LADY GAGA:
“The story that I thought I would find when I met Gaga – dark, otherworldly, borderline autistic diva-genius failing under the pressure of fame – just dissolves, like newsprint in the rain,” writes Caitlin Morin in her Times Online feature on Our Lordess Lady Gaga. She says this after Gaga alludes to the possibility that Lady Gaga already has, or one day may have, lupus. Gaga has recently made a few statements about how she would like to die on stage rather than on vacation, which is why this whole thing is starting to remind me of Satine in Moulin Rouge, even though I don’t really care for Nicole Kidman.
But the whole article is like that, really. Maybe it’s what you imagine you could write about Lady Gaga if you had an interview with Lady Gaga and then went to a sex club in Berlin with Lady Gaga, I don’t know. You should read it. Really you should read the whole thing. I mean at the end, Lady Gaga pees through her fishnets in front of the reporter.
But other parts are sad and disturbing and confusing. Here are some of the parts you will really like, but not as much as you will like the whole article.
When asked about her recent collapsing on stage, Gaga tells the reporter:
“…I certainly don’t have an eating problem,” she continues. “A little MDMA [Ecstasy] once in a while never killed anybody, but I really don’t do drugs. I don’t touch cocaine any more. I don’t smoke. Well, maybe a single cigarette – with whisky – while I’m working, because it just frees my mind a little bit. But I care about my voice. The thrill of my voice being healthy on stage is really special. I take care of myself.”
How do you keep depressive, or panicked, thoughts at bay?
“Prescription medicine,” she says, cheerfully. “I can’t control my thoughts at all. I’m tortured. But I like that,” she laughs, cheerfully. “Lorca says it’s good to be tortured. The thoughts are unstoppable – but so is the music. It comes to me constantly.”
Firstly: don’t do drugs, kids. Secondly; those of us who have trouble spelling our own names after two hours of sleep without a gallon of coffee and a ritalin injection probs wonder how Lady Gaga maintains such a rigorous performance schedule without either: 1) Medication, 2) a Jennifer Beals-esque lifestyle (if you’re unawares, Jennifer Beals does all the things for her body that every human should do, but doesn’t, because we are busy/poor/idiots, like eat organic food, and exercise regularly, and breathe clean air and have inner peace etc.), 3) Complete Mental Breakdown or 4) Superhuman superpowers.
‘Til this article, we’d sort of assumed it was “4.” And I guess it is “4,” mostly. She’s probably kidding, or maybe fucking with the interviewer, and we just-so-happen to personally know her personal trainer so we know that the girl works the fuck out as well, but Jesus Christ if it isn’t refreshing to hear a famous person say “medicine” instead of “pilates.”
Whatever you had us at “Lorca.”
Lady Gaga on the paparazzi:
“You know what I spend most of my money on? Disappearing. I hate the paparazzi. Because the truth is – no matter what people tell you – you can control it. If you put as much money into your security as you put into your cars or your diamonds or your jewellery, you can just… disappear. People who say they can’t get away are lying. They must just like the… big flashes.”
We really really love this part, about feminism — it seems like Gaga’s views have definitely been evolving. We also like that she is checking girls out in the club quite actively.
“Do you know what that girl at the bar said to me?” she says, sipping her Scotch, and taking a single drag off a fag before handing it back. “She said, ‘You’re a feminist. People think it means man-hating, but it doesn’t.’ Isn’t that funny?”
Earlier in the day, conversation had turned to whether Gaga would describe herself as feminist or not. As the very best conversations about feminism often will, it had segued from robust declarations of emancipation and sisterhood (“I am a feminist because I believe in women’s rights, and protecting who we are, down to the core”) to musing on who she fancied. (“In the video to Telephone, the girl I kiss, Heather, lives as a man. And as someone who does like women, something about a more masculine woman makes me feel more… feminine. When we kissed, I got that fuzzy butterfly feeling.”)
We had concluded that it was odd most women “shy away” from declaring themselves feminists, because “it really doesn’t mean ‘man-hating’ ”.
“And now she’s just said the same thing to me! AND she’s hot!” Gaga beams. She points to the girl – who looks like an androgynous, Cupid-mouthed, Jean Paul Gaultier cabin boy. “Gorgeous,” Gaga sighs.
Lady Gaga on Alejandro, described by her as a tribute to gay culture:
“But that’s just for sex. Gaga’s devotion to, and promotion of, every aspect of gay culture is legendary. Bisexual herself, while her musical education might have been classical, her cultural education was homosexual, and comes to a head in the video for her forthcoming single, Alejandro. “
We can’t wait.
GO MAG:
Wheee! It’s the first ever dude on the cover of GO! Magazine (besides the time they had Obama, but he’s NOT A QUEER, so it wasn’t as exciting). Meet Topher Gross, hairstylist, drag queen and apparent cupcake enthusiast. Pretty sure our very own Alex Vega has those same shorts. Hotness! Happy Birthday GO!
COMING OUT:
Are you tired of talking about famous people coming out? The New York Times is pretty sure you are.
Once seen as a defiant and courageous act of such social and political significance that gay rights activists created a holiday for it and recruited prominent gay people to take part (National Coming Out Day, still observed every Oct. 11), coming out has lost some of its potency.
While few experts on gay issues would dispute the powerful impact that coming out has on a personal, one-on-one level, there is a growing sense that a celebrity coming out sways few hearts and minds and does relatively little to alter negative perceptions about gay people.
AUSTRALIA IS FILLED WITH GAY PEOPLE!:
Outed Australian MP David Campbell is not alone. A survey says one in five men are gay in Australia: One in five of Australia’s politicians, businessmen, union leaders, labourers, farmers — men in general are either openly gay or leading secret double lives, Sydney anthropologist Stephen Juan claims. (@herald-sun
EFFY:
I bet y’all are in need of a Skins fix. Look at all these pretty pictures of Kaya Scodelario from Nylon! Don’t they make you want to curl up in a crack den with her?
SAME-SEX PARTNER RIGHTS:
Gutierrez wants same-sex partner rights in the immigration reform bill. Such reforms could allow same-sex partners of US citizens to get the same right to stay in the country that married couples get. (@chicago tribune)
EXPEDIA:
Expedia has opened a gay travel store, just in time for summer vacation. (@nyt)
TILA TEQUILA:
So Tila Tequila is allegedly on board for the next season of Celebrity Rehab though there’s no word on if the season or the show will actually happen or if anyone else has signed up or cares. If she is going to be on that show for fucking “internet addiction” I am just going to quit life. I’m just going to quit it.
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