This remark was quoted by the American film historian Steven Bach in his 1992 biography of Marlene Dietrich – published in the same year that its subject died.
Madonna famously idolised Dietrich, who is one of several Hollywood legends mentioned (by surname only in this case) in her song Vogue – a No. 1 hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1990.
Dietrich was not the only public figure to describe Madonna as vulgar. In 1993, David Noriega (a member of the Puerto Rican House of Representatives) said that "this vulgar and insensitive visitor" had abused the hospitality she received in his country, after she was reported to have placed a Puerto Rican flag between her legs during a concert on her Girlie Show world tour. At the same time Pedro Rossello Gonzalez, Puerto Rico's Governor (head of state) said that that he would not demand an apology because it would be like "asking for pears from an elm tree," as the Spanish phrase goes.
Supporters of Madonna and her Girlie Show argued that she meant no harm, and put the flag there because she couldn't find her pocket to put it in as she was dancing.
© Haydn Thompson 2021