Before Madonna was a mother—in fact, before anyone outside the Ciccone family ever heard of Madonna—she made some demo recordings in 1981 that were produced by Stephen Bray, a friend and fellow student at the University of Michigan. Some friend he turned out to be. Without consulting Madonna, Bray, who's now a Hollywood music producer, licensed the recordings to Interact Entertainment Group, which later this month will begin selling a nine-song compact disc, Pre-Madonna, to be available only via a TV commercial. The singer's representative says that Madonna is "surprised and not particularly enthusiastic" about the album but as yet plans no legal action....

You may have heard that Marlon Brando won't be playing the lead in CBS's The Last Don miniseries, based on the latest Mario Puzo novel. Brando had expressed serious interest in again portraying a Mafia godfather, and the network wanted him (PEOPLE, Oct. 14). But what you don't know is that negotiations broke down, says a source close to the action, when Brando asked for a piece of the gross in addition to his reported $4 million salary. Brando never quite understood that in TV there is no such thing as pure gross, says the source, "because viewers, unlike moviegoers, don't pay to get in." Brando's was an offer that CBS had no difficulty refusing. No word yet on who will now get the part. The Last Don is scheduled to air next year....

Faye Resnick, after making a name for herself during the O.J. Simpson trial by writing two books about Simpson and her close friend Nicole Brown Simpson, isn't quite finished with her revelations. Her next stop? Getting her picture in Playboy. I hear Resnick, 40, will receive between $250,000 and $500,000 (depending on newsstand sales) to appear on the cover and go naked inside Playboy's March issue. She'll also be interviewed for the magazine by former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, who contends in his latest book, Outrage, that Simpson was guilty of murdering Nicole and Ron Goldman but that prosecutors Marcia Clark, Christopher Darden et al botched the case. Bet he won't be asking Resnick about her hobbies....

Oops! Jamie Tarses, who became president of entertainment at ABC in June, sent Tim Conway a congratulatory letter after he nabbed an Emmy in September. Conway won for a part he played on ABC's Coach, but Tarses mistakenly praised him for the great job he was doing on Home Improvement, a show on which he has never appeared. An ABC rep blamed the gaffe on a "human error" made by a secretary. The rep says Tarses "just assumed the letter was correct when she signed it."...

Robert Urich, while continuing to battle a rare form of cancer called synovial sarcoma, has set up his own Web site to let fans know how he's doing. Just tap out www.roberturich.com on your computer. Urich, who announced his illness in August, decided to use the Web after receiving more than 25,000 letters from his fans. Urich's rep says the actor "realized there was no way he could answer" all that mail, but he wanted "people to know how he's feeling and to be updated with medical information."

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