Wherein we get the story behind the rogue autograph-seeker at the Madonna press conference

Wherein we get the story behind the rogue autograph-seeker at the Madonna press conference

Madonna walks the red carpet at TIFF 2011 (Image: Christopher Drost)

The rumour mill has been constantly churning regarding the Material Girl’s behavior at TIFF, ever since a rogue fan somehow broke into her press conference last week and asked for her John Hancock (not to mention that whole mess around Madge telling a group of TIFF volunteers to turn their backs to the wall as she passed by). We have the real story (hint: the autograph seeker wasn’t the orange-clad volunteer she pretended to be) after the jump.

Here’s the prevailing (albeit disputed) narrative: a young woman in an orange volunteer T-shirt approached Madonna at the end of her Q&A at the press conference for W.E. and asked for an autograph, claiming it was “for a volunteer.” For her part, Madge reluctantly complied. Now, we received an inside scoop that the rogue autograph-seeker wasn’t a volunteer or even a fawning Madonna fan—she hunts star signatures in hopes of turning them into a tidy little profit. Apparently, she got her hands on a volunteer T-shirt and then brazenly strolled into the press conference (which had heavy security). She waited for Madonna to wrap up, made her move and then made a break for it. As she exited, security grabbed her, demanding to see her volunteer pass and identification. She had neither and said so. But when security let her out of its grip for a moment, she made a dash for it, running six flights down a concrete stairwell and out of the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Items signed by Madonna regularly fetch hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, and the value increases if there is a photograph of the autograph being signed. Considering this incident was all over the news—and in so ways contributed to Madonna’s TIFF PR nightmare—we’re betting it will fetch a pretty penny.