Madonna‘s brother Christopher Ciccone fell out for a time with his famous sister after publishing a memoir about her life and career in 2008.
Happily, they were reconciled before his death earlier this month, with the singer forgiving him for spilling the beans on her romances with beaus including Warren Beatty.
One fling which didn’t make the book — but which Chris was happy to share — was between superstar singer George Michael and himself.
The fleeting romance happened around 1989 — the year when Madonna hogged the headlines for kissing George on stage at the MTV Awards.
Newspapers at the time wrongly reported that she and the former Wham! man were an item, with one article quoting the Material Girl as telling a friend: ‘I’m really wild about George.’
Madonna with her brother Christopher Ciccone who fell out for a time with his famous sister after publishing a memoir about her life and career in 2008
George Michael who died on Christmas Day 2016 from natural causes related to heart and liver disease
In reality, the British pop star (who didn’t come out as gay until 1998, after getting arrested while cruising for sex in a toilet in Beverly Hills) was more interested in her brother.
A friend of his said this week: ‘Christopher was happy to tell people all about it.
‘He enjoyed dropping his fling with George Michael into conversation.’
Christopher, an artist and designer, died in Michigan on October 4 after a battle with cancer, aged 63.
Madonna paid tribute to him, saying: ‘He was the closest human to me for so long, it’s hard to explain our bond. But it grew out of an understanding that we were different, and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo.
‘We took each other’s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood. In fact, dance was a kind of superglue that held us together.
‘Discovering dance in our small Midwestern town saved me — and then my brother came along, and it saved him, too. My ballet teacher, also named Christopher, created a safe space for my brother to be gay, a word that was not spoken or even whispered where we lived.’
George died on Christmas Day 2016 from natural causes related to heart and liver disease.
New star Mikey’s in pole position thanks to her dad
Image released by Neon shows Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison, right, in a scene from Anora
Mikey Madison called on director Sean Baker and his wife Samantha Quan when working on love scenes in the film Anora, in which she plays a New York sex worker who marries the idiot son of a Russian oligarch.
Baker and his wife acted out the sex scenes fully clothed for Madison and — unusually — there were no intimacy co-ordinators on set, as the cast and director didn’t think they needed them.
In London for Anora’s UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, Madison said that she had complete trust in Baker and wanted to work with him because of his ‘dark sense of humour’. The film is a comic triumph and has been garnering five-star reviews . . . and Oscars buzz for its star.
Madison (pictured left on the red carpet and right in the film) previously revealed her father had installed a strippers’ pole at home for her, no questions asked, so that she could practise.
She also read a number of memoirs, and shadowed dancers at the Headquarters Club in Midtown Manhattan.
Local lass Darci brings our Cilla back to life
Darci Shaw as Cilla Black in Midas Man. Cilla Black’s beginnings as a gay icon (and ally) are revealed in the film about Beatles manager Brian Epstein
Cilla Black’s beginnings as a gay icon (and ally) are revealed in Midas Man, a new film about Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
Cilla — once the coat-check girl at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where The Beatles made their name — was propelled to stardom by Epstein. She is played by rising Scouse star Darci Shaw in the movie.
Shaw previously played the young Judy Garland in Judy.
Producer Brigit Grant says: ‘Brian’s sexuality was a topic which was never discussed, even though they were close friends. Brian did once ask her if she was aware, and he was devastated when she said that she knew, because he wanted to keep his two lives separate. But she kept his counsel, she kept his secrets.’
Grant adds: ‘Darci is from Liverpool and she grew up with that music. It is personal to her. She is beautiful and very talented.’
The film streams on Prime Video from October 30.
Netflix lawyer turns her guns on the ‘real Martha’
A legal expert hired by Netflix says Fiona Harvey — the ‘real Martha’ in the Baby Reindeer drama — could have got up to eight years in prison for stalking Richard Gadd, and a further three years for sexually assaulting him.
Leading British barrister Louise Oakley has been retained by the streamer and has reviewed emails, letters, Facebook posts and statements by Gadd and his boss at the pub, as well as other evidence.
