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Madonna: Music as Sex and Sex as Power in the Reign of the Queen of Pop · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: A quick warning for those affected by depictions of physical
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: and sexual abuse. This episode details both the stories about
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Madonna are insane. She's one of the most daring, explosive
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: artists of all time. She was raped at an early age,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: She was targeted by the Vatican for her performances and
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: nearly arrested in front of fifty thousand people for simulating masturbation.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: She repeatedly pushed herself through her art, using it as
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a weapon to fight off abusive directors, to overcome overbearing producers,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: to outrun breathless paparazzi, and to outlast a list significant others.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Madonna obliterated mainstream attitudes about sex, refused to be slutshamed,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and pushed herself creatively right up to the limits of
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the law. She was a megawatt star who would not
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: be dimmed, not by critics, not by knife wielding maniacs,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: and certainly not by hot headed machismo narcissus. Along the way,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: she made great music, some of the greatest pop music
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: ever made. That music I played you at the top
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: preset loop from my melotron called Mello Push Push MK one.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: rights to Mickey by Tony Basil. And why would I
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: play you that specific slice of choreographed Cheerleader Cheese? Could
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I afford it? Because that was the number one song
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: in America on December sixteenth, nineteen eighty two, And that
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: was the day Madonna took the stage for the first
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: time at New York City's Danceteria and began to slowly
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: but powerfully push herself into American consciousness, a small step
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: that would lead to scandal, controversy, ense expression, an icon status.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: On this episode, sex controversy, rape, Cheerleader Cheese, and Madonna.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. The video is grainy,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: so poor that it immediately smacks of surveillance footage. Madonna,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: nineteen years old is lying on the floor of a
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: downtown diner. She's just been raped. She's sobbing, mumbling, frantic,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: scared and nonsensical. She can taste fear in her mouth, adrenaline.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Her ripe breast is exposed. She's wearing all white stretched
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: pants and an oversized men's button down shirt that she
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: borrowed from her boyfriend, who's comforting her. He just made
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: the scene around him. The number of restaurant onlookers grows
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: to a small gaggle. They're, no doubt, hardened by their city,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: but not so jaded that a freshly raped teenage girl
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: lying on the floor doesn't warrant a curious second look.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Madonna cries, Madonna moans, Madonna writhes on the sticky tile floor.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Her boyfriend swears revenge. It's a scene one of the
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: many urban storms that swell up daily in Manhattan. Stirred
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: by violence, stifled by cynicism. Madonna is in a familiar position,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the center of the storm, a position she seeks, a
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: position she craves, a position she pushes herself into, even
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: in this moment, not as a raped woman, but as
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: an actress playing a raped woman. The part was her
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: first from the independent film A Certain Sacrifice, shot guerrilla
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: style around the city across nineteen teen seventy nine. In
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty, three, years before Madonna would become a star.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: In decades before Madonna would confirm to Harper's Bazaar that
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: in her first year in New York, she was raped
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: for real, held with a knife to her throat on
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: a steaming hot Manhattan roof, and forced into performing filatio.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Most rape victims would understandably not want to relive their
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: trauma on film a mere year later, But for a
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: hungry artist like Madonna, this was an opportunity, an opportunity
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: for real expression, real art, transcendence, an opportunity to express herself,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: push past her own limits, and achieve true artistry, to
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: stand out as the undeniable force of nature she knew
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: she was, which she knew the world would see too someday.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: New York City, Madonna's New York City in the late
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: seventies and early eighties was a beautiful mess. Reggie Jackson,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Jimmy Breslin, garbage strikes, the Son of Sam, the Bronx
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: on fire, punk rock, street art in vain, eating high
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: brow galleries, the advent of hip hop and cheap rents.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: It all felt like an explosion of creativity, a place
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: and a time where culture shifting music and art was conceived,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: and Madonna was there and affected by all of it.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Blondie Bascot, Keith Herron, fab Five, Freddy, Andy Warhol, and
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Moore not to mention countless punk rock and dance club
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: kids moving to the rhythm of New York's pulsing crime,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: grime and electricity. It shaped Madonna, fueled Madonna in a
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: way it made Madonna. New York City doesn't quit ever.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: It pushes itself into every pore of your being until
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: you become it, are expelled by it or killed by it.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: The city treated Madonna Luise Jacone no different. The roots
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: of Madonna's creativity and virgin horror ethos were well established
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: before she made it to Manhattan from suburban Detroit in
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy eight, growing up working class Catholic in Rochester, Michigan.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: But New York City and its merry go round of
