Celebrity Edge: Lady Gaga
This quote from William Congreve’s tragic play The Mourning Bride is the opening to a lawsuit demanding $30.5 million from singer Lady Gaga.
The fact that the suit was filed by her producer turned boyfriend, Rob Fusari, leaves us to surmise the same afterlife-inspired wrath can also come from a man.
Fusari says he’s due the money from Gaga, (Stefani Germanotta), because he’s the one who conceived the “Lady Gaga” iconic name and persona, then helped shape the music into the commercial powerhouse it is today.
The validity of his claim is supported by the fact that, while she was a mousy 20-year-old when they met, he’d already amassed an impressive body of work that included big name hits like Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West” and “Bootylicious” by Destiny’s Child.
But what I thought was interesting is that some reports suggest that Fusari didn’t file the suit until Germanotta stopped taking his calls.
It all reminds me of another celebrity break-up — from another decade.
Cherilyn La-Pierre was a 16-year-old runaway when she met the man who would create the persona that catapulted her into the elite sorority of women known by just one iconic name.
They started out as Sonny and Cher.
But while Cher went on to attain a solo career spanning four decades — including an Oscar win — Sonny Bono became a small town mayor.
If you look back at their much-touted “reunion” on Late Night with David Letterman back in 1987, it’s obvious that Sonny was the one with something to gain. He was married at the time; however, he made a show of “lovingly” holding the hand of his rockstar ex-wife. And when it came time to “ambush” the couple into performing their signature song, “I Got You Babe,” Letterman admitted that he and Bono had “talked about it earlier.”
Bono would go on to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but not before publishing a book that portrayed Cher as an “insecure but ambitious ingrate” who would practice signing autographs in front of a mirror.
Men can resent a woman’s success, but they can be equally disdainful of women who sacrifice too much.
I once dated a super successful man who owned a NASCAR team and would fly me to the races in a private helicopter. He lived out of state and didn’t have much respect for my job in local television. But I was only too happy to invest my time and effort into our relationship. He was Cuban, so I bought tapes to learn Spanish. And I completely understood when he told me he needed to spend New Years “with his family.”
So, I was heartbroken when a mutual friend told me he had another girl with him on the family yacht. My one consolation: I hadn’t sacrificed my career yet, so I was able to throw myself into my work and become more of the independent woman he fell for in the first place.
The reality is that in any relationship, celebrity or not, one career inevitably takes a back seat to the other. Unfortunately, when that career belongs to a man, the woman, more often than not, ends up alone. But rather than unleashing a hell like fury, I say, channel that energy into your own success.
Then rock your career for four decades and beyond.
Corinna Allen is the entertainment reporter on CBS Better Mornings Atlanta, airing daily from 5 to 7 a.m.
The 40 Year Old Mommy 