The most shocking thing in Madonna's brother's new book

No, it wasn't that Madonna kissed Gwyneth Paltrow on the lips during a wild New Year's party at Donatella Versace's place, or that she briefly entertained thoughts of having a baby with Dennis Rodman, perhaps the only male in the world whose flamboyance outshined her own.

The most interesting revelation in Christopher Ciccone's book about his older sister Madonna is a huge conflict with her libidinous, uninhibited personality: "Although Madonna is notorious for her lack of inhibition, for posing nude for art students, modeling topless for Gaultier … in private, she is far too shy and prudish to allow herself to be seen naked at close quarters by a stranger."

So she hires her brother as her dresser, to assist her with quick costume changes between acts of her tours, in which she strips down to the skin and he towels the sweat off her body, generally, he claims, cursing him the whole time for minor things. He's admitted it was an odd task for a brother to perform, but more important to Christopher, it was demeaning. He won't tell his friends that he's her dresser, but now he's telling the world.

Can you believe him?

Ciccone is free with accusations, from using coke with Courtney Love and Jack Nicholson to clashing with Lauren Hutton over artwork, but in Madonna's case he often backs off at crucial moments. He dishes about her famous and long-lasting friendship with Ingrid Casares (who was photographed at Alex Rodriguez's side over the weekend, sparking rumors that she was carrying messages to and from Madonna) but at the last moment writes this: "Madonna never confirms or denies" that the pair are having "intimate relations."

And rather than being happy for Madonna's success and pleased with the generosity she does exhibit -- sending him to rehab (which he says he doesn't need) and then therapy (which he says he benefits from) -- Ciccone carps about her "stinginess" to everybody from their grandmother to her employees.

If Ciccone's goal was to aggrandize himself at the expense of his sister, who accomplished her status as a superstar with a potent combination of ambition, discipline and ego, he's fallen far short of the mark. For a man of 47 who has always lived in his sister's shadow, this latest failure must sting most of all.

Read my full review of Ciccone's book: "Life With My Sister Madonna" in Thursday's Life & Arts section.

-- Anne Neville