Madonna

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  Madonna and Leonard toiled to create music that would fit the style and attitude of the film, set in The Untouchables days of prohibition. They were successful, as Warren Beatty put it, “beyond my wildest dreams.” On the album, Madonna and Leonard set the pace with the opener, “He’s a Man,” a big, intense, vamping bluesy song which Madonna sings as if she’s a hooker stalking the boulevard. Vocally, she’s magnificent. “I want people to think of me as a musical comedy actress,” she said at the time. “That’s what this album is about for me. It’s a stretch. Not just pop music, but songs that have a different feel to them, a theatrical feel.” Indeed, she tackled the Sondheim selections — the moody, determined “Sooner or Later,” the modified ragtime of “More” and the quiet, sentimental wonder, “What Can You Lose” — with the verve of a Broadway veteran. Particularly during “What Can You Lose,” a duet with Mandy Patinkin, Madonna holds her own, her voice making its first appearance on the song like a flower opening at dawn, warming to the mission at hand. One might wonder what a singer like Barbra Streisand would have brought to the production that Madonna didn’t, but such musing doesn’t detract from the fact that Madonna’s performance truly is sublime.

  Comparably, Andy Paley’s “I’m Going Bananas” is sweet taffy, a Ricky Ricardo kind of song that Madonna performs totally in Breathless character. Then, as if to say, “Hey, I can do that, too,” she and Leonard crafted “Cry Baby,” a playful, Roaring Twenties ditty which Madonna sings as Betty Boop. Both tracks, pure fun and games, are left seeming like so much filler when Madonna and Leonard roll up their sleeves to create “Something to Remember.” Complex and bittersweet, the ballad sails on a wave of gorgeous, melancholy chords and rambling melody that quietly make it the most compelling thing to which Madonna has ever lent her voice. Should anyone ever query the lady about musical integrity, she can always point to the composition for “Something to Remember” — it would silence even the most accomplished composer.

  Madonna also managed to bring a certain dimension to what seemed like the lightest moments. The steamrolling “Hanky Panky” simply sounds like a silly innocent romp until you realize what she’s going on and on about is (“Warren’s favorite pastime”) . . . being spanked! It’s difficult to listen to the songs on I’m Breathless and not be compelled to try and find the real Madonna in each song. She is, no doubt, more intelligent than Breathless Mahoney, but both possessed the drive and tenacity required to get exactly what they wanted. Consider: in Madonna was just a fledgling dance-music star looking to do great things. In less than ten years, she was the co-star of a major movie, performing on its soundtrack album, singing a playful duet — “Now I’m Following You” — with Warren Beatty!

  As fine as I’m Breathless turned out, it still needed a musical hook: a hit song. To that end, Madonna and Shep Pettibone (the brilliant engineer/songwriter/producer still standing in the shadow of Madonna’s steady cohorts Steve Bray and Patrick Leonard) dreamed up a sleek song which Madonna would co-write and produce, “Vogue.” It’s a funky, uptown anthem celebrating the art of “voguing” — a then-popular dance that was more about posing like a high-fashion model than breaking a sweat. Actually, voguing had been around long before Madonna sang about it; like Michael Jackson and his “Moonwalk,” dance, Madonna simply introduced to the rest of the world another hot urban trend. The knockout pulsating track was a masterful dance tribute to “Ladies with attitude, fellows who were in the mood” (with an accompanying memorable black-and-white video that was, no doubt, inspired by classic photographs taken by Horst of Hollywood legends). The “Vogue rap” is still one of Madonna’s greatest camp musical moments (“Greta Garbo and Monroe, Dietrich and DiMaggio . . .”).

  Madonna historian Bruce Baron notes that “Vogue” was first planned as the B side of the “Keep It Together” single. When Warner executives heard the song, however, it was decided to issue it as an A side. Baron points out that Madonna had to alter some more suggestive lyrics because the song was to be included on an album connected to a Disney movie.

  “Vogue” did what Madonna and Shep Pettibone hoped it would do: it went to Number 1. (Her grand performance of the song on the MTV Video Music Awards in 1990, dressed as Marie Antoinette in a giant hoop-skirt outfit with lots of cleavage, a bouffant wig and white-powder makeup, was a classic camp show that elevated the standards of future performances on that program.)

