Back in July, when the Venice Film Festival schedule was taking shape, I wrote a post about the Queens of Venice and how it would be the actresses dominating on the Lido. All of the queens I mentioned in that article have showed up and delivered – save one.
And it’s her turn now: Lady Gaga has arrived in Venice ahead of the highly anticipated premiere of Joker: Folie à Deux and she’s definitely in old Hollywood mode in the polka dots, very demure, as they say. A cleaned up Harley Quinn or, rather, not very Harley vibes at all. Harley vibes aren’t Venice anyway. They want their movie stars high glam, serving looks that belong under big lights. And Lady Gaga doesn’t disappoint in this department.
The storyline for Gaga coming into Venice would be all about performance – will she earn yet another Oscar nomination for her role in a film with such high expectations? But upon her arrival, the gossip was about something else: her outrageously massive engagement ring, and her fiancé right beside her. They weren’t subtle about it either. Look at these shots of her on the gondola gazing adoringly into his face.
No doubt, she’s in love. But I wonder if it also takes away the pressure of expectation, just a little, before the world premiere of the film. After all, her co-star here is a man who is famously truculent where promotion is concerned – it’s up to Gaga to bring the positivity, to eat up that spotlight, to take up all the oxygen so that no one has any breath to focus on Joaquin and his bullsh-t.
Speaking of, he and Rooney Mara have also arrived in Venice. And, of course, this is just a few weeks after he bailed on his own movie, stranding an entire production and leaving so many people out of work. Criticism of Joaquin has been relatively muted, both in the trades and on social media, I guess because he’s not a woman, but this is the first time he’ll be in front of the press since that mess and it’ll be interesting to see whether or not it comes up or if the studio powers will continue to protect him.
