Madonna: Truth or Dare - History

History

The title of the documentary is in reference to the party game Truth or Dare?. Outside North America the documentary title was changed by Miramax Films to In Bed with Madonna, due to the game being relatively unknown in other countries. Madonna has commented in various interviews that she hates the title of In Bed with Madonna and has described it as "stupid". The original working title of the documentary was "Truth or Dare: On the Road, Behind the Scenes and In Bed with Madonna".

During the summer of 1990, Madonna hired director Alek Keshishian to film backstage and onstage footage of her Blond Ambition World Tour. The entire documentary is filmed in Black-and-white, except for onstage sequences which are in full color. There are appearances from celebrities such as Al Pacino, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Newton-John, Antonio Banderas, Sandra Bernhard, Kevin Costner and Warren Beatty, whom she was dating at the time.

Concert video footage was shot at Bercy in Paris, France, in July 1990. In the "Express Yourself" concert sequence, Madonna says "All right, America! Do you believe in love?" This audio is overdubbed from a US date onto footage shot in Paris where she does not wear the ponytail as in the Japan and USA stops.

Christopher Ciccone stated in his biography Life with My Sister that he felt much of the documentary was "staged" and that he did not like the scene where Madonna visits their mother's grave, stating "All I know is that to Madonna nothing is sacred anymore. Not even our dead mother, whom she has relegated to the role of mere extra in her movie."