Blue Skies

I liked both and forgot she even appeared, both times until you mentioned it, but looking back I enjoy the 2000 appearance the most.
Hung Up Video or Sorry Video?

Today I've come to think more fondly of that performance but I had similar takes as you at the time about it.  I would add Swept Away did real bad as well the year before.  So it kinda came off desperate/really going 180 degrees from the American Life albums and videos to trying to look real hip and cool with Britney & Christina the it girls at the time.  it wasn't even like they were humping on the camera or making out it was just a light kiss as well.  
 
Nonetheless I was glued to it.  And Madonna still looked real good.  Despite the age difference she and Britney looked like sisters.  

I’ll Remember 
 
Madonna 1998 Oprah appearance vs Madonna 2003 Oprah appearance 

I’ll Remember 
 
Madonna 1998 Oprah appearance vs Madonna 2003 Oprah appearance 

Former MTV execs look back at the infamous performance, which turns 20 this year, and share how it all went down
Former MTV president Van Toffler had the history books on his mind when he asked Madonna to open the 2003 Video Music Awards. Toffler wanted to honor the VMAs’ nearly two-decade legacy with a callback to its inaugural 1984 edition. A lot had happened since Madonna rolled around in a wedding dress during “Like a Virgin” at that first awards show,  but she remained the video era’s flagship star. Toffler hoped a plum spot on the program would motivate the Queen of Pop to outdo herself. 
“I don’t have to encourage Madonna to go over-the-top,” he tells Rolling Stone 20 years later. “That’s in her DNA. We were just saying, ‘We’re gonna give you a lot of real estate. It’s a big moment.’ We talked about guest performers.”
Toffler got what he craved and then some when Madonna, beamed into 11 million homes from Radio City Music Hall, branzely kissed her foremost heirs, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, and set off a firestorm. 
Today, the kisses seem fairly chaste. In 2003, they were scandalous. The morning after, the New York Post described the performance as a “raunchy, bump-and-grind dance routine that ended in explicit, open-mouth kisses.” (Never mind that it actually continued with Missy Elliott performing “Work It.”) When Madonna appeared on Oprah three weeks later, the kisses were the first topic she was asked about. “I had no idea that it was going to cause the ruckus that it caused,” she said.
In reality, she probably knew. There’s a reason the whole thing had been shrouded in secrecy. MTV didn’t advertise the performance, well aware that two semi-rivalrous pop darlings sharing the stage with Madonna and hip-hop’s reigning empress would play better if no one knew what to expect. Plus, enough had unfolded behind the scenes to leave MTV’s top brass wondering what would actually go down on the night of August 28, 2003. 
According to Tom Calderone, former executive vice president of music and talent at the network, the VMAs were looking for a cheerier tone after Bruce Springsteen opened 2002’s show with the anthemic 9/11 memorial “The Rising.” So Toffler put in a call to Madonna’s manager, Guy Oseary, and let the singer decide how she’d fulfill the assignment. Producers might fine-tune a different artist’s act, but not Madonna’s, says Summer Strauch, who worked on the VMAs and other starry MTV programming. 
“When you turn to Madonna, they were always very understanding that this is her creative moment,” Strauch says of the network’s chiefs. “They value whatever she chooses.” 
Before long, Toffler and his staff learned that Madonna had recruited three peers: Spears, Elliott, and Jennifer Lopez, who was riding the success of “Jenny from the Block” and the No. 1 hit “All I Have.” That roster alone was worth celebrating, until MTV briefly worried everything might fall apart. During a pre-VMAs beach vacation Toffler took, he received a phone call reporting that Lopez had to drop out because she’d already agreed to shoot the movie Shall We Dance? that summer. Madonna’s stage requests were designed for four people. What would happen without one of them? “I was fearful that the performance was in jeopardy,” Toffler recalls. 
