Madonnathon: "Papa Don't Preach"

In celebration of the hypocritical mewlings of Pope Benedict XVI, whose first official visit to the United States this week coincided neatly with the third anniversary of his elevation to the pontificate, as much as in celebration of Madonna's new album Hard Candy (which drops on April 29th!) here's a personal favourite Madonna video of mine, one which was the subject of much ferocious debate amongst us in the 11th grade* following its June 1986 release.

Papa Don't Preach was the second single from her album True Blue; the video, directed by longtime Madonna collaborator James Foley, starred the then-unknown Danny Aiello as Madonna's father, Debi Mazar as one of her friends, and Alex McArthur, who plays her boyfriend; in response, Aiello later recorded an answer song entitled Papa Only Wants the Best and despite that managed to become a star anyway with his appearance in Moonstruck the following year.

Papa Don't Preach was covered by Kelly Osbourne in 2002.

*High school being the forerunner of the blogosphere.