Celebrity Chatter: A Kiss Is Just A Kiss At MTV Awards
Material Girl Gets People Talking
POSTED: 1:37 p.m. EDT September 2, 2003
Madonna, the movie star. Madonna, the Material Girl. Madonna, the wife and mother. Madonna from Michigan. Madonna, the matron of the Mouseketeers. Madonna, the madwoman. Madonna, the marketer.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who could see right through Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Ritchie's opening performance stint at last week's MTV awards. Heck, Madonna probably wanted you to see right through it. After all, she's the woman who has used taboo sex as a comment on conservative culture and made it into a cottage industry.
Barring some huge natural disaster or outbreak of war, office water coolers throughout the country and possibly the world were abuzz about Madonna's open mouth kiss with pop-tart Britney Spears.
Madonna didn't get the press she wanted from her CD "American Life" and with new up-and-comers on the pop scene, the Queen Mum of MTV isn't the darling of the Billboard charts anymore. So a kiss on television with a singer who 7-year-old girls idolize -- that'll stir them up.
The initial threesome set to warble "Like A Virgin" at the awards show was reportedly Madonna, Spears and Jennifer Lopez. Lopez made the wise career move by not joining the ménage. She didn't need the publicity of a controversial woman-to-woman kiss on cable TV after bad press about her movie "Gigli" (in which she played a lesbian, by the way) and rumors of her fiancé's night at a Vancouver strip club were crowding headlines.
Despite stories that J-Lo had lunch with Britney and Madonna for the Material Girl's 45th birthday to plan the "Like A Virgin" opener, it ended up that J-Lo wasn't able to come through on the commitment. Reportedly the movie she's filming with Richard Gere in Winnipeg, "Shall We Dance," hadn't wrapped filming and she was stuck in Canada. J-Lo's no slouch in the shrewd marketing department herself and knows what controversies to join in on and stay away from.
Like Madonna, Spears has made a habit of making controversial appearances at the MTV awards. In 2001, she appeared in a scant outfit onstage with a python. Spears' career could use a little lift, too.
Hey, guys. This isn't the Grammys. It's the MTV Awards. For the coveted Grammy Awards winners get a gramophone. For the MTV Awards, it's a Moon-Man. Was Eminem being serious when he let 50 Cent hold his Moon-Man so the Cent-er could get a feel for what he might be taking home?
And where will Johnny Cash put his Moon-Man? The Grammys stay in the living room, the Moon-Man heads to the guest bathroom.
Meanwhile, Madonna, the queen of shrewd marketing, got just what she wanted. By planting her lips on Britney's and co-former Mouseketeer Christina Aguilera's, her name was on the lips of millions of people, whether they wanted to talk about it or not.
They sure weren't talking about her last CD, "American Life," which produced disappointing sales numbers. Notice, "American Life" wasn't nominated for any VMAs. The controversial video was pulled because of bad timing. The video made an anti-war statement and Madonna wasn't willing to be called anti-American, especially since she now makes her home in England.
No doubt Gap was happy about the publicity considering both of their new faces of Gap were on stage together at the MTV Video Music Awards, reaching out to the exact demographic they want to get into their jeans. Don't forget, when you buy a pair of jeans (priced $50 and up) at the Gap now, you get a free extended play Missy Elliott/Madonna Gap song CD.
Yep, they suckered me into the Chicago store a few weeks ago when I visited the Windy City. I bought the jeans and got my free CD. See, don't get me wrong. I do like Madonna and her savvy ways. It's just sometimes I feel suckered in.
A group of unhappy campers are most likely Penguin Books who signed Madonna earlier this year to write a series of children's books. The first, entitled "The English Roses," will be published in hardback in Sept. 2003.
"Madonna is an artist with a universal appeal and these books will touch children of all backgrounds everywhere in the world," said John Makinson, chairman and CEO of Penguin Books, when the deal was announced in March. Or did he mean Mouseketeers?
Since I wrote about Gwen Stefani's line of bags for LeSportsac, the mail hasn't stopped coming in. Everyone wants to know where to get her L.A.M.B. line.
If I haven't personally written back to you regarding where to get them, here's the info. The best bet is to go to LeSportsac directly at lesportsac.com.
Speaking of e-mail I've received, the band Jethro Tull and I want to clear something up. Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow is not dead.
Here's a statement from the band itself:
"A flurry of gossip has been circulating this weekend that former Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow has passed away. There is absolutely no truth to this rumor. Ian talked with Barrie this morning by phone confirming he is still, quite thankfully, alive and well and living in England."
Michelle Solomon's gossip column, Celebrity Chatter, usually appears each Monday. E-mail us with questions or comments. Michelle Solomon@Celebrity Chatter.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who could see right through Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Ritchie's opening performance stint at last week's MTV awards. Heck, Madonna probably wanted you to see right through it. After all, she's the woman who has used taboo sex as a comment on conservative culture and made it into a cottage industry.
Barring some huge natural disaster or outbreak of war, office water coolers throughout the country and possibly the world were abuzz about Madonna's open mouth kiss with pop-tart Britney Spears.