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: creative characters helped Madonna turn her essence into the iconic
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: image that turned the world on. In New York City
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: at the time was one big come on, How far
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: could you push it? It was a place for one day,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: you were just another face in the crowd at Maxis,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Kansas City or CBGB's, and with the right timing, be
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: discovered made famous a lucky star, seemingly overnight. At least
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: that's how it seemed for those who knew Madonna at
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the time. But stardom doesn't happen overnight for anyone. It's
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: a combination of hustle, timing, and expression, three things. Madonna
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: was a no short supply of, not to mention, talent.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: The Clash were on stage at Bond's International Casino. In
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: between songs, Joe Strummer was chastising the Times Square crowd
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: for the less than warm welcome they'd given the opening
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: act Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. It was a
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: rock and roll crowd, and Flash to them anyways, scratching
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: records with a suede caangle on under his headphones, absent
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: any life instruments on stage might as well have been
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: an alien. Joe's Strummer, the Clash frontman, wasn't having it.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Madonna in the crowd that night thought Joe was decidedly
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: more attractive when he was angry than when he was strumming,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: but still nowhere near as attractive as Clash bassist Paul Simonon,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: who let Madonna and her two friends sneak in through
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: the stage door, just as he'd done for countless other
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: seemingly anonymous fans.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Who'd shown up without a ticket.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: The Clash were in the middle of the now famous
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: seventeen night run at Bonds, a stretch that started out
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: as eight shows, but after greedy promoters oversold the venue,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: the band had righteously agreed to keep playing shows until
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: every ticket was honored for their fans. It resulted in
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: a month long residency with a mind boggling run of
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: openers including The Dead, Kennedy's Kroud, The Fall, Bad Brains,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: and Lee Scratch Perry. The Clash's generous attitude towards their
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: fans extended beyond ticket holders, to the point of just
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: letting into whoever showed up.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Madonna didn't have a ticket, but she pushed her way in.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: When she made the scene, she took note of the
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: frumpy yet devastatingly cool Jean Michel Basquet, the visionary, iconoclastic
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: street artist who is in the midst of becoming one
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: of the most sought after gallery artists in the world.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: A year later, with his star in even more intense ascent,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: he and Madonna would move in together. Eventually he gets
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: strung out on heroin. Most people in her position, a
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: twenty five year old struggling to make her own ascent
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: through the downtown art and music scene while dating one
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: of the youngest, coolest, most talented, rising visual artists at
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: the time would have held on, tried to make the
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: relationship work out. Junk or no junk, but not Madonna.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Drugs weren't her scene, so Jean Michel Basquet was out.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Madonna Dumpton pushed on. Madonna was disciplined, hungry, some would
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: say desperate, but that rap was ridiculous at best, sexist
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: at worst. One man's discipline is another man's desperation. If
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Madonna were a man, would her career origins be seen
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: as desperate. Probably not. She saw what she wanted and
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: there was nothing. There was no one who was going
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: to hold her back from her goal of becoming a
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: singing sensation and then an actress, a modern Marilyn Monroe
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: by way of downtown sheet but you know who could
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: actually act. Her ambition, off putting as it was to
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: powerful men in the music business at the time, was
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: part of her charm to the legions of young women
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: who would constitute her early fan base. By the time
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Madonna recorded her first singles Everybody and Burning Up, she
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: was equally entrenched in downtown punk and dance club culture,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: two scenes that took themselves a little too seriously, but
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Madonna seemed to treat it all with the mischievous wink
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: and nod of a free spirited Catholic girl next door.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: To those just outside her orbit.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Fans in particular, it seemed like Madonna was always in
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: on a joke that you'd never quite get, but that
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: compelled you'd want to.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Know more about her.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: With an arm full of rubb bracelets, crossed necklaces, and
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: mesh half shirts, she exuded mischief, sensuality, and sex. She
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: wasn't the most beautiful girl in the club, but she
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: was by far the most interesting. She wasn't the stunning
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Debbie Harry, the suicide blonde, crushing studded hearts from the
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: stage at Sebe's, And she wasn't the beautiful beyond comparishade,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: slinging drinks from the bar, a dance ateria and frightening
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: young love struck post punk adolescence in the awkward silence.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: She was Madonna, and she was on to something else.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Her style was her own leather and lace fashion, manifest
