Madonna asked Rosie Perez for help hooking up with Tupac Shakur.
Madonna asked Rosie Perez for help hooking up with Tupac Shakur
The 'Do the Right Thing' actress was escorted to the Soul Train Music Awards in 1993 by the rapper - who was fatally shot in 1996 - after he agreed to step in and be her "wingman" when she was dumped at short notice, and when on the red carpet at the event, her date caught the eye of her pal.
Rosie, 60, recalled on 'The Drew Barrymore Show' on Wednesday (06.11.24): “I was going to the Soul Train Music Awards, and my date calls me up half-an-hour before I’m getting in the car, and says: ‘I can’t go with you because my girlfriend will see me.’
“And I was like: ‘You motherf*****.
“And I hang up the phone, and then it rings again, and I think it’s him. And I was like: ‘Listen.’ And he goes: ‘What’s up, it’s Tupac.' And he said: ‘You know, I’m going to go with you, we’re going to walk up in there, we’re going to act like we’re on a date, and he’s going to die.”
When Drew asked if they met up with someone else that night, Rosie confirmed they ran into her "dear friend" Madonna and the 'Vogue' hitmaker urged her to set her up with Tupac.
She said: “My dear friend Madonna, she was there, and she came up to me and was like: ‘Yo, what’s up. You all together?
“I go: ‘Yeah’. She goes: ‘Hook me up.’”
Madonna went on to secretly date Tupac for a year until 1994, and a "deeply personal" letter the rapper wrote to her previously
revealed he ended their romance because of race and their public images.
In an extract from the note - which was made public by TMZ ahead of it going to auction five years ago - he wrote: "For you to be seen with a black man wouldn't in any way jeopardise your career, if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting.
"But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my 'image' I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was.
"I never meant to hurt you."
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