Madonna and Time Warner Culture

"At the party to introduce Sex, (then Time Warner CEO) Jerry Levin arrived dressed for the occasion in a (Warner Brothers) baseball jacket. Entering he saw an actress bent over to receive a tattoo on her butt. He saw transvestites gyrating upon pedestals in leather corsets. He saw Madonna herself, led around on a leash till she bumped into Jerry, one bewildered looking executive. Others from the Time background, who had seen their careers reporting on world catastrophes, had seen it all, from Crimean mass rape to the Salk vaccine, seen it all then been able to golf a round on Sunday, felt disgust. 'Sex was a low point in publishing,' Marty Payson opined. 'Everyone associated with the company was embarassed about that.' Her book stiffled. Madonna's companion album, Erotica, became the most returned in WEA memory."

Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and Hustlers of the Warner Music Group by Stan Cornyn and Paul Scanlon.