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: as the version Horde dichotomy. She playfully tinkered with part
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: vintage punk, part Catholic schoolgirl. In trouble, and perhaps more important,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: she flaunted her vulnerability. She wilfully exposed her round belly,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: treated it as an asset as opposed to a physical liability.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: At a time when male record executives expected female singing stars,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: at least the ones who they wanted to top the charts,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: to be the perfect image of femininity, rail thin, perfect
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: in body and in manners. If Madonna's imperfect looks didn't
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: betray her outsider status, then her accents certainly did.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: It was bridge and tunnel.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Betty Boop by way of Midwestern adolescents. It was decidedly uncool,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: not of New York, non regional, its own thing. As
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: a result, it was a thing that, along with her
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: humor and confidence in her looks, turned most men on,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: and this outsider status made her supremely relatable to teenage
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: girls and marginalized gay kids. Madonna immersed herself from the
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: growing dance club scene of the early eighties in Manhattan.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: In club culture, a culture that celebrated and flaunted sex,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: was as big an influence on Madonna as downtown punk.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Her sexuality was hers to play with, and she was
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: unafraid to share it with the world. All of this
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: is on display in her first single to hit the
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Billboard US Top ten, Borderline. It's hard for me to
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: explain the greatness and appeal of Madonna's Borderline. The opening
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: notes on the electric piano got me every time I
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: hear them. It's a simple, childlike sound and melancholic melody
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: that looks back to the seventies. And then the beat
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: comes in, and all of a sudden, you're in a
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: new decade, onto something fresh, fully committed to the promise
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: of the unknown. The feeling is similar to the beginnings
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: of any great relationship. You feel comfortable and safe, while
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: at the same time excited about where it's all going.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: The single was Madonna's first big come on. Her flirtatious
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: glance across the bar, her nonchalant bump on the dance floor.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: It was electric. The casual touch from her hand pushing it,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: the whisper in your ear, keep pushing it. The mischievous laugh,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: heart melting, the smile, the pout, the abandoned the control.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: A total turn on. Madonna had made a pass in America.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: In America was smitten. Sean Penn wasn't fucking around. He
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: was going to shoot him. Down, paparazzi, parasites, vultures circling
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: their Malibu home on his Madonna's wedding day. The shotgun
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: was missing in the house. Sean was manic, Madonna was
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: laughing as usual.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: It was all a joke.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Annoying, yes, a possible harbinger of what her life would become,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: an endless test of her so far bottomless appetite for attention,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: but in the moment, pretty damn funny, and if she
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: were being honest with herself, totally exciting. Sean didn't see
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: it that way, because Sean saw everything through the gaze
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: of a serious artist. He was just her type, currently
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: taking his at bet as one of those next Brando,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: next Puccino types that come along every decade or so.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: To him, the helicopters were a big fucking problem. They
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: were the kinder problem only a power couple as rich
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: and famous as he and Madonna could even have. The
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: helicopters would drown out the sound of the ceremony, making
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: it impossible to hear, which was the reason everyone was
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: there in the first place, to hear Sean and Madonna
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: proclaim their deep love.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: For one another.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: It was the reason she found it funny and the
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: reason he couldn't stand it, and at least in that way,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: they balanced each other's intensity. Plus Seann got word that
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: the choppers were freaking out the guests, especially Martin Sheen,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: who was rumored to be flashing back into intense paranoia
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: back to his days in the Philippines when he was
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: filming Apocalypse Now experiencing a very real alcoholic meltdown and
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: using it as fuel for his performance on a set
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: drowning a cocaine LSD and ma cheese moo, sharing prop
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: helicopters with the Filipino military w dodging revolutionary guerrillas turned
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: on and tuned way the fuck out. Sheen had replaced
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Harvey Kaitel, who, according to Manic director Francis Ford Coppola,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: didn't have the acting chops. So Martin Sheen poured himself
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: into the role and ended up having a heart attack
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: on set for his efforts, and at the moment and
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Sean Penn's backyard, it looked like he might be having
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: another one. Either that or like you might snap like
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: an actual shell shocked Vietnam Vett instead of the actor
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: who famously played one in the epic War film. Additionally,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Martin Sheen's sons, Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, looked bored.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: So did Tom Cruise, and so did Andy Warhol. But
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Andy always looks bored, and to him, Charlie, Emilio and
