Madonna Accuses U.S. of “Inflicting Cruelty” on Britney Spears
Madonna isn’t done speaking out on Britney Spears.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the Material Girl — who recently told E! she wants to “go save” the singer — called Spears’ situation “very painful.
“When you think about the way people treat each other in Africa, about witchcraft and people inflicting cruelty and pain on each other, then come back here and, you know, people taking pictures of people when they’re in their homes, being taken to hospitals, or suffering, and selling them, getting energy from them, that’s a terrible infliction of cruelty. So who’s worse off?” she asked.
Madonna — who turns 50 in August — also opened up about her Detroit upbringing, admitting, “I didn’t fit into the popular group.
“I wasn’t a hippie or a stoner, so I ended up being the weirdo,” she added. “I was interested in classical ballet and music, and the kids were quite mean if you were different. I was one of those people that people were mean to.”
Rather than feeling sorry for herself, she said she “decided to emphasize my differences. I didn’t shave my legs. I had hair growing under my arms. I refused to wear makeup, or fit the ideal of what a conventionally pretty girl would look like. So of course I was tortured even more.”
But she said it “further validated my superiority, and helped me to survive and say, ‘I’m getting out of here, and everyone is a heathen in this school!’”
Madonna’s new album, Hard Candy, is out April 29.
