Midler Says Lady Gaga Ripped Off Her Mermaid Character

[METALPRIEST]

In reply to all of you. My point is that if you did not go to Midler's stage concerts, you would never have known about the mermaid stunt. It was part of her show called Divine Madness and the film was released in 1980, long before Lady Gaga was born. It was not exactly front page news 10 years later. So no, MP, I was not a fan and therefore missed her live performances. So did millions of other ordinary Joes like me.

In 2011, someone would specificially have to search for the combination Bette Midler and mermaid on the internet to find it. So I think it is very vain of Midler to have said what she did.

You mean the mermaid/wheelchair combo stunt.

We don't KNOW that someone would have to search out a wheelchair/mermaid combo to find out about it. People in show biz know all kinds of stuff and this was a popular thing that Bette had done.

I'm not trying to get at ya annie, but I will say that I have a "family member" who IS a GaGa fan and did not know anything about the Bette twitter, BUT DOES remember Bette's character here and admits, "Really? That's just too close"

This family member is 57

There are people I've talked to that don't know Willy Wonka with Gene Wilder. I mean The Wizard of Oz has been told time and time again in different formats, as well as ALL the books, BUT if Judy Garland CREATED the Dorothy character and sang like that onstage, pretending there was never any books or movies ect. of course, it would be a "rip off" if someone else came on stage wearing pigtails, an old fashioned dress, ruby slippers, a basket and a dog.

Again IF there was never a movie or a fan tradition that was followed.

 

[Lynch]

Holy poop, this thread is still going!?

 

[METALPRIEST]

Holy poop, this thread is still going!?

Yup! I even edited my post above before you posted.

 

[ILoveJimmyPage]

Holy poop, this thread is still going!?

Lady Gaga usually creates quite a stir on here.

 

[METALPRIEST]

Nothing wrong with discussion, and if it's civil and with respect I think it's fun and enlightening.

 

[Slip'nn2Darkness]

15 yard penalty for not seeing Midler in a Mermaid suit.. Technical foul and loss of down..

 

[METALPRIEST]

 

[Magic]

In reply to all of you. My point is that if you did not go to Midler's stage concerts, you would never have known about the mermaid stunt. It was part of her show called Divine Madness and the film was released in 1980, long before Lady Gaga was born. It was not exactly front page news 10 years later. So no, MP, I was not a fan and therefore missed her live performances. So did millions of other ordinary Joes like me. In 2011, someone would specificially have to search for the combination Bette Midler and mermaid on the internet to find it. So I think it is very vain of Midler to have said what she did.

Bette not only performed in the film "Devine Madness" but she had a slew of performances world wide, very much like a band on an album promotional tour. Bette created Divine Miss M way before this movie, and the mermaid was a regular appearance for the stage persona ...

She also had a regular Las Vegas act, where she brought out the Devine Miss M mermaid costume many times. Many of these acts were broadcast on a regular basis on cable tv much like Benny Hill was broadcast......

I get it that you personally never caught any of her acts, and that you are not a Midler fan. That's ok

I am just siding with Bette on her rant........I feel Ga Ga (and her designers, etc) did borrow the concept, and Bette has every right to spew and fuss about it.

 

[annie]

Bette not only performed in the film "Devine Madness" but she had a slew of performances world wide, very much like a band on an album promotional tour. Bette created Divine Miss M way before this movie, and the mermaid was a regular appearance for the stage persona ...

She also had a regular Las Vegas act, where she brought out the Devine Miss M mermaid costume many times. Many of these acts were broadcast on a regular basis on cable tv much like Benny Hill was broadcast......

You have lost me here. i believe that she did all that but you are talking about the 70s and 80s. Gaga was born in 1986. Even if Midler's act was broadcast on tv in the 80s and 90s, it is highly unlikely that Gaga would have seen it at such a young age. All I am saying is that not everyone in the universe saw Midler in her mermaid costume, no matter how far and wide she appeared on stage, and therefore I believe Lady Gaga when she says that she had no idea that Midler had done it 30 years ago. I think that Midler showed no class when she jumped to the conclusion that she had been copied.

By the way, I just watched a video of New York New York with Midler and a stageful of mermaids in wheelchairs flipping their tails and it was GROTESQUE!!! I don't admire Gaga for doing it either

 

[METALPRIEST]

annie...GaGA didn't have to see it nor know what it was for someone else to suggest a "cool idea",

even if that idea is an old one.