The brilliant Ellen Von Unwerth shot an extensive pictorial of Lady Gaga in vampire drag for Out. The exclusive Out feature is called The Lady is a Vamp. The shoot styling is credited to someone named Nicola Formichetti who is seriously talented and who Bing informs me is the creative director of Dazed and Confused and is responsible for some of the fashion in Vogue Hommes Japan, V, Arena Homme, and others, as well as of course out. Always fun to discover the work of creative people I have not come across before.

Out calls Lady Gaga “Pop’s newest — and gayest — superstar”. One of the things I like about Lady Gaga is that I feel she is someone post-orientation in her approach to sexuality. She has stated often in interviews that she is attracted to women physically but only has romantic relationships with men. I’m not sure if that makes her super-gay, but maybe I am just feeling cantankerous today about people being so bent on labeling sexuality. I do not feel that an individual’s sexuality generally belongs in a tidy little box with a label stickered on it.

Then again, from an editorial perspective, I’m pleased that Out indentifies Lady Gaga as gay, however she defines herself. Because this gave Out reason to publish a beautiful portfolio of images of Lady Gaga shot by Ellen Von Unwerth. They did a ton of different set-ups and have both black and white and color and a whole spectrum of spooky themes. Lots of vampire and gothic tropes photographed appealingly. Smoky dark eyes, coffin, sunglasses at night, blood, nudity (probably sfw nudity) fangs, and cute skeleton in combat boots. Definitely worth checking out.

According to about a zillion sites, Lady Gaga supposedly stated in an interview that she is a hermaphrodite. The following quote is attributed to her, but not one source I saw was able to name what interviewer she allegedly said this to or what publication or show it was for or what production company or publisher might supposedly have been involved.

“It’s not something that I’m ashamed of, just isn’t something that I go around telling everyone. Yes. I have both male and female genitalia, but I consider myself a female. It’s just a little bit of a penis and really doesn’t interfere much with my life. The reason I haven’t talked about it is that it’s not a big deal to me. Like come on. It’s not like we all go around talking about our vags. I think this is a great opportunity to make other multiple gendered people feel more comfortable with their bodies. I’m sexy, I’m hot. I have both a poon and a peener. Big fucking deal.”

At around ten seconds past the one minute mark in the video above, Lady Gaga hops off the motorcycle and some people feel she was not wearing underwear and what was dangling there was a cock. Given that, according to Rolling Stone, she hangs out with Marilyn Manson who tried to promote Mechanical Animals by wearing breasts, which maybe contributed to me being the only person who really loved that album, but still nobody believed he was actually a hermaphrodite. As a former adult boutique manager, I can state categorically that getting flesh panties with a bit of dangly is not difficult, although I’m entirely fine with it if she does have an actual penis, even a small hermaphroditic penis. I did hang out with her boyfriend a fair amount when I first moved out to Los Angeles and I’m guessing, based on that limited knowledge, that the hermaphrodite thing is a publicity stunt. An effective publicity stunt.

What do you all think? Is Lady Gaga a hermaphrodite?

Singer/songwriter Lady GaGa appears on the cover of the current issue of Rolling Stone. The cover is shot by photographer David LaChapelle. David LaChapelle has shot many Rolling Stone covers, is known for his bright colors and elaborate sets, and started in photography taking naked pictures of club kids. Lady GaGa went to an Upper West Side high school and became a New York club kid. Maybe I am biased because I enjoy Lady GaGa’s work and I enjoy David LaChapelle’s work and I’ve spent a fair amount of time inside edgy nightclubs, but I don’t get what all the fuss is about.

Rolling Stone has certainly run nakeder covers than the Lady GaGa one. Anyone remember the full nude of model Laetitia Casta on a bed of petals? It is not like you’d find artistic nudes likes these on PukingOnPenis.com. Seriously don’t click that, but you get what I mean. Today, in a world where all sorts of depravity is a click away, why does a teensy bit of authentic club culture make so many people hyperventilate?

Although a certain sort of bohemian club culture has existed since time immemorial and that artistic counterculture has always made some people uncomfortable, is it really that big a deal? Or is the problem that we have come to expect pop stars to be the best-looking possible actresses hired by management teams with songwriters and stylists and something which came about more organically now seems wrong? Lady GaGa is widely credited as having written on songs for Akon, Britney Spears, Fergie, Pussycat Dolls, and oddly enough New Kids on the Block. Although I’m not sure how or if Lady GaGa is credited in ASCAP, I’d be happier if I could find her songwriting credits. Still, I tend to believe that she actually writes songs. Even if you don’t find bluffin with one’s muffin as entertaining as I do, surely the combination of artist and performer is still better than solely artist or solely performer. At the very least, it is not worse, is it?

From my point of view, the most controversial thing about the David LaChapelle Rolling Stone cover featuring Lady GaGa is that New York fashionistas credit the whole bubble outfit look to designer Hussein Chalayan. Although neither a bubble dress or bubble corset appear on the web site for Hussein Chalayan’s 2007 collections, I’ve seen credible photos from his runway show stuff for that year. The designer was reportedly disappointed that Lady GaGa knocked off his design, rather than wearing the original.

So, if you’d like to recreate Lady GaGa’s Rolling Stone look, you now know where to commission your own bubble outfit, if you don’t feel crafty enough to make one. Then all you have to do is round up a bunch of your naked and barely-clad friends and get wet and messy. Photos optional.

Rolling Stone #1080 is on newsstands now.

Interscope recording artist Lady Gaga is an entertaining answer to the reams of pseudo-indie forgettable hipsters who put so much effort into looking like they are not trying at all. When a ballet dancer makes a pirouette look effortless, that is impressive. When a band backed by a mega-corporation makes it look effortless to get beamed into millions of households while being a humble dork in a Cheeto-stained ironic T-shirt, that is just stupid fake.

Lady Gaga is not afraid to look like she put some effort in when she got dressed today. She appears to come out of the same New York city nightlife culture which first gave birth to Madonna. MTV bleeps the word “muffin” when Lady Gaga touches her genital region in the “Poker Face” video, but Fuse TV leaves it in. Make of that what you will. Watching the “Poker Face” video makes me feel like it might be coming around to time for it to be fun to get dressed up to go out again. I appreciate an artist who can un-ironically perform with jewelry glued to her face, while somehow seeming like she includes her audience. A Britney Spears will get dressed up, but one always has the sense that she is from some other planet and she is there to perform and not to really get anyone else’s ass down on the dance floor. Lady Gaga makes you want to show what you got. At the very least, “Poker Face” is some lovely eye candy directed by the brilliant Ray Kay and produced by Jill Hardin. Lady Gaga and songwriters Nadir Khayat collaborated on the songs adorable lyrics.

I wanna roll with him a hard pair we will be
A little gambling is fun, when you’re with me (I love it)
Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun
And baby when it’s love, if it’s not rough, it isn’t fun

The song is about strutting your stuff in a sexy way, while not revealing whether you are sexually available or not. Remember, I loathe puns, but I make an exception for the sex and porn puns. Especially if they have fabulous style.