Madonna’s Brother Writing Memoir

The mystery is solved: Madonna’s brother, Christopher Ciccone, is writing a memoir about his sister, to be released in mid-July by an imprint of Simon & Schuster, the publisher told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The imprint, Simon Spotlight Entertainment, had been promoting a celebrity memoir for July, without identifying the author or contents. “Life With My Sister Madonna” will have a first printing of 350,000. Financial details were not disclosed.

“Ciccone’s extraordinary memoir is based on his life and 47 years of growing up with and working with his sister — the most famous woman in the world,” the publisher said Wednesday in a statement.

Persuading stores to make “blind” orders has been tried before. In 2006, William Morrow offered a mysterious tell-all that turned out to be by Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, who had already written about her. Retailers were angered and the book sold poorly.

Ciccone will work with Wendy Leigh, who has written biographies of Liza Minnelli and Grace Kelly and a highly critical book about Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Ciccone, 47, has worked often with his older sister, designing and directing her “Girlie Show” tour in 1993 and serving as artistic director of her 1991 documentary, “Madonna: Truth or Dare.” But according to Madonna’s spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, they are no longer close.

Madonna, who turns 50 this summer, is among the most popular recording artists in history, with such hits as “Like a Virgin,” “Material Girl” and “Vogue.”

Rosenberg had no initial comment on the book, but told the AP that “Madonna has not cooperated with any biography about herself.”