Madonna

An icon of unabashed ambition and sexual magnetism, Madonna has been making headlines since the early MTV Age for her musical talents and much more. Cosmo caught up with the Material Girl in July 1987 to talk about her rising hopes for a career in Hollywood and her then-marriage to bad boy heartthrob Sean Penn. Endearingly frank and forever flirting with the wild side, some things never change: 36 years later, she remains the star we fell for then. -

That year—1985—Time magazine put Madonna on a cover. The headline read, “WHY SHE’S HOT.” Not be be outdone in the heat department, Penthouse and Playboy rushed into print with naked pictures shot back when Madonna (looking more plucked chicken than wonton) scrounged for her supper by posing for “art” photographers. Then an English magazine, expounding on the fickle nature of popularity, wrote that “fear and loathing have come very quickly to Madonna.” Had she, in fact, felt loathed? “Very definitely,” she says. “The people who adored me were the children who understood where I was coming from. The people who loathed me didn’t get it, and my success pissed them off. There’s a lot of idiots in the world, and anyway, it makes for more interesting articles. Wouldn’t you rather read an article about a slut than a plain-Jane wallflower? I know I would. Anyway, I think it would be kind of boring if everyone really just loved me a hundred percent.”