Birthday Wishes to Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini on Madonna’s Sex Book

Lastly, I’d be a failure as a gay man if I didn’t ask you about Madonna’s Sex book. It’s been almost 20 years since you were shot for it — looking back, what do you think of the book now?
I was working a lot with the photographer Steven Meisel. I didn’t know Madonna and Madonna had approached Steven to do a book about sex. And of course, sex is very interesting. Even me, when I’m making my own little films, I address how animals have sex. It’s very interesting, sex. And Steven was tempted — instead of doing a book about all his photos he did for Vogue and all the past photos as a résumé of his life — to do something challenging. So I thought he had a point. Sex is interesting. But I don’t think the book worked, even though the photos were extraordinary and some of them quite memorable. I think there was a little bit of a moralistic sort of “I’ll teach you how to be free!” and that bothered the hell out of me. Because I think if you want to practice abstinence and that makes you happy, you are OK. If you want to be gay, that’s OK. If you want to screw anything that moves, that’s OK. It’s funny to use the word moralistic for that book because people probably don’t put those together, but it was a little bit of “I know better!” and didn’t like that

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The Making of Madonna’s First Album Cover

Carin Goldberg — the art director behind Madonna’s debut album cover — spoke to the Cut about her first experience with the then-unknown pop star. It’s the first question that anybody asks me, even today: What was it like to work with Madonna? People think that maybe something dramatic or interesting or kind of wild might have happened, based on, you know, Madonna’s persona. But I would say that Madonna was probably the easiest job I ever had — the most cooperation from a recording artist I think I ever had. She was a true professional, even at that young age. It was ’83, and at that point I had my own small design firm. Warner Bros. called and asked me to do her cover as a freelance designer. When I got the call, I rolled my eyes, because it was another [musician with a] one-word name. At that time it had become cliché to have a one-word name, because of Cher, so I remember thinking, God, it’s going to be one of those. So I really went into it with very little expec...

September 24 1992, Madonna baring her breasts and blowing kisses, At The Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion show.

September 24 1992, Madonna baring her breasts and blowing kisses, Billy Idol in double leather... we explore the fashion show that raised $700,000 for AIDS research Jean Paul Gaultier is renowned for many things – his exceptional tailoring, his conical bras, his impassioned approach to sociopolitcal causes in fashion – and, on September 2, 1992, all of these elements united for a show that definitely mattered. In honour of amFAR (The American Foundation for AIDS Research), Gaultier held a fashion benefit whose runway included everything from lip-synching to Dr Ruth dressed in rubber to raise money for a cause that devastated (and continues to devastate) communities around the world. "Tonight will be about protection... wear rubber and protect yourself!" – Jean Paul Gaultier "Tonight will be about protection... wear rubber and protect yourself!" explained Gaultier before the show. "I think fashion can make people thin...

On July 10 1985, The Playboy magazine issue of nude Madonna photos was released !!

Playboy publishes nude photos of Madonna taken before she was famous. The singer did a number of nude photo shoots from 1977-1980, starting when she was an 18-year-old student at the University of Michigan looking for some extra cash and trying to form a band. Now a huge star, Playboy publishes some of the shots taken in 1979 and 1980 in a revealing spread. A year earlier, the magazine turned down nude photos of Miss America winner Vanessa Williams , which their rival Penthouse published. "We think Vanessa genuinely didn't know what she was doing, didn't know her photos might be published," the article states. "Madonna, on the other hand, posed repeatedly for two noted photographers who routinely publish what they shoot." One of the photographers, Lee Friedlander, says of the shoot: "She seemed very confident, a street-wise girl." Madonna has little to say on the matter, but doesn't shy away. "I'm not ashamed,...

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