  Then, after “Vogue,” “Hanky Panky” did a respectable climb to Number . Both singles served to push I’m Breathless to Number 2 on Billboard’s album chart. It sold two million copies in the U.S. and five million globally.

  I’m Breathless is one of Madonna’s greatest musical moments, a fairly heady proclamation considering her prolific recording career. “I worked so hard on that record,” she later said. “In its time and place, it’s important to me.” Also, Warren Beatty could not have been more pleased with it and, as her friends have recalled, she wanted nothing more than his approval when it came to all of her work in the film, acting and singing. “He meant a lot to her,” confirms Freddy DeMann. “She wanted him to be proud.”

  Perhaps an indication of Warren’s feelings about the album came when he co-hosted a party at his home with Madonna shortly after its release. He asked her to “dress down” for his Hollywood friends such as Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino, as well as the studio heads of various movie companies, the so-called movers and shakers of the business.

  Madonna had often commented on Warren’s “people skills.” It was true in 1990— and is still true today — that his warm, firm handclasp the moment he turns his attention to someone often leaves that person with the feeling that he or she has been touched by something special. Madonna noticed the way people felt quickened by any encounter with Warren, sincerely happy to be in his presence. With her, it was a different story: unless they were real fans, most people were generally fearful of her upon meeting her, worried about what she might say or do to them. Indeed, usually when she walked into a room, people swarmed about her not because they wanted to touch her, but rather because they wanted to see what outrageous event might occur as a result of her presence, who she might insult, what swearword she would utter while doing it. She said that she wanted to learn from Warren how to be more gracious. Therefore, parties at Warren’s were always thrilling for Madonna; she enjoyed the company of his influential show-business friends, and appreciated the way they treated her, accepted her as one of their own.

  For the Dick Tracy party, Madonna wore a simple, bare-back black gown by Halston, her golden hair in a sophisticated twist. She appeared feminine, tailored, graceful and elegant. Smiling, touching, kissing and moving through the crowd, she looked like an experienced socialite. She was breezily conversational with people who usually bored her. She laughed gaily at Warren’s jokes. She didn’t swear. Did she ever dream she’d come so close to the magic, power and glamour of true Hollywood, and fit in so well? Probably, yes. “She was delightful,” recalled a guest, “the perfect hostess.”

  During the party, Warren played “Something to Remember,” from the Dick Tracy soundtrack and asked his guests to stop talking long enough to listen to the song. Everyone obliged. Certainly, during these few minutes, Madonna must have felt at least a little awkward as she stood with a martini in one hand, a cigarette in the other . . . and all eyes on her. Even the platoon of tuxedo-clad waiters, stationed like toy soldiers with trays of crudités, pâtés and other appetizers, stopped serving long enough to take notice.

  When the song was over, Warren walked over to Madonna and said something to her. She responded with a surprised smile and a nod of what seemed like appreciation. Then, with a flourish, he turned from her and began to applaud. Following his lead, his guests joined in, showering Madonna with cheers, smiles and words of congratulations. For her, it must have been a moment like no other. As Jack Nicholson later remembered, “She stood there and just accepted it all graciously . . . this beautiful, unpredictable, amazing young wo
man with tears in her eyes, and I thought — Jesus! What a star.”

  Warren Asks Madonna’s Hand in Marriage?

  It was 1990. In a few months, Madonna would turn thirty-two. Her career up until this time had been astonishing in many ways. However, her personal life — her romantic relationships with men, in particular — had been less than satisfying. For the most part, each had been fueled by great and overwhelming passion — either intense lovemaking or heated arguing. There was no middle ground. Just as with her father, and then with Sean Penn, Madonna seemed, at least on some level, to feel that a relationship wasn’t valid unless it involved screaming and shouting. Even in public, she could not refrain from picking fights with her boyfriends. She seemed unable to understand that it was possible to love a man and still disagree with him without engaging in an endless and loud battle about it.

