Madonna (29 page)

While Madonna managed to rise above the media taunts, knowing that any reaction from her merely played into the hands of journalists and photographers, Sean was too easily provoked. By mid-1986 matters were getting out of hand. He found himself taunted by paparazzi cameramen every time he went out, his tormentors hoping that their foul-mouthed abuse, directed either at him or his wife, would push him into an attack, thereby providing a juicy story and a lucrative front-page photograph. In New York in August 1986, shortly after they had celebrated their first wedding anniversary, he allowed himself to be drawn into a fistfight with a group of photographers as he and Madonna were walking home to their apartment. The resulting pictures were plastered over all the front pages, and so, just a day later, were others of Penn spitting on a crowd of photographers and fans from the second floor window of a downtown restaurant.

For her part, Madonna had more to worry about than her husband’s behavior. She had reached another low when in June of the same year, her close friend Martin Burgoyne had been diagnosed as suffering from AIDS. This was a devastating blow, not just to Burgoyne, who was only twenty-three years old, but also to all those who knew him. At that time there was considerable hysteria and ignorance about the AIDS virus. What was known was that AIDS was a death sentence for those who contracted it, and that they, on top of their physical suffering, faced the likelihood of being shunned socially, a situation made worse by the strident outpourings of many vociferous would-be moralists, from churchmen to senators, who proclaimed the disease to be a ‘gay plague’.

While those in Martin Burgoyne’s circle struggled to come to terms with the news, many of them no doubt fearful for their own health, or even survival, Madonna put aside her own problems and seized the opportunity to do what she could to make her friend’s remaining days more comfortable. Her friendship with Burgoyne had been utterly unshaken by her rise to fame, and now, unbidden, she paid his considerable medical expenses, and also rented an apartment for him just round the corner from Saint Vincent’s Hospital, New York, where he was receiving treatment.

The press lost little time in sniffing out a story. By the first week of August, there were reports of Madonna being seen in New York buying books for a sick friend, and on October 13, 1986, a photograph of Sean and Madonna appeared on the cover of the
National Enquirer
, along with the headline, ‘Madonna’s Former Roommate Has AIDS – Sean Is Terrified & Furious. It’s What’s Really Ripping Their Marriage Apart.’ Burgoyne was devastated by the lurid exposure of his illness.

Certainly there had been other reports of Sean’s fear of contracting the disease, and of the fact that he had repeatedly urged Madonna to take an AIDS test, which she steadfastly refused to do. In the circumstances, however, he found the strength to put aside his personal fears, as well as his concerns about his wife’s relationship with Burgoyne. When Madonna, who tirelessly explored every avenue that might give her friend the chance of a few more precious months of life, learned of an experimental drug which, although not licensed in the United States, was available in Mexico, it was Sean who took the trouble to fly across the border to bring back supplies of the medication. Not only did his efforts mean a lot to his wife, but for a time they also raised his standing among her friends. Interestingly, Burgoyne was one of the few among Madonna’s set who was comfortable with her relationship with Penn. ‘She can learn from him, and he can learn from her,’ he had said at the time of their marriage.

As Burgoyne’s condition deteriorated – friends who saw him at the end of August were shocked to see his face covered with sores – Madonna did her utmost to raise his spirits. She telephoned him most days, her lively, positive manner helping to keep him cheerful, and she also spent time shopping for books and presents that might amuse him. When she was in New York she visited him regularly, and, perhaps most importantly, and ignoring others’ concern for her own well-being, she continued to hug and kiss him as she had always done – once even offering him a bite of her chocolate bar, which she then resumed eating. ‘He really looked forward to her visits, it sustained him,’ recalls a mutual friend. She and Andy Warhol were guests of honor at a benefit for Burgoyne at the Pyramid Club, where the young designer had worked for a time, and on November 10, Madonna was one of several celebrities who took part in an AIDS benefit at Barney’s clothing store, modeling a denim jacket decorated with a picture by Burgoyne.

