And the gloves are off!
Kiss and make up? I should coco. The long-running feud between Madonna and Elton John reared its ugly head again at Monday's Golden Globe Awards.
The music heavyweights, who were both up for best original song, first traded insults on the red carpet.
Before the ceremony, scalpel-tongued John, who was nominated for his song Hello Hello from the film Gnomeo and Juliet, sniped that Madonna would walk away empty-handed.
Asked by NBC's Carson Daly about the nominees in the category, John replied: "Mary J [Blige] might win for The Help - Madonna hasn't got a f****ng chance."
To which Daly replied, "Those are fighting words."
Retorted John, "They're accurate words!"
Madonna appeared to take the barb on the chin.
"He had a choice word about you ... he said you don't have an F****ng chance," Daly told Madonna.
"Was he wearing a dress? Oh damn him," she breezily replied, adding, "May the best man win."
Thankfully, all that swearing was censored from the broadcast thanks to a seven-second delay utilised by network NBC.
Watch the footage below:
Madge, 53, later bagged a gong for Masterpiece from her second directing effort, WE, - much to John's chagrin. As the camera panned to John, 64, who was sat in the audience with his significant other, David Furnish, he looked decidedly stony-faced.
And after the Material Girl emerged victorious, John's partner Furnish took to his Facebook page to have a pop at the singer for her win.
"Madonna. Best song???? F**k off!!!" he fumed, according to TMZ.
Furnish added in a separate post (which also appears to have been deleted): "Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit."
He also chided Madge for her rather long-winded acceptance speech, which he found to be "embarrassing in it's [sic] narcissism".
Fighting words, indeed.
"And her criticism of Gaga shows how desperate she really is," he added.
Gaga is the godmother to Furnish and John's son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John.
Last week, Madonna was asked if she thought pop diva Lady Gaga's Born This Way was a rip-off of her 1989 hit Express yourself.
"It felt reductive," she replied. "When I heard it on the radio ... I said that sounds very familiar," she said.
Furnish also voiced his disgust to Page Six, again questioning the integrity of the awards.
"I think it was a fluke ... When this happens you have to question the integrity of the awards," he said. "Did Madonna get the Golden Globe because she attended the awards and agreed be a presenter?"
He added, "Can you sing Madonna's song? Can you hum it? It's a song nobody has heard, from a film few have seen. The award should have gone to Mary J Blige or Elton. I like Madonna's music, but not her movies. She should stick to what she is good at."
Madge no doubt rubbed salt into John's wounds when she trotted up to the podium for her acceptance speech.
She revealed that she hadn't originally planned to write a song for WE, and regaled how her manager, Guy Oseary, pressured her into it.
"He harangued me for the entire time I was filming and editing my movie to write a song," she said. "And I said, 'Please, Guy, I'm trying to focus on being a director and I want people to be able to pay attention to the film. And I don't have time.'
"So then I finished the film and I started making my record and somehow magically and miraculously the song emerged."
And then she scored a Globe. Not bad for an afterthought.
Check out Madge's acceptance speech below:
Backstage after the ceremony, Madge said she "doesn't feel bad" about the win, despite John's wrath.
"I hope he speaks to me for the next couple of years," she said about John. "He's been known to get mad at me so I don't know. He's brilliant and I adore him so he'll win another award. I don't feel bad!"
The music titans have had a somewhat testy relationship for years.
In 2004, John accused Madge of miming after she won best live act at the GQ Awards.
"Madonna, best f**king live act? F*** off!" he snipped.
"Since when has lip-synching been live? Anyone who lip-synchs in public on stage when you pay $134 to see them should be shot.
He added: "That's me off her f****ng Christmas card list, but do I give a toss? No."
Madge's rep quickly fired off a statement saying, "Madonna does not lip-synch nor does she spend her time trashing other artists."
John later apologised. But I wouldn't hold my breath for another coming your way, Madge.
Who do you think deserved to win: Elton John or Madonna?
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