THE MISSING INGREDIENT: How come only half of the women...
... are topless?
shareGood question. One possibility is that the director or producers asked for volunteers among the actresses. We have to guess their reasons.
Madonna didn't do it because she's Madonna and generally gets what she wants. Lili Taylor didn't because she imagines herself to have too much integrity for that kind of thing. (Although she did a topless scene for Say Anything that wasn't used. I think she said later that she regretted filming it.)
Valeria Golino: I'm not sure. She seems to be a bit on the low-key side for that kind of scene.
So that leaves Sammi Davis and Ione Skye who got with the program. Maybe they thought it would give them more, ah, visibility in the scene. Some actors are competitive on the set and will try to one-up other members of the cast. (Madonna, perhaps, accomplishes that by merely being there.)
All of them had equal opportunity to do some inept dancing to annoying music. And they all got their own ridiculous monologue as they dumped the fluids into the jacuzzi.
But Madonna has appeared naked in other movies.
shareThen I don't know; you'll have to ask her!
Maybe she thought this movie wasn't worth that particular side of her talents. I'd still guess that she made her own choice.
Maybe the director thought those two had the best tits.
That's possible, although the director was a woman (Allison Anders). I have no idea what her sexual orientation is - although that may not be relevant.
Assuming a director had the control, you would think Madonna would get a topless role - the box office impact would be considerable. Then again, I mentioned the "Madonna Exception" above. I assume she has more control over her roles then, say, Ione Skye does.