The end came on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. By then, Burgoyne’s every breath was an effort, and he was slipping in and out of consciousness. Although his family were at his bedside, he wanted Madonna – who was on her way to New York from Los Angeles – to be with him when he died, and was seemingly fighting to hold on to life until she could be there. It was an unbearable wait for all concerned, as first her flight was delayed and then her limousine became stuck in traffic. When she finally walked into the room, he was able to give up his struggle. She took him in her arms, whispered a few words, and stayed with him until he was finally at peace. The memory of that moment is still fresh in Erika Belle’s memory: ‘They had a very deep and profound love. Once he heard her come into the room he knew he could die. It was very beautiful, very moving, and I still cry about it now.’

Burgoyne’s death at such a young age badly affected his friends. Although she told the actress and writer Carrie Fisher, in an interview for
Rolling Stone
, that Burgoyne’s rage at dying haunted her, Madonna, then twenty-eight, displayed great strength in the face of the tragedy, not only in looking after her friend, but also comforting his family and even organizing a wake in his honor. For her, though, the death marked the start of a terrible era, but one to which she responded both energetically and effectively. Over the next few years she would lose many of her closest friends – notably Christopher Flynn, Keith Haring, Steve Rubell and Haoui Montaug – to AIDS. In response to their deaths, she has quietly donated considerable sums to AIDS research and to the care of those suffering from the virus. She is also a champion of safe sex and gay rights, as well as a staunch advocate of the promotion of greater public awareness about the disease. To this end she has attended numerous charity events, freely lending her name and support to AIDS-related causes. In 1991 she became the first recipient of the AmFAR (American Foundation for AIDS Research) Award for Courage for her charitable work and AIDS-awareness efforts, while even conservative estimates put the money she has raised for AIDS charities at over $5 million.

Yet while such celebrities as Sir Elton John and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, have been widely praised for their efforts in raising public awareness and money in the fight against AIDS, Madonna’s good works have been overshadowed by the controversy that so often surrounds her. Certainly the coming of the AIDS era did little to tame her performances, for on stage she continued unashamedly to use sex and sexuality as her tools. In December 1986, she caused a storm when she released the video to ‘Open Your Heart,’ playing an exotic dancer in a peep-show booth, who reappears dressed in a man’s suit and kisses the lips of an obviously underage boy who has been spying on her through the booth’s peephole. Directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, not only was
Open Your Heart
Madonna’s most overtly sexual video to date – and a sign of her future artistic direction – but the single, which hit the number-one slot, was in stark contrast to the cutesy ‘True Blue,’ described by one source as an ‘unabashed valentine’ for Sean Penn.

While Penn had briefly redeemed himself in his wife’s eyes during Martin Burgoyne’s illness, he did not remain her valentine for long. In the spring of 1987, while relaxing with friends in the West Beach Café in Venice, California, he spat at a photographer, Cesare Bonazza, as he prepared to take Penn’s picture. The paparazzo also claimed that the actor had ‘gone crazy’ and further alleged that he had threatened to pull a gun on him. By now Penn was drinking heavily and his behavior was out of control.

It was not long before Penn’s hair-trigger temper brought him into real trouble. Sure enough, in April 1987, on the set of Dennis Hopper’s film,
Colors
, in which he was playing the part of a police officer, Penn spotted an extra, Jeffrey Klein, taking his picture. As Hopper and co-star Robert Duvall looked on in amazement, Penn went over, screamed at the extra and then spat in his face. A fistfight broke out which, after it had been stopped by security staff, left Klein with cuts to his face, and determined to press charges. Still on probation for hitting David Wolinski, Penn knew that he was heading for a jail sentence.

Even with that knowledge, the wild acts continued. On May 25, he was arrested for speeding and running a red light in LA. He was breathalyzed, which confirmed that he had been drinking, and he was duly arrested and charged. On June 23, in a ten-minute court hearing, he pleaded no contest to the charges of assault and of reckless driving, and was duly sentenced to sixty days in jail with two years’ probation. He was also instructed to undergo counseling. When, after the hearing, Madonna’s publicist Liz Rosenberg met with the press, in response to questions about the marriage, she told the eager reporters, with masterly understatement, ‘They are having some problems and they’re taking some time to think things through.’

