In March, when we were just a few weeks into the pandemic lockdown, we talked about how Madonna was just acting bonkers. She’s been doing these “quarantine diary” videos and saying bizarre stuff about how her friends are dying and how coronavirus is the “great equalizer.” Again, Madonna had probably been locked down for a week at most when she started that sh-t. I haven’t paid attention to her since, but she’s absolutely still doing those bizarre videos. So… should we be concerned? Page Six says her friends are a bit concerned, and that Madonna looks crazy and out-of-touch.
On the Quarantine Diaries: “I worshipped her, we all did,” said someone who has worked with Madonna in recent years and has ties to her inner circle. “I still do, but I’m disappointed. It’s like she’s selling out to keep getting attention and she doesn’t know how weird she’s coming off. I keep hoping she’ll snap out of it.”
What Rosie O’Donnell thinks: Howard Stern grilled Rosie O’Donnell about her friend Madonna last week, referencing the “milk bath” video and asking if Rosie can ever “be honest” with Madonna and tell her she’s coming off badly. Rosie said yes, but Madonna “won’t listen.”
Representatives for the singer did not return requests for comment.Madonna lost her mojo in 2015, when her longtime publicist Liz Rosenberg retired: “No one around her today can tell her anything,” said Brad Jeffries, who choreographed for Madonna for years, including the “Like a Virgin” tour, and was also friends with Rosenberg. “Liz could, but she’s gone. That’s why [Madonna] seems to be going so deep into the crazy right now. I defend her right to sleep with 25-year-olds because if she were a 61-year-old guy sleeping with 25-year-old women no one would blink an eye. But the way she’s doing it comes off a little desperate.”
All of her boy-toy relationships, including her current BF Ahlamalik Williams: Insiders say it’s a rebellious backlash in response to her eight-year marriage to Ritchie, with whom she shares sons Rocco, 19, and David. During her years with Ritchie, Madonna seemingly settled down: moving to the English countryside and adopting a British accent, writing children’s books and sporting a more subdued style. “Guy Ritchie broke her,” said a former member of the Kabbalah Centre who has known Madonna for decades. “He wouldn’t take any crap from her and she couldn’t handle it. He was the last of her alpha males.” Besides, the Kabbalah source added: “Frankly, most guys her age who she would want, [they] want 25-year-olds themselves.”
Easing into her 60s ungracefully: “It must be killing her to begin to feel irrelevant,” said Jeffries, who can talk on the record because he worked for Madonna before employees were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements. “That girl was so smart, so driven, so focused, she could have been a major CEO. She had incredible powers of seduction and had more balls than any guy I ever met — more than any world leader. But she’s lived her whole adult life in a white-hot spotlight and now it’s dimmed to a 30-watt bulb. For someone like her, that’s gotta hurt. Her idea of hell is walking into a room and people either not knowing who she is or not caring.”
Madonna is not dope: Madonna 2020 is “so not dope,” said a source who has worked with her in recent years. She lashed out at “body-shamers” who mocked what appeared to be her Kardashian-esque butt implants on New Year’s Eve in 2018. She came across as tone-deaf when she claimed she felt “raped” by a 2019 New York Times profile of her even though it was written by a woman. “Madame X,” her 14th studio album, was praised by critics but the gimmicky eye patch she donned as part of her character came off as too contrived. Her tour was well-reviewed at the start but devolved into a hot mess. There were reports of onstage tardiness and falls, clips of her crying onstage and a particularly alarming video of her hobbling up a flight of stairs with a cane.
There was a lot more in that piece. Personally, if we were just mocking Madonna for her personal life these days, I’d say that was completely unfair. But as Page Six points out, it’s the combination of everything: the out-of-touch crap during the lockdown, her crazy plastic surgery, her inability to perform during her concerts and on and on. What kills me is… the insecurity. We could always feel that Madonna had some insecurities, that she wanted to be liked and accepted, but there is a stink of desperation overall around her, and an uncomfortable, deep insecurity. She *should* feel like she has nothing more to prove. Instead, she’s trying to compete with the 20-something pop stars.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, Backgrid.
If I remember correctly her show were cancelled because of health issues, pain, is it possible she is on some painkillers now?
I read that on a blind gossip site. Her hip surgeries have been cancelled and she is living on strong pain meds. I know when I take strong meds I do and say some CRAZY shite!!
