Eldergays! How did the media and public view the short-lived Madonna/Warren Beatty relationship?

She really was pretty for a bit. He dated her to boost interest in Dick Tracy. And vice versa.

Yeah, it was a DICK TRACY thing, mostly. You can see him in TRUTH OR DARE and he's really uncomfortable being in her world.

And M is obsessed with huge cocks, as we all know, and Beatty has one, yada yada.

No one payed much attention, OP.

“ I was only in nursery school at the time.” Guuuuurrrrllll.

And then he dumped her for the far more respectable and appropriate Annette Bening.

Sad. We saw it as sad.

That was for publicity, OP.

I think it upped her stock briefly at the time and even legitimized her and showed the world she could bag a leading man. I think it left more of a mark on her brand than people think. There were also rumors of Antonio Banderes.

He really dated her in free will??

I think it was publicity stunt

This was the beginning of the end for Warren. Between Dick Tracy, the Madonna affair and the bulworth movie, that was pretty much a wrap.

[quote]He dated her to boost interest in Dick Tracy. And vice versa.

There is no one, no one at all

Never has been and never will be a lover

Male or female

Who hasn't an eye on

In fact, they rely on

Tricks they can try on their partner

They're hoping their lover will help them or keep them

Support them, promote them

Don't blame them, you're the same!

Warren Beatty was about 80 at the time, so I'm sure he was flattered to be romantically paired with the gap-tooted strumpet.

R10 Madonna is like the kiss of death

R10 BULWORTH earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.

R13 - Only if you're immuno-compromised.

She looked her best back then. Who didn't Warren Beatty fuck...?

[quote] And M is obsessed with huge cocks, as we all know, and Beatty has one

Do you have some dick tracy to present to prove this assertion?

[quote]Who didn't Warren Beatty fuck...?

Not me!

I realize bulworth was critically acclaimed but it cemented his unseriousness and bookended his career imo.

Ha! One more notch on his public bedpost.

I bet half his "scores" are just as phony as this one was.

I think 2001's Town & Country was the nail on the coffin to Warren's career. It was promoted like hell and had an all-star cast. And it flopped catastrophically. He didn't make another movie (his very last) for another 15 years.

I do believe that they screwed, Weird though.

Town & Country was big budget, too. It cost $90 million and only grossed $10 million.

Madonna likes big cocks but wouldn't say average or small are deal breakers for Madonna. She use to have very BROAD taste in men.

[quote] He didn't make another movie (his very last) for another 15 years.

I might look dead, but I assure you I am not.

She did look her best then.

Supposedly this is him.

R27 that is him in the film Bonnie and Clyde.

Yes R27....After seeing him in Bonnie and Clyde, I had a huge crush on him for a while.

R27 Not him. Beatty studied Shirley’s career and was managing his own image and looks long before he was famous. He made a concerted effort to drink a quart of milk a day to bulk up his very thin frame when he was playing high school football.

He studied that the men in his family had early hair loss and he began with hair plugs in his mid 20s preventatively…so no one would ever notice his thinning hair.

He was very calculated about everything, including leading William Inge on until Inge wrote Splendor in the Grass for him. Posing with his cock out was not goi g to happen.

R30 I'm pretty sure R27 is a still of him in Bonnie and Clyde.

I waited on them in Barneys when they were dating. They were having a fight. Well she was…he was just quiet. I’m sure I’ve told this story here before, but could have been years ago. I’ll be back online later and go into detail if anyone wants me to.

Please do R32

R31 Yes, of course the still from Bonnie and Clyde is legit…but there are other photos in that blog R27 posted that purport to be him nude, and that is ridiculous.

Warren Beatty fucked all of the beauties in Hollywood (Natalie Wood, Julie Christie, etc...). Madonna wasn't as pretty as those women, but she was younger and hip at the time. So Warren did her to try to feel Young. Warren Beatty was a beautiful man in his youth. And he aged well for quite a while.

I'm sure he would like us to believe so, R35.

Or why else cast him at all?

R13 she's like a singing Goldfinger.

[quote] After seeing him in Bonnie and Clyde, I had a huge crush on him for a while.

Clyde Barrow was supposedly bisexual (although more than likely just gay as he was "impotent" with Bonnie). Bastards cut all that shit from the movie. Fuckers.

Supposedly Shirley was not happy with the coupling. Someone came up to her at a function and making a joke, asked her how she felt about her soon to be sister in law, and she exploded at them.

[quote]His rep preceded him, and that was the point.

Madonna pretty much confirmed this in her 1992 interview with Jonathan Ross. She also pointed out that many of the women he was involved with similarly weren't interested in being tied down in a traditional relationship type way.