Penn began his sentence on July 7, but served just thirty days in the Mono County Jail in California, even being allowed out to film in Germany. While he missed his second wedding anniversary, he was sent nude pictures of his wife, courtesy of
Penthouse
, which published another set of portraits taken when she had been a struggling dancer. Madonna was furious with the unknown individual – she blamed
Penthouse —
who sent the men’s magazine to her husband. Not that she was overly impressed by him. On his release in September 1987 he took a pizza home to her, but, by his own admission, she was not particularly pleased to see him; as he observed, ‘Going to jail is not good for any marriage.’ Indeed, weeks later, Madonna instructed realtors to begin the search for a house of her own, although it was a quest that she soon abandoned.

There had been one consolation for Madonna as her husband whiled away the hours in his cell, reading books by James Thurber and writing a play,
The Kindness of Women
. At least he was out of trouble. Like everyone else, she had heard the rumors of his wild behavior in bars and hotels around Los Angeles, drinking into the small hours and spending the night with different women, sometimes, it was claimed, booking into local hotels. Inevitably, it played on her mind. For while she likes to exude an air of sexual insouciance, seemingly indifferent to the behavior of the men in her life, Madonna is chronically insecure about relationships, reacting to them in the same way that she does, in private, to media criticism.

While cracks were appearing in their marriage, Madonna was busy consolidating her career. In April her song ‘La Isla Bonita,’ also from the
True Blue
album, had become her twelfth consecutive top-ten single and her greatest success to date internationally, and in the summer she threw her energies into her Who’s That Girl? concert tour.

The Hispanic look Madonna adopted in the song’s accompanying video, in which she appears dressed both boyishly in wide-brimmed Spanish hat and bolero jacket and as a flamenco dancer, started a fashion craze for bolero jackets and tiered skirts. The wannabes who had slavishly followed her early look were now having a hard time keeping up with their idol, for her image had changed frequently and dramatically since her first album. She turned her back on glamour by sporting a new gamine look for the video of
Papa Don’t Preach
. Gone was the sex siren and in its place was an impish tomboy with a bleached-blonde crop, outfitted in jeans and a black leather jacket.

Her focus, though, was not just on fashion but on her first ever worldwide tour. She prepared for the ‘Who’s That Girl?’ concerts as if she were embarking on a military campaign, starting her day with a two-hour workout, including a 25-mile bike ride, before going on to direct every aspect of the 90-minute show, which she called a ‘theatrical multi-media spectacular.’ It had everything – sex, sensation and, of course, controversy, including images of the Pope and President Reagan projected on screens during her rendition of ‘Papa Don’t Preach,’ and an erotic frisson when she kissed a young boy, Chris Finch, on the lips at the end of ‘Like A Virgin.’

The outfit that stole the show – a crazy, Marlene Stewart-designed costume encrusted with material objects such as toy watches, ashtrays, and a plastic lobster – was typically Madonna, indicating both her awareness of surrealism and her tongue-in-cheek style, for when she bent over in this ensemble she revealed a pair of panties with the word ‘KISS’ emblazoned on them. Another outfit was Andy Warhol-inspired, and featured a tin of Campbell’s soup on the side, the letter ‘U’ on the front, and the word ‘DANCE’ on the back, so that when she turned around the audience were able to read’U [Can] Dance.’

As she threw her prodigious energies into the tour, the only person who seemed in any doubt as to the identity of ‘that girl’ was the star herself. Although she conveyed a new confidence on the stage, managing to glide through her performances seamlessly, she later admitted to thinking, ‘Oh God. What have I done? What have I created? Is that me, or is that me, this small person standing here on the stage?’

Whatever her doubts, the fans and the critics loved it. ‘No big messages, no revelations, familiar sounds and images, plenty of catchy tunes – the show was easy to enjoy,’ said a review in the
New York Times
. Certainly her fans thought so. In Japan, where the tour opened on June 14 at Osaka Stadium, 1,000 troops had to hold back a crowd of 25,000 when Madonna landed at the airport. Again, when she arrived in France such was her popularity that the French Premier, Jacques Chirac, stepped in to overrule a local mayor who had threatened to cancel a concert because of potential crowd problems.