"She probably thinks of (the book) as a desperate attempt for attention and money," says Christopher, his voice a mellifluous tenor that seems to rumble up from his toes. "And, ultimately, a betrayal. I think of it as a thesaurus - it's different ways of defining people and myself - and also as another piece of art.
"Other than that, there are two factions. People who hate me because they think I've betrayed their icon. And then the people who hate me because they think I haven't betrayed her enough. The other day, I was walking through a gay bar and I heard this guy whisper, 'Traitor!' It was pretty funny." "A certain kind of diva carries a gay man around like a handbag, like an accessory. And then once they find the right straight guy, they don't need a male companion any more."He won't elaborate, but later on says this: "Madonna isn't a cheapskate, she's very practical and pragmatic. However, like most people she has a tendency to give her money away with strings attached. She gets the best bang for her buck."http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/04/madonna-christopher-ciccone-interviewguardian.co.uk
The Observer
The interview: Christopher Ciccone
Once he was directing his sister Madonna's worldwide tours and designing her homes. Now he lives in a tiny LA flat, cut off by the megastar and branded a traitor by her fans after his bestselling book about their life together. Miranda Sawyer meets the banished brother
Miranda Sawyer and Gordon Agar
The Observer
Sunday 4 January 2009
'I was born my mother's son, but I will die my sister's brother." So says Christopher Ciccone in his book Life With My Sister Madonna. It's an unauthorised biography, one that
Madonna is reportedly unhappy about; it came out last summer and was yet another glitch in a tricky year for the Queen of Pop. She's a trouper and her career has been through worse patches. But despite the fact that her Sticky and Sweet tour was a hit (the highest-grossing tour of the year) and she was inducted into America's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it's the other stuff that we, and she, will remember about Madonna's 2008.
"2008? Well, she turned 50, there was the divorce with
Guy, the stuff with her kids and there was my book. All these things that she has no control over came crashing down at the same moment. And my sister," says Christopher, twisting his mouth, "is big on control."
We are in Los Angeles, at the home of a brother of a megastar. Christopher's apartment is in West Hollywood, a one-bedroom joint. It's surprisingly tiny and feels smaller: stuffed like a junk shop with heavy, antique furniture, piled up art books, umpteen family photographs and paintings, many done by Christopher.
The artist is ill in bed, struck down by a stomach complaint the night before our interview is scheduled. So I'm shown around by
Scott, one of his friends, who's over from Britain trying to launch himself as a presenter/actor. Scott, a very sweet chap, talks me through all of Christopher's work, including a series of photographs of men's behinds, which Scott thinks "predates that
Dazed & Confused vibe that's everywhere now". I'm not sure - they just look like snapshots of bottoms to me, though I do like his colourful, impressionistic paintings.
Anyway, I'm more interested in the family pics. Here's a young Madonna cuddling baby sister
Melanie; Madonna and Christopher looking minxy and fun; a formal portrait of
their mother, also called Madonna, who died when they were very young. Some of these photos appear in Christopher's book; he tells me his sister "went crazy" at their dad for giving permission for them to be printed.
Christopher, two years younger than his famous sibling, has not been in regular contact with Madonna for some time now. The last time he saw her, in 2006, she sent tickets for her Confessions show in Miami and made a point of dedicating a song to him: "It was quite a nice moment," he says now, "but it was my sister's way of publicly showing how kind she is to her family. It was calculated." They haven't spoken properly since. She didn't know he'd written his book; by the time she got wind of it, it was printed and only three weeks from being launched. She emailed Christopher just two words: "Call me." But he didn't.
Christopher receives me atop his bed, in pyjamas and striped silk gown, reclining on two enormous Versace pillows. A small picture of
Frida Kahlo is positioned so he can see it, for strength, I suppose. I interviewed Madonna a few years ago and Christopher resembles her: heart-shaped face, strong eyebrows, beautiful, curly-lashed eyes. He also shares her bluntness though lacks her charm. This might be because he's ill; he's definitely uncomfortable, cutting our chat short and generally seeming tense, especially when Madonna is discussed.
What an irony! You write a book about your sister to give yourself a separate identity. Then people interview you about it and, naturally, only talk about her. Which is what I do. What does she think of his book?
"She probably thinks of it as a desperate attempt for attention and money," says Christopher, his voice a mellifluous tenor that seems to rumble up from his toes. "And, ultimately, a betrayal. I think of it as a thesaurus - it's different ways of defining people and myself - and also as another piece of art.
"Other than that, there are two factions. People who hate me because they think I've betrayed their icon. And then the people who hate me because they think I haven't betrayed her enough. The other day, I was walking through a gay bar and I heard this guy whisper, 'Traitor!' It was pretty funny."