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Tom looked good enough to keep his mind occupied while
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Sean and Madonna sorted out the helicopter thing. Where the
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: fuck was the shotgun? Sean gave up and settled on
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: dispatching a friend to etch into the sand on the
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: beach below his home in giant twenty five foot letters
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: fuck you as a silent scream. At the Vulture photographers
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: circling above, Madonna laughed, she looked great and all white
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: with her black top hat. What the hell was all
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: that about? Andy Warhol wondered. Borhol was insightful about celebrity
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: in this case, as he was in all cases. What
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: the hell was all that about? Is exactly what America
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: would be saying about the marriage that began that day
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: until the day it dissolved inevitably like the grains of
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: sand that made up the giant fuck you on the beach.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: But for the four years in between, Sean and Madonna's
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: marriage was a straight up tidle wave. Madonna, for her part,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: entered into it with clear eyes about their chances. She
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: understood that when two like minded, volatile artists got together,
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: that they could either spur each other to greatness or
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: flame out in epic fashion. A year after the Big
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Fuck You in the Sand, they're on the island of
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Macau filming a movie together Shanghai surprise, as Madonna suspected
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: their union had become a non stop test of endurance against.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: The swarm of paparazzi.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: When Sean was arrested on the island for dangling a
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: photographer over a balcony, she wasn't surprised. She might have
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: even liked it a little. She was surprised, however, to
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: learn Sean to escape from an unlocked jail cell and
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: high tailed at the Hong Kong on the first ferry
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: he could find. The entire troubled production fled Macau, and
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: they were able to keep the incident out of the papers.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: But Sean Penn would not get less volatile when they
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: were back home. If the pen Chaconi marriage was meant
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: to push two artists to new heights, the fiasco and
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: bombing of Shanghai's Surprise was a loss on Sean Penn's turf.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: The movie Biz Madonna the musician. She was in the
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: middle of an unprecedented creative high. With Borderline, she had
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: crossed the threshold into stardom. But when her second album,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Like a Virgin dropped in nineteen eighty four, she became
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: a true pop icon. In on the joke virgin horrrack
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: she had developed in the ripe dance and punk scenes
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: of New York resonated across the globe, and it didn't
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: come easy. Madonna had a stare down veteran hit maker
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Nile Rogers, who was producing the album. He didn't believe
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: in the song, thought it was a novelty bit Madonna
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: held firm. She was undaunted by the more experienced, more
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: successful man sitting in the producer's chair, and she insisted
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: on recording the track it goes without saying whose instincts
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: were right? The artist had a vision, a vision or
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: producer at the time couldn't see. She was rewarded for
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: her commitment, as was Rogers, who eventually bought in and
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: produced a tight sounding monster. Like a Virgin became a
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: massive smash. Madonna's first number one hit, followed immediately by
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Material Girl Angel Into the Groove, Dress You Up, All,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: cracking the Billboard Top five. Every single over half of
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: the nine track album was a stone cold hit. Madonna
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: had pushed herself in the mainstream American consciousness. She was
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: a megawat star, and nothing was going to dimm or shine,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: not even leaked nude photos from her days as a
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: model back in New York struggling to make it. When
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: the pictures were leaked to Playboy without her approval in
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, she refused to be shamed. Unlike Sean Penn,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Madonna could handle the exposure. No shame, no pain, Virgin
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: whoror what's the difference?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: In the end? We all sink beneath the sun? Madonna
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: pushed on.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: She owned live aid, performing alongside titans of the music
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: industry at the time, from Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: to Patty LaBelle and Tina Turner in front of a
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: live audience of one hundred thousand and a global simulcast
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: audience of one point nine billion, nearly forty percent of
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: the Earth's population, and she crushed it. Her movie career
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: took off with the success of Desperately Seeking Susan in
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: her third album, True Blue, dedicated to Sean Penn, cemented
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: her status as the Queen of pop, selling twenty five
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: million records around the world. But all this glory brought
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: even more attention. She and Sean had driven each other
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: to new extremes, and among the two stars at the time,
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: it was Madonna who truly transcended from the top of
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: her craft to global icon. They inevitably but amicably divorced
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty nine, and with the nineties on the horizon,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Madonna was freer than ever to push cultural and sexual
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: boundaries right up to the limits of the law.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this were were were?
