Desperately seeking Susan

Photos Herb Ritts took of Madonna and Rosanna Arquette during a publicity shoot for their hit film Desperately Seeking Susan were initially deemed too "lesbian," according to veteran publicist Reid Rosefelt on My Life as a Blog.

Rosefelt, who was working as a publicist on the 1985 mistaken identity comedy, recalls the day he first told Madonna that Ritts would be photographing her and costar Arquette for publicity photos and, possibly, the film's poster.

“Is he gay?” Madonna asked. “Gay men take good pictures of me.”

Rosefelt recalls that during the meeting for the film's ad campaign an agency was pitching a campaign that traded on the film's disillusioned housewife plot, with Arquette’s face on a toaster and Madonna’s face on a piece of toast. Thinking the images were terrible, Rosefelt pulled out photos from the Ritts session, causing a hush in the room.