Lady Gaga might be recovering from hip surgery, but her name still keeps popping up in lawsuits. Last month came word of litigation over Mother Monster’s canceled 2012 concert in Indonesia. Now a conservative fundraising group’s legal filings reveal Gaga spurned a Dr. Evil-like $1 million offer to perform during the Republican National Convention last summer. That’s according to a widely circulated report from the right-wing Washington Examiner.
According to the report, documents filed with a lawsuit by the American Action Network against an entertainment vendor show the group also would’ve liked Dolly Parton and Pitbull on their convention-week lineup. Journey and Kid Rock did perform during the convention. Gaga, Parton, and Pitbull did not. In fact, Gaga ultimately gave a private performance for President Obama and White House staffers, not Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney.
Still, it’s hard to blame conservatives for trying: Elton John once sang for Rush Limbaugh’s birthday. And the fundraising group’s strategy, though disgusting, wasn’t dumb: AAN reportedly argued that Gaga might be more willing to perform if told the event would be “honoring women who run for public office,” with $150,000 to go toward a domestic violence shelter. So, basically: Sing for us, or battered women won’t have a place to go.
AAN issued a classic non-denial denial in response to the report. “We considered some acts and didn’t seriously consider others, but we were ultimately happy with a great Kid Rock concert,” the group said in a statement. In an accompanying statement, the Republican National Committee emphasized that it is not affiliated with AAN and that the RNC itself “neither asked, offered, thought of or ever considered the idea of Lady Gaga performing at our convention.” Which obviously explains why Romney lost, because, according to the Hollywood Reporter, data from social site StumbleUpon shows Romney supporters actually love the “Pokerface” singer.
