Director's Heart
Attack Blamed On
'Outrageous' Madonna
By Chris Hastings and Roya Nikkhah
The Telegraph - UK
7-10-4
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/ 11/nesther11.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/11/ixhome.html
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John Schlesinger, the Oscar-winning director of Billy Liar and Midnight
Cowboy, blamed Madonna's "outrageous" behaviour on the set of a film
they were making for contributing to his heart attack.
His damning comments about the pop singer turned actress are contained
in a collection of letters and production notes bequeathed to the
British Film Institute by the veteran film-maker after his death in July
2003.
The papers reveal that Schlesinger, who worked with Madonna in 1999 on
his last film, The Next Best Thing (released in 2000), became enraged by
her attempts to change numerous scenes. They also show that Madonna
demanded that special effects be used to "beautify" her appearance.
In the film, a comedy, Madonna plays a yoga instructor who becomes
pregnant after a drunken one-night stand with her homosexual best
friend, played by Rupert Everett.
Shortly after completing what was one of the unhappiest shoots of his
career, Schlesinger, then 73, collapsed on the doorstep of his London
home. He was diagnosed with heart failure and underwent a quadruple
heart bypass operation.
His workload before he was admitted to hospital had been particularly
heavy and he had complained of being "exhausted" before he left Los
Angeles at the end of the film shoot.
In a letter written from the Royal Brompton Hospital on December 2,
1999, to Andrew Cannava, his agent, however, Schlesinger put some of the
blame for his collapse on Madonna's collaboration with Tom Rosenberg,
the film's producer, to change the film.
"I am f***ing angry with Tom being influenced by Madonna," Schlesinger
wrote. "We have tried all of these changes before . . . I do not for one
moment think that their behaviour has not added to the reasons I have
ended up here."
His letters, along with his production notes, complain that Madonna
tried to influence every aspect of the production, from the music to the
final cut.
One unsigned memo suggests that the actress, then 41, wanted producers
to "beautify" 34 shots of her with computer generated imagery, the
special effects technique pioneered in fantasy epics such as Jurassic
Park and Titanic. It appears that the money was eventually found to
improve just nine of the scenes.
Surprisingly, the singer, who appeared naked in her controversial 1992
book Sex, also balked at the idea of appearing fully nude in the film.
An unsigned memo which relates to production meetings held in 1998
states: "Madonna doesn't want her bare arse to be seen."
Later, Madonna lobbied for the removal of a pivotal scene which she felt
was too "gay", much to the disgust of Schlesinger, who was himself
homosexual.
These constant demands infuriated the director, who had previously
worked with such actors as Lord Olivier, Dustin Hoffman and Glenda
Jackson. In a letter to Mr Rosenberg on November 30, 1999, dictated from
his hospital bed, he wrote: "I am outraged that Madonna is starting to
express an opinion of what works and what doesn't and what is too gay
when she wasn't even present at the previews. In any case, she is not
the director; so far as I am concerned I want the scene to remain as it is."
He also complained to Sherry Lansing, the head of Paramount, saying: "I
am lying here feeling very frustrated because the completion of the film
is taking place without me and it seems to me that Tom Rosenberg is very
much listening to Madonna's opinion, which is affecting the cut and the
choice of music."
One handwritten six-page letter from Madonna, who was also executive
producer of the film's soundtrack, to Schlesinger in July 1999 reveals
that she lobbied hard for the inclusion of particular kinds of music in
the film itself.
She claims that she does "not mean to be presumptuous" or to "overstep
the bounds", before outlining the case for more Indian- influenced music
in the film. After reminding the director that she does have a "lot of
experience" in the field of film scores, she urges him to listen to a
selection of tracks that she has put on a CD.
"Even if you don't like the music perhaps it will inspire you and get
your gears going . . . Please listen in a quiet place with no
interruptions. Turn off the phone, light a candle and think about the
love story of Robert and Abbie and their world and sadness and the hope.
Enjoy. I hope to hear from you soon." She signs off: "All My Love, M xxx."
The Next Best Thing, which cost $25 million (£13.5 million) to make, was
a commercial and artistic disaster, taking just $23 million worldwide.
Madonna's performance was savaged by critics and earned her a "Golden
Raspberry" award for worst actress. Entertainment Weekly said that she
could "barely muster even the rudiments of human expression" and urged
her to "quit while she is behind".
Schlesinger was discharged from hospital in January, 2000. The following
December he suffered a debilitating stroke. His condition grew steadily
worse until he was admitted to hospital in Palm Springs last July. He
died a year ago, aged 77.
Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's publicist, said last week that she was
surprised by Mr Schlesinger's remarks: "People say many, many things
about Madonna but no one has ever questioned her level of professional
behaviour. I know Madonna had great respect for John Schlesinger as a
director. I believe that John Schlesinger had control over this film and
Madonna behaved as a salaried actress."
A spokesman for Mr Rosenberg said that the producer had found it an
"honour to work with Mr Schlesinger who he had considered to be one of
the greatest directors in the history of the movie business".
--
Jez
"The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious,
of being out of one's mind, is the condition of the normal man. Society
highly values its normal man.It educates children to lose themselves
and to become absurd,and thus to be normal. Normal men have killed
perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years."
R.D. Laing
