TV & VIDEO - Dec. 5, 1990

Justify My Video: “It’s a celebration of sexuality. What’s wrong with that?” Madonna said of her latest video, “Justify My Love,” during an interview on ABC’s “Nightline” Monday night. MTV previously had opted not to accept the sexually suggestive video, but ABC aired the five-minute piece in its entirety, as a preamble to the interview. Madonna told Forrest Sawyer that she believes the video was an honest portrayal of sexuality and compared it to violent and sexist videos often seen on TV. “Why are we willing to deal with the realities of violence and sexism, and why aren’t we willing to deal with sexuality?” she asked. A “Nightline” spokeswoman said that ABC had no problem airing the video: “We wanted to air it. We were doing a show on censorship, so we didn’t want to turn around and censor it.” ABC lawyers cleared the video before it was aired. The video will soon be even more accessible: Warner Bros. Records has decided to rush it into video stores beginning Thursday for sale at $9.98 (see review, F4).