As we discussed yesterday, Madonna’s Rebel Heart tour hasreportedly gone off the rails. The stories about Madonna’s messiness did not come from random tabloid sources though. All of the British papers and Australian papers (Madonna was a particular disaster in Melbourne) have been covering it. TMZ had video, and many, many fans have been complaining. The complaints involved: Madonna being drunk during her shows, Madonna swilling tequila on stage, Madonna falling off tricycles, Madonna making pleas for someone to help her or f—k her or take care of her. Plus, Madonna keeps showing up late for performances. Reportedly, at least one of her Australian shows started FOUR HOURS late.
But all of those stories are crap, Madonna says. She still believes that any time any media outlet or fan criticizes her, it’s sexism and misogyny (except Madonna can’t spell misogyny). Madonna posted this Instagram of a Madge-loonie defending her honor, and Madge wrote words too:
If she wants to say the sad clown act is just that, an act, sure. I’ll go the distance and believe that she’s “acting.” Although what do we know about Madonna? 1) She’s a perfectionist and 2) she’s a terrible actress. Is it possible she would want to include a perfect Sad Clown act into show and have it be so authentic that people actually think she’s a pathetic mess? Hm. And is it sexist to wonder if fans regret spending so much money on such a sh-tty “fake drunk” clown act? Is it misogynistic to wonder why Madonna has been consistently hours late to show after show? Is it anti-woman to question whether this is mostly a narcissistic, passive-aggressive attempt to manipulate her son into coming back to her?
That touring life …………,,,,,,💘#tearsofaclown Finally made it to Melbourne🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 pic.twitter.com/6sDTknO85J
— Madonna (@Madonna) March 12, 2016
Photos courtesy of Madonna’s social media.
leave it to celebrities to appropriate a movement for an oppressed group to shield themselves from criticism. just like Taylor and gang.
it is so disgusting and makes me so mad. you must be a terrible person to do that.
Thank you for THIS!!! Female celebrities who pull the sexism card to conceal their f— ups does an enormous disservice to the women’s rights movement, and it’s this kind of idiotic appropriation that fuels arguments against feminism. This over-indulged narcissist is getting more annoying as she ages!
Absolutely! Classic narcissistic behaviour: blame everyone else! I hoped this sorry custody battle would cause madonna to reflect on the causes and consequences of her behaviour, but no, so incensed that she hasn’t won the custody battle, she is now playing the emotional blackmail card, ie look what you have done to me, the other children are suffering, blah blah. It’s always all about her. Poor kids!
While I do think this is all an act, what’s her reasoning for being on average 2-3 hours late on stage for a huge number of shows? And so now any criticism of a woman is automatically misogyny?? What a way to dumb down and hijack a genuine problem to cover up your own mess.
Allegedly one of his biggest issues was her posting stuff about him on social media and he wanted a bit more privacy, how is this going to help her?
I agree, Lindy. And not only was she FOUR hours late to the first Melbourne show, but the fans were forced to wait outside the venue. In the rain. Apart from being disrespectful to her fans, who pay a whopping great price for tickets, there are people who work at these venues, who need to hang around – not only for the show to start, which is probably when they should have finished work, but also have to stay back afterwards, much later than planned, to clean up, do security checks on the premises and all manner of other jobs. Sure, they likely got paid overtime, but that’s not the point. Because the show was in Melbourne, lots of fans would have had to travel long distances to see her show, and they and the workers would have had travel plans disrupted for getting home. She’s the whiner – not the press, not the fans, not employees – her.
I wouldn’t wait 4 hours for anyone unless there was a serious reason for their lateness. Madonna? I wouldn’t walk across the street to watch her “perform”
It seems like every little thing is sexism and mysogeny these days. If I don’t like that some woman is doing something, it’s shaming and oppression. Which sucks because it takes the focus from actual women’s issues. Criticism is not sexism. Telling a woman she’s being a ridiculous asshole isn’t sexism.
Oh well.
Sometimes things ARE about sexism and misogyny, shaming and oppression. Those ARE women’s issues. You have to educate yourself as to where the line is. Madonna does, in fact, seem to be acting like an asshole. That’s not sexist. If the tagline was something like “Madonna acting like a drunk b*tch”, we might have something to talk about.
Every “ism” is being used now to shut people up. Social awareness has turned into a giant garbage dump of political correctness.
