If ever anyone was due for a smiting, surely it's Madonna. At least, an increasing number of Italians seem to think so.
Fresh off her Vatican-disavowed mock-crucifixion performance in Rome, the erstwhile Material Girl has drawn the ire of yet another group of Catholics, this time over her H&M clothing ad draped over the scaffolding of Milan's landmark Duomo.
Surprisingly, it's not the "Papa Don't Preach" star's pose or wardrobe that's causing the controversy--it would be a feat to find offense with the image itself, which features Madonna donning a fully-zipped white sports jacket and looking downward.
Instead, protestors have found fault with the ad's placement, gracing the outside of the cathedral less than a week after the Confessions on a Dancefloor singer went ahead with plans to stage her cross-writhing routine at a concert at Rome's Olympic Stadium, just a mile away from Vatican City.
Timing is apparently everything.
Last Sunday, the controversy-courting singer pulled off a Jesus-channeling performance on stage, suspending herself on a 20-foot mirrored cross and donning a crown of fake thorns while singing the '80s ballad "Live to Tell."
Despite increasing protests over the H&M banner, the revenue from which is helping bankroll restoration of the cathedral, the Duomo's Monsignor Luigi Manganini said the ad would stay up for the duration of H&M's contract.
"It's just an ad, certainly not a canonization," Manganini told Italy's Ansa news agency, per Reuters. "When it was accepted, the poster seemed all correct and appropriate for its place, and it still is."
The head of culture for Milan's city council agreed, claiming the complaints, primarily by a Catholic parents' association and Milan's Advertising Progress Foundation, was much ado about nothing and that the ad might even be in keeping with the décor of the 14th century cathedral.
"The other parts of the building are full of devils and demons," Vittorio Sgarbi told the city's Corriere della Sera newspaper. "So an infernal Madonna shouldn't hurt us too badly."
It's not the first time an Italian church-side advertisement has drawn the ire of watchdog groups.
Last spring, Rome's St. Pantaleo church was blasted for agreeing to hang a giant movie poster promoting The Da Vinci Code on its outer scaffolding.
Several clergymen called the advertisement's presence "blatant provocation" as it came on the heels of mounting Vatican protests against the film, which questioned key tenets of Catholic beliefs.
The poster, which featured the face of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa along with the film's premiere date, remained up for three weeks before the Italian Interior Ministry agreed to remove it.
Madonna, meanwhile, has moved on from her Roman protests and is back on the road, already courting the wrath of another religious body, the Russian Orthodox Church.
Church officials have already jumped on the boycott bandwagon, urging Christians to sit out her concert when she stops in Moscow Sept. 11.