News of the World goes a bit Ga-Ga

Pimping their colour supplement, today's News Of The World splashes this:

I worked as a stripper, confesses Lady GaGa

"Confesses"? The News Of The World's attitude to people whose jobs involve removing their clothes is an endless source of bemusement - it's something shameful, and should be "confessed", rather than discussed in a matter-of-fact manner, except for when you're taking your clothes off for Wapping-based newspapers (or, presumably, those DVDs advertised in the back of the newspaper.)

Does anyone actually think that GaGa is going to approach having worked in a strip club as something she'd confess, anyway?

“I was working in strip clubs when I was 18. Girls from my background weren’t meant to turn into someone like me. I come from a wealthy Italian family, went to a good school [she was at the same super-rich Manhattan Catholic girls’ school – Convent Of The Sacred Heart – as Paris Hilton]. You’re meant to live with Mom and Dad until they die. I went against all I was brought up to be; I moved out of home, wouldn’t take any help from my parents [her internet entrepreneur dad and his Lady business partner wife] and supported myself with waitressing jobs and stripping.

“My act was pretty wild. I’d wear black leather and dance to Black Sabbath, Guns N’ Roses and Faith No More. Very rock ’n’ roll.”

That really sounds more like bragging than confessing from where I'm sitting. Mixed with a bit of pride.

But Louise Gannon's piece is pretty ropey throughout. Describing GaGa's stage school background, we get this:

A graduate from the Tisch School of Arts (think The Brit School for New Yorkers)

Or, if you will, think Paul McCartney's Liverpool 'Fame' school but for people in New York. Seriously, Louise, you think that your readers are so dense they might need some help to work out what a "school of arts" might be, but will be able to grasp it by reference to an obscure place in Croydon which they didn't even bother to mention on the Brit awards this year?

The trouble is, GaGa throws her all sorts of juicy ideas:

“I do love British men, though. They’re smart and the accent is borderline pretentious, which I love.”

You might think this would lead to a discussion around that borderline pretension, and if a rich girl from a comfortable family and an arts school background starts to embrace 80s pop and a streetlife background in a knowing way, if that crosses the borderline.

Louise's response?

Could recently single Prince Harry be a contender?

Apart from anything, Louise, Harry's accent? It's not pretentious. He really is a member of an unsustainable ruling elite.

Still, it's not like Louise came unprepared. She'd done a little research, and found out that this music job is paying so much better than either stripping or waitressing:

She’s also on her way to becoming amazingly rich, recently being paid £10,000 for a couple of hours DJing.

GaGa doesn't think it's all about the money, though:

“I don’t do this for the money,” she says, “I don’t want to buy a flash car. I just want to put everything into my music and art. I’m going to get bigger and bigger.”

But armed with her research, Louise is going to be prepared for this, isn't she? Because the obvious question is why do charge so much if it isn't all about the money? And is taking a high-paying DJ job really about art anyway? Go on, Louise, probe:

You go, GaGa!

Oh.