Tag: madonna
Madonna Claims She Was Fined $1 Million For Supporting Russia LGBTQ Rights
Madonna is boasting about not paying a $1 million fine allegedly slapped on her for supporting Russia’s LGBTQ community at a 2012 show in St. Petersburg.
But a Russian court threw out the lawsuit filed by a group of conservative activists, and the singer was never fined a single ruble.
The debacle centers around a show Madonna played on Aug. 9, 2012, in St. Petersburg, during which she voiced her support for the local gay community. At the entrance to the Peterburgsky arena, audience members were handed pink wristbands and asked to wear them during the concert to show “tolerance for the gay community.”
In a tweet and Instagram post on Monday, Madonna linked to a video showing part of her speech that night. “I was fined 1 million dollars by The government for supporting the Gay community,” she wrote. “I never paid.”
In the video she addresses the audience, many of whom were waving rainbow flags.
“I feel that people are becoming more and more afraid of people who are different,” Madonna says on the video. “People are becoming more and more intolerant. It’s a very scary time. But we can make a difference. We can change this. We have the power.”
In the same speech, she told the audience: “I am here to say that the gay community and gay people here and all around the world have the same rights — to be treated with dignity, with respect, with tolerance, with compassion, with love.”
After the 2012 show, a group of conservative activists filed a class-action lawsuit against Madonna, the venue and the promoter, Planeta Plus, demanding 333 million rubles ($10.7 million at the time) in damages, claiming they were insulted by the American singer’s statements and actions in support of the gay community.
But that November, St. Petersburg’s Moskovsky district court threw out the lawsuit, a spokesperson for the court confirmed to Billboard on Wednesday. No fine was ever imposed on the artist, venue or promoter, the spokesperson said.
“There was no gay propaganda during the show,” Yevgeny Filkenshtein, head of PMI Group, which promoted the show, tells Billboard. “Madonna just called on the audiences to be tolerant towards people of other sexual orientation and religious persuasions,” he says. “We protected Madonna from all that in any possible way and dealt with the lawsuit by ourselves. The court eventually sided with us and the artist, and no fine was imposed.”
Several months after the 2012 show, Vitaly Milonov, a conservative St. Petersburg legislator who was behind an anti-gay propaganda law first introduced in the city and then nationwide in Russia, claimed that Madonna had violated Russia’s tax and migration legislation by performing the show on the wrong type of visa and should be punished for that. But he never produced any evidence to back his claims.
Several Russian media outlets have reported on Madonna’s tweet, expressing surprise about the non-existing $1 million fine. Russia has traditionally been hostile towards homosexuality, and intolerance has been on the rise. Same-sex couples are not allowed to marry or form civil unions in Russia.
Madonna did not respond to requests for comment.
She is hardly alone in the music community for her criticism of Russia’s increasingly anti-gay laws. Lady Gaga and Elton John are among the pop stars who have spoken out about local and national laws impacting the LGBTQ community. Citing an administrative law, a St Petersburg court fined the organizers of a 2013 Lady Gaga show for “propaganda of alcohol consumption and homosexuality,” after a 13-year-old girl was exposed to simulated sexual intercourse between women. Russian President Vladimir Putin last year pushed back against John’s criticisms, saying Russia was “very neutral” toward the LGBTQ community.
Article via MSN
Tupac Shakur had secret affair with Whitney Houston and dumped Madonna over her skin color
Rap icon Tupac Shakur had a string of A-list lovers during his time in the spotlight, but kept his famous girlfriends secret
Late rap legend Tupac Shakur had a string of high-profile girlfriends over the years but managed to keep his A-list lovers secret.
Many of his famous girlfriends never spoke about their relationships with the rapper, while others waited until many years after his death to confirm the romace.
The music superstar, who died in a shooting in 1996 aged 25, is now believed to have had a steamy affair with Whitney Houston and broke Madonna’s heart.
He also found the time to get married and divorced, and date music industry royalty.
Madonna
Prison letter reveals that Tupac dumped Madonna because she’s white!
Tupac dated Madonna for more than a year after being set up by pal Rosie Perez at the Soul Train Awards in 1993.
However, they managed to keep the romance totally under the radar and it wasn’t confirmed until 2015.
Madonna let slip about her relationship with Tupac during an interview with US shock jock Howard Stern, telling him the pair dated and the rapper got her “all riled up about life in general”.
However, little else was known about the romance until a bombshell dropped in 2017 when a letter from Tupac to Madonna revealed he broke up with her because of her race.
The note, believed to have been written while he was in prison in 1995, told the singer that their romance had to end as it wouldn’t look good for his career.
Dated January 15 1995, the letter published by TMZ explained: “Can u understand that?
“For you to be seen with a black man wouldn’t in any way jeopardize your career.
“But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my ‘image’ I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was.
“I never meant to hurt you.”
Whitney Houston
The stunning revelation that Tupac bedded music legend Whitney Houston didn’t emerge until after her death aged 48 in 2012.
Her ex-husband Bobby Brown made the confession about his wife’s affair in his 2016 memoir Every Little Step, claiming she cheated on him with Tupac during their marriage.
In the book, Brown claimed Whitney and Tupac hooked up after they worked together but gave no further detail.
The New Edition star claimed his ex-wife did her “share of cheating” with “quite a few of the producers and artists”, but only named TUpac.
Jada Pinkett Smith
Fazion Love, Ed Lover & Kat Graham speak out +“All Eyez on me” movie review
Although they were never lovers, Jada had a strong relationship with Tupac that nearly became romantic.
However, Jada insisted there was no “physical chemistry” between them – even when theyy tested it out by kissing.
Speaking to DJ Howard Stern in 2015, Jada explained: “When you have two young people that have very strong feelings, but there was no physical chemistry between us at all, and it wasn’t even just for me.
“It was him too.”
Kidada Jones
Quincy Jones SPILLS ALL THE TEA on Richard Pryor, Marlon Brando, Michael Jackson & Ivanka Trump!!
Tupac was dating music industry royalty Kidada Jones, daughter of legendary producer Quincy Jones, at the time of his death in 1996.
They got together following the collapse of his brief marriage to Keisha Morris in 1995, and it initially got off to a bumpy start after Kidada ignored his advances because he’d previously dissed her dad.
However, after the rapper apologized, they exchanged numbers and embarked on a whirlwind romance.
He’s said to have told his mum: “I love her. She’s going to be my wife, she’s having my children.”
They got a house in together in Calabasas, but the romance was cut short by tragedy as Tupac was murdered just four months after they started living together.
In Quincy Jones’ 2001 book, Kidada wrote of Tupac’s death: “He and I lived together for four months and then he was murdered in Las Vegas in 1996. It was the most horrible thing that ever happened to me.”
Article via TheMirror
