MADONNA UPSETS IL PAPA

Madonna must have been wondering if the cost of that giant crucifix had been worth it (okay, she was making it back in scalp-high ticket prices, but even so...). She'd been rolling onto stage for months and barely had anyone murmured. How could she keep her reputation as the icon of iconoclasm if nobody noticed?

Luckily, you can rely on Rome; The eternal city is getting frothy:

Father Manfredo Leone of Rome's Santa Maria Liberatice church told Reuters that the pop star's latest shock shtick, namely being suspended on a 20-foot mirrored cross while donning a crown of fake thorns, "is disrespectful, in bad taste and provocative."

"Being raised on a cross with a crown of thorns like a modern Christ is absurd," Leone said. "Doing it in the cradle of Christianity comes close to blasphemy."

The cradle of Christianity? Surely that'd be the Holy Land rather than Italy, wouldn't it?

Madonna has managed to get some cross-religious outrage going, too:

"I think her idea is in the worst taste and she'd do better to go home," Mario Scialoja, the head of Italy's Muslim League told the news service.

Riccardo Pacifici, the spokesman of the Roman Jewish community, agreed, telling Reuters that Madonna should pull the offending routine from the Rome show.

The power to bring so many different religions together is one not to be sniffed at - maybe we should Madonna on her big sparkly cross to Beirut to see if she can bring peace there, too.

You have to love the idea that telling Madonna what she's doing is in bad taste is going to put her off - a woman who's been photographed with Vanilla Ice entering her from the tradesman's side is unlikely to be worried about taste, Father.

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