Brody's Notes... Lady Gaga's Producer & Former Lover Sues For $30M

Lady Gaga attends the MAC Viva Glam Launch in London on March 1, 2010     
Photo By  Ian Gavan For Getty Images

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 19 | Singer-Songwriter and LGBT Equality Rights activist Stefani Germanotta known to her huge fan base as Lady Gaga, has been sued in New York State Supreme Court by her ex-boyfriend, music producer Rob Fusari. According to LA Times Entertainment gossip correspondent Christie D'Zurilla: 

"Rob Fusari, a songwriter and music producer who co-wrote some of Lady Gaga's first records -- and was her boyfriend before breaking up with her in 2007 -- is suing the pop star for more than $30 million, saying she squeezed him out of her career once success hit.
Says the lawsuit: "All business is personal. When those personal relationships evolve into romantic entanglements, any corresponding business relationship usually follows the same trajectory so that when one crashes, they all burn. That is what happened here."

Fusari's suit says he came up with the "Lady Gaga" name and helped her get her first record deal; Gaga, who at 23 has two Grammys and has sold more than 10 million records worldwide, told the "how I got my name" story differently to Rolling Stone in 2009. Both versions of the story involve words typed on a cellular telephone.

Fusari, who co-wrote songs including "Paparazzi" and "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich," says he had a contract for 20% of royalties, 15% of merchandising revenue and more, the Washington Post reports. The suit says a friend steered the singer to his New Jersey studio in March 2006 when she was still going by Stefani Germanotta."