A Most Spontaneous Post: LADY GAGA...

interviewed just minutes ago as I write this about 11.40AM Malaysian time; Lady Gaga was faced-off with my fave presenter on CNN: Christie lu Stout.

Gaga's comments about fame, artistry and rumours about her personal sexual oreintation etc are so ORIGINAL that Desi was moved to hit the PC keyboard to upload this. I just kind of agree with her line that, paraphasing hear, not so professionally, but with good intent OK!: "I just do what an performing artist does best, on stage. I am not crazy just because my aide says I even sleep with my wigs on ... I don't care or mind what others say about my person (wrt her hermaphroditism...)...so I won't dignify with an answer to (the rumours)..."


Please view the TV clip via CNN.com/TalkAsia to get the full spirit of her interview; here's the news report:

By Dean Irvine
CNN

MACAU, China (CNN) -- There are no downsides to fame, said Lady Gaga, the singer and currently one of the hottest things in pop.


Going Gaga on stage: "You will never know me unless you see me live."

1 of 2 more photos » For someone whose debut album called "The Fame" has reached No. 4 in the Billboard charts and has two of the year's biggest selling singles, it's not a surprising statement.

But talking in Macau before her final concert of her Asian tour, it seemed that if not fame itself, its handmaidens -- media scrutiny and touring -- might be taking their toll on the 23-year-old.

Gaga (real name Stefani Germanotta) arrived for the interview backstage at the Venetian Hotel's concert arena suitably attired; wrapped in a Vivienne Westwood outfit and propped up in enormous Galliano heels. With gargantuan shades covering half her face, the avant-garde fashionista image was intact.

"I'm sort of a musical pop music misfit," she said in her slow New York drawl, and "a relentless bitch" in response to how she had got to the top of the music industry.

She claims Lady Gaga is not a persona and it seems she is committed to living as closely to the wild fantasy shown in her videos. More at home on the stage than in the interview chair --"We could sit here and talk, but you will never know who I am unless you see me live" -- even Gaga's faithful make-up artist (in attendance throughout the interview) thought she was crazy because she sleeps in her wigs.

Was it to keep the persona up, stay in character? No, "I just like wigs," she said with an unintentional comic deadpan. View the behind the scenes photos and on-stage outfits of Lady Gaga in Macau »

She's gone from art school dropout performing in clubs in the Lower East Side of Manhattan to the edge of global stardom with her infectious dance tunes and an intriguing and outlandish image. It's an image that has been carefully concocted; part performance artist, part sexualized pop automaton who feeds on pop culture iconography, digests and adapts it.

"Tabloids were my text books, I'd tear out pages. I embrace pop culture; everything that people say is poisonous, ostentatious and shallow. It's like my chemistry book. I look though everything and make what I believe is art out of it," she said.

On TV: Show times
Wednesday, Sep 16: 1330 GMT (2030 Hong Kong)
Thursday, Sep 17: 0400 GMT (1100 Hong Kong)
Saturday, Sep 19: 0530, 1530, 1930 GMT (1230, 2230, 0230 Hong Kong)
Monday, Sep 21: 0300 GMT (1000 Hong Kong)
Tuesday, Sep 22: 1630 GMT (2330 Hong Kong)

Assisting in her pop alchemy is the Haus of Gaga, her inner circle that encompasses designers, producers and those she's close to. As well as her make-up artist, her manager was also in close attendance during the shoot. While we weren't allowed a further glimpse into the "Haus," her coterie exhibited tendencies more like a support group than put-upon workers dealing with diva demands.

If fantasy has a prominent place in the world of Gaga, then the amorphous idea of fame is running the show. She name-checked pop artist Andy Warhol as an inspiration for the way he made commercial art as respected as fine art. No mention was made on his ideas on the fleeting nature of fame itself.

"Ambition and longevity are in my blood," she said, and having written the songs on "The Fame" as well as tunes for Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls, she has the musical talent to elevate her above the industry's disposable pop starlets.

