Lady GaGa arrives at the Grammys. (UPI)
Now that’s a bad romance — Lady Gaga’s ex-boyfriend says she’s cheated him out of millions of dollars since he dumped her, a sensational new lawsuit charges.
Songwriter and producer Rob Fusari says in a $30 million lawsuit that he helped develop “guidette” Stefani Germanotta into the superstar she is today — and even came up with her world-famous stage name — but she is now reneging on a business deal that made him 20 percent owner of her company.
Fusari’s lawyer, Robert Meloni, who filed suit yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, said: “He discovered her. It was his songs and productions and connections that got her her first deal.”
Fusari, who co-wrote the Destiny’s Child hit “Bootylicious,” says the future Lady Gaga was referred to him in 2006, when he was looking “for a dynamic female rock-‘n’-roller.”
She took a bus to his Parsippany, NJ, recording studio, and when Fusari saw “the young Italian girl ‘guidette’ that arrived at his doorstep,” he was “worried that he’d made a mistake,” the suit says.
But the pair worked together seven days a week and co-wrote her later hits “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich” and “Paparazzi.”
Fusari said he played the Queen song “Radio Ga Ga” whenever she arrived at his studio, and “one day when Fusari addressed a cellphone text to Germanotta under the moniker ‘Radio Ga Ga’ his cellphone’s spell check converted ‘Radio’ to ‘Lady.’ Germanotta loved it and ‘Lady Gaga’ was born.”
Their relationship reached a “romantic level,” the suit says, and they formed a company with Lady Gaga’s dad that Fusari owns 20 percent of, the filing says.
Fusari “ended their romantic involvement” in early 2007.
He also says he hooked Lady Gaga up with Interscope Records, where she’s become a megastar. Fusari says he’s entitled to 15-20 percent of her earnings as a co-owner of her company, but has only received one proper check, for $209,000.
A rep for Gaga’s record company said she was on tour in Australia and could not be reached.