Lady Gaga is being sued either for $30 or $35 million (depending on which reports you believe) by an ex boyfriend who claims he invented her entire wacky persona, music style, and even came up with the idea for her name. If you believe this guy’s account he was a regular Henry Higgins to a then Jerseylicious unpolished rocker who relied on him for guidance in all areas of her professional life. The story goes that Gaga, then Stefani Germanotta, first met producer Rob Fusari in the Spring of 2006. He claims in his lawsuit that he changed her entire musical approach and image, deemed her “Lady Gaga” and fell in love with her, not necessarily in that order but probably, and that she signed off 20% of her earnings to him. They broke up when she had some difficulties getting signed, and she eventually cut him off.

The language in the lawsuit is poetic and overly-dramatic, and it really makes this guy sound like a complete dick. CNN has the story and some excerpts. (There’s more at the source, including quotations of poetry.)

The story starts with 20-year-old Germanotta riding a bus from Manhattan to Fusari’s studio in Parsippany, New Jersey, to work on music in the spring of 2006.

“Fusari was expecting someone a little more grunge-rocker than the young Italian girl ‘guidette’ that arrived at his doorstep and was worried that he had made a mistake,” the court papers said.

“Fusari then asked her to play one of her songs on the studio piano and within seconds, (he) realized that Germanotta had star potential. The trick would be coaxing it out of her.”

While Fusari thought Germanotta’s songs were brilliant, they lacked commercial appeal, the suit said.

“He pushed her to explore different musical genres,” it said. “Over the course of the next several months, Germanotta commuted from New York to Jersey seven days a week, radically reshaping her approach. They put their focus on writing music and finding a sound for her.”

Fusari takes credit for convincing her “to abandon rock riffs and add dance beats. He demonstrated how the sound of a drum machine would not hurt the integrity of her music.”

The suit claims Fusari created her stage name by accident. A text message intended to read “Radio Ga Ga,” named after the Queen song, was changed by spell check on his cell phone to “Lady Ga Ga,” it said. “Germanotta loved it and ‘Lady Gaga’ was born.”

Their romance grew as they were “working intensely in such close emotional quarters,” it said. Germanotta and her father soon signed a contract with Fusari giving him a 20 percent share of her career, the suit said.

The romance declined after Lady Gaga gained and then lost a record deal with Island Def Jam, it said.

“The couple was now constantly bickering as Germanotta became more and more verbally abusive towards Fusari,” the suit said.

“Fusari wanted to return their relationship to a purely professional level, so in January 2007, he ended their romantic involvement.”

After Lady Gaga got a new recording contract in May 2007 with Interscope, she stopped answering Fusari’s phone calls, it said.

Still, he co-wrote and produced four songs on Lady Gaga’s debut album “The Fame,” including the hit “Paparazzi.”

[From CNN]

I believe that Gaga was kind of rough a few years ago. I’ve seen videos of her performing and while she was talented her personal style and music were nothing like we see now. (Here’s a video search listing of older videos of Gaga.) I don’t know how much of a claim this guy really has to Gaga’s success or image, but one thing strikes me – she seems to have an MO of hooking up with men who are responsible for her style. It might just be a coincidence in that she dates guys she works closely with. She was last linked with her art director, who had an infant son with his live-in girlfriend. Gaga later said she was single and celibate. She also told Cosmo last month that she had a boyfriend who wanted her to fail. “I had a boyfriend who told me I’d never succeed, never be nominated for a Grammy, never have a hit song, and that he hoped I’d fail. I said to him, ‘Someday, when we’re not together, you won’t be able to order a cup of coffee a the f-cking deli without hearing or seeing me.’” It sounds like someone is so pissed that he’s been called out that he’s suing the woman he claims was his protege.