We’re not criticizing her behaviour because she’s a woman; it’s because she’s an embarrassing mess.
You could cut and paste most of these comments onto a Johnny Depp thread, so the misogyny comment doesn’t wash with me.
She is very unprofessional in her actions. I don’t really care who the performer is, he/she does not consistently start a show 2, 3, 4 hours late, you do not go out on stage and say the show may be more like a rehearsal because there may be problems. You don’t throw your children into the mix when it has nothing to do with the show. Not sure why anyone buys tickets anymore because this isn’t a one time deal with her. Don’t care if the show was worth the wait or not.
If I was at her show, I can tell you that her being late or potentially being drunk on stage wouldn’t be what most upsets me. It would be seeing Madonna perform as a sad clown that would truly frighten me.
It’s the stuff of nightmares. The pictures alone kinda freak me out.
If I was actually there, I’d want my money back to pay for therapy.
Mi”song”ony, ha ha ha. Seriously though this whole feminism, sexism, misogyny needs to stop. Stop crying wolf for this fake sh-t this is so stupid. I can’t believe celebrities or really anybody else are trying to make everything an issue when it’s not. It’s not cute anymore and never has been.
At first I thought you meant the Oppressed Sad Clown Group! It’s cultural appropriation of Sad Drunk Clowns everywhere!
Seriously this is the oldest trick in the book – “I was researching for a role” or “I was ACTING, and you’re too sexist to recognize GREAT ACTING.” Get off your high horse Madonna – you’re already falling off anyway.
Lolz my account was hacked! It wasn’t me posting that stuff and I totes didn’t drunk pm you and ask you out so it doesn’t matter that you said no because it WASN’T ME hahaha it was hackers!
Oh please.
She has been doing this for ages, her fans know it, if they don’t want to wait for hours they should stop going to her concerts, end of it.
totally agree, it’s insulting to the fans and they should vote with their feet.
Yes! No sympathy to people who buy Madonna or Beiber tickets, or to people that hire Lindsay Lohan. You knew what this was.
Madonna is surrounded by Yes men. She will do and say whatever she wants because she’s Madonna. She will blame everything and everyone but herself for this issue with Rocco. I hope she can recover from it.
She’s so “meticulous” she shows up to her show four hours late? Please-she was a hot drunken mess.
You were there? I don´t think so. So you don´t know anything
Well, we know she’s not meticulous if she shows up late. And I saw a post by someone who was at her show and said she was late. We could get a notarized statement, would you believe it then? P.Saturday. see comment 12
@nn: Oh, and are you privy to secret information yourself? Get real. Madonna has a long history of starting her concerts 2-3 hours late and inconveniencing her fans. This is nothing new to those who attend her concerts, but now it’s being widely reported by the media. Is she trying to set a new record of unprofessionalism by making it 4 hours?
It’s quite possible she really was sober and this was another calculated stunt, which is FAR WORSE because it means she doesn’t give a f-ck about her audience. Regularly making people wait for hours (while charging them hundreds of dollars) is a form of disrespect. Only her time is important and no one else’s – typical stuff you’d expect from a narcissist.
What I shake my head at is the surprised reaction of some of her fans. They are masochists to put up with her behavior again and again. Why tolerate it? Absolutely no one is worth the abuse.
BoI saw the clip. Madonna wasn’t drunk at all. And took a drink afterwards from the fan or whomever.
But spare me with the misogyny and sexism. Bono is his 50s isn’t acting the fool on stage. Madonna has a great show going on that got great reviews this year. I was over her, but came back into the fold, because I loved the Rebel Heart tour and saw glimpses of the old Madonna and what made Madonna the best pop star around for showmanship.
But she’s a hot mess these days as the tour is on its last legs.
And Madonna on twitter has been something I try to ignore, because it shows what a mess she is and how narcissistic she is and clueless and…………….on and on.
Her only hope is to get a strong man who can ground her again and someone she respects and listens to, since she surrounds herself now with yes people. I don’t know if that will happen, though. And she’s certainly not capable of self-reflection on her own.
Madonna was amazing in her 40s. In her 50s, it’s been hard to watch most of the time.
There’s a whiff of sexism. Nobody calls Bono grandpa or says he should retire. Madonna gets that alot.
That is a legitimate sexism complaint.