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: The after party was lame. It was always lame, besides
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: by Madonna's estimation who had time to party? Which megastar performer?
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Which singers are actually partying? After putting on a show
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: on the scale of Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour, Madonna playing
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: multiple characters throughout the course of her set list Diva, Showgirl,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: and of course both the Virgin and the Horror, numerous
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: complicated set changes and iron Ran Fountain had looking Metropolis
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: set a cabaret set, a religious set, an Art Deco set,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: and a Dick Tracy set dedicated to promoting her new
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: film with her new boyfriend, the encouragible Warren Baty. There
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: were stage costumes designed by Jean Paul Gautier, a ten
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: piece band, eight dancers, a film crew, a production staff
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: of one hundred eighteen tractor trailers, a Giant seven forty
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: seven playing to haul all of the equipment around, and
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: a private jet to get her the fuck out of
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: there after the show. But no, the damn after party,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Prince Michael Jackson, Elton John, even Mick Jagger and the
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Rolling Stones. Madonna didn't understand, first of all, how does
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: singers do it? Sit there in a cramped, barely furnished
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: room in the bowels of a cold stadium, covered in sweat,
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: your adrenaline pulsing through your body, your brain on overdrive,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: your vocal cords strained, and carry on conversations about nothing
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: with famous people you don't know but who act as
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: if your lifelong friends, when really all you want to
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: do is compare show notes with your dancers and your
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: band and sell break the herculean task you all just
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: pulled off. Staging a highly complex, physically demanding, emotionally draining
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: show in front of thirty thousand people. But no, the
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: after party LA was the worst. For obvious reasons. The
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: biggest starfuckers on the planet are stars themselves. Madonna thought
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: it was silly, the Hollywood ass grabbing, but Warren Batty
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: took it seriously. This was, after all, his town. He'd
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: been on the A List for twenty five years, a
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: career player in Hollywood Land. The social conventions of celebrity,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: the clubbiness of it, the premium on privacy and appearances,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: the coated dews and don'ts. They were all just sacred
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: cows for the slaughter to Madonna, But from Beatty's perspective,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: they were to be taken seriously as rights of passage.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Into his inner sanctum.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Al Pacino, Lionel Ritchie, Chuka Khan, Mandy Pittinkin, Olivia Newton,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: John Martin Scorsese, they were all there with it backstage,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: and so was Kevin Costner, who, despite his A List
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: blockbuster status at the time in nineteen ninety, was.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Awkward as fuck. When he met Madonna, he told.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Her, in all earnestness that her show was quote unquote
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: neat like he'd just seen Annie Hall for the first
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: time before coming to the show that night, but didn't
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: get the joke. Neat went out, I would say at
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: the turn of the century. Madonna was repulsed by Costner's lameness,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: and as soon as he split, she turned to her
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: friends and pantomime vomiting to express her displeasure with the star.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Neat Baby was not pleased, but the jam backstage was
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: no surprise. Neither were the jam stadiums. Madonna was one
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: of the biggest attractions in the world. The production, the creativity,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: and the performances. The whole show was novel for the time.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: It was a hot ticket, selling nearly half a million
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: seats in the first two hours after they went on
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: sale and eventually grossing sixty million dollars. And it wasn't
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: without controversy. The show was a full on theatrical production
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: exploring Catholic sexuality on stage. The grueling craft work took
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: its toll, and mid tour shows had to be canceled
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: so Madonna's throat could recover off stage. Catholic watchdog groups
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: across the US and Europe protested the subject matter, and
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: when the Blonde Ambition tour hit Italy. The Vatican threatened
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: to outright ban Madonna from performing. But in nineteen ninety
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: for Madonna, nothing was more controversial than her show in Toronto.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Madonna was sleepwalking through Where's the Party on stage at
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: the Skydime fifty three thousand people more if you counted
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: the mouth breathing Canadian Mounties on hand to bust Madonna.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: She went ahead with her performance of Like a Virgin,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: where she had been infamously simulating masturbation as part of
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: her dance routine. The song was coming up next. It
