Lady Gaga says song ‘Born This Way’ not that gay; Stephen Fry ponders bipolar suicide
Lady Gaga recently sat for an interview with gay actor and speaker Steven Fry. When asked if the song “Born This Way” was an affirmation of LGBT birth, the horn-wearing pop singer told him:
“No, in fact, sexuality is just one very small part of it … it’s so interesting to see how people latch on to words. You say the word ‘gay’ in a song and suddenly all the other words float away. I’m happy people did focus on that word, though — it’s an important word to liberate. But the album is about rebirth in every sense. It’s about being reborn again and again until you find the identity inside yourself that defines you best for who you are and that makes you most feel like a champion of life.”
She confirmed that her first tour left her bankrupt — $3 million in the hole — despite 5 hit songs. Gaga also said it’s annoying when people think she doesn’t like to be compared to Madonna, and added that she does not care about money, just the love of her fans; so she watches her performances over and over to see how they can be perfected. (Financial Times)
Stephen Fry, who has his own legion of adoring fans, made headlines today by telling Sky TV that his bipolar condition could cause him to end his own life at some point (Sky Arts):
“Cyclothymic… but always you have dead bodies, that’s the point…. It’s a morbid condition. And any doctor can tell you it’s one of the most serious morbid conditions at present in Britain. The fact that I’m lucky enough to not have it so seriously doesn’t mean that I won’t one day kill myself. I may well.”
He said that most people with mood disorders would no more prefer to talk about their condition than they would show you their genital warts. Fry says it must seem to people like a “celebrity designer-accessory problem” like homosexuality seems to be one, because the average person must think they’ll be teased or fired due to the associated stigma.
In 1995, Fry walked out on a play he was starring in, and disappeared for a week. Many people close to him feared that he had committed suicide at that time, but he returned and was given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. He explored this with the 2006 BBC2 documentary, “The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive,” by speaking with others like Robbie Williams and Carrie Fisher.
Here, Gaga talks about her performance on The Graham Norton Show two weeks ago:
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