[quote] Someone came up to her at a function and making a joke, asked her how she felt about her soon to be sister in law, and she exploded at them.

In Christopher Ciccone's book, he talks about asking Warren about Shirley and Warren sighing and saying: "We live in different worlds."

I love the eldertroll in the comments in r27’s link named “Robert” leaving snarky replies no one will ever see

No one cared anything about it, just as no one cares anything about it now.

Madonna and Joan Collins supposedly chatted all night at Swifty Lazar's Oscar party. Perhaps they were comparing notes on Warren's techniques.

Madonna looks like she was in the middle of painting a picture when she ended up in that party above!

I lived in the Hollywood hills a couple of houses away from actor/playwright (Company) George Furth. George used to let his dog off it's leash, giving him an excuse to bang on my door or wander around my rented property in search of his dog. George was always drunk and would ask me out. I only knew him as a kind of "B" Tony Randall TV actor so I said no. One day he asked me to dinner at his house with some friends he had just finished making a movie with. Those friends turned out to be Warren Beaty, Julie Christy, Goldie Hawn, and Lee Grant. The movie was Shampoo. Turns out George went to Northwestern Univ. with Warren and Ann Margaret. George had carried a silent torch since college for Mr. Beaty. He told me Warren flirted outrageously (never put out) with anyone he thought could advance his career. Not long after the dinner I was hired by Arnold Steiffle, George's agent to be a kind of companion/enabler for George and his binge drinking adventures with hustlers and other riff raffs he'd pick up at movie and theater events. I moved into the guest house on his property and drew a good salary for 3-4 years while I attended art school. BTW My favorite guest at the dinner party was Lee Grant who told me she hadn't slept in seven years!

R32 yes please write every detail you can remember :)

as Bethenny would say:

OP is an "eldgergay" himself. No one else would even bring this up.

[quote]He told me Warren flirted outrageously (never put out) with anyone he thought could advance his career.

So there's the point of commonality with Warren and Madonna then.

[quote] BTW My favorite guest at the dinner party was Lee Grant who told me she hadn't slept in seven years!

Agreed, Grant sounds like the most interesting one in that bunch by far. BTW, it's Beatty and Ann-Margret. Not oh-dearing you, but just want to save you any embarrassment when you publish your memoirs.

given Madonna's obsession with old hollywood, I wonder if some of her decision to enter into a relationship with Beatty was knowing that she'd be sexing the same man that some famous women she idolized/watched while growing up had done before her. She's freaky enough to get off on that sort of thing and thinking that she now had a real physical connection to old hollywood through swapping bodily fluids.

That's actually not that outlandish a theory, R50!

Ewww r50

I wonder what he thought of her Sex Book

R51 did she ever "borrow" ideas/fashion any of the women that Beatty had been with before her?

R38 that isn't true. No historian believes he was homosexual. There is no evidence whatsoever. He had several girlfriends prior to meeting Bonnie at age 20 and was with her for the next four years, until they were finally ambushed. That gay rumor may have started because he was sexually assaulted in prison by a much larger, older inmate (Ed Crowder). Clyde was age 20-22 during his two-year stint and rather boyish. He eventually bludgeoned his assailant to death, his first murder.

That gay rumor was popularized in John Toland's 1962 bestseller THE DILLINGER DAYS, which was a sensationalistic account of the Public Enemy Era (1931-1935). It included a chapter on Bonnie & Clyde, which described them in the most heinous manner possible, including that Clyde was a depraved homosexual and Bonnie a raging nymphomaniac who couldn't be satisfy each other. So they turned to murder.

Needless to say, that book has long since been debunked by historians, but it did inspire screenwriters David Newman and Robert Benton to write BONNIE AND CLYDE, They initially wrote Clyde as bisexual and Bonnie as a nympho. They were both to be satisfied by Barrow Gang member C.W. Moss (composite of W.D. Jones and Henry Methvin) who was initially envisioned as a hunky football jock type. Both Jones and Methvin were attractive men, but they had no such role in the gang. However, they did fuck Bonnie's sister (Billie Jean) at different times, but they were never in the gang at the same time. In fact, Methvin (whose father betrayed B&C) replaced Jones after the latter departed and was soon arrested.

Anyway, after Newman & Benton got rid of the bisexual/threesome angle (upon the request of director Arthur Penn) they invented Clyde's impotence (he wasn't in real life) as a way to give the couple something to overcome over the course of the film. It also allowed them to use guns, fast cars, and cigars as very obvious phallic symbols.

According to Madonna's brother, Warren proposed to her but she was undecided. He also said he saw Warren rummaging through her garbage looking for evidence of her cheating on him...I have a feeling it was very transactional for her but Warren thought he could score a pretty and much younger woman as his wife.

