Madonna to Joe Francis: "Girl Gone Wild" Title Switcheroo Had Nothing to Do With Legal Threats

Pop star's camp claims she's been independently fiddling with her upcoming album and its song titles, and that she's never even heard of the Girls Gone Wild mastermind

By Alexis L. Loinaz Feb 28, 2012 6:20 PMTags
Madonna, Joe Francis Dave Hogan/Getty Images; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Madonna's camp wants to make it clear they're not wild about one thing: news that the pop star renamed a song to avoid a copyright brawl.

A rep for the star's camp confirms a TMZ report that she changed the title of her new song "Girl Gone Wild" because she's been fiddling with her upcoming album MDNA—not because of legal bullying from Girls Gone Wild mastermind Joe Francis.

Smackdown! Shall we hop in the ring?

Madonna's manager, Guy Oseary, claims that the pop star has slowly been making changes to the album, and that she dropped the "s" from the song's original title to match up with how she sings the lyrics.

Ready for the gut punch?

Oseary says Madonna's never even heard of Francis, and that she never received the cease-and-desist letter he allegedly sent, demanding that she not perform the song at her recent halftime show.

Ouch.

Does this throw a monkey wrench into the two camps' short-lived détente?

Yesterday Francis told E! News that his legal team has been in touch with Madonna's people. The title change, he alleges, was "an immediate solution for them to thwart any injunctive relief" but that "this is still infringement as far as the law is concerned."

Francis also added, "We are Madonna fans and there are a lot of Madonna fans that are Girls Gone Wild fans."

But something tells us that ain't working the other way around when it comes to the star's peeps and the jigglefest honcho.