Shocking reports are shooting out of Madonna’s home state that the “Material Girl’s” brother, Anthony Ciccone, is homeless and living under a bridge.
The question that immediately dances on the brain is this: how can Madonna, one of the most commercially successful artists in the history of music and is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, have a sibling living on the streets and eating out of garbage cans? And, for that matter, what other icons have siblings (like those of the late Michael Jackson) who are dangling off the ledge of self-sufficiency and/or sanity?
Reports state that Anthony Ciccone, older brother to Madonna Ciccone, became homeless like hundreds of thousands of others in Ameirca after he lost his job and could not secure wages sufficient enough to sustain living quarters on his own. And if you think that his heart is icier than the frigid Michigan winters, you would be correct.
“My family turned their back on me, basically, when I was having a hard time,” Anthony Ciccone told the Michigan Messenger website. “You think I haven’t answered this kind of question a bazillion times — why my sister is a multibazillionaire and I’m homeless on the street?”
Anthony, 55, obviously is not the only member of Madonna’s household who needs to reconcile with some unresolved angst with the castle queen of England; Madonna’s younger brother, Christopher Ciccone, released a very unflattering tell-all in 2008 about life with Madonna. For her part, Madonna, of course, recently made headlines for her struggles with free hydrangeas.
Ciccone said he had been working at his father’s winery in Sutton’s Bay, Mich., but now works odd jobs and collects recyclables. He’s living in a town that has a network of churches providing nightly meals to those in need — and though the food may be hot, the northern Michigan days can be cold, with Ciccone among those falling victim to frostbite.
What other transcendent superstars and cultural icons have relatives experienced hardships that may or may not have been of their own doing?
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Michael Jackson: The late King of Pop’s story and that of his dysfunctional siblings have been chronicled ad nauseum. Other than Janet, who has compiled Hall of Fame credentials on her own, the Jackson clan members have crumbled under the weight of MJ’s immeasurable talents. Older brother Jermaine, the original lead singer of what would become the Jackson 5, has been ridiculed universally for grease-based hairstyles that injure observers’ eyes and for trying to capitalize off his brother’s name and posthumous fame. It has been rumored that another brother, Randy, was stocking shelves in a grocery story to make ends meet.
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Malcolm X’s offspring: Malcolm X [who changed his name to El Hajj Malik El Shabazz a year before his assassination] was long dead when his widow, Betty Shabazz, was killed in a house fire started by grandson Malcolm Shabazz. He had been shuttled in and out of correctional institutions until his release from Attica Prison in February 2007. He is now 26. One of Malcolm’s six daughters, Malikah, was a South Carolina resident when she was arrested and extradicted to New York on charges of grand larceny, forgery and identity theft.
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Ralph Abernathy III, son of Ralph Abernathy Jr, closest confidante to Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement: Abernathy III, a former state senator, was convicted in 2000 when he allegedly defrauded Georgia of $13,000 in false vouchers, fake names and orchestrating a cover-up.
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Ted Williams, baseball icon who played for Boston and was the last person to hit .400 or better in 1941. His children actually tore through the courts trying to gain the rights to their father’s frozen bodies in order to profiteer off their father’s remains to subsidize their lifestyle. Sick.
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Joe DiMaggio, another baseball icon who’s best known for hitting in 56 straight games for the New York Yankes in 1941, still a Major League Baseball record. His son died a broken-hearted recluse in not far from his famous father’s resting place. The younger DiMaggio, who was living in Pittsburg, near San Francisco, had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and got into several minor scrapes with police. He also experienced periods of homelessness.