Her acting unprofessionally and showing up late is not, and I hate that she’s trying to use sexism as a shield for any and all criticism.
I think the difference is that Madonna constantly plays up the age angle. She makes it specially known that she’s trying to act and look like a teenager or 20-something. So then that difference between her real age and her pretend age gets highlighted even more.
But with other performers of her age or older, including males, they don’t play the age angle as much as Madonna does. Those who act like themselves instead of such big phonies don’t get criticized as much as the obvious phonies get.
It’s like you don’t want people to see a zit on your face, so you smother on loads of different colored zit creams, then apply brightly-colored bandages on top of it, then you write a message on your face with a thick dark marker and an arrow pointing to the zit that if anybody looks at you, make sure not to look at this one particular spot on your face. Then that becomes the only thing you can see of that person. Same with Madonna. All you can see is how much she does to cover up her actual self because the more she tries to do it, the more noticeable it becomes.
@anne Madonna isn’t playing any angle. She gets comments that she’s too old ,she needs to retire ,it must be menopause and so forth. Men don’t get that.
But isn’t’ the only reason people say Madonna should retire is because her talent has faded, she’s not able to perform like she used to for whatever reason, and her antics are embarrassing? I figure people suggest retiring for her own good, so she goes out on a good note, rather than ruining her legacy with continued ridiculousness. That is not the case with Bono and U2. They continue to be professional, put on good shows, make good music, and don’t do anything that blemishes their previous reputation for their work. If bono were acting a fool on stage, I think people would suggest he retire too. I don’t think it’s sexism. We have no problem calling out Johnny Depp for being the mess he’s turned into. We have no problem saying Clooney should get some new pants and throw out those grandpa jeans. Men get it too, just not about hormones or menopause.
Yeah, but as much as I dislike Bono (and I do), he looks his age. He isn’t nipped and tucked within an inch of his life. Bono doesn’t obsessively wear fingerless gloves because the backs of his hands look like a relief map of the New Jersey Turnpike. Bono isn’t always dating super-young dancers either.
You know what? Every woman, heck, every person Madonna’s age has body issues. Covering them up doesn’t make them go away. It makes them scream out loud.
Every person Madonna’s age has social issues. Divorce, remarriage, death or illness of a spouse, losing friends, their own health issues, etc. The way to deal with those issues is to use the wisdom you’ve spent the last 5+ decades acquiring. The way to deal is *not* to act like a brat, be four hours late to work, and try hard to be 20. She (me, anyone) our age will never be 20 again.
I act my age (very close to hers) and dress appropriately, and no one calls me grandma.
She strives to act 20, her everyday makeup is terrible, her clothes are a joke, and she looks absolutely horrid.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare her to male rock stars who are past age 50. Mick Jagger is still doing his same act on stage as in his prime…and no one is calling him out for over sexualizing. My point is that what is sexy for a man culturally isn’t as blatant as what’s sexy for a female- hence most people are shocked to see Madonna in fishnets at her age, but aren’t shocked to see mick jagger gyrating on stage in his 70s.
I think losing a child to your own bad temper must be a tempest of hell. I feel for her, actually. She probably realized she didn’t invest the time with her son in these sensitive teen years and now Rocco just wants space. That has got to be deeply painful. It’s one thing if your petulant teen is locked in his room and wont’ come out; it’s another if he’s a continent away holing up with your contentious ex husband.
I’d be doing the scary sad clown act as well, but I hope she realizes she making matters worse. I don’t have hate for her but mountains of compassion.
It’s time for her to take a step back, take a seat, reevaluate her personal life, and professional life, with a clear head. She might need to break away from touring or performing, long enough to get her head together. Cause right now she appears to be mentally and emotionally unbalanced.
Those of us that are financially stable, have to sometimes put our money making opportunities on hold, to prevent us from destroying our hard work, our image, our reputation, and our character. We have to take the necessary steps to fix our personal problems, before our personal problems gets the best of us.
I’m curious—do many people in the audience wait four hours? Or even two hours? Because I sure wouldn’t.
When I hear about performers being hours late, I wonder how many people leave and ask for their ticket money back.
A friend of mine saw her at one of the UK shows, she was nearly 3 hours late, the result being they had to leave or be stranded due to missing their train. They were pissed as it meant they missed the end of the concert, plus she was told she couldn’t do an encore (which is normally a scheduled part of most concerts) due to venue restrictions.