Madonna apparently chose Spears and Lopez because they were the best young dancers around, but Aguilera added another layer of excitement. The hot-and-cold dynamic between her and Spears, who co-starred on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993 and were perceived as pop-culture adversaries, made their dual participation almost as shocking as the ensuing kisses at the time. (Pink has said she and Gwen Stefani were also invited to participate at some point. No one I spoke to for this story recalls that, but producer Alex Coletti recently told PopSugar that he remembers Stefani’s name being floated.) 
Once Aguilera replaced Lopez, Madonna’s private rehearsals began as MTV pieced together the rest of the show, which included a Metallica medley, Coldplay’s VMAs debut, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z singing “Crazy in Love.” Eventually, the network learned that Madonna planned to start the performance with “Like a Virgin,” with Spears and Aguilera atop a hydraulic wedding cake from which she would emerge. Then she’d transition into the single she’d just released, “Hollywood,” before tossing to Elliott (“Yo, yo, yo, who that be?!”). All of them would come back together at the end for a sort of tango set to a final reprise of “Hollywood.” 
Madonna wanted as few people as possible to know the details, so rehearsals were locked down, Strauch says. The most MTV’s executives saw of the prep process was select videotape footage, and none of it showed any headline-worthy PDA. They watched Spears and Aguilera eat up Madonna’s every word as she tweaked their dance moves and acted as an elder stateswoman. “Madonna kept making them do things over, and they were totally listening to her,” Strauch says. But sources say it wasn’t until about two weeks before the broadcast when a full picture presented itself. 
The VMAs’ veteran director, Beth McCarthy-Miller, whose credits include Saturday Night Live and many noted sitcoms, flew to Los Angeles to watch the women rehearse. One day, Toffler’s phone rang. McCarthy-Miller was on the line, whispering from the corner of a studio. “’You’re not going to be able to tell anyone, but I think this is going to make you happy,'” Toffler recalls her saying. “‘Madonna kisses Britney and Christina.'” 
Here came the “fuck-yeah” flash point Toffler and his team had hoped for, the bait that would reel in the kind of controversy MTV courted. “You knew it was going to be a moment,” Strauch says. “I remember everyone smiling and high-fiving.” 
After that, secrecy became even more vital. During the official Radio City run-throughs the week of the show, Madonna’s team requested the building be cleared when it was her turn. Even without widespread social media, no one wanted to risk a Page Six leak. “Radio stations around the country were coming to do live broadcasts from there, so we had to get literally everybody out,” Calderone says. “And then you’ve got the gift room — that had to be evacuated. Even security. At the end, there were only a handful of us in that room, and a few people in the truck outside [where McCarthy-Miller and her team dictated the camera shots].” 
On August 28, everyone was nervous — and fortunately, everything went off without a hitch. In fact, it was better than anyone could have predicted. Madonna’s six-year-old daughter Lourdes was the flower girl who crossed the stage and kicked the whole performance off. Spears and Aguilera appeared one by one, their faces covered in white veils that they each pulled back for dramatic reveals. After singing the first few lines of “Like a Virgin,” they rolled around the floor in wedding dresses. Then, Madonna ascended out of the giant cake wearing shiny black coattails and a Marlene Dietrich-inspired top hat — the groom for both brides.
