Gunshots, helicopters and a chair: Madonna and Sean Penn, story of a marriage
They met in 1984, when the actor went to see the singer during the filming of her video clip "Material girl". Since then, they began a romance that in 1985 they took to the altar in the middle of an eventful ceremony, where the fiery and impulsive character of the protagonist of "I am Sam" was evident. Madonna didn't mind that at first, but the facts said otherwise.
At certain moments in the history of popular music, sometimes the paths of artists intersect with those of television, and it is a hurricane that is difficult to stop. It happened to the Beatles in February 1964, when they went to the Ed Sullivan show, and were seen by millions of Americans from coast to coast, thus inoculating Beatlemania in the northern giant. It happened to Suede, with an anthological presentation at the '93 Brit Awards where they swept away an incendiary version of "Animal nitrate" that caused people to talk.
It happened to Madonna too. At the 1984 MTV Awards, then the young singer appeared performing her most recent hit, which also gave her name to her second album: “Like a virgin”.
The Michigan native didn't save anything. She had a staging that placed a huge wedding cake in the center of the stage and a suggestive wedding dress to which she tied a belt with the phrase TOY BOY.
After the minute of the song, Madonna takes the veil from her and takes it off her, she reveals her blonde hair, disheveled and disheveled that did not look like anything. She is not even the closest comparison to her, Cindy Lauper. She gets off the cake, she is contoured on the floor, she approaches the public, throws the bouquet to the respectable as if it were a real wedding (although without blatantly pointing to some of the "best"). She sensually plays with her veil, which by now is a mass of fabric that takes on a life of its own in the singer's hands as she sings "Liike a viirgin, feels so good inside."
Towards the end, she throws the veil to the ground, and squats on it, and contours as if she were having a night of those with the white cloth. She looks at the camera seductively. She has the whole world in her pocket. The audience rages in applause. She is already a phenomenon.
By now, it seemed that everything was going well in Madonna's life. But something would happen.
A man came to the studio set as Madonna filmed every scene in her new video clip. He was nicknamed the "new James Dean" and he was one of the new darlings of the Hollywood industry. He was coming off of acclaimed roles in Bad Boys (1983), as well as Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Taps, Beyond Honor (1981). We mean the native of Santa Monica, California, Sean Penn.
Penn, like all Americans, had already heard the first hits of Madonna, and had fallen in love with her when he saw her video clips, so he decided to go beyond her and meet her when he had a chance.
Recorded with producer Nile Rodgers, the man who had worked with David Bowie on Let’s dance (1983), Like a Virgin was a blow to the chin of the global music industry. One of the singles that had the highest rotation on the radio was “Material girl”, which had its respective (and suggestive) video clip with a nod to Marilyn Monroe from They Prefer Blondes. Thus, Madonna polished an eighties sex symbol image.
"I'm a kind of Marilyn Monroe from the 80s. Marilyn is my idol, along with Brigitte Bardot," Madonna herself said years later. The idea for the video was totally calculated by her. Like every step he took towards the long-awaited stardom. Of course there was something that she did not calculate.
When the video was finished, Madonna and Penn saw each other, and they immediately agreed to go on a date. The adventure began, though not in the way Penn expected. “At first the singer doesn't seem so interested in her (Penn's) fame. The relationship takes off slowly, because Madonna is more and more committed to the making of her new album, which takes place in 1984, ”says Francesco Falconi in his biography Crazy about Madonna. The Queen of Pop (Babelcube, 2016).
But the roads gradually began to merge. As a sign that he was serious, Penn traveled to meet Madonna's family in Detroit, and then the Californian took his parents to meet his daughter-in-law just as he went to Los Angeles for a recital.
By mid-1985 things were already consolidated, Madonna already had the world in her hand with melodious hits, blobs and dancers and she was in love with a young Hollywood heartthrob that she promised. It was a perfect story.
But it wouldn't last long.
Bullets at the wedding
The assigned date was August 16, 1985. It was chosen strategically, because that day Madonna was turning 27 years old, and the next day it would be Penn who would blow out the candles for her 25th birthday.
The guests to the event were carefully chosen from the cream of the crop of the American spectacle. Rosanna Arquette, David Letterman, Tom Cruise, Diane Keaton, Martin Sheen, Carrie Fisher, Cher, Christopher Walken and Andy Warhol were among the celebrities. The latter arrived with one of his paintings as a gift for the couple.
The place where they met was on Wildlife Road, a parcel owned by producer Kurt Unger, located on the slopes of a steep cliff overlooking the Malibu Sea.
There, under the golden warm August California sun, the couple Madonna and Sean Penn were united in civil and religious nuptials. The religious ceremony was brief and actor Timothy Hutton served as a witness.
Everything seemed calm. A natural, peaceful environment. The place was heavily guarded by bodyguards, as Sean did not want his wedding to be invaded by nimble pink press and paparazzi for any reason.
Among the bushes of the place, the bodyguards discovered hidden an Italian papparazzi and expelled him without regard and in a violent way.
