The news that Hudson had recovered from AIDS was soon disputed by doctors throughout the United States who stepped in to say that no treatment could currently cure the disease and that if the actor had been suffering from AIDS at some point, then he would still have it now. More confusion came when it was revealed that Hudson had been first treated in the Paris hospital without any of the doctors knowing that he had previously been diagnosed with AIDS. Without being aware of this important information, they had surmised that his liver was suffering abnormalities and that it was – quite tragically – an inoperable condition.
The media reports into Rock Hudson’s illness were littered with untruths and speculation. Hudson was receiving an experimental drug which would block the disease, said one statement. No, it was far too late for him to receive any treatment like that, said another. Rock had flown to France in order to seek help with his AIDS treatment was another comment. No, he had only ended up in hospital after collapsing in his hotel, said another. With the stories getting more and more out of hand, at last Rock’s spokeswoman had to confirm the real situation once and for all. Yes, the actor still had AIDS, she confirmed, but no, none of his people knew how he had actually become infected. “I have no idea if he knows how he got it,” the spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times.
Of course, this brought up the question of whether or not Rock Hudson could possibly be gay, and it was not long before newspapers were quoting columnist Armistead Maupin as saying that nine years earlier, he had asked the actor about his sexuality. Apparently Maupin was of the opinion that Hudson was gay and had enquired as to whether or not he would ever discuss it. “Rock seemed to take to the idea,” Maupin told the San Francisco Chronicle, before adding that Hudson had told him one of these days he would have a lot to tell, and that he had learned the Hollywood lesson very well: keeping quiet about his real love affairs and being happy to allow various gossip columnists to make up imaginary girlfriends for him.
Despite the rumours and comments, no official statement on the star’s love life was forthcoming and his representatives announced – rather questionably – that they knew absolutely nothing about his sexuality at all. Still, while the press attention that centred on the actor’s illness was most unwelcome in the Hudson camp, something quite extraordinary was bubbling away behind the scenes. Instead of people immediately lambasting the actor for having the dreaded and mysterious AIDS virus, many were responding to the news reports by raising their own awareness of the disease and coming forward to get themselves tested.
Information about the illness was no longer being swept under the carpet; now everyone seemed to know what AIDS was, and even President Ronald Reagan gave his support to the ailing actor by telephoning him in the hospital. Furthermore, donations were beginning to trickle in to AIDS charities and a walkathon was held in Hollywood which attracted twice as many people as it had the year before, raising $630,000 for those suffering from the syndrome. The executive director of AIDS Project/Los Angeles said that the announcement that Rock Hudson had the disease was the most important thing that had ever happened in the fight against the illness, and this most certainly seems to be the case. Whether he knew it or not, Rock Hudson was now a strong force within the AIDS community and he was doing more to spread awareness than any person or campaign had ever done before.
Sadly, while the actor’s plight was bringing attention to the disease as a whole, it was also the subject of yet more gossip and misunderstanding from those who refused to educate themselves. Various individuals began asking if Hudson could have given AIDS to his Dynasty co-star Linda Evans, as the two had shared kissing scenes in the television show before it was announced he was ill. This was such a topic of concern and intrigue that it even appeared on news programmes; rumours began that producers would now insist on AIDS tests for all actors before shooting intimate scenes, and that actresses would most likely refuse to kiss gay actors on camera.
Doctors were brought in to dispute the tale that you could contract AIDS from kissing or touching someone, but many people still did not believe it. In fact, when Princess Diana was later seen shaking the hand of an AIDS patient in a UK hospital, there was outrage that the future Queen of England could possibly have exposed herself to the disease. It was a ridiculous concept, of course, but one that was very much on the minds of misinformed people during the mid-1980s.
Meanwhile, on a personal level, Rock Hudson was discharged from the Paris hospital where he had been staying since his collapse, and flew back to California. He was immediately admitted to the UCLA hospital where his condition was reported as fair, and from which a statement was made to say that he had approved the idea of a Rock Hudson Foundation to be set up to raise money for AIDS. Then on 25 August 1985 came the news that he had been released from hospital in order to rest at his home, though it was made clear that he would still need continuous care.
A surprise announcement came when it was said that despite his illness, Rock Hudson was preparing to write his autobiography with an author called Sara Davidson. All proceeds were to go to AIDS research and the book would be written using interviews given from Rock’s bedside. The fact that he was strong enough to attempt to do such a thing was a positive sign and the future began to look rather more hopeful. He also sent a statement to be read out at an AIDS project event, where he thanked Elizabeth Taylor for her friendship and said that while he did not wish to be sick, he was glad that his illness was at least having some positive effect on others who needed help.
Unfortunately, while Hudson’s comments showed some kind of lucidity on his part, any concept of a return to health was sadly something of an illusion. At 9 a.m. on 2 October 1985, Rock breathed his last; surrounded by members of his staff, he slipped quietly away at his home in Beverly Hills. Fans wept when the death was announced and funeral plans were quickly drawn up, which saw his body cremated and the ashes scattered into the Pacific Ocean. Then a hundred of his closest friends gathered in the garden of Hudson’s home to pay tribute to the man who had soared to the very top of the Hollywood list, only to come crashing back down due to ill health. Mexican food was served; a mariachi band played; and friends including Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Burnett remembered their pal in his heyday when the world of showbiz had been at his feet.