R55 - the ghost of Pauline Kael

Well r56 Madonna's brother (Christopher) is a born again Catholic gay former coke whore who is not a reliable source.

It was viewed as legit, sort of. She got an ego boost dating a legendary lover and he got a boost dating a global megastar. They seemed genuinely if only briefly interested in each other.

Warren was sooooo over the hill that nobody gave a shit. Madonna may have thought she was climbing the movie social ladder, but NO, absolutely not. None of this had anything to do with Warren's short 50+ year old dick.

The relationship got a lot of media attention.

It was boring. She tried to pretend she was jealous of Joan Collins once.

Sean Penn was ugly, Beatty was old. Madonna’s love life was underwhelming until Carlos and Guy, and that was pretty much the peak for her.

She once tried to pretend she was jealous of Joan Collins for her past relationship with Beatty.

It was everywhere back then And Madonna had just divorced Sean Penn too

Madonna's dominance and the mania that surrounded her from 1989-1992 was something I still haven't seen in pop culture since

PR for the movie they both were starring in Dick Tracy. 🙄

R55, that's marvelous info, thank you for sharing

we yawned.

They definitely had raging Monkey sex, but it was mutually beneficial, the nonstop publicity promoted both their careers, and the Dick Tracy film at the time. When the movie was finally released and the hype cooled down, they then went their separate ways...

Madonna told Jonathan Ross that Beatty was the "right man at the wrong time", apparently.

I (and I suspect a lot of folks) thought it was just PR until he showed up in Truth or Dare. They were definitely fucking/dating, although it didn't seem like a serious committed relationship. He clearly knew her well though and had a good understanding of what made her tick.

Tony Ward was after Beatty? Or was it Vanilla Ice.....she certainly had a type......'cock'

In his biography of Beatty, Peter Biskind points to Madonna as the reason he married Annette Bening.

Apparently when he and Madonna were together, she and her friends harped relentlessly on his age, and really gave him a complex about it--he could barely keep up with her. By the time she was done with him, he had decided maybe he really was too old for this shit. Then there was also the fact that some of his old cronies like Jack Nicholson had settled down again and started new families. By the time Bening entered his life, he was primed for change. He did a thorough background check on her, and the rest is history. Biskind doesn't denigrate Bening but it's pretty clear she's the one who got the ring because Beatty had reached the point where he thought a ring was his best bet. It could have been someone else, but it happened to be her.

(Biskind also says Julie Christie was The One.)

r45, I love George Furth and I love that story.

r61 I forgot how tacky and ridiculous magazine captions used to be.

The Dick Tracy era platinum perm-bob was a lewk.

r8 I never found Antonio Banderas attractive, or understood any of the hype around him.

R61, that People cover was publicity for the Dick Tracy film, promotion by a publicist. Few went to see the movie because they cared about the "romance" between the two.

R74 Hold my beer…

R33 OK, here’s my Madonna / Warren story. She had been a fairly frequent visitor to Barneys during that era. (This was before the 660 Madison Avenue store opened.)

A lot of celebrities liked the store because it had some exclusives with designers and also showcased a lot of new designers. Plus, it was downtown so it was never very crowded (crowds were for the annual warehouse sale in the warehouse down the street) and it had a very low-key, cool vibe at that time.

But I don’t think Warren had ever been there until Madonna introduced him to it. She was generally a very fast and no nonsense shopper and knew what she wanted before she came in and just bought things without trying them on. Anyway, I was working on a Sunday in late Spring or early Summer of 1990. It was around the time Dick Tracy had opened so they were probably doing a lot of press.

Sundays were always dead at the store, especially early in the day and in nice weather. The store had just opened (noon) and I was hanging out with my friend on her floor in the women’s store. The elevator opened and two people came out. We were on the other side of the floor but could see everything because the floors were round and there was a huge open circular staircase in the center of the floor. The woman practically ran over to the Azzedine Alaina section while the man stayed several steps behind, in no hurry. There was tension crackling off of her. Live wire. My friend mouthed to be “Madonna and Warren.”

Madonna grabbed a black dress and made a beeline for the fitting room. I swear she was out of her clothes and in the Alaia in 15 seconds.

She came out, stood in place, looked at Warren and hissed/yelled “IS THIS BETTER?!” He didn’t answer, just stood there with a bemused (or maybe, perplexed) look on his face. My friend rang her up very quickly while I went into the fitting room and put her discarded dress—another Alaia—in a bag. I went behind the register and said “would you like to take what you were wearing with you, or should we send it somewhere?”

She looked at me and said, “Would I like to take what I was wearing? no. Just throw away what I was wearing. She was scary but she clearly said this for Warren’s benefit. Then they left. I believe we later did send the offending dress back to her place on Central Park West.