But it wouldn't be the last violent thing to happen at the wedding.
Shortly after the civil link ended, from the sky a dry and gray noise alerted those present. The air was filled with uncertainty and tension.
Francesco Falconi points out in his biography that thirteen helicopters appeared in the skies over Malibu. They were the media and paparazzi who do not want to miss details of the event of the year. Madonna laughed amused, she seemed a total exaggeration, and true to her style, with her middle finger she dedicated her best wishes to the cameras.
From the sky, the agile media saw not only the "queen of Pop" showing them her middle finger, but also a message that someone had left on the beach sand in large letters to be visible: Fuck off. Something like "fuck you."
But Sean Penn didn't settle for posts in the sand or showing the middle finger at him. Furious, and driven by his fiery, strong, impulsive character, he made his way to the house and grabbed a pistol. With it, he fired a few shots at the devices to show his discontent.
Interestingly, Madonna did not seem to be bothered by this aspect of Penn's personality in those days. “Sean's temperament reminds me of my brothers. Wild, rebellious, they set fire to the storage room and threw stones at the windows. I always liked rebellious and weird guys! ”Said the woman from“ Like a prayer ”a few years later.
"A violent love struck us down"
Penn never changed his character. In his biography, Falconi says that more than once he faced paparazzi himself who dared to take a snapshot of the new marriage, and he was not exactly friendly.
“Sean Penn is often turned on by too much pressure from the paparazzi, and more than once he throws himself violently against the press. The complaints in his name are no longer counted on the fingers of one hand, ”says Falconi.
Even in April 1986, as revealed by People magazine, an event could happen to adults. Madonna and Penn went to a nightclub in Los Angeles, and at one point, the actor saw producer and songwriter David Wolinski greeting her wife, albeit very close to her. That made him furious and he attacked him with a chair.
This time, Penn was not unscathed and had to pay a fine. Shortly after, in August, the actor spat at a paparazzi who followed the couple out of their New York apartment near Central Park.
“When you are rich and famous all over the world, you cannot afford to walk the streets or dine in a restaurant without being assaulted by photographers. A concept as simple as it is unacceptable to Penn, that he has always fought (with obviously excessive methods) a battle against anyone who dared to violate his privacy, ”says Falconi.
It would not be the last time that Penn used a chair for purposes other than the originals.
Bouts of violence began to take their toll on the couple, in addition to Sean Penn's growing addiction to alcohol. Madonna, according to Falconi, began to suffer verbal and physical attacks.
But Madonna is Madonna, and if there is something that she does not accept so easily, it is defeat. Thus, she wanted the relationship to work and did everything for it. In fact, she dedicated her album True blue (1986) to her husband, where with rhythms closer to funk and Latin, she continued to make the tracks boil, with songs like “Papa don't preach” or “La isla bonita”, perhaps the great hit of that album and that brought a new boost to his musical career.
But Madonna wanted more. She and Penn filmed a movie called Adventures in Shanghai (1986). Despite filming three films previously, the singer had never studied acting, so her performance could not be the best. The film was a resounding failure. Then, she made another, called Who is that girl? (1987), which was also a disaster.
However, disasters accumulated not only on celluloid, but also in her private life. Sean Penn's beating record was soon overshadowed by something worse. In May 1987, Penn was checked by police for running a red light and speeding. The cause was obvious: alcohol consumption, and given the history of complaints against him, this time the actor could not avoid prison. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation.
For his good behavior behind bars, in the Mono County Jail (California), Penn received a reduction of the sentence and was only 30 days.
But when he returned home, nothing would be the same. Penn did not give up alcohol and his irascible nature remained untamed, in addition to starting extramarital affairs with other women. Everything exploded at the end of that 1987, the actor was not only aggressive, he also began to be possessive. It turns out that he forbade his wife to see her gay and lesbian friends, who Madonna used to hang out with years ago.
He had already put up with a lot. Madonna refused. The discussion became inevitable. Screams came and went, and there, according to Falconi, Penn drunk, tied Madonna to a chair and insulted her for hours. The diva managed to untie herself and she went to the police.
Around that Christmas, Sean Penn, a prisoner of jealousy, gave him an ultimatum: get away from show business forever, or separate.
Strictly speaking, the relationship was already broken, so it was not very difficult for Madonna to take the second option. They began the divorce process, which was finalized in 1989.
Years later, in 2015, Madonna publicly denied that Penn had tied and mistreated her, just at a time when the actor sued the director Lee Daniels for comments he made in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where he claimed that Penn was an abuser.
"I am aware of allegations that have arisen over the years accusing Sean of physically abusing me and abusing me. While it is true that we had more than one heated argument during our marriage, Sean has never hit, tied or abused me physically from me, and any information that says otherwise is totally false, outrageous, malicious and reckless, "said the diva.
After the break, both continued their lives and had second marriages. Madonna with filmmaker Guy Ritchie, in 2000 (although they divorced in 2008), and Penn with Forrest Gump's remembered "Jenny", Robin Wright, in 1996 (and they also separated, in 2010).