"I must remain prolific and relevant... but equally irrelevant," she said as a gnomic strategy for maintaining success. But great anecdotes about how she came up with certain ideas for costumes that involved running around the woods naked in Hawaii sounded more like a real person and less arch.

Don't Miss
Anna Tsuchiya: Kamikaze girl
Donatella Versace: Fashion's prima donna

Yet her contention that fame can do no wrong was shaken by one question at the end of the interview. Aware that more people wanted to know more about her the longer she's in the public eye -- "I find I'm being probed a bit more" -- Internet rumors have been spreading.

While helpful for fueling media interest and the enigma of Lady Gaga, among the most fantastic things circulating out there is that she's a brain-washed puppet of the Illuminati, another is that she is a hermaphrodite. The question was asked how does feel when she reads things like the latter.

The atmosphere changed.

"I'm not even going to answer that," was her response after a protracted pause, while off camera her manager expressed shock at the question, demanding it not be aired (a demand she later retracted only after plenty of discussion).

Gaga herself said the cameras should be turned off, the interview over. They weren't and it wasn't. Things were quickly, if uncomfortably, smoothed over for the sake of one more question to "end on a positive note," according to the manager.

Composure regained, "You can ask me about scrutiny, but I'd prefer if you didn't..." Gaga said.


Was the reaction a studied response to fuel more controversy? It didn't seem so, it was personal and had struck a nerve. Yet her response to the reworded question on scrutiny was like a switch had been flicked and she was back on message:

"There are no downsides," she said before launching into slightly an anecdote that involved getting advice from +++Grace Jones while she washed her feet.

DESIDERATA: +++The advice given by Grace (C, I'm on first person terms with such greAts!:) -- paraphrasing hear again! -- was that an artist/or any professional, methinks, should just listen to advice given by those whom one respects. "To all others, damn it, why do I care?" Okay, those within quote marks, that's in Desi's own words, take it or leave it!
E-mail to a friend

_____________________________________

About my fave presenter:) Don't ye be jealous!:(


Anchors & Reporters
Kristie Lu Stout

Kristie Lu Stout is an award-winning anchor/correspondent for CNN International. Recently named one of Forbes magazine’s ‘Nine Women to Watch’ in Asia, and winner of a prestigious Asian Television Award as “Best news presenter or anchor”, Stout hosts the network's evening program “World News Asia” from CNN's Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong.


Stout’s recent coverage of major news events for the network’s international audience has focussed heavily on the global economic crisis, with particular emphasis on its impact in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition she has led coverage of U.S. President Barack Obama’s first year in office, the deteriorating security environment in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as North Korea's rocket launch and efforts to rein in its nuclear ambitions.


Since joining the network in 2001, her extensive assignments around the region have included reporting live from Beijing to cover the city’s preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games, from Tokyo on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s historic visit to Japan and live from Shanghai during CNN’s ‘Eye on China’ week of special programming.


Additional experience includes reports from the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea during the network’s ‘Eye on South Korea’ week of programming, an initiative which she is again fronting this year. She also reported from Banda Aceh, Indonesia after the Indian Ocean tsunami, and from Vietnam after its entry into the World Trade Organization.


Prior to “World News Asia,” Stout anchored “CNN Today”, the network’s Hong Kong morning news and business program. Earlier in her career at CNN, she was the network’s technology correspondent and host of the daily “Tech Watch” segment. In eight years since joining the network she has consistently reported on high-tech developments and continues to lead by example, by regularly tweeting while anchoring live (twitter.com/klustout) .


She has conducted in-depth interviews with some of technology’s biggest newsmakers including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Linux creator Linus Torvalds and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Her career in journalism started in San Francisco at Wired magazine's online division. Stout has written on technology for various media outlets including the South China Morning Post, where she founded and wrote the “Beijing Byte” column.


She was one of the first employees to join the Beijing-based Internet portal Sohu.com and worked for Reuters' new media division in China. Stout holds both a bachelor's and a master's degree from Stanford University and studied advanced Mandarin Chinese at Beijing's Tsinghua University.


Her community efforts include speaking to university students across the region. She has lectured to journalism students at Peking University, Hong Kong University and the National University of Singapore.