  In the past, no one with whom Madonna had ever been romantically involved did much to support her emotional needs. Many, of course, had assisted her in her quest for stardom. After she was finished with those men, she inevitably tossed them aside. The ones who had tried to help her deal with her emotional problems were also pushed away. Seemingly incapable of true intimacy she, somehow, always managed to attract men like Sean Penn, John Kennedy and now Warren Beatty, all of whom were equally incompetent.

  Her love life was about to become even more entangled . . .

  On May 16, over a romantic dinner at a Hollywood restaurant after a hard day’s dubbing in the studio, Warren Beatty made a surprising move. Either he asked for Madonna’s hand in marriage (which is what she told her friends) or he asked her to agree one day to become engaged to marry him (which is how he vaguely described the offer to his friends). Whatever his proposition, he presented her with a six-carat, $30,000 diamond-and-sapphire ring.

  Madonna — wearing a long straight blonde wig parted in the middle and what appeared to be a man’s classic pinstripe suit with a bustier — slipped the ring on the middle finger of her left hand, ostensibly to conceal the fact that it signified a promise of marriage. After Warren signaled the waiter to refill their glasses of Cristal champagne, the couple toasted the moment. So excited was he that Madonna had accepted his ring, Warren tipped the waiter — one of the sources for this story — $500.

  Most of their friends had to agree that the promise between Madonna and Warren — whether it was an actual engagement or, rather, an agreement to one day become engaged — didn’t seem to bring them any closer as a couple; they continued in their argumentative way.

  “Keep your stupid opinions to yourself,” Madonna said to Warren over dinner one night at the Ivy in Los Angeles just days after the “engagement.” The reason for the fight remains unclear. Appearing somewhat angry, Beatty tossed a handful of bills onto the table. He got up. He walked out. A chagrined Madonna was left to sit alone and stew — with about fifty bemused patrons gawking at her. “Stop staring at me,” she loudly called out before storming off.

  When the couple went to San Antonio, Texas, to fulfill a weekend studio publicity commitment, Warren and Madonna stayed at the expensive La Mansion del Rio Hotel. In between press responsibilities, Warren let off steam by golfing while Madonna enjoyed daily facials and other such pampering. Bill Hollerman, a golfing buddy of Beatty’s, remarked, “Warren spent the weekend on the telephone to Jack [Nicholson] complaining about Madonna, that she and Sandra Bernhard were planning a big wedding, that Sean Penn was calling him every fifteen minutes screaming at him to leave his ex-wife alone. It went on and on. Beatty said that she wasn’t happy unless she was fighting with him. He told me, ‘She’s a nice girl, but you can’t take her out. You don’t know what she’s going to say, or do, next. You don’t know what the next big fight will be about. I’m too old for this.’”

  “But you’re not old,” his friend told him.

  “Well, I’m old enough to not want to look foolish,” Warren said.

  Hollerman also reports that Barbra Streisand, one of Beatty’s ex-girlfriends, was also on the telephone to Texas telling him that he was “crazy for falling for a young floozy.” A former business associate of Barbra’s concurs, “When she heard about Warren and Madonna, she became a great instigator. She and Warren had little to do with each other prior to that news, then suddenly she was his great protector, telling him that Madonna was only using him to advance her film career.

  “Also, his elderly mother, Kathleen, still a big influence on his life, did not approve of Madonna. No matter how much Madonna tried to impress the older woman, she was not able to do so.” (“It’s no wonder,” Madonna said, privately. “Look at how many women she has seen with her son. She probably didn’t approve of any of them, either.”)

  An unpredictable breaking point came when Madonna presented Warren with an expensive oil painting as a gift. After politely thanking her, he stashed it behind the couch where he probably intended for it to remain, because it did not match his decor. After three days, Madonna took it upon herself to hang the painting on a wall in his living room. When he saw it displayed without his permission, Warren exploded at her, accusing her of trying to “control” him. The battle raged on from there. It was a small incident but, as often happens, it triggered something in Warren and Madonna that caused a fight big enough to lay ruin to any future plans they may have had.

  *

  Dick Tracy premiered in June 1990 and, after all the attendant hype, it seemed as if it would be the success Disney had anticipated. It opened to big box-office receipts. (In the end, though, the film would prove to be a financial disappointment, with U.S. sales of only $104 million.)