Along with the tributes from co-stars and friends, a strange undercurrent of anger and suspicion began bubbling away in the newspapers over the authenticity of many of the statements Rock Hudson was supposed to have made over the course of his illness. Some friends told reporters that the actor had not even known his disease had become public knowledge, while one of his associates, Ross Hunter, told columnist Marilyn Beck that for the most part the actor was not lucid when he had gone to visit him. Hunter later added that of course he hadn’t been with him all the time, which prompted other friends and staff members to recall that when they had visited the actor in the final months, he had always been perfectly coherent with them.
However, this revelation of whether or not Hudson knew his disease was public forced his spokesman, Dale Olson, to admit that it had been himself, not the actor, who had written the statement which was read out at the September AIDS event. However, he made it clear that Rock had approved every word and very much understood what he was reading.
In the end, away from the controversy surrounding the secret of his illness and the questions raised after his passing, the death of Rock Hudson was a tragic and sad affair but with it came a ray of hope that people could stop whispering about AIDS and begin to educate themselves and others regarding the actual facts. His death – like so many before and after – left the world a darker place, though it was not in vain. His fight helped pave the way for celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Rivers, Madonna and Princess Diana to give compassionate support to those who were suffering; it went a long way to reduce stigma, and for that alone, Hudson’s passing has helped many people over the course of almost thirty years. Perhaps without even knowing it, the man who hid
his illness and sexuality from the world for such a long time managed to open the floodgates and let education about AIDS, and the acceptance of those who were suffering, finally begin.
45
The Tumultuous Marriage of Madonna and Sean Penn
There are some Hollywood marriages that are over in a flash; others that surprise everyone by lasting a lifetime. There are quiet marriages, loud marriages, violent and tempestuous marriages . . . and then there is the marriage of Madonna and Sean Penn.
By the time Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone met actor Sean Penn, she was already on her way to becoming a major superstar, while he was an intense actor and aspiring director. The pair met on the set of Madonna’s 1985 video for “Material Girl” and although she wasn’t overly impressed with him at first, they soon began seeing each other regularly, and were photographed backstage at Live Aid, huddled in each other’s arms.
Madonna had never appeared to be the marrying kind, but Penn eventually won her over and proposed one morning as the singer was jumping up and down on her bed. According to the singer, Sean suddenly got a particular look in his eye and she had been completely certain that he was about to pop the question. She told the actor that whatever he was thinking she was definitely going to say yes, so he took the opportunity to ask for her hand in marriage, and of course she accepted.
The much ballyhooed wedding took place on 16 August 1985 in the mountain-top garden of 6970 Wildlife Road, Malibu, the home of Penn’s friend Dan Unger, and it was a noisy affair. Although the pair tried to assure the media that the only thing happening that day was a joint birthday party (their birthdays are a day apart), they failed to convince anyone, particularly when guests started showing up wearing wedding outfits, complete with presents.
Reporters and photographers went wild, hiding in the bushes and trying to bluff their way into the house. When that failed, they finally hired helicopters and by the time the bride appeared in the garden dressed in a huge white dress with a black bowler hat and veil, there were over a dozen copters flying above her head.
“That whole time was almost too much,” she later said. She had never expected in her wildest dreams to be married with helicopters buzzing around, and declared the entire affair “a circus”. Still, she was determined not to let it ruin her day and while it is fair to say that the noise could have stressed out the calmest of brides, for Madonna it was all just too hilarious for words. “In the end I was laughing,” she said in an interview. “At first I was outraged and then I was laughing.”
But while Madonna might have seen the funny side, her groom most certainly did not, and at one point he was apparently seen on the sand, spelling the words “Fuck Off” in giant letters and waving a gun at the passing helicopters. It was not a good start, and Sean and Madonna’s life together did not get much better.
From the very beginning their marriage was one of arguments and controversy. As with many newlywed showbiz couples, Madonna and Sean thought that it would be a good experience to make a film together, but this turned out to be one of the worst decisions they could have made. During the making of the film, Shanghai Surprise, they fought constantly and became so aloof with other cast members that when the cast and crew landed in England, the newspapers christened them “The Poison Penns”. The film’s producer, George Harrison, was highly disappointed by the bad press and encouraged Madonna to accompany him to a conference to thwart the rumours and stories quickly spreading about the couple.
Despite the good intentions, the event did not go particularly well, especially when one reporter repeated a rumour that Madonna’s management contract was up for sale. “Did you know that, and George, would you like to buy it?” he enquired. George Harrison chewed on gum uncomfortably while Madonna tried to avoid the question.
“You’re a little troublemaker, aren’t you?” she quipped.
“I’m not the only one, there’s a room full of them,” retorted the reporter.