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: was all Madonna could think about when she got the
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: news backstage before the set that she was being arrested
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: if she went ahead with the performance. She was immediately defiant.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: I'm not changing my fucking show were exact words. Her
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: defiance quickly turned to exuberance. The thrill of the arrest
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: was downright exhilarating, as was the prospect of the ensuing
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: publicity shit storm were she'd to get hauled in for
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: public masturbation or indecency, or whatever charge the Mountis threw
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: at her. She refused to be humiliated and shamed. Despite
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: the smooth talk from Madonna's management authorities weren't budging. Madonna's
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: camp threatened to cancel the show. The Mounti's held firm.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: She touches herself. She goes to jail. Backstage, the tension
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: and excitement was palpable. Nicky Harris, a dancer in the show,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: told Madonna the cops meant business and that they arrested
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Bobby Brown for fucking on stage. Madonna lit up, did
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: they and then slightly answered, I hope he's in jail
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: when I get there. And with that, Madonna defiantly walks
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: on stage, sitting on the plush red velvet covered bed
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: center stage in a gold bustier, black fishnets and high heels.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: Gone is the belly from her borderline days. Her body
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: is taut, fit, muscular, a dancer's body, a result of
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: the grueling physical demands of the four month, three continent,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: ten country tour. The drums percuss their way into the
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: beginning of her most identifiable song, like a version, but
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: they're slower, more sensual. The feel of the live version
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: of the song is significantly different than the single version.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: The tempo is down, less, playful, more seductive. The dance
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: on the bed is all upper body a Middle Eastern
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: influenced siren call in the flesh, arms extended, slithering to
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: the beat like cobras, and then Madonna turns to face
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: the crowd and begins to slowly sing the words. The
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: crowd immediately freaks out. Her serpentine arms continued away through
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: the stage lights above her. The drums kick in. Madonna
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: rolls on to her back, spreads her long legs, revealing
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: her gold panty clad crotch, and comes to her knees
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: on the bed. She grinds her hips into an imaginary
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: lover beneath her, pushing it. The song continues through the chorus,
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: back to the verse, and when she hits the second chorus,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: she does another spread eagle and more grinding, more intense,
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: this time pushing it harder, hotter. Madonna leans into the ride,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: straddling her imaginary lover, teasing her hand, begins to rub
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: her belly, slowly, inching down her navel closer to the crotch.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: She moans the vocal refrain, slides her hand back down
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: her belly again, this time even closer closer to her crotch,
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: pushing it, dominating her audience of thousands A baseball stadium
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: jammed with horny inspired fans and a small handful of conservative,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: soul crushing Canadian mounties. The song hits the bridge and
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Madonna falls onto her back on the bed. Two dancers
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: at her side caress her arms and back. She rises
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: up onto her feet on stage and begins massaging her
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Jean Paul Gautiller cone breast and falls into the arms
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: of her two dancers who take her. She rides beneath them,
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: still singing, not missing a beat. They mouth her nipples, palm,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: or vagina. The song's tempo picks up. Madonna's hand grabs
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: her cross. She's on her back, thrusting her hips up.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: It's more than sex, it's violence, it's inspired, it's nasty.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Madonna rolls over onto her stomach on the bed and
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: begins frantically dry humping, banging her head and her blonde
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: hair up and down and up and down and up
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: and down, her.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Heeled feet outstretched like a v.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: The crowd is freaking out in full throat screaming, cheering,
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: panting right there alongside her with every thrust, until the
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: music finally comes down post climax, post coitus. The show
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: could have ended right there. Madonna's performance of Like a Virgin,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: under threat of censorship from Canadian mounties, was so inspired
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: that there was no need to finish the set, but
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: of course she did, and in the end there was
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: no arrest. The authorities, perhaps sensing a potential riot, back
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: down and Madonna had once again used her art to
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: win out. In the end, Vanilla Ice took Madonna from behind.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: It was staged, but so what it was hot, as
