Men Are More To Madonna Than Just &#39;Sexual Appendages&#39;S

In possibly the most entertaining matching of reporter and subject perpetrated by a ladymag this year, Harper's Bazaar got Naomi Wolf to interview Madonna for its latest issue. What did they talk about? Body hair, sex, high school — and the movie Ms. Ciccone is promoting. Wolf also sneaked a peek at one of Madonna's bathrooms: "I would swear," writes Wolf, it had "a wall covering made of teal duck feathers."

Says Madge:


The boys at her school called her "Hairy Monster" in response. These days, of course, she's more successful with men — she rebounded from her divorce with male model Jesus Luz, and she's lately been dating a 24-year-old French breakdancer named Brahim Zaibat. (He's hot. And the relationship has the added bonus of making Liz Jones feel insecure.) Wolf says she broached the subject of their age difference thusly:


"Well, it can also be more than just sexual, um, appendages," replies Madonna. What "more" is she looking for? "Someone to share my inner life with."

Of Madonna's new film, W.E., Wolf rather kindly characterizes festival audience and critical reactions as "mixed." (The Guardian was among the many to savage it, writing, "Could it be that Madonna is in deadly earnest here? If so, her film is more risible than we had any right to expect; a primped and simpering folly, the turkey that dreamed it was a peacock.") Madonna offered this on the subject of Wallis Simpson's appeal:

"When women are perceived as powerful and doing something they aren't supposed to be doing, they are often portrayed as sexual predators. They said that because they couldn't understand how she won a king. She wasn't conventionally pretty, she had the body of a teenage boy, she was divorced twice, and by the time she married the king she couldn't have children. What did she have to offer? She's not pretty, fertile, or a virgin, so she's useless. I was actually told once by a Japanese woman that there's a phrase for women who are past the marrying age: 'stale cake.'"

Madonna: The Director's Cut [HB]