Wendy Starland

February 28, 2012 6:03 PM

The woman who discovered and developed Lady Gaga is one Wendy Starland. YouTube: (Lady GaGa's roots? , Wendy Starland "Dancing With the Sea"., Wendy Starland "Love Will Come To You")
posted by ktrain (28 comments total)

These are people trying to improve their careers on the backs of someone they used to know and could not help. Notably, Akon is also credited with discovering Lady Gaga and when he talks about it she is often there. I wish these folks well but what athey are claiming is only part true.
posted by Rubbstone at 6:14 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

If she wasn't the featured vocalist in the Starland Vocal Band, I will be supremely disappointed, even if their career was over before she was born.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:15 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

so many people claim to have "created" or "developed" lady gaga - yet, i think you can watch her persona grow through her interactions with basically all of them. that's the genius of her, she picks up pieces everywhere. i don't even know what your last two links are supposed to be showing - that wendy starland is boring and same-y and not at all like what gaga releases? i mean, if she's so brilliant at developing talent, then why does her stuff suck?
posted by nadawi at 6:17 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

CNN's The Unseen Photos

Figured I was going to have to wait 10 years for GaGa to be retro to drop that link here.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:19 PM on February 28, 2012

[ links cleaned up, derailing comments about the original post formatting removed, carry on ]
posted by mathowie at 6:21 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

and, a lot of fusari/starland's side of the story seem to come around the lawsuit where fusari tried to get 30 million. you also can't ignore that the fusari part of this story is suspect because gaga's his ex.

i also think some of the earlier pictures of her and lady starlight show she had an idea about where she was going. it's easy to pick the video stills from her senior project or whatever and pretend you made a diamond out of a mousy rough, but she was rocking the chains and fishnet and affected poses before that.
posted by nadawi at 6:29 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

She settled with Rob. Wendy brought her along.
posted by ktrain at 6:44 PM on February 28, 2012

Wendy Starland is suing everyone, too.

I think this story is complete bullshit, honestly.
posted by empath at 6:50 PM on February 28, 2012

that article seems to be wrong or out of date or something - they both simultaneously dropped their suits against each other, seemingly because a deal was reached behind closed doors. i'm just saying, this one sided story was financially motivated because when starland and fusari started making all this noise was around the time they were trying to sue gaga. and then starland has even more reason to bang this drum because she tried to sue fusari for a cut of whatever he got from gaga. and to wrap it all up, fusari's lawyers sued him because he cut the lawyers out right before he reached whatever agreement he reached with gaga.
posted by nadawi at 6:52 PM on February 28, 2012

It doesn't take much googling to discover the identities of the people who actually write GaGa's songs and create her art. Why are we bothering with people who clearly do not?
posted by The World Famous at 6:52 PM on February 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

Well Fusari arguably wrote some of the songs. This girl seems to have just introduced her to Fusari.
posted by empath at 6:58 PM on February 28, 2012

My first comment was deleted but whatever, it's valid: this horse is so dead it stinks. The whole Starland/Gaga controversy is very, very 2010, and this post brings with it absolutely nothing in terms of information on it. Thankfully comments provide.
posted by mek at 7:00 PM on February 28, 2012

Well Fusari arguably wrote some of the songs.

Yes - good point. I wonder if he sold his percentage for a cash settlement, and what his percentage was or is.
posted by The World Famous at 7:02 PM on February 28, 2012

Good Question seeing as LG has made at least 200M since the original suit. Sounds like a Winklevii scenario.
posted by ktrain at 7:06 PM on February 28, 2012

Does "discovering" another human being entitle you to a permanent portion of their future revenue? I didn't know you could hold a patent on Gaga.
posted by mek at 7:11 PM on February 28, 2012 [4 favorites]

short answer. Yes.
posted by ktrain at 7:14 PM on February 28, 2012

discovered and developed

read: met and introduced to someone else
posted by Sys Rq at 7:26 PM on February 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

short answer. Yes.

No, please, tell us how you really think.
posted by mek at 7:29 PM on February 28, 2012

well, the answer seems to be no. if starland was being paid by gaga, she wouldn't go after fusari.

this is as tired as laurieann gibson's sour grapes - at least she was there for a significant portion unlike starland.
posted by nadawi at 7:43 PM on February 28, 2012

ktrain: “short answer. Yes.”

How is that even an answer?
posted by koeselitz at 8:30 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also, a propos of absolutely nothing, this is my favorite thing having to do with Lady Gaga. I've listened to it hundreds of times, and it only becomes more perfect. It is exactly what "Paparazzi" should always have been and should always be.
posted by koeselitz at 8:40 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

"We're plastic, but we still have MY SOULLLLL!"
posted by koeselitz at 8:42 PM on February 28, 2012

I think this is even better...
posted by mek at 8:49 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

And where is Lord Gaga whilst she galavants around town, bringing the family name into disrepute?
posted by Artw at 8:54 PM on February 28, 2012 [10 favorites]

The Crusades, dude.
posted by The World Famous at 9:52 PM on February 28, 2012 [5 favorites]

These are people trying to improve their careers on the backs of someone they used to know and could not help. Notably, Akon is also credited with discovering Lady Gaga and when he talks about it she is often there. I wish these folks well but what athey are claiming is only part true.

Yeah, I agree. Lady Gaga worked pretty hard herself to get where she is. She was doing stuff like this while she was in college. She was actually signed with a label, who basically did nothing for her for a couple years.

that article seems to be wrong or out of date or something - they both simultaneously dropped their suits against each other, seemingly because a deal was reached behind closed doors. i'm just saying, this one sided story was financially motivated because when starland and fusari started making all this noise was around the time they were trying to sue gaga. and then starland has even more reason to bang this drum because she tried to sue fusari for a cut of whatever he got from gaga. and to wrap it all up, fusari's lawyers sued him because he cut the lawyers out right before he reached whatever agreement he reached with gaga.

That's actually pretty funny. If she's not Suing Gaga I don't see what the problem is. After all, if she was promised a 'cut' of the profits generated by the 'introduction' or whatever, then isn't she entitled to a cut of the bogus lawsuit?

short answer. Yes.

How does that even make sense? Am I entitled to a cut of all my friends salaries since I "discovered" them? I mean, I knew a guy in college who was a really good programmer, and now he's presumably making a lot of money. Sure, I had nothing to do with his being successful, but I was certainly aware of him. Why don't I deserve a cut!?

Now, obviously if someone signs a contract where you agree to do X for them and in return you get a cut of the money they make as a result of X. But it really needs to be a signed contract, first of all and secondly there has to be 'consideration' in order for it to be a legally valid contact. That means you have to have actually done something of value for them. You can't just sign a contract that says "I'll give you half my money".
posted by delmoi at 10:39 PM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Heh, I was looking up Gaga's Wikipedia entry and found this:

It was Fusari who helped create the moniker Gaga after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Gaga was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga."[28] He explained, "Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio Ga Ga'. That was her entrance song" and that the text message was the result of a predictive text glitch that changed "radio" to "lady". She texted back, "That's it," and declared, "Don't ever call me Stefani again."[29][28] The New York Post, however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting.[17]

posted by delmoi at 10:51 PM on February 28, 2012

delmoi: “You can't just sign a contract that says ‘I'll give you half my money’.”

Technically you can, actually. It's called marriage.
posted by koeselitz at 7:33 AM on February 29, 2012 [1 favorite]