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: was Madonna wrapped in two other women, all curves, buzz
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: cuts and tattoos, with a knife to her crotch. Or
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Madonna alone in a leather, blindfold studded lingerie with exposed
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: nipple cutouts, a riding crop between her teeth and hand
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: between her legs. Mesmerizing and kinky black and white. This
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: was Madonna's idea of a coffee table book, Sex all caps.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: It was to be a literary and visual companion to
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: her fifth album, Erotica. Sex would sell out its first
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: edition within a few days, but even as America shelled
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: out money to peep Madonna's erotic fantasies. With one hand,
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: it slapped her wrist with the other. Madonna's pushing of
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: the envelope. Her virgin horror image had always attracted intense criticism,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: but after Sex, the criticism reached a new level. Critics
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: who had once praised her pushing boundaries now trashed her work,
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: casting her as a trihard slut. Time magazine predicted it'll
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: be the first aluminum covered soft porn book ever to
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: grace the remainder bin.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: But they were wrong. Of course.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Today Sex is one of the most in demand out
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: of print books in the world, but the prudish backlash
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: of the early nineties was real. As a result of
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: the hypocritical controversy, Erotica would be Madonna's first record since
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three with no number one hits. With all
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: the noise, the time seemed right for focusing fully on
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: her acting career. As an actor, Madonna, despite her more
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: than capable turns and desperately seeking Susan in a league
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: of their own alongside Rosanna Arquette and Tom Hanks, respectively,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: critics never considered Madonna a serious actor. Madonna wasn't supposed
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: to act. She wasn't supposed to write books. She wasn't
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: supposed to push boundaries on film. She was supposed to
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: make records and videos, to show off her belly above
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: a boy toy belt, buckle and tour and make the
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: power players in the music industry more and more money.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Every time she got a creative itch to scratch, so
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: long as it was the right hitch, she was supposed
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: to inspire critics to write lofty, over intellectualized reviews and
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: long form think pieces dissecting the motive and meaning behind
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: her lyrics and her evolving image. She wasn't supposed to
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: make movies. Look what happened to Elvis singles, records, tours.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: That's where it was at. Everything else was just noise overexposure.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: But Madonna would not be put in a box. She
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: knew she had the goods for the screen, and she
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: wasn't going to let self important critics or the showbized patriot,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: bacle power, structured dictator, creative station. The reviews for a
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Body of Evidence, the nineteen ninety three crime drama Madonna
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: starred in alongside Willem Dafoe, were vicious. To follow it up,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Madonna chose to go deeper, darker, agreeing to co produce
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and star in notoriously tough and controversial director Able Ferrara's
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: dangerous game opposite Harvey Kaitel. The story tracks a famously
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: uncompromising director played by Kitel, who must cast a commercial
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: starlet played by Madonna in order to get his film financed.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Meta enough for you, Yet it gets better. There was
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: one more turn of the screw the film inside. The
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: film's lead is played by James Russo, a real life
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: good friend of Madonna's ex husband Sean Penn. The project
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: with Ferrara, Kitel and Russo was a snake pit of masculinity,
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: the production an underground dogfight that Madonna pushed herself into
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: the middle of to answer her critics, and the results
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: electric thrilling transcendent. As a director, Abel Ferrara believed in
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: breaking down as actors, berating them on set, forcing them
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: through take after take to act in mentally and physically
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: challenging situations, humiliating them when necessary, all in an effort
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: to strip the actors at any contrived stage artifice and
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: to hopefully bring raw.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Emotion to the performances.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: The idea was that once they had been so beaten down,
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: they forget they were actually acting. Ferrara's method was one
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: that Harvey Kytel and James Russo bought into wholeheartedly. Nothing
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: was out of bounds. Improvised lines thrown out to push
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: the actors, mainly the female lead on the set, the
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: only one on set, by the way, who was an
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: actual A list celebrity Madonna, were meant to not only sting,
