Madonna Joins Evita Crew in Laundry Protest

With a fortune of nearly $1billion, it’s hard to imagine getting worked up about the cost of her laundry.

But just-unearthed documents reveal she shocked producers of her 1996 film Evita by joining the crew’s protest against paying half their laundry bills.

Papers from the British Film Institute’s archive show Madonna, now 67, who starred as Argentina’s heroine Eva Peron, added her name to a petition voicing ‘disapproval’ of the directive.

A copy of the petition, with Madonna’s signature, has been found in the private papers of Evita director Sir Alan Parker in the BFI’s archives.

It reveals that the crew, who had just finished shooting scenes in Argentina, were furious when told they would have to meet 50 per cent of laundry costs when filming resumed in .

The petition said: ‘The unit are unanimous in their disapproval of this and wish the company to pay for the laundry. As has been the case in Buenos Aires.’

It is thought Madonna signed the petition to support the crew. By the time cameras started rolling on the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s West End musical, she had been a global superstar for 13 years with international hits including Like a Virgin and Papa Don’t Preach – and was unlikely to be troubled by small financial concerns such as laundry costs.

The petition is dated March 13, 1996, days after she shot the pivotal Don’t Cry for Me Argentina sequence on the balcony of the Casa Rosada building in Buenos Aires, where Eva Peron had addressed crowds. 

One of the film’s producers found out about the petition when a copy was placed under his door.

An internal memo states: ‘For your info – found under Wimbury’s door last night! Signed by Madonna!’

Other papers show that Sir Alan was increasingly frustrated about budget pressures on the film, which he said were having a devastating impact on cast and crew morale.

In a letter to a producer, Sir Alan, who died in 2020, wrote: ‘Our budget difficulties have to be addressed and I have spoken to every member of the crew.

‘We are all doing what we can without sacrificing the continual quality of the film we see every day in the dailies and without nagging and sucking the life out of an exhausted but exhilarated and remarkable group of people.’

Financial woes were forgotten when the film opened in December 1996. It was a box office hit, making £105million in cinemas, and its soundtrack topped charts around the world.