Not long after that, maybe in Fall 1990, Warren came in with Stephanie Seymour and he was downright SMITTEN with her. Completely different vibe than he had been with Madonna. He was like a puppydog. Stephanie had a potency…she exuded sex appeal and knew it. Men were so distracted by her they walked into walls when she was around.

Warren saw a guy he knew and he was stumbling over himself to introduce Stephanie to him. I got the impression he would have ignored the guy had he been alone. But he was beaming and dying to show her off. He only said, “This is Stephanie,” but the subtext was ‘isn’t she the hottest thing you’ve ever seen?? And she’s with ME!’

Stephanie dated a lot of old men didn't she? Wonder why it didn't work out between her and Warren

Antonio was HAF. Sexy man, great actor in the Almodovar films.

I don't get the hate for Sean Penn's looks. He's a violent asshole but was pretty cute in that rough looking way when he was with Madge.

R81 Yes…From Bad Boys to At Close Range, I found him very hot.

R81 At times he can look like Popeye. He can be so charming yet such a cunt as well.

I remember wondering why Madonna would succumb to WB’s charms and be just another woman on his list, but then in Truth or Dare, I saw that he was kind of a yin to her yang.

R81 wtf? with that huge nose there's nothing cute there

Before Madonna, Warren was with Isabelle Adjani and they'd look for women to have threesomes. Fran Drescher being one of them. I wonder if Warren and Madonna did that as well.

Here they are years after their break up.

Does Sean Penn have a big dick (of course he *is* a big dick)? You would think so with all the women he's been with (and Madonna never truly getting over him) but I've never seen a bulge at all.

[Quote] Biskind also says Julie Christie was The One.

I wonder if the feeling was mutual. Wikipedia says their relationship ended in 1974, but they made two more movies together after that -- Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). I think the latter was their goodbye to each other, and her goodbye to Hollywood. She moved back to England and has been with journalist Duncan Campbell since 1979.

R84, Warren Beatty's "charms" at that point were akin to seriously warm oatmeal.

[quote]Does Sean Penn have a big dick... You would think so with all the women he's been with

Are you serious, R87? Women don't choose men because of dick size, is this a new concept for you?

R54, in "Truth or Dare," Madonna mentioned that Warren had an encounter with Edie Sedgwick, as Madonna was being styled as Edie Sedgwick by her hair & makeup team..

Beatty claimed to have had a one night stand with Sedgwick in a NY hotel and spent the next morning watching the historical moon landing. The moon landing, though, was on July 20, 1969, long after Edie had parted ways with Warhol & Co and returned to California. So perhaps Beatty misremembered the events.

R91 Edie was also a mess by then…ravaged by heroin. I don’t think she would have been a very good fuck. 1965 and 1966 Edie, for sure.

R91 I can totally picture Madonna getting off on pretending to be in old hollywood while parading around with someone who was a part of that generation. I wonder if Madonna ever bought clothes/jewelry from the estates of dead old hollywood starlets

r90 So all these women who chose Sean Penn were just stupid?

[quote] Women don't choose men because of dick size

Says who?

I, a member of the public and a big M fan at the time, was a tween during this romance. I was very meh on Beatty & thought Madonna could do better, younger & hipper.

[quote]Beatty claimed to have had a one night stand with Sedgwick in a NY hotel and spent the next morning watching the historical moon landing.

In the late 1980s, Beatty claimed to be developing a biopic of Sedgwick, which is how he lured the teenage Molly Ringwald, offering her the lead.

[quote]So all these women who chose Sean Penn were just stupid?

He's a movie star, even the fugliest movie stars can get women. Otherwise, he must have dropped trou for all potential dates I'm sure.

At that time, Madonna and Warren getting together was so inevitable. And boring.

They made a movie (Dick Tracy) and she used him for publicity in general. That’s all. Should be taught in schools as it is important American history OP. Right?

Poor Annette Bening. She was a promising up-and-comer when she likely thought she landed the Golden Ticket with Warren. Only then to discover it was cheap Gold Leaf instead.

It’s hard to believe him and Bening have been together 30 years. I’m sure Warrens horndog ways didn’t just evaporate after marrying her. I’ve always wondered if they have an open relationship.

[quote]Madonna's dominance and the mania that surrounded her from 1989-1992 was something I still haven't seen in pop culture since

That kind of fame doesn't exist anymore.

Dick Tracy was hyped to hell and back it was the big summer movie of 1990.

It's totally forgotten today.

Oh honey, it was totally forgotten then too.

I forgot it almost immediately, R104.

I forgot it while I was watching it!

[quote] Dick Tracy was hyped to hell and back it was the big summer movie of 1990.