As adults, the pair were very close, much the tightest of the eight Ciccone brothers and sisters. They were born and brought up in Detroit, Michigan; Madonna the oldest girl, Christopher the second youngest boy, fifth-born. Their dad
Sylvio, known as Tony, married
Joan, the family housekeeper, after his first wife died, at 30, of breast cancer. Joan ran a strict household, trying to keep all the kids in order, a hard task, especially as the six older ones weren't hers.
Madonna's desire for fame and love is usually traced back to the loss of her mother when she was five. However, Christopher thinks that Joan hasn't got her dues. He says that as she gets older, Madonna has taken on much of their stepmother's sergeant-major tendencies, "insisting that everything has to be done her way, according to her timetable and that life must be lived by her rules".
When Madonna left home and started out in pop, in the Borderline-Lucky Star-Holiday mid-80s, Christopher was one of the two male dancers behind her. He performed at her early club dates. When she graduated to proper tours, he was her dresser. In the book, he seems embarrassed about this job, refusing to tell any of his friends. When I ask why, he says: "Well, technically, it was beneath me. I did it because she needed me, but it bred resentment. Not many people would have been able to deal with her stuff [she shouted at him a lot]."
You could see this as the fatal flaw in their relationship, for Christopher; he hated being subservient to his sister, but liked being needed by her and, like everyone else around her, enjoyed the perks.
Anyway, Christopher stopped being Madonna's dresser when he progressed to becoming director of her live shows,
Blond Ambition and
the Girlie Show, both of which were dazzling successes. He was also in charge of the interior decoration of all of her houses; plus, on and off, he lived with her, right through the
Sean Penn marriage and the
Warren Beatty interlude. For many years, Madonna's life was his life.
Rupert Everett wrote in his autobiography: "To know Madonna at all, you had to know Christopher. The one was incomprehensible without the other."
So how come they fell out? What happened? She dropped him. In 2001, Madonna appointed a different director - choreographer
Jamie King - for her
Drowned World tour and didn't tell Christopher. Around the same time, she married
Guy Ritchie, who nitpicked about her brother's interior work. And Christopher got into what he calls "partying", meaning going out and taking cocaine, a big no-no for Madonna.
"From the moment I found out that I wasn't doing
Drowned World, to her and Guy's wedding, everything became a bit of a blur, a dark, fairly negative period of time for me. You know, she was my family. I wasn't close to my other brothers and sisters, I moved out when I was 18 and moved to New York so... she was my family. Plus I'd come out of a 10-year relationship straight after
the Girlie Show. So losing that, losing her - I was kind of out there for the first time in 15 years by myself." His eyebrows furrow, he clasps his hands over his stomach.
For his part, Christopher began pulling away too. He was upset with Madonna for dispensing with his services; he disliked Guy Ritchie, who he thinks is homophobic (Christopher is gay); and, as he no longer worked with his sister, he realised he had to establish himself as a separate entity. He continued with his interiors, he directed pop videos, he designed T-shirts. But nothing hit the heights of what he'd achieved before.
So he wrote his book, which reached number two in the
New York Times non-fiction bestseller list and number one in the equialent UK list despite Christopher not doing many promotional interviews. Rumour has it that Madonna's people lent hard on US magazines and TV shows in order to curtail his press. To be honest, though, there's not much in the book for her to worry about. She goes to bed at 11pm every night! She gave Christopher his first ecstasy tablet! She wouldn't pay for her sister
Paula to come to her wedding! I suppose the very fact that he wrote it at all is enough to drive her bananas.
Christopher toyed with writing his story for years, but he knew he was still angry with Madonna and thought it would be unfair. It was only when he started therapy and (oh no!) studying kabbalah that he felt he could "look back on our work together and be proud of it and not hate her for dragging me through this".
What's interesting about that is that it was Madonna who strong-armed him into both. The therapy began because she was trying to force him into rehab for cocaine: instead, Christopher went to a doctor, who established that he was just a recreational user and recommended therapy. Madonna then sent a list of demands to Christopher's therapist, which says quite a lot. And she pressurised him into attending kabbalah meetings by refusing to pay him money she owed for his interior work unless he went along.
At kabbalah, he became friendly with
Demi Moore, who has since dropped him, too. Of her - and of Madonna - Christopher says grumpily: "A certain kind of diva carries a gay man around like a handbag, like an accessory. And then once they find the right straight guy, they don't need a male companion any more." He quite liked kabbalah, though. "There are great things about it, but the people who run it are not immune to the Hollywood celebrity thing. They'd like to think they are, but they treat celebrities better. When
Britney started running around the centre, I was like, 'OK, time for me to go'."