Martha played by Jessica Gunning in the bus stop scene from Baby Reindeer. Fans have been scouring the web for her outfits, including this purple heart cardigan
Oakley is on a CPS advisory panel, and in the spring was appointed a Senior Treasury Counsel (part of the team that prosecutes the most serious cases). As such, she regularly assesses the strength of evidence and the appropriateness of charges.
She has given a statement to the court in Los Angeles which forms part of Netflix’s defence against a $120 million defamation lawsuit from Harvey.
Oakley said: ‘Fiona Harvey can have been in no doubt that her conduct amounted to the harassment of Richard Gadd.
‘The starting point for a single offence would be five years’ imprisonment, with a category range of three-and-a-half to eight years.’
She added that Harvey could have faced another sentence over ‘the unwanted sexual touching (including the pinching of Richard Gadd’s bottom)’.
‘In my opinion, the repeated nature of Fiona Harvey’s conduct passes the custody threshold and a sentence of up to two to three years’ custody may be appropriate.’
Harvey’s legal team have tried to get the statement by Oakley struck from the record. But in a ruling two weeks ago the judge said her observations were ‘relevant and material’ to the action.
The judge had already sided with Netflix in some parts of Ms Harvey’s case, dismissing her negligence claims, and her request for punitive damages — which she wanted set at $50 million. However, he refused Netflix’s request to drop the lawsuit. They are now appealing.
Saoirse Ronan is an East Ender in the new film Blitz, and in real life she lives in East London, too.
But although Shoreditch Park used to have ‘rows and rows of homes’, just like the ones in the film, she says the area was ‘wiped out’ by Hitler’s bombing campaign, and is now utterly middle class.
Ronan sighed that she and her actor husband Jack Lowden walk the dog in the local park ‘and there’s a dog called Macchiato. You know: “Macchiato, come here!”’
Film-maker Gints Zilbalodis is behind beguiling animation Flow, Latvia’s international Oscar entry.
It’s set in a world without humans — the hero is a cat, accompanied by a lemur, dog, bird and a capybara (a large South American rodent).
Still from Gints Zilbalodis film Flow
There’s no dialogue, but there is sound. Zilbalodis says: ‘Our approach was to use real animal voices.’
The capybara was tricky, though.
‘They only make noise when you tickle them. So it was one person’s very fun job to tickle a capybara. But it sounded more like an anxious small dog. It didn’t fit the character. So we used the sound of a baby camel.’
A heartstopper and a showstopper — both from these shores — are set to cause a sensation on Broadway.
Kit Connor, the 20-year-old star of hit coming-of-age TV drama Heartstopper, is Romeo to Rachel Zegler’s Juliet in a production which is in previews now, and has its first night on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Jamie Lloyd’s smash hit reimagining of Lloyd-Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, starring Nicole Scherzinger, has its first night on Broadway on Sunday.
Stanley Tucci has rediscovered his love of acting, thanks to Ralph Fiennes.
Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence, left, and Stanley Tucci as Cardinal Bellini in a scene from Conclave
Tucci, 63, has become renowned as a foodie, writing books and presenting TV shows, but he’s back in front of the camera in the film Conclave.
He plays one of the cardinals who would be Pope — opposite Fiennes as Dean Lawrence, who is in charge of the voting process.
Before the screening at the BFI London Film Festival, Tucci (inset with Fiennes) said: ‘It made me fall in love with acting again, because Ralph is so brilliant.’
Saoirse Ronan is an East Ender in the new film Blitz, and in real life she lives in East London, too.
But although Shoreditch Park used to have ‘rows and rows of homes’, just like the ones in the film, she says the area was ‘wiped out’ by Hitler’s bombing campaign, and is now utterly middle class.
Gary Smith cartoon of Saoirse Ronan
Ronan sighed that she and her actor husband Jack Lowden walk the dog in the local park ‘and there’s a dog called Macchiato. You know: “Macchiato, come here!”’
Further to my story last week about Netflix developing a TV series adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice, written by Dolly Alderton, it turns out that they are also developing a film based on a book called Pride — which is itself a take on the Austen romance.
Pride is a Young Adult novel about an Afro-Latina teen in New York; and Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground is involved in trying to adapt it for the screen.