Madonna has been given a dressage-down by the mayor of an historic Portuguese town after she demanded to bring a thoroughbred horse into a 19th century palace to film her new video.
Madonna, who has been living off and on in Portugal since 2017, was pictured filming a video for her song “Indian Summer” in the Quinta Nova de Assunção palace near Sintra. But locals told her to rein it in when she insisted on being filmed lying next to the horse inside the atrium of the romantic property, which features delicate tile work, moldings and murals.
The mayor of Sintra refused to pony up to Madge’s demands, banning the horse because the wooden floors and beams of the 1860 palace were not strong enough to support its weight, and the animal could damage the building.
While a rep for the singer insists the story is “100 percent made up,” leading Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã quoted a message to Madge allegedly from her agent: “Sorry, my queen. I’m doing my best . . . the man who can decide is not available.” The paper claims Madonna brayed back, “I have given so much to this country and when I ask for a simple favor, in fact to show Portugal to the world, the answer I get is negative.”
But Sintra Mayor Basilio Horta told Lisbon paper Expresso, “There are some things that money cannot buy. Under no condition could you let a horse enter the palace . . . Madonna is an artist, but the palace belongs to everyone and is not to be spoiled.”
He said his office had come under huge pressure from her team, which threatened to call the prime minister.
Horta added, “A Portuguese national would not have dared to try this. I take . . . equality very seriously.”
Spanish paper El País added that Madonna’s lame attitude prompted Portuguese authorities to list all they’d done for her. Lisbon City Hall gave her reduced-price parking, soccer club S.L. Benfica allowed her son in to practice, the Lycée Français Charles Lepierre took her twin girls — even though there was a waiting list — and the government fast-tracked her residency.