Christopher is naturally acerbic and there are some good stories in the book, with funny "partying" cameos from
Kate Moss,
Naomi Campbell,
Donatella Versace and
Courtney Love. He describes how Sean Penn makes him do a blood brother pact - cutting their palms and rubbing them together - and then, years later, rushes across at a party to ask Christopher if he has AIDS. And there's a Miami evening where several people, including
David Geffen, all play truth or dare. Every person, apart from Christopher, vows that if they could have sex with anyone in the room, it would be with Madonna. Even David Geffen, who likes men! "No, it didn't make me laugh," says Christopher sharply. "It made me feel ill."
His mood is darkening; he says we'll have to stop soon. So I ask him about his current projects. He's just finished some interior decoration work in Miami, is involved in a hotel project in Mexico City and it looks like he'll be directing a low-budget movie called
Twist: "Sex, drugs and murder in Orange County," he smiles.
These days, Christopher is just another LA hustler, talking up deals, trading on past glories, pitching for the future. There's nothing wrong with that - it's how the city works. But it must be hard when you've previously been whisked to the top tables, VIP'd at the best parties. Even - or especially - when you know it's only because of your more famous sibling. Maybe he should have pursued a career away from his sister, as the other Ciccones did.
"Yes, but she needed me, and I wanted to do it," he says. "Also, even though my brothers and sisters lead very regular lives, that still isn't easy for them. Because first, you compare yourself with Madonna and her success, and because you can't get there, you consider yourself some kind of a failure. And then there's the expectations of other people who know you're Madonna's brother, so why aren't you rich and famous?
"The life that she's chosen has had unintended consequences on all of our lives. And it's not as if she'd ever acknowledge that. Even with me, involved with her for 25 years... Madonna isn't big on recognising other people for their contribution."
It's clear that Madonna's sudden dropping of Christopher is not unusual for her, though it seems crueller as he is her brother. She's done it with other collaborators, musical or managerial. In fact, her only long-term US employee is press officer
Liz Rosenberg and even she might have blown it with her recent leaking of how much Madonna is paying Guy in the divorce settlement. A couple of weeks ago, Rosenberg gave different numbers to different publications. A joint release from Ritchie and Madonna was issued within a day, saying that all the figures were inaccurate. Oops.
Christopher is generous about the divorce, despite his feelings about Ritchie: "As much as I dislike Guy and as much as he may dislike me, I would never wish for the end of their marriage. Though, without getting into too much detail, Guy isn't quite the gentleman I thought he was trying to be. There are some myths running around about this amicable divorce stuff. It's not quite as sweet and clear-cut and dried..."
He won't elaborate, but later on says this: "Madonna isn't a cheapskate, she's very practical and pragmatic. However, like most people she has a tendency to give her money away with strings attached. She gets the best bang for her buck."
What about Christopher? Has he got the best bang for his buck? He won't say how much he was paid for his book, but it must have been good money. Was it worth it? By writing about Madonna, he's burnt umpteen bridges. "Oh yeah. It's a fine line to write a book of this nature," he says. "You can absolutely destroy your career. But I think because it's not a vicious book, then people are reading it, it's worthwhile. And more importantly, I didn't tear our family apart."
Do you miss her?
"I miss working with her, on her tours and in her houses. Madonna isn't a really buddy-buddy, palsy-around, slap-you-on-the-back, beer-at-the-pub kind of girl. Because we were all so focused on her, I now realise that she really didn't know me at all as a person. But I did some of my best work with her, and she did with me, and I miss that part of it.
"You know, it's interesting. By doing a book like this, you get to see who are really your friends and who just wants the seats in the restaurants, the connections with Madonna, the access to the tickets. Now, I have a small group of people who care about me and look after me and I know who they are and that's great. But I lost quite a few people who I thought were my friends. It made me feel vindicated on some levels about certain people. But in the end, it makes me feel lonely."
• Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone is published by Simon & Schuster, £17.99
Il Ciccone: Christopher's life
By Gordon Agar1960: Born 22 November in Bay City, Michigan, to Madonna Louise (who died of breast cancer, aged 30, in 1963) and Silvio "Tony" Ciccone. His siblings are
Martin,
Anthony, Madonna, Paula Mae, Melanie,
Jennifer and
Mario.
1980: Begins career as a dancer with Le Groupe de La Place Royale in Ottawa.
1982: Moves to New York; choreographs Madonna's
Everybody video.
1984: Appears as a backing dancer on Madonna's Lucky Star video.
1990: Artistic director of Madonna's $65m-grossing
Blond Ambition world tour, which included controversial depictions of sex and Catholicism.
1993: Designs and directs Madonna's Girlie Show world tour.
2003: Madonna dispenses with her brother's services, employing choreographer Jamie King to direct her Drowned World tour.
2008: In pre-production to direct serial killer thriller
Twist
