Madonna makes Jimmy Fallon sweat, remove coat in 'disturbed' interview
With Jimmy Fallon, you're never quite sure when it's a publicly stunt, but he did look uncomfortable on Thursday's Tonight Show when Madonna crawled up on his desk. Leading up to that moment, Madonna had been talking about the writer James Baldwin. "He was a great source of inspiration for the show, and one of the things I quote over and over again in the show is that artists are here to disturb the peace," she said. "And so I hope that I have disturbed not only your peace this afternoon but people's peace while they watch the show. But I mean that in the best way."
"Oh, yeah, you get in good trouble," Fallon said, nodding to another Black icon, the late John Lewis. "Good trouble," Madonna agreed, but she appeared to have something else in mind. After Madonna got off the desk and sat down again, she told Fallon: "Life is not just about interviewing kiddies. Don't you want to talk to an adult? Let's have some adult conversation." "Are you talking to an adult right now?" Fallon asked. "I'm not sure," she replied, and the conversation veered toward therapy and smoking.
The rest of the interview was a little more restrained, with Madonna talking about hearing her first hit on the radio and the "visual autobiography" — not biopic — she's writing about her life and her 40 years in show business. There's also a sing-along and plenty of Fallon sweat.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decisionFeature A Supreme Court ruling against the Voting Rights Act could allow Republicans to redraw districts and solidify control of the House
-
No Kings rally: What did it achieve?Feature The latest ‘No Kings’ march has become the largest protest in U.S. history
-
Bolton indictment: Retribution or justice?Feature Trump’s former national security adviser turned critic, John Bolton, was indicted for mishandling classified information after publishing his ‘tell-all’ memoir
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Television personalities who have come under fireIn Depth Jimmy Kimmel is the latest TV host to be swept up in controversy
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