Problem is, when she comes out, she is cheered, she needs for some of her devotees to start booing her and then just stop going to her shows…Guns N Roses tried this crap in Dublin a few years ago and when they eventually came out they were pelted with drinks, Axel stormed off but he got the message.
These things sometimes happen due to illness/tech faults etc but this seems to be just par for the course with her on this tour with no explanation or even an apology, I don’t recall it happening on previous tours.
And I get that there’s instances where people are late – sometimes there is bad weather, or accidents clogging up highways. But when you’re doing it constantly, with no real excuse, and no apology to fans- that’s a huge issue. And it seems to be her ‘thing’ for a while now.
Madonna’s a full blown narcissist and nothing is ever their fault. How misogyny and sexism are to blame for her rudeness, unprofessionaism and pathetic behaviour is beyond me. Male or female performer, most fans would complain about being made to wait four hours to watch someone using their concert as a tool to guilt their child into giving into their will. Whether she was drunk or not, I have no idea, but the poor me garbage is not what people came to see. Madonna isn’t one of the oppressed and needs to stop claiming she is. She obviously has no one in her life brave enough to tell her to get a grip. This is a sad way to end what started out as a great tour.
THIS exactly. She is THE worlds most narcissistic diva ever – she doesn’t apologise because she still thinks her fans should be grateful that she deigns them with her presence. These stars who cant give up their adoration fix are sooo pathetic. No wonder Rocco wants to get away from her – this must be soooo embarrassing for him – what a cringefest.
I love that she fell off of her tricycle. I guess I’m a terrible person.
^^^^^^^LOL GNAT.LOL.
I’ll join you, I laughed when I saw the clip.
And snorted at the gif comparing it to the Saw puppet.
I also laughed and rewound her falling at the Brits several times as I was watching it live but I did feel bad about it afterwards as it did look kind of nasty…
She did not fall, it was an act…sorry
I know, that’s so funny. Off to Google it
Why anyone continues to spend money on her shows is beyond me. There is no way I would pay even $5 knowing she would be so disrespectful as to show up late.
Same here, Belle.
And it’s not just a little money, it’s hundreds and hundreds of dollars at minimum.
The last few concerts I went to were around $50/ticket, they were awesome, and started on time.
Well thats how it is now. If you post a random naked selfie with no context and receive criticism for it you cry, body policing and slut shaming.
when you act unhinged and unprofessional and people call you out on it you say its misogyny .
or sexism.
These terms are getting so diluted that soon they won’t mean anything but a excuse for not being able to take criticism. Well guess what? Rich,poor, man,female or whatever you may identify as, whatever you put out in this world can be and will be criticized.
stop using hot button issues as a excuse.
Meh, it’s Madonna. It’s well established that the rich and famous are so well insulated from reality that we should expect a percentage of them to no longer live in a reality based world.
More like “Tears of an Ass-Clown”.
I remember when Madonna was annoyingly outré, but with self-awareness. Without the self-awareness, her schtick is just annoying.
THIS.
If Madonna can’t accept criticism for her professional behavior, especially when she puts in elements of her private life and her children and she puts 100% of the blame on her critics, can you imagine how she’ll react if anybody disagrees with her actions in private life? She’s even tried to get Guy arrested over Rocco’s decision not to go back to living with her at the same time she says she wants to get along. So I wonder how much Rocco has been chastised whenever he spoke up and what over-the-top labeling he got for doing so. I can imagine that it’s just so dramatic and hectic to be around her.
It’s hard to feel sympathy or empathy for someone who has throughout her career seemed so calculated, cold and humorless. I do feel some sympathy for her kids–can’t be easy being her child.
Yes. Who knew that Madonna would eventually morph into Courtney Love?
Strange, because In the video I watched, she admitted to being a mess and said her behavior was unlike her highly choreographed shows she’s known for. This came from her own lips.
Ugh, these are the far out ramplings of a narcissistic person if I ever saw any. Her poor kids, having to live with that on a daily basis 🙁
Like most past-their-prime performers with a death grip on relevance, Madonna is a hypocrite. But then, she always has been, on a number of fronts. Nothing new there.
Her claims of victimhood ring a bit false. She’s been selling sexism and misogyny for 30+ years, and she’s certainly never been any great champion of some entertainment “sisterhood.”
