By April MacIntyre Mar 19, 2010, 1:34 GMT
Lady Gaga's Svengali Rob Fusari, a songwriter, music producer and former boyfriend, filed suit against her in a Manhattan state court Wednesday for $30.5 million.
Lady GaGa Fame Pictures, Inc - Santa Monica, CA, USA
According to the AP reports, Fusari claims to have crafted her name and image, but was cut off at the knees when her career took off.
Fusari allegedly met Gaga in 2006, who at the time was using her real name, Stefani Germanotta.
He claims he came up with the name Lady Gaga, adapted from Queen's "Radio Ga Ga."
Gaga has said otherwise. In a 2009 interview with the AP, the piano-playing singer said, "I was Gaga from the time that I was 19 through my first record deal. I always dressed like that before people knew me as Lady Gaga. I was always that way ... I stuck out like a sore thumb."
The two even formed Team Love Child LLC, in 2006, of which Fusari owned 20 percent. He introduced her to a record executive who got her first album, "The Fame," launched in 2008.
It all went south as Lady Gaga's career went up like a Roman candle, and Fusari claims he was denied percentage of song royalties and merchandising revenue.
He received checks for about $611,000 according to the AP, but says that he is owed much more, to the tune of 30+million dollars.
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