May 19, 2011
Exclusive: Lady Gaga on Being Named Forbes Top Celebrity
Singer Lady Gaga, who topped the Forbes Celebrity 100 List, sat down with "Extra's" Steve Santagati in the Big Apple for an exclusive chat about being on the list, her album "Born This Way"... and making an Italian meal!
On beating Oprah on the Forbes list, the singer was humbled. "That's very nice, only Oprah is infinitely more important and influential than me. I'm just grateful to have even ever met her, really. What matters most to me is how the fans feel about the work that I'm doing and the music. But it's always really, really nice to get compliments like that. I really appreciate it."
As for the music, Gaga is very passionate about her art. "'Born This Way' is about living halfway between reality and fantasy," explained Her Ladyship. "I wrote the whole record myself. It's my metaphor about the real you and the magic that's inside of you. The fans are what keep that alive in me. 'Born this Way' is now our attempt as a community to tell the world 'Magic is not artificial, it's real. Theatre is not artifice; theatre is not a joke'."
The Queen Monster opened up about some specific songs on "Born This Way," especially the track "Government Hooker," which premiered earlier this year at the Thierry Mugler fashion show in Paris and has raised a few questions regarding its political statement. She explained, "It's both it's a fun pop song (and political statement). I wanted to make an empowering record about the women that are some of the most powerful in history the ones that were sleeping with the most powerful men in the world. Some of them were being paid and some of them weren't. I just had this fantasy what they must have been privy to. What they must have known about before it happened."
Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, said she's received "a bunch of emails about how much the fans loved," her album, which was leaked on the Internet. "I was so happy. You know what I did? I went into the kitchen and I made spaghetti with mussels and shrimp and a white wine sauce."
What does Gaga do with all her costumes once she's done with them? "They go to that planet G.O.A.T. The place I was in the 'Born this Way' video -- the Government Owned Alien Territory in space. I just send it all there. It's in a giant archive just in sort of a centrifugal gravity situation."
Lady Gaga will appear on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend with host Justin Timberlake. "Born This Way" will be available May 23.