  Madonna was unhappy with the way her production numbers were edited; she has said that she refused to watch the entire movie because she couldn’t bear to see the way her routines were cut (she still hasn’t seen it). Warren thought she was being silly, which only inspired more arguing between them. Matters became especially tense between the couple when Warren would only agree to a cover of Newsweek magazine on the condition that he be featured alone. When Newsweek’s editor-in-chief Rick Smith informed Disney studio head Jeffery Katzenberg that without Madonna there would be no cover profile, he ordered that a photograph that included Madonna be immediately sent to the magazine. Still, Madonna thought it disloyal of Warren to try to cut her out of a major magazine cover, and the two engaged in yet another argument, this one about that matter of publicity.

  One business associate and friend of Beatty’s says, “I was in Florida with Warren [for further Dick Tracy promotion] when a call came in from Madonna. ‘I’m working,’ he told her. We were golfing. That, to me, told the story.”

  “Do you love her?” Warren’s friend asked as the two played golf.

  Warren seemed confused by the question. “She’s fun,” he said. “But what is love, anyway? I really don’t think I know. My problem,” he admitted, “is that I’m easily bored.”

  His associate now says, “I wasn’t encouraged by his answer. I knew then and there that they would not be getting married, though he did tell me he had asked Jack Nicholson to be his best man if he ever married her. He also said she had asked Sandra Bernhard to be her maid of honor. I thought to myself, well, that sounds like a pretty good show, but maybe not such a good marriage. I knew it would never happen, just by his attitude.”

  It seemed to some observers that Warren had been worn down by Madonna’s insolence. Perhaps the fact that he gave her a symbolic ring said more about his confusion when it came to matters of the heart than it did about his feelings for Madonna. He was like an impulsive, foolhardy schoolboy trying to impress his girlfriend with an expensive, showy gift. However, when the time came to live up to the promise represented by that ring, Warren was unable to meet the challenge — he couldn’t commit, just as he had not been able to commit to so many other women in his past. If anyone was going to change Warren Beatty’s course in life, it wasn’t going to be Madonna. If anything, her behavior only sent him running in the other direction.

  �
�Where have you been?” Madonna demanded to know of Warren, according to Bill Hollerman. The two had just walked into her suite after a day of golfing. Madonna was sitting at a desk facing a wall, sipping tea. She wore a white cottony terry-cloth robe. A wrapped matching towel covered her hair. She had on no makeup, apparently having just showered. “She looked about twelve,” recalled Hollerman. “Thirteen, tops.”

  “Oh, we were golfing,” Warren answered. He seemed nonplussed that he should have to respond, given her demanding tone.

  “But we were supposed to have lunch,” she said, standing up to face him. She was in a foul mood.

  “Well, that’s what I’m here for now, to have lunch.”

  Madonna took the towel from her head and began drying her hair. “And who is this?” she wanted to know. She nodded in the direction of Bill Hollerman without ever looking directly at him.

  “He’s joining us. Do you mind?”

  She made a sour face. “Yes, I mind,” she said, flatly. “I don’t eat with strangers. You know that, Warren.” Turning from them, Madonna went into the bathroom and slammed the door. After a beat, from inside the other room she shouted, “For all I know, he works for the fucking National Enquirer, and you want me to fucking eat with him?”

  “Charming, isn’t she?” Warren said to Bill. The two men left her suite.

  The next day, as Beatty’s friend observed, Madonna called Warren on his cell phone while he was on the golf course. Beatty held the phone about two feet from his ear and cringed. It was as if her voice scratched on his nerves, like chalk on a blackboard.

  While the relationship was clearly doomed, Madonna seemed determined to hang on to Warren Beatty anyway. At the time, she was known by people in her circle to have an addictive personality when it came to men. She seemed to become “hooked” on the drama of whatever relationship she was in at any given time. The fact that she and Warren engaged in such terribly acrimonious fights is what, apparently, tied them together. It was the same kind of drama that had kept her linked to Sean Penn long after their relationship should have been history. While it may not have been a good relationship, it was, at least, still some sort of relationship . . . her way of hanging on to Sean. Now, Madonna wanted to save whatever she had with Warren.