Lady Gaga

Sen. Frank Lautenberg is going gaga. The nation's oldest senator, Lautenberg will hold a fundraiser at Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour at the Verizon Center in Washington on Sept 7. The Washington Post reports the 86-year-old New Jersey Democrat is offering seats in a private suite for $2,500 a person for political action committees and $2,400 for individuals. An aide says the fundraiser was Lautenberg's idea. The senator and his wife celebrated his birthday in January at a Gaga show at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

I've avoided writing about Lady Gaga because, frankly, the woman scares me. OK, maybe scares is too strong a word, but one must admit: Her getups are unsettling. I mean, she wore a costume of blood and exposed bones at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. And remember the raw meat dress and matching shoes she donned at the VMAs in September? Eww. But as we wrap up this year in fashion, I must admit - albeit warily - that I can't ignore the blond songstress anymore. 2010 was the year of Gaga.

Adele scored six Grammy nominations Wednesday night, including for record, song, and album of the year, but the owner of 2011's best-selling album with 21 wasn't the night's top nominee - and that wasn't the evening's only surprise. Kanye West came away with a leading seven nominations, including a bid for song of the year for his all-star song "All of the Lights. " However, the album from which it came - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, heralded by many critics as the best album of 2010 - was shut out of the best album category, and all of his other nominations were relegated to the rap fields.

'I'm feeling particularly slutty tonight," Stefani Germanotta purred to a sold-out Susquehanna Bank Center on Thursday night. Known to her fans - as well as anyone who's passed within hailing distance of a working radio or TV set in the last year - as Lady Gaga, she arrived with the kind of explosive force that can incinerate artists unprepared for the spotlight. Since the success of her insidious, inescapable single "Poker Face," Gaga has staged a blizzard of reinvention, from sex kitten to bondage queen, as well as what might be a visitor from a far more stylish future.

Until Friday's Electric Factory show, the hype surrounding Lady Gaga seemed too good to be true. Lada Gaga's 2008 debut, The Fame, offered a mirthful mix of theatrical electronic disco and grand glam pop filled with snitty, pithy lyrics and coy vocals rich in cold soul. While Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, had her hands in Fame's production, playing and songwriting, she's also a fashion maven with an eye toward wearing asymmetrical '80s tops, bodysuits instead of pants, and complementing her ensembles with an eyewear selection of disco-ball masks and TV-screen sunglasses.

What could Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama possibly have in common? Both are really powerful, awesome women, says Forbes. America's two proudest daughters appear on Forbes World's 100 Most Powerful Women list, Michelle Obama at No. 1 and the Gaga at No. 7. President Obama 's wife beats out The Queen of America's Heart, Oprah , who is at No. 3, while Hillary Clinton is No. 5. (Non-celebs occupy slots two and four.) Her Gagaship's ranking has rankled some critics.

L ADY GAGA kicked off 2011 by tweeting that her new album, "Born This Way," will drop on May 23. She'll release the record's first single on Feb. 23. That's the same night as the 53rd annual Grammy Awards (just in case you're not one of the seven people who still watch them), leading to speculation that LaGa will perform on the show. In addition to the album info, Gaga also sent out a picture of herself wearing a jacket with her next album title emblazoned on the back and her butt peeking out from under the coat.

Take her out of the ball game! On June 10, Lady Gaga went to a New York Mets game, used Jerry Seinfeld 's box seats, and showed all but nine fingers to an unappreciative (of her) crowd. Friday, it was on to Yankee Stadium! The Gagster - in fishnet stockings, unbuttoned Yanks jersey, lacy brassiere - somehow got into the Yanks' locker room, where superstuds shower. Reports said she swigged whiskey and groped her chest. (Why? No one else would?) Early, wrong rumors said Yanks co-owner George Steinbrenner wanted to ban her, but on Sunday Yankees GM Brian Cashman said Lady G is welcome - as long as she doesn't do icky things.

You say you're rushing out Wednesday to get the new Rolling Stone when it goes on sale, to read about Gen. Stanley McChrystal dissing Veep Joe Biden . But we know what you'll really do: ogle Lady Gaga on the cover showing a lot of flesh (the weapons on her chest could kill), then turn to the Gaga story, titled "Tells All. " "Sex is certainly not, like, a priority at the moment," she, like, says. Other Gaga-ntuan news: Her highest priority is her relationship with fans; she models her celebrity on Michael Jackson ; she has a recurring dream starring "a phantom and a blond girl who's tied up with ropes" and is wearing her shoes from the Grammys.