You can’t stay relevant forever. “she could have been a CEO”, but CEOs retire too.
She should be the best version of herself, not trying to turn back time.
Agreed and perfect Cher reference because look at Cher. Still had surgery but overall fame aged gracefully and maintains icon status because she’s not busy being desperate for the spotlight. And she put herself into other projects. The hot star of the day is going to be who is the hottest. And beauty fades so she needs to learn to be OK with that.
Cher also doesn’t take herself too seriously and seems like she’s having a lot of fun. Madonna seems miserable.
Cher is glorious.
But Cher isnt a raving narcissist.
Clearly it’s her face and she has the absolute right to do what she wants with it.
That said, I think she’s ruined her face. She looks fake and swollen and puffy and a bit ghoulish. That’s just my perspective.
But M has always lived her life to make a statement — and the one she’s making lately is a bit Sunset Boulevard. Did she ask to be a part of the special? Has she done anything to help the cause beyond make her voyeuristic home videos?
I wish her well, but nothing about her seems healthy. Whether it’s painkillers or her fear of aging, something isn’t right.
I wish her well.
My take: thank the publicists because they can build up a hype that isn’t there. Outrageousness is not a talent.
Other than that let her be. I am disappointed in her on a personal level but it’s just re: my values.
I think she cancelled her shows because no one was buying tickets. She isn’t as relevant anymore but the air of desperation is a buzzkill. We aspure to be confident in ours skins no matter what and a woman who is so great and yet still so thirsty and insecure and never admits to vulnerability…major turnoff.
She blames ageism usually, but Sharon Stone is the same age as her and nobody clowns her. Sharon also dates younger too. The issue, I think, is about one wanting to stay in a 20-something mindset and another choosing to embrace what their ages brings to them, ie. wisdom.
So true.
Sharon lives her life and doesn’t constantly chase approval and validation. She is a star but she doesn’t try to be cool.
Lots of 80s icons have managed to stay famous without looking desperate.
Madonna has tried to stay relevant with the yoof ever since that time she snogged Britney at the MTV awards.
Bottom line is however much of an icon you are/we’re most kids don’t care.
Good point. I was in college when Madonna broke through in the mid 80’s. She’ll always be a groundbreaker/icon for me. She just needs to let herself age gracefully. Sixty is not the new thirty. You can’t be young and sexy forever, but you can be accomplished. You can be respected. And, yes, you can be sexy, but not in the same way a 20 year old can be. I get embarrassed for her.
Imagine how different her legacy would be if she would have shown us all how to age naturally and if she would have confidently owned her rightful place-I really thought she would be that person-and I LOVE Sharon stones attitude-total boss
She’s put all of her time and energy into a caricature of herself. Had she focused more heavily on the actual work, behaved professionally and showed up on time, I don’t think she’d have half the amount of criticism she is currently getting. But when you funnel all your energy into appearance and let the things that got you famous fall to the wayside I’m not sure how you can be surprised if people then think it’s lame.
She’s so quick to chalk it up to sexism and ageism – but at the end of the day she IS lame. She’s made herself a joke, and it wasn’t just overnight. I found her embarrassing in that “time ticks by… so slowlyyy” song she had put out ages ago – and she’s only got more ridiculous since then. She needs to let go of the act and just focus on getting back to the basics. But she clearly doesn’t want to.
Watched the movie “Sunset Boulevard” a few nights ago, and Madonna is now Norma Desmond.
(Desperately Seeking Susan was on a few weeks ago and it is a great reminder of the Madonna the world became fans of — on a side note, it is also a time capsule of 80s Lower East Side NYC. )
So agree LeonsMomma and Erin. —- Although I liked some of her early music, I’ve never liked Madonna as a person. She has always come across as vain, selfish, and ruthless to me. But in the last 20 years or so, she has allowed her overwhelming ego to turn her into a rather pathetic characture of herself.
I remember an icon that Madonna copied was Marlene Dietrich — who while not filling stadiums did fill movie theaters in her day. She moved into performing small clubs — I could see Madonna doing that and making her die-hard fans feel special. But on the fence if she has past that point.
Agree with @AGreatDane: Madonna was a trailblazer and much of the power women have now is because of her, though as we see with Keisha and other artists, there is still much to be done with the power inmablance.