It was intended to be the big summer movie of 1990.

We might snark on Ghost today, but I'd love to see a completely unexpected, non-franchise movie dominate the summer box office like that again.

Even way back then, Warren Beatty seemed like such an old man.

He was tired, R109. And drained of vitality, as it were.

"And drained of vitality"

They don't call me the Black Widow of Sex for nothing

R111 - And there's only so many time a proper English lady will accept catching Chlamydia from her boyfriend.

Their film, Dick Tracy is streaming on Tubi. It has an all star cast and no expense was spared on the art direction and costumes. It is unwatchable now and I found it unwatchable back then. I can't make it past the scene in the garage without losing interest.

[quote] (Biskind also says Julie Christie was The One.)

That would have been an interesting marriage.

My understanding is that Julie Christie is a huge bookworm, and far more interested in fiction than in husbands or boyfriends.

[quote]And then he dumped her for the far more respectable and appropriate Annette Bening.

And presumably literate and conversant.

[quote] So all these women who chose Sean Penn were just stupid?

Sean Penn has a huge dick and big muscles.

Beatty was a mumbling minimalist on and off screen. In his youth he was Clift-Brandoesque. After 45 he was simply an old man who rarely talked coherently - that boyish stare thing didn't age well. After his great achievement, Reds (1981), there was little quality left.

[quote] And presumably literate and conversant.

I can read, you know! And I can also talk!

^ Stop being reductive, Madonna

Self-promotion, pure and simple.

R76, Antonio looked amazing in the early Almodovar movies. I say that as someone who never found him hot in American movies

"And M is obsessed with huge cocks, as we all know, and Beatty has one, yada yada."

Actually, Beatty is supposed to have a fairly average cock. Which is surprising given such a man-whore he is.

Wait, did Warren Beatty fuck Antonio Banderas too?!

There was an enormous amount of energy forcing the public to pay attention to this project. Forced

What does having a big one have to do with being a whore, R122? Gay whores don't even have big ones.

Shirley had the big cock in that family. She got it in another life but refused to let it. go.

Speaking of Molly Ringwald, didn't that cokehead Julia Phillips seem to imply in her memoir that Warren was fucking her at one point? Julia said she saw them at dinner together and noted how unbelievable it was Warren avoided jail time. It would have been around 1987, which is when Molly was seriously dating Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys.

The only conclusion I draw from this is personal puzzlement at how Molly pulled men so out of her league. Was it her bee stung lips?

Phillips was such a sleaze. She was just gross.

R128 True, but that memoir is a fucking hoot. She clearly had some personal scores to settle. Poor Goldie Hawn and her BO...

R128, Julia Phillips was and is a DL ICON! David Ehrenstein used to trash her here just to piss us off!

She was still a sleazy, gross person r130

^ David Ehrenstein

Phil Donahue began his interview with Beatty listing his extensive credits then said, "So did you sleep with Madonna". It got a huge laugh.

I was a teenager at the time and Warren Beatty was an old relic even then, people my age barely knew who he was and we wondered why this old fart was.

As a matter of fact, people my age really didn't even know who Dick Tracy was. The movie was forgotten almost as soon as it came out.

I meant "and we wondered why this old fart was playing Dick Tracy."

I think I posted this before, maybe not. My ex was a VP at Disney then, and Warren was a pain in the ass. Not rude, but it took him forever to make up his mind about anything.

All of the theater materials were so long overdue it was costing a fortune, and they sent my ex to his house and said don't leave until Warren approves everything. A fairly modest house, no furniture in the living room but a card table.

So they are going over movie posters, lobby cards, etc. and all Warren could say was do I look more handsome in this one or that? After a couple hours, he wanted to get the hell out. One of the potential lobby cards pics was his stunt double (which Warren couldn't tell), and Warren said I look great in this one! Ex agreed, lol.

We later went to the screening at the Director's Guild, and 2 seats are roped off. Right before the movie starts, in walks Warren and Jack Nicholson, both wearing sunglasses which they never took off. They exited a couple times during the movie to smoke pot.

Oh, and you couldn't give away the Dick Tracy merch. They were even attempting to sell the hideous yellow overcoats at Macy's. I did keep a couple of the pins that were never approved because they were considered too violent.

Warren Beatty probably has 4 of 5 feature film directing credits under his belt, and many years in-between. Compared to fellow actor-directors like Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood, that's not a lot. He is supposedly frustratingly indecisive, which slows down production to a halt. I remember when he was doing press tours for Dick Tracy, he was a mind-numbing bore, pondering and calculating every questioned lobbed at him, taking his sweet time articulating his thoughts, turning questions back at the interviewer, and being very reticent to say anything revealing. It must've been a challenge for Madonna, who is notoriously impatient, demanding, forthright, and always on the move.

