Madonna's Bro Dishes Dirt on Book Fallout

Madonna and her brother Christopher Ciccone fell out over his recent tell-all memoir, and the situation nearly wound up in court, he tells Vanity Fair. She ranted at their father over photos he supplied for Life With My Sister Madonna, but "I am not knocking her off her pedestal," Ciccone says of the memoir. "I am gently helping her back down to earth."

When Madonna threatened him in a nearly incomprehensible email, "it made me frightened for her," says Ciccone, who sent her an email pledging his love. The aspiring reality TV star hasn't heard from her since. "She doesn’t have a clue, which is kind of depressing and kind of amazing." (More Madonna stories.)