Poker Face by Maureen Callahan Read Free Book Online Page A

care—unlike Sullivan, who would never bring up the Moby connection. In an attempt to smooth things over, Sullivan told Lüc that Stefani was hot. “And he responded, ‘Island recording artist,’ ” says Sullivan. He was turned off by all of Lüc’s over-compensation.
    Lüc aside, Sullivan is still exhilarated by that evening: “So that was the fateful, fateful, awesome meeting that changed my life, and hers, forever,” he says. Because that was the night he met the girl who would become Lady Gaga, and he still can’t believe he knows someone that famous.

Photographic Insert A
     

    A harbinger of things to come: The adorable, attitudinal little girl who would become Lady Gaga, at home in front of her piano, circa 1993.
Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library
     
     

    A teenage Stefani, looking every bit the well-manicured, popular Upper West Side teen, hugs an unidentified friend in this 2004 Convent of the Sacred Heart yearbook photo.
Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library
     
     

    The self-proclaimed teenage “freak” (bottom, far left), with a gaggle of strikingly normal-looking pals, in another shot from her senior high school yearbook.
Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library
     
     

    Stefani’s senior-year bio, from her yearbook. Remarkable, no?
Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library
     
     

    The makeover begins: a markedly thinner Stefani, now Lady Gaga, with black hair and white nails, at the 2007 BMI showcase “Who’s Next? Writers on the Rise.”
Scott McLane / Retna Ltd.
     
     

    A disco-ball bra, green-stain tap pants with a leopard-print waist, and shiny pink shoes: the ever-gestating Lady Gaga shot at her first big break, Lollapalooza, 2007.
Josie Miner
     
     

    In her version of beachwear—a skullcap and a vintage Prince and the New Power Generation T-shirt, taken on a rehearsal day for the Miss Universe Pageant 2008 in Vietnam.
David Ciemny
     
     

    Gaga in a traditional Vietnamese hat, flanked by dancers Melissa Emrico and Celine Thubert, leaving the country after performing on the Miss Universe Pageant 2008.
David Ciemny
     
     

    The bra made it, the tap pants didn’t: Lady Gaga onstage at Lollapalooza. Right after this gig, Gaga fired her manager over a record that skipped during this performance.
Jason Squires/WireImage
     
     

    Madonna may be the most-referenced, but Missing Persons’ Dale Bozzio, performing here in 1983, is one of Gaga’s most referenced forebears; there are times when the two look indistinguishable . . .
© Chris Walter / Retna Ltd.
     
     

    . . . such as here: Gaga references (or rips off, depending on your worldview) the aerodynamic silver minidress, the pink-streaked platinum blond hair, and aggressive stage presence.
Yui Mok/PA Archive/Press Association Images
     
     

    Looking like a cross between a Japanese anime heroine and a 1970s disco queen, Lady Gaga performs at Perez Hilton’s 2008 CMJ bash at New York City’s Highline Ballroom.
Hal Horowitz/www.halhorowitz.com
     
     

    Another heavily sourced icon: The late Brit eccentric and McQueen muse Isabella Blow, infamous for her outrageous clothes and love of bizarre headgear.
Phil Poynter/Art-Dept.com/trunkarchive.com
     
     

    Gaga in a gorgeous, cloud-like Issy-inspired mask/headdress at Universal Records’ Brit Awards party in London, February 2010. (Designer Alexander McQueen, for whom Blow and Gaga were muses, had committed suicide the week before, and Gaga paid homage to him during her performance.)
© Planet Photos/ZUMApress.com
     
     

    Face paint is half the battle: Lady Gaga, in an undated photo, applies her makeup with an uncharacteristically light hand.
Aaron Fallon/JBG Photo
     
     

    The post-post-modern glamour of a true 21st-century pop star: The Lady reclines with BlackBerry, fresh coffee, costume jewelry, cash, and an art journal—all the necessities—in a tub in Paris, 2009.
© Francois Berthier/Corbis
     
     

    In a hat designed by architect Frank Gehry and a dress by Miuccia Prada, Lady Gaga performs at the 30th