On March 11 1985, Madonna appeared on the cover of People magazine.

“I’m tough, ambitious and I know exactly what I want,” she says. “If that makes me a bitch, okay.”

One associate described her as “a great white shark in goldfish clothing,” and another observes, “If you cross Madonna once, you might as well have never existed as far as she is concerned.”

And woe to the showbiz spider who mistakes her for Little Miss Muffet. “She will suffer fools when it is in her interest,” says a friend, “but never gladly.”

Photo by Ken Regan.