Because the number opened the telecast, McCarthy-Miller and the producers treated reaction shots like a roll call announcing the VMAs’ attendees. Today, it plays like the ultimate mid-2000s who’s who: Beyoncé smiling and clapping; Avril Lavigne and Kelly Osbourne (who had recently covered “Papa Don’t Preach”) looking disinterested; a stone-faced Mary J. Blige; the original Queer Eye Fab Five having the time of their lives; Guy Ritchie (aka Mr. Madonna) cheering on his wife; an appropriately amused Snoop Doog; short-lived couple 50 Cent and Vivica A. Fox laughing along; Lindsay Lohan and the Hilton sisters dancing; and a surprisingly game Eminem. 
The preeminent reaction shots, of course, belonged to Justin Timberlake: first, a raised eyebrow as Madonna, Spears, and Aguilera danced centerstage. Then, about 30 seconds later, as Madonna removed the garter on Aguilera’s thigh and swapped spit with Spears, associate director Stefani Cohen made the call to cut away from most of Aguilera’s kiss to show Timberlake looking irate. The decision, sources agree, was not premeditated. Cohen was monitoring the camera stationed on Timberlake, who had famously dated Spears and cast a lookalike in his barbed “Cry Me a River” video one year earlier. When the folks in the directors’ truck saw his expression, the choice was a no-brainer. It’s part of what makes the performance so unforgettable — a megastar’s stodgy response to his ex-girlfriend’s harmless frolic. 
Behind the scenes, the cutaway upset Aguilera’s management, even though she had her own separate performance scheduled. “That caused a little bit of grief coming my way,” Toffler says. “It didn’t make life easier that night, but you have to make choices in a live show. Sometimes you’re wrong and sometimes you’re right, but I think the beauty of the VMAs was the combustibility. You wanted to make it fun and semi-chaotic. That’s what we did.” Her team asked MTV to re-edit the performance for subsequent broadcasts, according to Calderone. The network didn’t comply. (Aguilera declined to comment for this story. “It was a cheap shot,” she told Andy Cohen in 2018. “I definitely saw the newspaper the next day and was like, ‘Oh, well, I guess I got left out of that one.’” You can see what the performance would have looked like without reaction shots in this rehearsal footage.)
Others were offended by the display as a whole — and not always the people you’d expect. “First of all, Madonna is too old to be kissing someone who is 22,” Stevie Nicks told an Australian newspaper a few weeks later. “And Britney should be smarter than that. Hopefully she will figure a way out of this hole she has dug for herself. I thought it was the most obnoxious moment in television history.”
MTV, meanwhile, got hate mail, according to Toffler. “It’s just par for the course,” he says. “The older demographic wasn’t ready for it.”
To Aguilera’s point, most people remember the Madonna-Britney kiss more vividly than they do the Madonna-Christina one — and sadly, even fewer remember that Missy Elliott was there at all. But the performance remains a relic of the VMAs’ glory days, when the show was still a watercooler staple worthy of that much star power. When Madonna attended Spears’ wedding last year, a quick smooch between the two prompted many news outlets to claim they were recreating 2003. 
“It’s just quintessential Madonna,” Toffler says. “You give Madonna the germ of an idea or just the real estate, and she’s going to take it. She had a history of pushing us and pushing culture, and that’s what was great about her and what was great about MTV. We pushed culture in provocative ways.” 
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/2003-vmas-britney-madonna-christina-kiss-1234809755/

