Lady Gaga slammed, sued, smells great!
Gaga's meat dress from the MTV Awards is now preserved in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in New York.
In the world of pop Olympics, Lady Gaga's had a gold medal month—her own perfume launch, her debut movie casting, her upcoming new album. True, it's not all been fun and games—there's a lawsuit pending on her look-alike dolls and PETA is furious with her again.
But when you rake up more publicity space than anybody else—and that includes Madonna and Kristen Stewart—you can't really complain.
Let's start with the People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals, which is really letting the fur fly over Gaga's new wardrobe. PETA senior VP Dan Mathews penned a scathing open letter to Gaga yesterday, accusing her of backing down from her anti-fur stance by sporting animal pelts in recent photos.
"Many of your gay fans, I among them, have long admired what you told Ellen: 'I hate fur and I don't wear fur'," Mathews' letter begins, referring to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. "These recent photos of you in fox and rabbit and with a wolf carcass make it appear that you have amnesia."
Sophie Ellis-Bexter fronts an anti-fur campaign for PETA, which features her holding up the bloody carcass of a skinned fox.
Mathews goes on to ask Gaga if she's done an about-face on the subject of animal fur and suggests that she just might be targeted by the group when it cranks up its new awareness campaigns this fall.
"What happened? Are your stylists telling you that it's fake, or are you a turncoat? Many gays are animal advocates because we recognise that the same arrogance and indifference that some have toward animal suffering has at times been directed toward us personally because of our orientation."
"By wearing those dumb furs in a heat wave, you're making yourself a target just like the mindless Kim Kardashian. ... As we plan our fall campaigns, please tell us whether what you gracefully told Ellen was heartfelt or just a pose," Mathews concludes.
Odd, you'd think, that after Gaga sported an outfit made of animal flesh at the MTV Video Music Awards a couple of years ago, there would be precious little left for PETA to complain about.
MGA Entertainment is the toymaker behind the global phenomenon, Bratz Dolls.
Toy manufacturer MGA Entertainment has said that Gaga's no doll either. MGA has filed a US$10 million lawsuit against Gaga, claiming that last-minute changes to a Gaga doll requested by Gaga and her team have imperilled the possibility that the doll will be in stores in time for Christmas.
MGA, which said it advanced Gaga's licensing company Bravado International Group US$1 million for the rights to the doll, claims that Gaga is deliberately stalling the release of the doll so it will coincide with the releases of her new album and perfume.
According to the suit, MGA sent Gaga a prototype of the doll in March, and she was "blown away" by it, with the exception of a "few tweaks" she requested. Those "few tweaks" developed into a prolonged process that’s now threatening the timely release of the doll.
MGA says that Gaga asked through an intermediary that the doll "be more supermodel-like". "Think a prettier version of Gaga," MGA was allegedly asked via emails. "Thin out the cheeks and sharpen the jawline. Give her more of a cat-eye and sexier, poutier lips."
Steven Klein, one of fashion's super-photographers, shot Gaga's 'Fame' ads.
MGA scrambled to make the revisions, the company says, but after presenting the new version of the doll to Gaga in April, she requested that they remove the doll's voice chip.
The suit claims that these "intentional and deliberate delays" have threatened to botch MGA's summer deadline with distributors—which is just what Gaga and her team were hoping for.
The suit also claims that Gaga's camp suggested that a Born This Way zombie ensemble be included in the doll's wardrobe, and flew the idea that the doll should have a removable head with a bloody stump underneath. (Merry Christmas, kiddies!)
A spokeswoman for Gaga said that the judge shot down MGA's request that Gaga immediately approve the dolls, adding that Gaga is "pleased" with the decision. She added that further proceedings are scheduled for 29th August. "Lady Gaga will at that time ask the court to formally dismiss MGA's ill-conceived lawsuit and is confident that she will prevail," she said.
Gaga makes her movie debut in the fall, playing femme fatale La Chameleon.
So that's all the bad news. On the good news front, Gaga will be making her movie debut in Machete Kills as a character named La Chameleon in director and writer Robert Rodriguez's sequel to 2010's Machete.
Gaga joins an eclectic cast that includes Danny Trejo returning in the title role, along with Michelle Rodriguez and Jessica Alba, and co-stars Charlie Sheen as the US president, Mel Gibson as a billionaire arms dealer, Amber Heard, Sofia Vergara, Zoë Saldana and Cuba Gooding Jr.
The story follows Machete battling his way through Mexico, recruited by the US government to take down an arms dealer who claims to be launching a weapon in space. A poster featuring Gaga’s character was released recently.
Not exactly a novice to acting if her stage performances and videos count, she also appeared briefly in The Sopranos and on the MTV VMAs portraying her male persona, Jo Calderone.
'Fame' is available now in Japan; everywhere else has to wait until September.
Meanwhile, Gaga has released a new photo of the second ad for her debut fragrance Fame, photographed by Steven Klein, as the perfume made its debut in Japan this month ahead of an international launch next month.
Gaga took to Twitter to reveal the shot, revealing she had "just got the green light" and adding that Brandon Maxwell was responsible for the styling of the futuristic campaign. Klein was also behind the lens for the perfume's first ad, which featured Gaga naked, being crawled over by a number of tiny men.
The second ad is less shocking, featuring PVC, mirror imagery and plenty of black—given that Fame has been dubbed "the first ever black eau de parfum". Gaga also revealed that Japan is the destination of choice for Fame's debut. "The first pop up store for my fragrance is in... JAPAN!" she wrote on Twitter.
Described as a perfume of "floral and fruity elements", Fame is set to arrive in stores globally in September. Although black in the bottle, it sprays clear and becomes invisible once airborne. There will be two versions of Fame, an "affordable" small bottle and a larger version dubbed "Le Masterpiece".
With all that other stuff, you're likely to forget that Gaga actually makes music. To remind you of that, she's revealed her new album title, ARTPOP along with a picture of a matching new tattoo.
Gaga posted the picture recently on her Facebook page, showing off a tattoo of the album title on her wrist along with the caption "new ink new album". She later took to Twitter to confirm "my new album/project ARTPOP" and emphasised capitalising the title.
Gaga initially told her Twitter fans in June that she would reveal the new album title in September and has been debuting new tracks, including the piano ballad Princess Die on her current Born This Way Ball tour.
Gaga's been teasing her "little monsters" with snippets of details about the new album. Last month, she played a dance-heavy track from a car while driving past fans in New York, with fans speculating that it was one of her new tracks, and also that Gaga was still embracing the electronic dance music phenomenon.
The new album name comes after Gaga posted pictures of her morphed onto a unicorn body. Gaga's currently midway through her 110-date Born This Way Ball worldwide concert tour, embarking on the Europe leg this month.
Speaking of all that travelling she's doing—Gaga's been voted as the worst vacation companion by a Hotels.com survey of 1,500 American hotel customers.
Michelle Obama made first place among the celebrities, historical, fictional and political figures Americans would most want as roommates on their next vacation. But Gaga was voted an undesirable travel partner by all age groups.
According to the survey, Americans have a preference for sharing their holiday accommodation with smart, funny people with an outlook similar to their own. The poll found that the least desirable characteristics in a roommate are smoking, love of cats and selfishness.
Source: Reuters, Relaxnews
Published: 14th August 2012
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