He was right, and the conference lurched from one uncomfortable moment to the next, with Madonna complaining afterwards that the press had been unbelievably vicious and rude. Her comments may have been fair but unfortunately for her they only fuelled the fire of negativity surrounding the film. This in turn seemed to send Madonna and Sean Penn into even more explosive bust-ups between themselves and others, on and off set.
Once the movie was released, the reviews were poor (and even today it only claims a rating of less than three out of ten stars on the Internet Movie Database), but Madonna did not seem to be willing to place the blame at her own door, and instead stated that while she liked the script, by the time they got on set, it was clear to her that the man at the helm of the film was a TV director who was in over his head when it came to directing a movie. “It was downhill from the second day,” she told reporters. She also complained that her scenes were cut so much that it made her “look like an airhead girl, without a character”.
Whoever’s fault it was, Shanghai Surprise was a box-office disaster, but Madonna pressed on with her film career regardless and went on to work on a project initially called “Slammer”, a comedy about a young woman called Nikki Finn who is trying to clear her name of a crime she didn’t commit. Even before it was released, rumours were abounding that it would be a stinker. The critics didn’t disappoint: even Madonna’s co-star, a cougar called Murray, got better reviews than she did.
To add to the frustration, the title “Slammer” became a hilarious twist for the media, as by the time it was scheduled to come out, Sean Penn was in the slammer himself after an incident on the set of his movie, Colors. The film was renamed out of respect for him, and it ultimately went on to be called Who’s That Girl, which just happened to tie in with both the soundtrack song and Madonna’s upcoming world tour.
Luckily, while her films most certainly were not burning brightly at the box office, the world tour was a big success and Madonna played for the first time to stadium audiences on many continents. Unfortunately, being away from the States for so long, combined with the time spent apart from Penn during his prison stay, put tremendous strain on the already volatile marriage. When interviewed by Simon Bates for BBC Radio One, Madonna lamented, “Love feels like a huge hand that comes around my whole body and sometimes it’s all furry and warm and it feels good, then other times it’s all scratchy and it hurts.”
Once the jail term and world tour had ended, Mr and Mrs Penn settled down to what they hoped would be a quiet life. However, wherever they went the couple were followed by fans and paparazzi, all throwing questions, flashbulbs and comments in their direction. Things grew worse when fans started ringing the couple’s doorbell every day, which infuriated Penn no end. “What do they expect, for us to invite them up for a cup of coffee?” Madonna later pondered.
Of course, the press loved Sean’s reaction to being followed, and it became a common occurrence to see photographs of the actor shouting in the street, while his wife tried to hide her face with her handbag. By the end of 1987, however, things had come to a head and Madonna filed for divorce on 4 December 1987, though it was ultimately called off when Sean managed to convince her that they could make it work. She withdrew the application on 16 December and the two were soon photographed reportedly renewing their wedding vows in an attempt to hold their marriage together.
In 1988 Madonna returned to New York in order to appear on Broadway in David Mamet’s play, Speed the Plow. She seemed to hate the experience of working on stage every night, but was buoyed when she began a friendship with comedienne Sandra Bernhard. The two began hanging out together after the show, frequenting nightclubs and being photographed intensively – mainly by newspapers eager to see if the two women were more than just good friends.
The two managed to cause headlines during a colourful rendition of I’ve Got You Babe at a charity concert, and then provoked a huge amount of scandal when they appeared together on the Late Show with David Letterman. Dressed identically in white T-shirts, denim shorts and white
socks, their “performance” raised many eyebrows as they hinted at being intimate together and then joked that Sandra had slept with Sean Penn. “She’s using me to get to Sean,” Madonna laughed, though few in the audience thought it was funny.
Of course, the person who was the least thrilled was Sean himself, who was said to be furious about the entire episode. It was common knowledge that he disliked Sandra Bernhard intensely and the feeling was apparently mutual. By the time Madonna arrived back in Los Angeles in autumn 1988, the marriage was more fractured than ever.
The couple struggled on for a few more weeks but it was clear to both Madonna and Sean that any relationship they may have had in the past was more than over now. However, it would take a violent episode in December of that year to finally bring an end to the marriage once and for all.
Stories vary on what really happened that night, but most agree that on the evening of 28 December 1988, Sean entered the family home and began abusing and threatening his terrified wife. According to media at the time, he “bound and gagged Madonna for 9 hours” before she finally escaped and headed to the sheriff’s office where she filed charges of “corporal injury and traumatic conditions” and “battery”.
Neither Sean nor Madonna ever spoke publicly about what really happened on that evening, so we must rely on the thoughts and observations of “friends”, but whatever events unfolded within the mansion, they were most certainly enough for Madonna to go through with a divorce, though she did eventually drop the charges against her ex. Just months later, she laid her heart bare on the failure of her marriage in the highly personal album Like a Prayer, which included song titles such as “Till Death Us Do Part”, while the video for a song called “Oh Father” showed the star being slapped by someone presumed to be her husband.
The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals Page 40