*4 OR 5

@r136, "A fairly modest house, no furniture in the living room but a card table. "

But, damn, what a bedroom, huh? 😜

@r137, "Madonna, who is notoriously impatient, demanding, forthright, and always on the move. "

Ya think?

R104 Like all Madonna movies after all.

It is barely remembered that there was a time she tried to be an actress.

The movie was boring: horribly stagey, and hokey, with no genuine emotion to it. It felt like a stunt. Same as Madge and Beatty.

R141, I think it's the opposite. I think loads of people remember Madonna trying to be an actress because she was relentless despite the fact that she was so BAD at it (since she refuses to take direction and only gives it).

[quote]He is supposedly frustratingly indecisive,

If only.

Fun story, R45.

I looked up Furth and found this other connection to Beatty.

Warren Beatty is gross

[quote]They were both to be satisfied by Barrow Gang member C.W. Moss (composite of W.D. Jones and Henry Methvin) who was initially envisioned as a hunky football jock type. Both Jones and Methvin were attractive men, but they had no such role in the gang.

Gee, I wonder where Newman and Benton got the idea to put Barrow and Jones in a sexual relationship, R55.

Beatty was already a decade past even the afterglow of his prime when he and Madonna got together. Madonna was at the zenith of her influence in 1990 and Beatty got to enjoy some status as an older stud so their pairing was mutually beneficial. Once their “relationship” ended Beatty pretty much faded away immediately and Madge went full throttle attempting career suicide with her Sex era.

Even Julia Phillips was awed by Madonna's star wattage which outshone Beatty. Phillips wrote Madonna was dismissive when introduced.

Rolling Stone thought their dating was important enough to merit an article. In the article Beatty is reported to have said to a friend, “I’m dating Madonna!”

If M had not "dated" the geezer, she would not have been hired for that role. Sean Young got into trouble because she couldn't date to advance or maintain her career.

Madonna is a movie killer!

R137 - good post, and absolutely true. Warren must have rec'd some training because he was much more coherent as I remember when promoting Bugsy or maybe Love Affair, a few years later. Though I laughed out loud at the fuzz on the lens and careful backlighting when he appeared on Larry King.

One of my favorite Beatty pics, there's a series of them, after a performance of Barefoot in the Park on Broadway. Notice they're lined up by height:

R150 not just an article but an entire cover story.

[quote]Rolling Stone thought their dating was important enough to merit an article

R150, the truth is Rolling Stone thought DICK TRACY was an important enough movie to accept publicist bullshit and print an article for a cover story. It was pure movie promotion, not "oh my, Warren and Madonna, how hot!" Don't you realize how these things are done?

R155 The cover story was titled “How Madonna’s DICK keeps it up,” or something. Beatty might’ve been in the cover alone but the story was about their relationship. If he were dating Gleane Hedley, he would not have been on the cover.

Regarding Annette Bening, Warren Beatty had his eye on Michelle Pfeiffer for a while. He tried to get her for both Dick Tracy and Bugsy (and would've surely put the moves on her). Ionically, Pfeiffer got the Catwoman role (which Madonna said recently she turned down) after Bening became pregnant with Beatty's kid and had to drop out.

It all sounds as if Beatty was like "Well, I'm ready for a family. You'll have to do, I guess". Not very romantic but hey, it's lasted.

[quote]Who didn't Warren Beatty fuck...?

Who didn't Madonna fuck..!!? She's not called The Tunnel for nothing.

[quote]If he were dating Gleane Hedley, he would not have been on the cover.

And if there was no Dick Tracy, neither would be on the cover.

R127 I don't understand Phillips' comment. Was she saying she couldn't believe Beatty avoided jail time for bring with Ringwald? Molly would have been 18 or 19 at the time. Or was she referring to something else?

[quote]Speaking of Molly Ringwald, didn't that cokehead Julia Phillips seem to imply in her memoir that Warren was fucking her at one point?

That's what I meant earlier about Beatty luring her to him with the Sedgwick role as bait. They were seeing each other and it wasn't much of a secret even then. Interviewers still ask her about it in a matter-of-fact way.

[quote]It all sounds as if Beatty was like "Well, I'm ready for a family. You'll have to do, I guess". Not very romantic but hey, it's lasted.

That's exactly what it was. Biskind says Beatty even conducted a background check on Annette because he wanted to know about her family and what he'd be getting himself into with her.

The 'ready to settle down' thing is pretty typical for players in that age range when they realize they can't pull the 19-year-olds at the club anymore. Leo DiCaprio will probably do it in the next 5 years. With all that said, he and Bening seem to be a decent match, similar politics and all that. No drama at all from them except for the trans kid. And Annette hasn't made herself into a plastic surgery freak show trying to look younger. He must be okay with it.