I worked at a record store and remembered when her debut album was released. Nobody knew who she was unless you were in the clubs dancing to Everybody and Burning Up. I knew someone working for Warner Brothers and mentioned she wasn’t a pleasant person especially towards women. This was before Holiday became a huge hit.
Madonna makes a very colorful pirate.
Madonna is a CEO though. She founded Maverick Records back when most female pop stars (Mariah, Whitney Houston) still had handlers telling them what to eat and wear and say and what kind of music to put out. Also she’s been attention-seeker my entire life. The problem is that she hasn’t found a new way to grab attention. The people quoted on this seem bitter, though. They became “friends” for the clout and now she’s not as relevant, which means they aren’t either.
True.
@AGreatDane
exactly.
The “she could have been a major CEO” comment sounds very lame and patronizing (from a virtual nobody) given that Madonna IS a CEO
while I can agree with some things from the article, the CEO comment pretty much invalidated the whole thing
I’m exhausted on her behalf. She tries so, so hard. I guess it’s hard to let go of fame if it’s defined you for most of your life.
She’s a classic narcissist, that’s why she’s acting this way, it’s sad but I don’t see this ending well. Someone should do an intervention soon.
Gloria Swanson.
I think of other living legends like Dolly or Cher or Elton John who have stayed relevant but have surrendered the spotlight gracefully, and it’s a shame Madonna couldn’t do the same.
.
I’ve never been a fan, not because I can’t appreciate her glory days and whatever drive allowed her to be such a big star, absent much talent, but because she is totally without charm and basic niceness, and I find her overall just disagreeable. In every interview she she has come off as a brat and narcissist. She is now a pathetic old fool who looks like a clown.
I agree I loved her back in the day, True blue and Like a prayer were really good records, but I always thought she was a very nasty, narcisstic person who was all out for herself, truth is she is now on her own in her later years with not many friends and no one to truly love her, except her kids I guess, but she was always mean.
I am a huge life long Madonna fan, I can’t imagine any female pop star coming close to her star power ever. However I think she’s at a point in her career where she should completely slow it down now. She has such an amazing and iconic back catalogue, by continuing working she’s only watering it down with mediocre work (sorry Madonna). I don’t want to see her hustling in her 60s to stay relevant, she really doesn’t need to ‘stay’ relevant because she has already well and truly cemented her place in history. She needs to remain a mystery cos that makes her so much more enigmatic and iconic.
What I’ve always felt about Madonna is that, had she been more gracious and less egotistical, she would have fared better over time. I get needing to be your own biggest fan and advocating for yourself in what people might call a pushy manner in order to get where you want to be, but she didn’t know where to draw the line. She made it, and rather than calm down a bit and approach fame from a different angle, she developed an appetite for more. And I don’t think it was ever about art with her. It was just about attention.
The greatest tragedy for a narcissist is the realisation they have aged.
Maybe a few lessons could be learnt from Grace Jones… Older, sexier and not a whiff of desperation!
She still performs wearing close to nothing and looks like a goddess 😍
How are her boytoys a “backlash” to Guy Richie when at this point she has been divorced from him for longer than they were married? He’s gotten a new wife and like three kids at this point, he doesn’t care! I see it more as the same reason she adopted those little girls, desperate attempts to prop up an illusion that she is still young. I’m sure it doesn’t help her well publicized issues with Rocco that she is dating men that are at this point practically his own age.
Because she is sad, crazy and not dope. Stop with the injections; your face looks bloated.
I think part of this is because of death. She was part of a trio of hugely famous and influential musicians born in 1958. The other two, Michael Jackson and Prince died young and she’s the one who’s left.
Couple that with Lourdes growing up and starting her career in show business. Madonna actually said,” I’m green with envy because she’s incredible at everything she does – she’s an incredible dancer, she’s a great actress, she plays the piano beautifully, she’s way better than me in the talent department. But she doesn’t have the same drive.” I think getting older is becoming too much for her to handle and she’s cracking up.
And drive is the most important factor, even more than talent or luck. Drive puts you on the map.
Madonna is living proof of that. Unfortunately it’s not saving her from being jealous of her own daughter.
Narcissist parents are always jealous of everybody. Especially their kids.