Love these details but one part isn't entirely accurate.  During rehearsals, they did indeed attempt to clear the space -- however, a handful of staff, myself included, made our way all the way up to the 2nd or 3rd balcony and watched through the small windows at the back of the balcony -- was such a treat to watch them run through it multiple times.  And then of course we had to keep our mouths shut to keep all the plans under wraps.

Think it was her most overhyped performance, was just made out to be 'shocking' by dumb gossip title tattle journalists. I didn't get why it got any attention at all as all staged and done only to grab headlines after American Life didn't perform as well and Madonna got banned by some radio stations at the time. I suppose Madonna was right as it got loads of attention - she would need to do something like WAP to get the same sort of attention today lol
The best thing was that they used the Stuart Price remix for the performance

All great pics you posted, but this one always gets me.  That smile!  She is beaming!  So gorgeous! 

It's nice to still see her do her thing with popular artists...  but the song didnt do much for me 

an obvious reference to..
 
Summer 1988 3 Suisses catalog

It's nice to still see her do her thing with popular artists...  but the song didnt do much for me 

It's nice to still see her do her thing with popular artists...  but the song didnt do much for me 

You can read into it as you like.  I offered a legit discussion/poll. Most everyone replied respectively and offered their opinion. The world is full of likes and dislikes.  Just because we are huge fans, doesn't mean all fans are going to be favorable to everything Madonna does. My intention is to learn from others. Not suppress those who may have a different view than me.  Posting this has nothing to do with "clickbait" or any "sensationalistic tone".  To assume such, makes me assume you're not open to others' opinions.  For years, this book has been discussed from all sides.  The media and public alike have weighed in many times, by either discussing the artistic merits of it or simply calling it "trash".  It's only fair to hear what fans really think of this book.  I genuinely posted this thread with hopes of a meaningful, respectable and civil discussion. Unfortunately, like with anything in this world, even the best intentions tend to get ruined by those who want to twist and turn things into a negative.  It's interesting one would rather twist this into an argument on the intentions of why I posted this, rather just discuss what the topic is really about.  If you or anyone else prefer to continue to question my intention of this thread, that's your prerogative, but don't expect me to further defend my intentions here.  I think I've made it quite clear that I am here to genuinely learn and discuss fans' opinions of Madonna's "Sex" Book whether I agree with them or not.  Feel free to do the same.

The ones I can recall watching.  Didnt count Truth or Dare.  Never watched Dangerous Game.  
 
Desperately Seeking Susan- my favorite Madonna film.  Very fun and 80's.  I miss that NYC on display as well.  The triplets in that movie were real cool and had a very interesting life story as well.  
Shanghai Surprise- she looked gorgeous in it but awful movie.  Couldn't watch it more than a 1/2 hour
Who's That Girl- underrated.  critics were too hard on it.  It's very cute.  Nikki helped Loudon see what love is about 
Dick Tracy- she was hot as Breathless.  wasn't a big comic book fan though.  kinda neutral on this one
A League of Their Own- great film.  She was funny and cute as Mae.  I love in the last game when she knocks the catchers helmet away.  Seemed so Madonna.
Body of Evidence- I liked it.  Good cast.  Critics were too hard on it.  Better than Basic Instinct.  I would add Madonna gave like the sexiest performance of life anything I watched in my life in this.  I'll leave it as I went thorough plenty paper towels in my life watching Madonna in this one.  Was like the first over R rated movie I watched.  
Four Rooms- the cameo she was hot and gorgeous as hell 
Evita- I liked Madonna's performance but it was a little on the boring side.  Perhaps an unpopular opinion?  I just dont know all that much about Eva Peron to appreciate it.
The Next Best Thing- all right.  kinda boring.  But I fished it.  5 out of 10 stars for me 
Swept Away- wasn't a good movie but it definitely wasn't all on Madonna.  Although I actually had a hard time seeing her as a bitch.  
 
 

@tscott, we have similar tastes, I think, lol.
Who's That Girl and BOE are my fave movies of hers, but I thinks she's anywhere from very good to at least decent in most of them.  For me, her acting is usually less of an issue than the movies themselves; I can't see Shanghai Surprise being a smash hit no matter who starred in it, and Swept Away seems like it should have been more extreme in either direction, be it more of an intense drama between the two, or way more of a slapstick comedy.  As it stands, it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be (Drama?  Romance?  Comedy?  Not that there's a problem with mixing genres, but SA couldn't quite commit to any of them very well).
In my own opinion, I think that she is a really talented supporting actor (Dick Tracy, League, Four Rooms).  It's just when she is the main actress that she tends to run into trouble.  And again, part of it is her choice of roles.  BOE was always going to be compared to Basic Instinct, and she's way less natural as Rebecca than Sharon Stone was with her character.  Shanghai Surprise was rough because of the script, the issues they had with the paparazzi and the locals, and because I think she, Sean and George were probably trying a bit too hard to make them into a Golden Hollywood Couple™.  Same thing with Guy Richie and Swept Away.  Even with WTG, which I just adore, I can kinda see why general audiences weren't impressed.
I don't necessarily count Truth or Dare or I'm Going to Tell You a Secret, only because those aren't really acting roles, although I know there has been much fuss made about how aspects of TOD were staged as opposed to just something Alek happened to be filming.  Either way, I don't consider these to be a part of her acting resume.  
I also realize I haven't mentioned Evita, which is a brilliant film, with a wonderful performance (her best).  Her musical career, especially her experience in making videos, obviously prepared her for the role of Eva.  I know it's been criticized as being basically a long music video, but I think that's a ridiculous argument.  In fact, I think it's her ability to tell a story through her own music videos that proved how perfect she was/is for the role.