[quote]Leo DiCaprio will probably do it in the next 5 years.

In Leo's case it will be a beard because unlike Warren Beatty he isn't straight.

I believe the Barney's story upthread. It seemed like Warren and Madonna argued a lot. In Truth or Dare she hangs up on him for being late to the Dick Tracey premier.

I remember being ten years old, and thinking Beatty was tainting himself and his legacy.

It seemed very temporary.

It was an arranged, hate/hate relationship.

Pretty sure he married Benin’s because she got pregnant (which wasn’t exactly planned) and was gonna keep it no matter what. So basically because he had to.

I was I think 12 when they were “a couple” and even then I knew it was all PR for the movie. I remember that Donahue “did you sleep with Madonna” thing too, it was funny.

I also remember that scene in Truth or Dare where Beatty says “is everything you do for the cameras?”

[quote]given Madonna's obsession with old hollywood, I wonder if some of her decision to enter into a relationship with Beatty was knowing that she'd be sexing the same man that some famous women she idolized/watched while growing up had done before her. She's freaky enough to get off on that sort of thing and thinking that she now had a real physical connection to old hollywood through swapping bodily fluids.

Is that why she briefly dated JFK, Jr. in the late '80s, much to Jackie's dismay? (She was really into Marilyn Monroe back then.) This was the period after Madonna's divorce from Sean Penn but before she hooked up with Warren Beatty; and just before John-John was the rebound for Sarah Jessica Parker, after her breakup with Robert Downey, Jr. due to his drugs issue.

I just realized, the above paragraph makes it sound like I'm name-dropping. 😂

Warren is a fruit. She cruised us in an Italian restaurant in Bel Air in late 1990s.

Warren Beatty was the Hollywood Casanova when he,was young, he was beautiful and fine, and he knew it. Everybody gets old. :-)

A rose will bloom

It then will fade

So does the youth

So does the fairest maid

I wonder if Madonna and Warren have spoken to each other at any point in the last 25 years.

^ Well, there was that one time Warren called Madonna looking for his dentures that he thought might be in her pussy

r173 see r86

Tell me about your boyfriend Tony Ward. Is it true he has an ass you can serve drinks off of? Well, I’ve never been served a drink off his ass. But he does have a great ass.

How big is his dick? I don’t know. I haven’t measured it, but it’s big enough for me.

Does size matter to you? No.

Tell me about Warren Beatty. How big is his dick? Once again, I haven’t measured it, but it’s a perfectly wonderful size.

^ She looked great during this era.

R176 Madonna gallantly praise all their dicks

R177 unfortunately she’s still that age in her mind, and the plastic surgery and antics have become worse.

I was about 10 years old, and Dick Tracy was the first time I heard of Warren Beatty.

I thought he was pathetic for cavorting about with Madonna. Like a sad old man.

Imagine my eye rolls when he made Bullworth.

They used each other for their own purposes. He reinforced his reputation as the ultimate Hollywood ladies man. She gained "respectability" as an actress co-staring opposite WB and bedding him. (The producers were likely thrilled as it was good box-office.) It likely helped her more than him and paved the way for Evita.

Beatty made some great films: Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo, Bugsy- and was one of the best looking men ever in film. He was also a serious Democratic Party activist and fundraiser. Very smart, private and vain. I think his vanity kind of ruined his acting as he aged. Still a fascinating man, much much more than a handsome hunk. Reds would have been a great instead of good film if Christie was cast rather than Keaton. Just showed you how relationship drama can trump hood work.

I liked him even in his cheesy big hair sex bomb days.

Thank you, R183.

Now I want to be a sex. bomb too.

He was sex on a stick back in the day

I never thought he was stunningly handsome. Nice looking, but not gorgeous.

He looked pretty rough by Dick Tracy, and I hate shoe polish hair color on men.

"Speaking of Molly Ringwald, didn't that cokehead Julia Phillips seem to imply in her memoir that Warren was fucking her at one point? Julia said she saw them at dinner together and noted how unbelievable it was Warren avoided jail time. It would have been around 1987, which is when Molly was seriously dating Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys."

Wasn't Warren Beatty somehow involved with the film "The Breakup Artist," starring Molly and Rbt. Downey Jr.? That was around the same time. Maybe it was just a boring business dinner? What was up Julia's twat?

I'm the one that posted about my ex and Warren. He was very flirty with women and men- not that I'm saying he did anything with guys.

I remember him asking if we wanted a signed photo (like my ex ever wanted to think of him again) and I said no, meeting him was honor enough and he gave me a big hug.

