Granted, many of the recently leaked Madonna outtakes from Steven Klein leave a lot to be desired artistically and aesthetically—if only because we know both creative forces are capable of, and have delivered, so much more. But there are some gems, including the unretouched image above. It's pretty cool, even with that Quasimodo shoulder muscle—yoga must be HARD.
I also love this image:
It's beautiful, sexy, not trying too hard and not faked.
Then there is this hot alternative (as opposed to outtake) to the Interview cover, fully retouched:
One image that I despise is this one:
The "too thin" mantra is a cliché now, but this image also shows off her surgery. To anyone doubting she's had more than shots, her jawline is flawlessly taut—I actually think that is a fantastic result. But look how the skin is tugged around her ear. That's because she had a facelift at some point. And of course the cheek implants are very easy to spot on an otherwise gaunt figure. This looks like anyone but Madonna.
UPDATE: An astute friend fills me in that nobody seems to have images of Madonna from January 9 (her last day in India) through January 21, 2008. As fans know, in images taken that week from the 21st to the 25th, she has noticeable bruises and marks on her face and looks DIFFERENT. Her first public appearance was February 6, 2008 (Gucci) prior to Berlin. And to back up my thought that Madonna saw her packaging shoot and impulsively decided she needed (more) plastic surgery pronto, her Steven Klein packaging shoot was done on December 20 and 21, 2007. Plenty of time to get a look at the results and die a little inside.
Moving on...this outtake is really cute—nice ass. But I do see the Mae West/Sextette comparison:
And this one is interesting in that Madonna looks "Hollywood fat" (in other words, she has more than an ounce of flab around the areas where a woman should). I say this because we're not used to seeing this on Madonna:
Then there is this shot. I'm not saying that as a photograph it stinks, but I am saying I can almost smell it:
Finally, my pal pointed out that in this shot, if you maximize the clipboard, you can read that Madonna's stand-in was earning $60/hour for this shoot:
And by the way, all these images are one year-plus old—it's not that Madonna is yet again posing raunchily to support Hard Candy, as the stupid mainstream press believes.
Hey Matt,
Wow, you hit the jackpot with Madonna outtakes this week, eh?
I really like the 2nd and 4th pics. And wow, if anyone had any doubts about whether or not she's had work done on her face, pic #3 confirms it. And all I can say about the pic with the HUGE shoulder/neck muscle is, WOW, this woman is ALL muscle. I know she could kick my ass! LOL.
I feel bad that "M" feels she has to mess with her face, in order to stay relevant and youthful looking. She must know we would love her, no matter how she ages.
Celebrity sure does mess with peoples heads, doesn't it?
Posted by: Mike | January 19, 2009 at 01:24 PM
Ok, I totally agree with you on every single image, which means you have a FANTASTIC eye! One thing that I think deserves honorable mention is how much hair is on Madonnas face! Holy god! I mean aside from being too gaunt and showing signs of plastic surgery, her face is hairy almost everywhere. Sorry about the rant, it just threw me off-guard.
Posted by: Blah! | January 19, 2009 at 01:42 PM
in the chair picture w/ the right arm pointing - something looks way off with her breasts. implants? and when did she get ALL plastic? not until last year could i say for sure, yea she went for it, but obviously she's been having major work done for a while now.
Posted by: hebe | January 19, 2009 at 05:00 PM
I love the one with her getting her make-up done - she has really great hair and I wonder why they didn't keep it that way for any of the photos. (Her hair in the main ones used for the Hard Candy album was the worst ever - it looked like it was the end of the day and had been fried, tried, teased and dyed and the onky thing left to do was put it halfway up like they did.) As for those higher-than-thigh high fishnet things... best left unsaid, and unseen. Thanks for all these glimpses though - very interesting to see the tons of bad they had to weed through to get to the almost-good!
Posted by: Alan | January 19, 2009 at 07:36 PM
with all these leaks and hoopla maybe m has something planned...
Posted by: wally | January 19, 2009 at 09:14 PM
I actually theorized this already but maybe didn't post it here? I think Klein uploaded for her people to consider images; Madonna's doing some kind of book project that is career-spanning (or is to be used as part of some other project) because her people accepted some low-res images from me of the Richard Cormans I own for "consideration." This was several months ago, but still, I think Guy is all about the books and side projects!
Posted by: Matthew Rettenmund | January 19, 2009 at 09:16 PM
>>And this one is interesting in that Madonna looks "Hollywood fat" ... I say this because we're not used to seeing this on Madonna<<
I love it. It's like she got out of the Glasses' pool in Fort Lee and sat down for a Cheez-Doodle -- or 30.
Posted by: kenneth | January 19, 2009 at 11:37 PM
Whatever Madonna is doing to preserve herself, Christina Aguilera should start taking notes
Posted by: coffee | January 26, 2009 at 01:16 AM