A few thoughts I have on her most of her films she's acted in:
Vision Quest - It was just Madonna being Madonna that we all first fell in love with in the early 80's. There was no real acting effort from her.
Desperately Seeking Susan - She hardly acted.  Just played up to her persona at the time.  I always felt like the film dragged when Madonna wasn't in a scene. She definitely was most interesting thing about the movie. 
Shanghai Surprised -  Thought her and Sean had great chemistry and her acting wasn't that bad.  The film was just bad.
Who's That Girl - Loved this film. She was over the top, but it worked for the character she was playing. Ridiculous film!
Bloodhouds of Broadway - All I remember it was quite boring, but she was charming in her parts, especially the scene where she sings "I Surrender Dear" with Jennifer Grey.
Dick Tracy - She wasn't horrible in this by far.  Her musical moments were the highlights. But it is with this film, I started seeing she was too much in her head and started coming off too stiff in her roles.
Truth or Dare - Just perfect.  Nothing more needs to be said, but set the stage for REALITY TV.
Shadows and Fog - Bored me to tears. Madonna had such a small role, that played up to her persona at the time.  Her part was fun to watch and wasn't bad at all.
A League of Their Own - Fine film, but Madonna was playing up to her own persona, but I still felt she wasn't a great actress in this.  But I loved the interaction she and Rosie had in this film.
Body of Evidence - I liked this film.  She looked fucking fantastic in this film.  Her acting; wasn't the greeatest and came off very stiff in this. Too much in her head. 
Dangerous Game -  The best acting she has ever done in any film.  Too bad the film is complete shit.
Blue in the Face - Just a cameo. Fun part, but nothing to rave about.
Four Rooms - I thought she was okay in this. Her character was supposed to be over the top, so it is what it is.
Girl 6 - Another fun role where she played a role fit for her persona.  It just worked.
Evita - I'm sure if she hadn't sung much of her role, she probably wouldn't have pulled this off as an actress. That said; she had some moments (the dying scene she improvised) that really stands out.  She really poured her heart and soul in this.
The Next Best Thing - I loved the story and much of the film even though her acting wasn't the best and the lighting in this film was horrible. The accent she had was odd.
Swept Away - Before being marooned on the island, it was ridiculous stupid and Madonna's acting was at its worst.  In contrast, once they were stranded, I enjoyed the film much better.  It still was a bit over the top, but as soon as her character came down to earth, her acting seem to get better.
Die Another Day - A nice cameo that worked where she didn't have too much chance to come off too bad.
I'm Going To Tell You A Secret - I enjoyed it for what it was. It hardly was Truth or Dare, but it was interesting to see how she evolved to this point in time, even though I felt she was trying to be someone she is not, being married to Guy.  I did love her narration in this film. Her voice at times I loved.
Arthur and The Invisible - So this was a delightful film and being just a voice role, it allowed you to forget Madonna was playing the role she was in.  She should do more voice roles.
All in all, I always felt under the right circumstance if Madonna could check her ego, under a great director, she could probably pull off a dramatic character role that is beyond who she is.  The problem is, she's a control freak and she gets too much into her head.  She just has to let go.  She has to learn to have more humility to be a good actress.  Other than that, it's just either Madonna being Madonna or her trying to hard to act. She has great screen presence and is able to emote emotion very well, especially during musical performances.  This is why Evita worked very well for her.  She deserves an Oscar for that film.  And whatever Abel Ferarra was able to pull out of Madonna as Sarah Jennings, seem the most genuine acting on Madonna's part than in any film I've seen her in. I know she didn't like the outcome of that film, but she needs someone like him to kick her in the ass, and not play the Diva card.
Who's That Girl is still my favorite Madonna film no matter how awful people think it was.  I agree it was ridiculous, but she was so charming as Nikki Finn.  And being a "screw ball comedy" I never took it too seriously.
 