She simply can’t function unless she’s the centre of attention. She is wilting under the self-induced pressure of remaining youthful and relevant. Time to go away and reinvent yourself into something other than an over-sexualized, has-been pop icon continually forcing herself on the world.
Oh, they’re only catching on now? Madonna serves Madonna, no one else.
I guess what I don’t get as a fifty year old woman (let alone 60) – is the interest in being in a 20 year old mind set- or being relevant to 20 year-olds that just sounds exhausting.
Because it’s all she has going for her. She never had any great talent. She isn’t a good singer and her dancing is … energetic, but I think she’s easily outshone by her backup dancers. She doesn’t have a good personality or reputation to get by on, so she has to rely harder than ever on shock value.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be sexy and subversive at 60+, but she doesn’t have anything unique or interesting to offer because her career has always been about stealing from other (often marginalized) people and passing it off as her own work. I think that people are starting to realize that now because her age has made it more obvious.
Spot on. She’s built her fame from mimicking lesser-known artists and being deliberately provocative and outrageous, but in the age of heightened social media she can’t ride others’ coattails any longer, and her shock and awe tactics have become tiresome. Her true talent is nothing more than shameless self-promotion.
@Jaded, can’t reply to you directly, but… Yep. Social media has exposed her for who she really is.
I like a lot of her music (even some of the new stuff) and she is an icon, but she is insufferable as a person. I hate that she pumped her face full of botox. I think she has made valid points about ageism, but the whole “shock value” aspect of her career got old a long time ago.
I love Madonna. I love what she stood for at one time, which always seemed like she didn’t care about pleasing everyone. She did what she wanted and reveled in being shocking and revolutionary. That was pretty cool and awesome. I hope she finds a way to be revolutionary as she ages. If she kept her IDGAF attitude and let some sign of aging show through and embraced being a gatekeeper to her amazing legacy, she would be applauded around the world. She’s not acting like the boss bitch she claimed to be in her younger days. She seems scared and insecure.
My favorite Madonna era was Ray of Light. It was a stunning album. She seemed to have found some peace with herself and she had a beautiful natural look. Where did that Madonna go?
“if she were a 61-year-old guy sleeping with 25-year-old women no one would blink an eye. But the way she’s doing it comes off a little desperate.”
I can’t properly express how much I hate hate hate the sexism that is inherent in this statement. What Brad Jeffries clearly meant to say was, “no MAN would blink an eye” — because of course a man wouldn’t call a 61-year-old man who’s dating a 25-year-old woman DESPERATE. He’d high-five him and call him a god. Women, on the other hand, would be calling him out for being a douche who can’t handle a woman his own age.
I am in my fifties. It is really, really, really hard to get old. I can’t begin to explain how hard. So I feel compassion for her.
I’m 67 and this has been literally the best decade of my life. Don’t succumb to self-pity, value yourself for you, for what you’ve learned, for what you are. I don’t give a sh*t about grey hairs and saggy boobs and wrinkles, it’s all about perspective. Your own perspective, not someone else’s. Madonna is refusing, by any means possible, to accept her aging and she looks ridiculous for it. She’s not embracing the positivity that comes with self-acceptance, with wisdom and a calmness of spirit I never had when I was younger, and quite frankly, it’s pathetic. She doesn’t want anyone’s compassion, she just wants to look and act 25 again and that’s self-defeating.
Jaded, you come across as an amazing person!
I think a big part of the problem for her is that she’s always been lauded for changing with the times, however, part of how she became an icon was seeming larger than life by maintaining enough distance to be different than all of the rest of us and seem to be a megawatt star who only appeared in stadiums and award shows and naughty coffee table books and videos. That doesn’t translate to social media and constant outreach displaying her daily life and work process.
Ever since she appeared on stage this woman has screamed insecure mental mess. But being the misunderstood emotionally damaged weirdo is fun and engaging for an audience when you’re young and hot. 30 years later it’s not as cool anymore and no one cares.
It must be truly painful for her to accept that all her past claims of female empowerment,being bossy and confident was Just bullshit.Just an imagine.
Now here is someone I never see anymore. I thought at first it was Mae West. To me she was best when she was brand new.
“adopting a British accent”…. ?? Well here’s the answer to the enigma. Who does that? You either develop one naturally, or you play a part and call it life.
It’s out of touch, i.e., no hyphens should be used since it’s not an adjective in this case. #causemurica