. “Oh,
yeah. Dad says he went to alcohol rehab to escape going to jail…He doesn't
wanna heal himself.” Her brother claims that he is late because the limo driver
locked his keys in the car. Madonna says if he shows up, she’s asleep. Marty
does eventually arrive, but is told that his sister is no longer available.
In the film, Madonna claims that she “worships the ground”
her father walks on. Dad thinks her show was great, except that he thinks it
was a little “burlesque.” This seems to upset her. Madonna has said she has had
“repressed anger” toward her father, although this seems to have more to do
with his remarriage after Madonna’s mother died of breast cancer, and a
rebellious streak against Catholic orthodoxy; in her Catholic school she was
known to pull-up her skirt to show the boys her panties, and when barely out of
her teens posed nude for $30. Interestingly, her hit “Papa Don’t Preach” had
little input from her, written mainly by Steven Bray.
That was twenty years ago. Now for the “rest of the story.”
It seems that the British media has chosen to use the news of Madonna’s alleged
billionaire status to point out how ironic then it was that one of her brothers
has hit rock bottom; actually this story is not “new,” since British tabloids
first made note of it in 2011, but have resurrected it now that there is this
new “twist.” No, the brother is not Marty, who would become a failed rapper and
restaurant owner in between stops at alcohol rehab centers. Half-sister
Jennifer is a teacher and she hasn’t communicated with her sister in years, neither inviting the other
to their weddings. Sister Paula is a former model and “artist.” She and Madonna
are supposedly “fond” of each over, although there seems to have been some bad
blood in regard to Madonna’s wedding to film director (now ex-husband) Guy Ritchie. It is not clear what youngest sibling Mario is doing at the moment,
although Madonna is alleged to have helped him with some legal issues in the
past, such as after punching a police officer in the face. Sister Melanie is married
to earlier mentioned Henry, and apparently she is the only sibling that
Madonna currently has a “close” relationship with. Brother Christopher, who as
Madonna’ former assistant, artistic and tour director, was a frequent visitor
on the set of Truth or Dare, was
fired in 2003, apparently because Ritchie did not like him. He wrote a
“tell-all” bestseller, and subsequently he and Madonna are no longer on
speaking terms; however, he seems to be gainfully employed in the music
business.
That leaves brother Anthony, 56, probably the most famous
homeless man in Britain, except that he lives in Traverse City, Michigan and
the U.S. media doesn’t want to tarnish Madonna’s image by getting involved. I
mean, it is a bit embarrassing for a narcissistic “billionaire” to have the British
tabloid media digging up skeletons like a brother living on “some of the
coldest streets in America” for the past three years, after losing his job at
their father’s winery, apparently for drinking on the job. His father and stepmother say that they will
give him his job back if he admits to his problem and receives treatment
(alcoholism seems to run in the family, including sister Paula), but Anthony
denies he has a problem with booze. According to the Daily Mail, which is the UK equivalent of the New York Post in its combination of news and sleaze, Madonna’s older
brother has had the following misadventures:
“He had to spend a month locked up because he unable to pay
his fine for trespass and being drunk and disorderly.”
“He is currently fighting to survive a harsh winter where
temperatures frequently drop as low as -10c.”
“He lost his job at the family vineyard after being found
sprawled on his back drinking wine straight from the vats.”
“Alcoholic Anthony claims his family have 'stood against him
completely' and he only needs their 'love and care.'”
“His heartbroken father drives out to the streets to give
him leftovers.”
“But despite his plight garnering worldwide attention,
Anthony remains homeless and is currently battling to survive a brutal winter.”
In order to illustrate the point of Anthony’s destitute
state, the Mail provided “exclusive photos show the horrible
reality of Anthony's life on the streets of one of the America's coldest
cities.” Nothing could be further from
the image of Madonna living in her castle surrounded by servants and toadies at
her beck and call.
“Speaking exclusively to MailOnline,”
Anthony offered these revealing tidbits: “Madonna doesn’t give a shit if I’m
dead or alive. She lives in her own world…I never loved her in the first place,
she never loved me. We never loved each other…My father would be very happy if
I died of hypothermia and then he would not have to worry about it anymore.
He’s old school, he grew up in the depression…He doesn’t want to be bothered, he’s
lived his life you see. He doesn’t like me. He doesn’t want me to be me, he
wants me to be somebody else. He thinks the way I live is intentional. He
simply doesn’t know me.”
Anthony asserts that he is homeless because he has “No
family back up, when the chips fell, no family back-up. I’d rather be working.
What would you do under these circumstance when your family has stood against
you completely?” Given that other members of his family have had a history of
problem drinking, Anthony seems to believe this is “normal”: “I’m a human
being, you can call me what you want. Alcoholic is a label, I don’t like it. I
don’t need brain surgery, I merely need love and care of family and friends.”