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: but to break her. Russo's character calls her a cunt.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: He goes on to say she's a fucking horn, she
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: can't act. Kitel calls her a commercial piece of shit.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Those last two daggers were meant to cut deep, given
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: that they were essentially more concise, more profane version, and
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: so the criticism that the press had been hurling at
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Madonna on a regular basis, the situation was.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Beyond intense horrific.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: In some ways, the line between art and real life
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: was being obliterated. Madonna grew paranoid, anxious, tense, insecure. Violence
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: was imbued into the nature of every shoot. Volatility was
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: heavy in each direction. The insults from Kitel, Russo, Ferrara continued,
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: and this was not what Madonna had signed up for.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: The attacks would not let up. She felt humiliated. The
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: shame that feeling was familiar, reminded her of something she
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: did not want to be reminded of She could taste
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: the fear in her mouth, the adrenaline. She felt violated, scared,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: She questioned herself. She blamed herself. She tried to play
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: it cool, pull the act off, but it was too much,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: too intense, and she was afraid, afraid that her worst
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: nightmare was happening all over again. The assailant kicked the
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: door open. It happened so fast that she didn't have
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: time to react. Take your clothes off, he shouted. She
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: stood stunned. He forced her to the ground. Her body
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: was so stiff that he couldn't make it happen, even forcibly,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: he couldn't get it in, so he lost.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: It, and the insults continued.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: He called her a disgusting lesbian, a stupid dyke, a
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: pathetic piece of shit, and claimed that if he couldn't
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: get it in her pussy, he was going to make
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: her suck it. But when it was over, she remembered
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: the choking feeling, gagging on it, and then being dragged
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: over to the side of the roof by her hair,
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: and the feeling of the knife against her throat. She
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: heard the rapist say that he didn't know if he
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: should slit her throat or push her off the building.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: That's what Madonna's character said, anyway. That's how she detailed
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: her rape to Harvey kai Tell's character in the film
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: and in real life on set, answering her co stars
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: and director's off screen abuse and creative taunting by digging
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: deep into her past, into her own real life rape,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: detailing the most traumatic event of her life, pushing herself
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: deeper and deeper to deliver a torti force of an
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: acting performance. That is the best reason to revisit the
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: movie today. Only a year later, Quentin Tarantino would unveil
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: pulp Fiction and eat Able four Hours Lunch as Hollywood's
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: go to celluloid provocateur. But the boys club running the
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: set of Dangerous Game thought they were truly cutting edge
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: badasses and blame Madonna for.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: The movie not working, and they were wrong.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Even mainstream gatekeepers Ciskel and Ebert and their two thumbs
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: down review called out the movie's blatant misogyny against Madonna.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: It wasn't subtle a film about a film by a
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: provocative director, made by a provocative director, where the story
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: dead ends into all the men calling the female lead,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: a bad actress, a female lead played by the heavily
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: criticized Madonna, insulting her on and off screen as harshly
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: as possible, just to see.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: If they could break her. Most people would have buckled
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: in the situation.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: Broke Madonna, dug in, she pushed, she triumphed, She lived
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: to tell. Dangerous game didn't work as a movie when
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: it came out, but twenty six years later it holds
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: up in another way as an accidental documentary about how
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Madonna is an unbreakable force of nature throughout the entirety
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: of her career. Men thought they could ConTroll her. Rapists,
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: record producers, a list, movie star boyfriends, directors drunk on
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: their own testosterone, and especially the critics. But there is
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: no controlling a true artist, especially one as true blue
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: as Madonna. Underestimate Madonna and you invite your own disgrace.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: by Yours Truly and is produced partnership with Double Elvis.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as
• 38:08
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• 38:11
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• 38:14
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• 38:17
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• 38:22
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• 38:38
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• 38:47
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