Universal Pictures and Focus Features; Craig Barritt/Getty ImagesThe Queen of Pop throws shade, shade, shade at Fifty Shades of Grey!
In an interview with Billboard, Madonna gives a short review of E.L. James's erotic novel on which the anticipated, R-rated BDSM-themed romantic film is based, saying that the story is "not very sexy."
And she would know; The 56-year-old singer rose to fame in the '80s as a sex and pop icon with a series of then-risqué music videos and live performances and is considered a trailblazer when it comes to pushing the envelope with regard to sexual expression.
In her interview with Billboard, posted on Friday the 13th, the day the movie was released officially and just before Valentine's Day, Madonna said she has read the Fifty Shades of Grey novel, which began as Twilight fan fiction.
"It's pulp fiction," she said. "It's not very sexy, maybe for someone who has never had sex before. I kept waiting for something exciting and crazy to happen in that red room thing, and I was like, 'Hmm, a lot of spanking.' I also thought, 'This is so unrealistic because no guy goes down on a girl that much.' I'm sorry, but no one eats p----y as much as the guy in that book."
Fifty Shades of Grey stars Dakota Johnson as innocent, sexually inexperience college student Anastasia Steele who falls in love with a troubled and dashing billionaire with a BDSM fetish, played by Jamie Dornan. The movie was released officially on Friday, the same day the Billboard interview was posted and a day before Valentine's Day.
The film has received mostly negative reviews among top critics. However, it has already made $8.6 million at the U.S. box office since Thursday, when previews of the movie were screened at 2,830 movie theaters, The Hollywood Reporter said.
In the '80s and '90s, Madonna was drawing millions of fans and sparking controversy among mostly conservative viewers for sexy performances and music videos of songs such as "Like a Virgin," "Like a Prayer" and "Justify My Love." And her 1992 album Erotica was all about sex.
Madonna has continued to push the envelope over the years.
She famously locked lips with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV Video Awards and just this past Sunday, wore a racy outfit and showed off her butt cheeks on the red carpet at the Grammys, where she danced with sexy minotaurs and performed her new single "Living for Love" from her upcoming 13th studio album Rebel Heart.
And speaking of books about sex, Madonna also has some experience with that as well: In 1992, she released the 1992 coffee table book Sex, which is about sexual fantasies and contains explicit, nude and other erotic photos.
When asked if she thinks her views about sex have changed in the past 25 years, Madonna, now a mother of four, told Billboard: "Absolutely not. Nope. Sex is a wonderful, necessary part of life."