When she says in Body of Evidence, "Wish me LOCK?" Sorry I know it's supposed to be dramatic but I laugh every time. It's so camp.

Madonna had said she didn't get ripping up a picture of a man who meant so much to others. It's like throwing everything out because of criminal activity and the cover up that had occurred within the organization that the Pope represents. Did Pope John Paul II commit crimes or deliberately cover up a crime he was aware of? If so, than it was justified. 
It's kinda like ripping up a picture of a Doctor whose a leader because crimes were committed in the medical field. 
I love Sinead and understand what she was trying to say but Madonna is not cheap and shallow. She looks at things in a very complex way that people who indulge in all or nothing thinking can not because they focus on the damage that was done to them all the time. 
I think you would be shocked how many survivors there really are and who their abusers were. 
 
 

At the time, the mindset the majority felt (including Madonna) was Sinead took it too far.  While we look back at it now, and think she was absolutely right to her protest, many still felt there could have been a better approach.  It's only when we have time to look back and reflect on things, we realize maybe the majority 'group think' was wrong.  Unfortunately, we still react in the same manner today on things.  In fact, it's even worse now.  Of course, the internet magnifies everything to death. 
I know Madonna criticized her for what she did, but so did everyone else.  For me, it was more about the 'presentation' of it all, that Madonna criticized, rather the actual reason behind it. To me, Madonna's point to ripping up Joey's picture is because he was the actual perpetrator, when we can't really say the same of the Pope.  Then there is the argument where people assume The Pope knew about what was going on in the Catholic Church and could have acknowledged the issue and did something about it.  
I really feel bad for Sinead because she really had a purpose to her fight.  Unfortunately, the world wasn't ready for the way she presented the protest with the ripping of the Pope's picture.

Can we all agree this is one of the best backdrops she has ever done. It's sexy and classy and pure Madonna!
And this reversion of Justify My Love is just brilliant! I feel like it keeps the essence and soul of the original song but in a modern way. And the amazing transition to Vogue 
...LOVE ME

 

I saw it more as satire than anything.  She's always had a very tongue in cheek kind of sense of humor.  Hence the introduction to the book as Dita and some of those stories in it.  
 
But yeah I bought the book recently used off eBay.  I have always considered owning it a must as a Madonna fan.  Lol 

Bad Girl is my favorite.  Hard to narrow the other 9 down but here goes:
 
Beautiful Stranger
Papa Dont Preach
Oh Father
Dear Jessie
Ray of Light
Express Yourself
Rain
Burning Up 
Borderline 
 

Bad Girl is my favorite.  Hard to narrow the other 9 down but here goes:
 
Beautiful Stranger
Papa Dont Preach
Oh Father
Dear Jessie
Ray of Light
Express Yourself
Rain
Burning Up 
Borderline 
 

I saw it more as satire than anything.  She's always had a very tongue in cheek kind of sense of humor.  Hence the introduction to the book as Dita and some of those stories in it.  
 
But yeah I bought the book recently used off eBay.  I have always considered owning it a must as a Madonna fan.  Lol 

I saw it more as satire than anything.  She's always had a very tongue in cheek kind of sense of humor.  Hence the introduction to the book as Dita and some of those stories in it.  
 
But yeah I bought the book recently used off eBay.  I have always considered owning it a must as a Madonna fan.  Lol