Like a Pinup

Discovering that Madonna had posed nude early in her career is a bit like learning that the blond pop siren streaks her hair. Not exactly shattering news. Even so, there was the Material Girl without a stitch of material last week in not one but two flesh magazines, Playboy and Penthouse. The pictures are unremarkable art school stuff, black-and-white studies of Madonna reclining on couches and sitting on windowsills. The real pleasure came from watching Playboy and Penthouse trade taunts in an old-fashioned newsstand war.

According to Bob Guccione, publisher of Penthouse, he had the first look at Playboy's pictures, which were taken in the late 1970s by two New York photographers who had hired Madonna, then an impoverished dancer, as an artist's model (pay: $30 a session). Instead, Guccione purchased the work of another New York photographer, who had paid Madonna $50 for a two-hour sitting in 1978. "Play boy's photos were coarse, uncomplimentary and rather like scraping the bottom of the barrel," said Guccione. Nonsense, says Playboy. Guccione offered at least $100,000 for Playboy's pictures, but the photographers turned him down. "Guccione is rattling his chains to try to get attention," said Playboy Editorial Director Arthur Kretchmer. Neither magazine would say how much it paid for the photos.

Playboy printed 5.9 million copies, 350,000 more than its normal run, while Penthouse is shipping 5.2 million instead of the usual 4.9 million. If Penthouse sells well, Guccione may publish another set of Madonna nudes next month. The onetime artist's model, busy preparing for her wedding next month to Actor Sean Penn, seemed indifferent to all the exposure and declined comment.