There's more drama on Lady Gaga's "Places They Don't Want Me" tour of Asia, but this time the problem isn't religious extremists. It's Gaga. The singer told her 24 million Twitter followers that she was looking to buy a fake Rolex in Bangkok, sparking an online uproar Thursday in Thailand where some sensitive fans called her remarks offensive. After angering Christian groups in South Korea and the Philippines and Islamists in Indonesia, Gaga is now stirring nationalist fervor in Thailand, where people tend to get upset when outsiders notice the country's faux Louis Vuittons (and sex tourism)

The John Travolta sex scandal — two male masseurs claim the Be Cool star groped them — is about to be upgraded from absurd to surreal with an announcement by the unnamed accusers' lawyer, Okorie Okorocha, that "there's a bunch of accusers … who have similar accusations. " Says Okorocha, "I'm still vetting their stories. More defendants might come forward soon. " Time to dust off the circus bigtop! Travolta's legal howitzer, Martin Singer, calls the allegations "absurd and ridiculous.

NEW YORK - Coty came calling, but Avon slammed the door. Struggling cosmetics seller Avon Products Inc. on Monday rejected a $10 billion buyout offer from Coty Inc., a smaller beauty- products maker looking to capitalize on Avon's business woes. The $23.25-per-share bid marked a 20 percent premium to Avon's closing stock price Friday. Avon said that was too low. But investors frustrated with the company's shrinking profits and disappointing sales growth sent the stock soaring 17 percent on the news.

"THE HUNGER GAMES" ate up the weekend box office, bringing in $155 million. The huge haul marks the third-best debut ever in terms of revenue, behind the $169.2 million opening for the "Harry Potter" finale and the $158.4 million opening of 2008's "The Dark Knight. " "Games" did set a revenue record for a nonsequel, taking in more than twice what the first "Twilight" movie did. Domestically, it also was by far the biggest start for a film opening outside the summer and holiday seasons.

Justin Bieber , 18, wants to be open about his luv for his first grown-up gf, older lady Selena Gomez , 19. "There's no way to hide the relationship completely," Justin tells Complex mag, "because then it would be unfair to us. " But S.Go comes a distant second to Justin's real love: being perfect. The Canadian boy singer rambles on about his exacting standards as an artist and pledges to make his next album, Believe , the best. "I feel like it's my responsibility to be the greatest I can be," he says.

By David Kenner Here's a puzzle: A video calling for international action to capture Joseph Kony, a Ugandan guerrilla who commands a couple hundred men and has killed 151 civilians during the past year, has been viewed by about 80 million people on YouTube. Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - who boasts 600,000 men under arms, along with almost 5,000 tanks, and who often kills more than 100 people a day, according to activists - generates exponentially less outrage. The imbalance is particularly striking on Twitter.

What ails Demi Moore ? What evil has befallen the star? Demi, 49, was taken by paramedics to an L.A. hospital Monday, where she is being treated for . . . exhaustion, epilepsy, drug addiction, anorexia, or a whip-it OD. Take your pick: The rumors are many, the facts few. The G.I. Jane tough-gal's rep says it's stress: "Because of the stresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat...

Oprah has brought joy to 1,170,938,000 souls this week on a whirlwind tour of India. The eighth wonder of the world checked out one of the other seven, the Taj Mahal, on Thursday. Her Oprah-Osity, who is shooting footage for Oprah's Next Chapter , also partied with Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan , Shahrukh Khan , and Aishwarya Rai and had a sit-down with jet-set celeb prophet for the jet-set crowd Deepak Chopra . The visit hasn't been without problems: Three of O's bodyguards were arrested after they had a run-in with a local TV crew.

Rapper Heavy D 's sudden death Nov. 8 was caused by a blood clot in the lung and not pneumonia as was first thought, Craig Harvey of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said Tuesday. Heavy D ( Dwight Arrington Myers ) also suffered from deep-leg vein thrombosis and heart disease. Harvey said the clot most likely formed during the rapper's recent flight from London to L.A. Lady Gaga in Lancaster There goes the neighborhood! Mega-selling chanteuse Lady Gaga , 25, is shopping for a manse in Lancaster County, reports local TV station CBS 21 (WHP-TV)

Pop-up shops are popping up everywhere. No, we're not talking about the Christmas Village at LOVE Park in Center City, or those Halloween marts that seasonally fill empty storefronts - although pop-up retail can stretch to include those. We're talking about edgy, ephemeral, hole-in-the-wall shops where buying and selling often merge with art, education, performance, and partying. Places such as the Green on Greene building at Carpenter Lane and Greene Street in Mount Airy.