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Madonna · S4 E4
Who's That Girl
The global tour that confirmed her reach, and the film that quietly proved her limits as an actress
A movie theater in New York, August 1987. The lights come up after the premiere of Who's That Girl, and the audience applause is polite, thin, uncertain. The reviews will arrive in the morning like a firing squad.
"Don't Tell Me" (2000). Thirteen years after the Who's That Girl disaster, Madonna films a video in which she plays a cowgirl on a treadmill, refusing to be told what she can and cannot do. The visual is deliberate: she is walking forward no matter what the surface underneath does. After the 1987 reviews nearly ended her film ambitions, she learns to channel rejection into defiance.
The Second Chance That Wasn't
Who's That Girl casts Madonna as Nikki Finn, a screwball ex-convict in a comedy directed by James Foley. The studio expects a hit and Madonna expects validation as a serious actress. The film grosses $7.3 million against a $17 million budget and becomes one of the defining flops of 1987.
The Tour That Saved the Year
Wembley Stadium, London
Madonna plays the old Wembley Stadium on the Who's That Girl World Tour, selling out the 72,000-seat venue. London is the city that loves her most in 1987. The UK audience does not care about the American film reviews.
TAP TO REVEAL: How did Madonna react to the Who's That Girl reviews?
The Look of Love
From the Who's That Girl Soundtrack (1987). The ballad from the soundtrack that the film did not deserve. A Stephen Bray and Madonna co-write, it is a lush, string-driven torch song that sounds like it belongs in a better movie. The vocal performance is her most controlled to date, and it charts in the top five in multiple countries. The song survives long after everyone forgets the plot.
What was the original working title of the film that became "Who's That Girl"?
The film career stalls, but the commercial machine keeps accelerating. Next episode: a soft-drink corporation offers her millions to appear in a television commercial, and she accepts without reading the fine print on what comes next.
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