Madonna didn't get the press she wanted from her CD "American Life" and with new up-and-comers on the pop scene, the Queen Mum of MTV isn't the darling of the Billboard charts anymore. So a kiss on television with a singer who 7-year-old girls idolize -- that'll stir them up.
The initial threesome set to warble "Like A Virgin" at the awards show was reportedly Madonna, Spears and Jennifer Lopez. Lopez made the wise career move by not joining the ménage. She didn't need the publicity of a controversial woman-to-woman kiss on cable TV after bad press about her movie "Gigli" (in which she played a lesbian, by the way) and rumors of her fiancé's night at a Vancouver strip club were crowding headlines.
Despite stories that J-Lo had lunch with Britney and Madonna for the Material Girl's 45th birthday to plan the "Like A Virgin" opener, it ended up that J-Lo wasn't able to come through on the commitment. Reportedly the movie she's filming with Richard Gere in Winnipeg, "Shall We Dance," hadn't wrapped filming and she was stuck in Canada. J-Lo's no slouch in the shrewd marketing department herself and knows what controversies to join in on and stay away from.
Like Madonna, Spears has made a habit of making controversial appearances at the MTV awards. In 2001, she appeared in a scant outfit onstage with a python. Spears' career could use a little lift, too.
Hey, guys. This isn't the Grammys. It's the MTV Awards. For the coveted Grammy Awards winners get a gramophone. For the MTV Awards, it's a Moon-Man. Was Eminem being serious when he let 50 Cent hold his Moon-Man so the Cent-er could get a feel for what he might be taking home?
And where will Johnny Cash put his Moon-Man? The Grammys stay in the living room, the Moon-Man heads to the guest bathroom.
Meanwhile, Madonna, the queen of shrewd marketing, got just what she wanted. By planting her lips on Britney's and co-former Mouseketeer Christina Aguilera's, her name was on the lips of millions of people, whether they wanted to talk about it or not.
They sure weren't talking about her last CD, "American Life," which produced disappointing sales numbers. Notice, "American Life" wasn't nominated for any VMAs. The controversial video was pulled because of bad timing. The video made an anti-war statement and Madonna wasn't willing to be called anti-American, especially since she now makes her home in England.
No doubt Gap was happy about the publicity considering both of their new faces of Gap were on stage together at the MTV Video Music Awards, reaching out to the exact demographic they want to get into their jeans. Don't forget, when you buy a pair of jeans (priced $50 and up) at the Gap now, you get a free extended play Missy Elliott/Madonna Gap song CD.
Yep, they suckered me into the Chicago store a few weeks ago when I visited the Windy City. I bought the jeans and got my free CD. See, don't get me wrong. I do like Madonna and her savvy ways. It's just sometimes I feel suckered in.
A group of unhappy campers are most likely Penguin Books who signed Madonna earlier this year to write a series of children's books. The first, entitled "The English Roses," will be published in hardback in Sept. 2003.
"Madonna is an artist with a universal appeal and these books will touch children of all backgrounds everywhere in the world," said John Makinson, chairman and CEO of Penguin Books, when the deal was announced in March. Or did he mean Mouseketeers?
Poor, George
The romance woes of George Clooney continue. Clooney tells the magazine Vanity Fair via ananova.com that he can't get a date since moving into his 25-room villa in Italy. His lack of companionship, he says, is due to the fact that he's "fresh meat" for European paparazzi and that taking a date out for dinner would be an "ordeal." Clooney spends half of the year at the villa and the other half at his Hollywood Hills home, which has its own tennis court, screening room, guest house, swimming pool, and his collection of antique motorcycles. His half-deaf pet pig, Max, and two bulldogs also live at the tudor-style residence dubbed Casa de Clooney. People are always interested in the pig. Clooney and Max's relationship began in 1989 when he broke up with his former girlfriend, Kelly Preston, now Mrs. John Travolta, Clooney will soon start hitting the publicity circuit to promote his new movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones "Intolerable Cruelty" in which he plays a slick Beverly Hills divorce lawyer. The movie, from Universal Pictures, comes out Oct. 10.Stefani Sports Bags
Since I wrote about Gwen Stefani's line of bags for LeSportsac, the mail hasn't stopped coming in. Everyone wants to know where to get her L.A.M.B. line.
If I haven't personally written back to you regarding where to get them, here's the info. The best bet is to go to LeSportsac directly at lesportsac.com.
Speaking of e-mail I've received, the band Jethro Tull and I want to clear something up. Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow is not dead.
Here's a statement from the band itself:
"A flurry of gossip has been circulating this weekend that former Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow has passed away. There is absolutely no truth to this rumor. Ian talked with Barrie this morning by phone confirming he is still, quite thankfully, alive and well and living in England."
Michelle Solomon's gossip column, Celebrity Chatter, usually appears each Monday. E-mail us with questions or comments. Michelle Solomon@Celebrity Chatter.
Copyright 2003 by Lifewhile.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