Others have a different take on the situation. A family friend is quoted as
saying that the family wants to help him, but he first must admit his “problem”
and get help. That seems unlikely. “He just can’t come back until he stops
drinking, because they think it will kill him, it already kind of has.”
According to The Sun,
Anthony says “Last winter I got frostbite on my toes. The pain is excruciating
but luckily I got treatment. I have a friend who lost all ten toes to
frostbite. Now he gets about with a cane — he can just about walk. And he’s
still homeless. I saw him at the church for breakfast this morning…People have
died out here of hypothermia. Of course, given the chance I wouldn’t be out
here but I don’t really have a choice.” When offered a cup of coffee to help
him stay warm, he says he just wants another can of beer. As for help from his
famous sister, he says “I am not going to ask Madonna for anything. Why would
I? We had little to do with each other, even in the 1980s when I was in New
York and she moved there to find fame and fortune.”
I suppose there is a lesson to be learned here. There are
all kinds of ways of acting out a rebellious state, but one thing is for
certain: Sex sells, and being a drunk doesn’t. Nor is it uncommon that
successful people with a lot of money have family members who are relatively “deprived”
and destitute. Athletes from poor neighborhoods often complain that when they
sign lucrative contracts, “family” they never knew existed come out of the
woodwork asking for “help”—and expecting to “receive.”
But it is one of the ironies of existence that one can make
a lucrative career out of being an exhibitionist—especially women—with enough
people who claim to be “inspired” by her example to have her declared an
“influential” person. But many of Madonna’s collaborators feel that her success
has not been fully accredited as it should be. Madonna unconsciously admitted
as much in an interview, in which she mentioned that Patrick Leonard was the real mover behind
her artistic breakthrough album Like a
Prayer. “But, you know, he's the one who studied music. He knows how to
read music, how to write music. I don't know any of that. I'm completely
instinctual and he's completely intellectual. So it's a really good
combination.”
However, in a 2009 interview, Leonard—who played a significant
role elsewhere in manufacturing what musical “substance” she had—confessed to
bitterness toward Madonna’s assertion that making music was peripheral to the
“meaning” of her life. “Well it’s a concern of somebody’s, bitch, otherwise you
wouldn’t be sitting there,” he said. “Most of the time she’s just playing a
game.” Former boyfriend and early collaborator Bray also has expressed
less-than-flattering commentary on her musical talent, noting that she actually
contributed very little to most of the songs that bear her songwriting credit.
Forbes contributor
Roger Friedman—an acknowledged Madonna hater—in explaining the tanking of
Madonna’s latest album and disappointing ticket sales of the subsequent tour,
claimed that “The audience wasn’t interested in vituperative songs with the ‘f’
word scattered through them liberally. Instead of dancing, Madonna was cursing.
And what does she have to curse about?” Madonna is obviously trying to attract the
young and “hip,” and it says a great deal about our youth to say that in order
to “connect” with them one must “communicate” in their four-letter vocabulary.
Friedman goes on “She’s a gazillionaire. She does whatever she wants, to
whomever she wants, whenever she wants. No one stops her. Her charity in Africa
was a bust, and the documentary she made about it was ridiculous…She flaunts
lovers half her age. She talks with a haughty accent. Last year, one of her
brothers turned up homeless in Michigan. Madonna seemed not to care.”
I’m not going to say that she should care; after all, he’s
only her brother. He’s made his bed, or rather, slab of concrete. Maybe he thought that because his sister made
it “big” without having any particular technical skills or training (especially
in acting), that a successful career was just something to be had, not worked
for. But there are millions of people like him in this country, and not all of
them had the benefit of an affluent up-bringing. Madonna, meanwhile, seems to
have withdrawn from the world outside her castle and her fawning admirers, play
acting the role of a modern-day American-born duchess.
Like many wealthy entertainers who feel a need to do some “good”
with their money and show that they are not greedy narcissists, she looks for
poor people to help millions of miles away, when there are plenty right outside her
doorstep. Women like herself who aren’t doing as bad as they act go to
places like Africa where they have little understanding of the history or culture, and spend millions of dollars building schools for girls—like Oprah’s “Leadership
School for Girls” in South Africa, which garnered some unwanted publicity for
her after the motherly matrons of the school were accused of beating and
sexually abusing students—a scandal in which Oprah used her considerable
influence to persuade an obliging media to quash after a few days. Madonna’s
version was to be based in Malawi, but it never got off the ground; millions of
donated dollars were squandered by the project manager and others on expensive
luxury items and other perks. Madonna was criticized for not investing her money in
improving the existing school system in the desperately poor country, which
hurts boys as well as girls. But her
gender political “point” was made, and that was apparently enough for her.
As for issues within in her own family, the less people know about that, one suspects the
better she feels about it.
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