Looking at R183's I see the resemblance to Shirley.

I was 10 when Dick Tracy came out and I loved it and the 'I'm Breathless' soundtrack. I even had a Dick Tracy t-shirt. I watched it again last year and it is mediocre. Beatty was way too old, it was obviously a vanity project. There is a scene where he jumps out a window, grabs onto a streetlamp and slides down. I don't think so, Grandpa.

Ha! Probably the same stunt double Warren thought was him in a picture.

Maybe Dick Tracy could've worked if it had starred a young actor and not geezer Beatty.

Dick Tracy had beautiful songs by Sondheim.

You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive Well you said that we made such a pretty pair and that you would never leave But you gave away the things you loved And one of them was me I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee clouds in my coffee and You're so varicose veined.

R191, you're right. The scene I'm talking about (he jumps off a building onto a streetlamp then on top of a car) is in the first minute of this video, it's the stunt double.

And that was the lobby card picture. I only remembered Warren with an explosion or fire behind him. Lol.

I watched Dick Tracy during lockdown and it was much better than I remember. Madonna was still a little bit stiff but she wasn't bad. The art direction was fantastic. And Glenne Headley was wonderful. I like Sean Young but Beatty was right to replace her with Headley.

Madonna's I'm Breathless album, a quasi-soundtrack album, is really terrific. She seemed to capture the character of Breathless Mahoney better in song than on film.

Movie killer!

I tried watching Bugsy for the first time a few months ago and made it about 1/3 of the way through. It was boring and looked cheap. I think there's a reason it's not a classic.

R176 - thank you so much for posting that! I had never read that interview before, I thought it was fantastic! This is the Madonna I think I enjoy the most, despite her being cold and bitchy at times during that period, she was so interesting to read. Kinda like how I enjoy that interview where she defends "Justify My Love" as well.

I wonder what the mood at the time towards this interview was, if people did notice it (possibly not as it was a gay magazine?)? Because some of the things she says there and the topics they cover would have people up in arms [italic]today[/italic] - things like childhood sexual desires, her having sexual contact with other girls at 7 or 8, the relation of family and sex... just a really interesting interview all up.

I do remember that picture, not sure where I saw it when younger, but it must've been before puberty really took off in me, because I remember just feeling kinda thrilled by the guy with his jeans open, and also a bit of fear too - both due I guess to me wondering why I was feeling the way I was looking at him, but also reflected in Madonna's expression. As an adult, I can see the funny intention of that picture, as a kid I remember it did seem somehow dangerous, not knowing any better at the time.

I enjoyed reading that a lot more than the Carrie Fisher interview from around the same time. I would say now the most interesting Madonna interviews to me are from that period: The Nightline interview re: Justify My Love, this Advocate interview, and the Jonathan Ross interview to promote Erotica.

R145 I loved your anecdote. I have met/spoken with Lee twice in the last few years. She is VERY old and VERY tiny. Same hair (wig). She said she and Warren fucked during Shampoo, which I do not believe, I think she just wanted to sound desirable and like an insider. She also said after the blacklist when she was testing for Peyton Place she shaved ten years off her age and before shooting began she had her first facelift.

R188 It was The Pick-up Artist. Their location person scouted my store on Columbus and 73rd in early 1987. It was mega-sleaze James Toback’s film but his buddy Warren Beatty was the producer. The location scouted dropped Beatty’s name to me a half dozen times.

That is when the Molly Ringwald connection began. It didn’t last long.

About a year later I was at an Urban Blight concert and was seated at a cocktail table next to Molly Ringwald and Ad-Rock. He was extremely cute and she had great posture and a lot of presence.

R180 “Imagine my eye rolls when he made Bullworth.”

I have been trying repeatedly since last Wednesday to imagine them…and I am just incapable of it. I feel terrible. Please consider describing them.

R183, he looks awful in that pic. Beatty was far more appealing in his youth:

"And one of them was me I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee clouds in my coffee and You're so varicose veined."

That is pretty funny. But the reality was that Carly was not shrinking violet herself. She slept with whomever she wanted. Beatty, Cat Stevens, Kris Kristofferson, Mick Jagger, James Taylor (of course), Crosby, Stills and Nash, maybe David Geffen (he claimed to be bi at the time and he was one of the three people she said You're So Vain was based upon). I mean, I don't blame her at all (except for David Crosby, yuck). By the way, I LOVE Carly.

[quote]R101 Poor Annette Bening. She was a promising up-and-comer when she likely thought she landed the Golden Ticket with Warren. Only then to discover it was cheap Gold Leaf instead.

And their kid she was carrying cost her the role of Catwoman in Batman Returns. That killed her career momentum for a long time.