As usual, what Madonna’s marketing machine wants the world to think she’s doing, and what she’s ACTUALLY doing, are two diametrically different things.
I’m sick of hearing about how Madonna is “challenging” ageist stereotypes and upending our expectations of what we think women of her age should or shouldn’t be doing. Of course her age is going to enter the conversation when she’s so desperately clinging to her youth that she looks halfway embalmed.
Stand up on that stage in front of thousands of people, every night, and dare to look like a 57-year-old woman. THAT’S a challenge.
If a beleaguered father shared a “heartfelt” message with the world because he misses his child and followed it up with #BuyMyStuff, he’d be a selfish a*****e in my book as well.
Madonna treats the whole world, including her fan base, like a giant doormat to wipe her feet on. She’s deliberately rude, foul-mouthed and difficult because she “likes to piss people off” (her words.) This is the same woman who likens herself to some spiritual guru like Ghandi or Martin Luther King or John Lennon. Well Madonna, stopping this black hole of self-obsession, self-pity, fame-whoreing and narcissism would be a good start. Seriously, JUST STOP.
I have never been a fan of Madonna. I don’t like her music, her performances, I just plain don’t like anything about her.
HOWEVER, I’ve always admired her work ethic. She busts her butt to put on a show. So this behavior is very worrisome. I hope she’s not on a downward spiral that she can’t pull out of.
Madonna should have worn a helmet. Now the world will have to deal with the side effects of her tricycle crash concussion.
I’m with Lindy79 on this: Her concert attending fans need to speak with their feet, walk out and demand a refund for any delay over an hour. It’s completely unprofessional and disrespectful to the people who paid a high price for a performance (not even bringing in the inconvenience this causes for arena staff, traffic police, roadies, musicians, dancers, etc.). Own your own bad behavior, Madonna.
We’ve all had “that” co-worker whose private life bleeds into their work life. In the beginning, you’re sympathetic and indulgent. But when it goes on and on (the arriving late, leaving early, the personal phone calls repeating the same story again and again), it gets REAL old and you speak up. It’s enough already with her. I certainly have sympathy for what’s she going through with Guy and Rocco – but when it’s impacting her ability to remain professional and on time, maybe it’s time to renegotiate the concert tour schedule, take a break, attend to your personal issues, and get it behind you.
By the way, I have seen her and been astounded by her in concert, but I burst out laughing at “2) she’s a terrible actress”!
Madonna will never take a step back and evaluate her life. She is a perpetual narcissist. She blames everything on everybody but herself. She takes accountability for nothing – regarding Rocco, regarding her unprofessionalism as of late, regarding he drunkenness, her failed relationships with men, etc. She is the common denominator and yet, none of it is ever her fault. She no more thinks about her current antics continuing to damage her relationship with her son than she thinks she is at fault for her failed marriages or that she should stop drinking when she’s working rather than making excuses and pointing the finger.
Somebody up thread said she needs to find a man who can ground her. She’s done that more than once, and all that happened, was they ended up hating each other. She doesn’t listen, she doesn’t bend, she doesn’t care about others’ needs. She continues to be all about herself at the expense of her crash and burn relationships including now, one of her kids.
If I worked an exorbitant amount of hours, lived in tour buses, dragging my kid around with me, and he told me he wanted to go home and wanted me to be with him there, I would do it – w/out batting an eyelash, I would do it. She doesn’t need the money or the fame. She made her decision and of course it was yet another selfish one. I do not feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for Rocco who continues to not have his mother the way he wants – the way he needs because she puts her fame and fortune ahead of his needs and desires. Why should anybody feel sorry for her?
Hmmph! That last photo tho’…Marilyn Mason-eque. Scary Twiggy!
When is she going to accept that she does not own her son.
Poor, sad Madonna. ha. She is doing this for attention and she’s getting it by the heap load. She is nothing but P.R. I don’t believe this latest ‘stunt’ at all.
I think she’s exploiting the movement to avoid self-scrutiny, absolutely. Do I think there’s probably some sexism and misogyny in how she’s portrayed in media? Yeah, a little. Think of the way the rock lifestyle is defined for men – drugs, sex, women, etc. Men can be a mess and still be legends. Women don’t have that luxury. And Madonna is old enough to know better.
I think it’s disgusting to treat your fans like this, fans who have given their heard earned money to see her perform. Get over yourself.