Madonna and Lady Gaga

As you know, for the past couple of months, Lady Gaga has been promoting her very good work in A Star is Born and campaigning for an Oscar. As you may have heard, during all of that promotion, she’s been repeating the thing about the 100 people in a room. If you’re unfamiliar with the quote, here it is, over and over again:

If she wins the Oscar…do you think she’s going to say that during her acceptance speech? 

Anyway, this post isn’t about that. This post is about Girl Sh-t. Madonna seems to be starting some Girl Sh-t. Because this is what she put up on Instastory – it’s a video of her from 90s that a fan found and added their own caption and she reposted it: 

It’s not new, comparing Lady Gaga to Madonna. Madonna has implied in the past that Gaga “references” her in her work. A lot of people think “Born This Way” is just an updated “Express Yourself”. This quote though? It’s similar on the surface but they’re actually saying two different things. Or they’re coming at the problem in two different ways. If 99 out of 100 people believe in Madonna but ONE person doubts her, she fixates on the hater. For Gaga, if 99 out of 100 people are haters but there’s ONE person who’s on her side, that’s her lifeline. One is a pessimist. The other is an optimist. Madonna is motivated by negative reinforcement (I’m going to prove that person wrong, the one who didn’t like me) and Gaga is motivated by positive reinforcement (that one person who offered her hope). 

I wonder if Madonna appreciates this. That, ultimately, this can be a shared experience. I’m not sure she does. Because this showed up on her feed.

Followed by…

Um…is this a good look? Lady Gaga is probably going to be nominated for an Oscar in her first lead movie role. She’s amazing in A Star is Born. Madonna has just inserted herself into the conversation and in doing so, she’s basically inviting us to remember that, well, she hasn’t had the same success as an actor. Sure, she won a Golden Globe for her performance in Evita but at no time was she ever a serious consideration for an acting Oscar. Also, um, Swept Away came after Evita. Consider too that the Ally character in ASIB is a role that, at one time, Madonna could have or would have wanted to play. Now she appears to be taking shots at Lady Gaga at a time when Lady Gaga’s invited to actress roundtables alongside Glenn Close and Nicole Kidman and Regina King etc for The Hollywood Reporter and being named Best Actress by the National Board of Review and…well… it wouldn’t be a stretch for *some* people to think that Madonna might be jealous, right? So again…

Is that a good look? 

I can understand being of a certain age and feeling like you haven’t been given your due. I can understand that Madonna, flawed as she may be sometimes (aren’t we all?), has put herself out there and in her time has challenged the status quo. I can understand how a woman at 60 might be angry at society and industry making you irrelevant as you get older. I can understand that someone like Madonna, one of the biggest celebrities of our time, with a healthy celebrity-sized ego, might worry about being forgotten. These are valid concerns. If these are her concerns, I’m not sure she’s going about it in the most effective way. Because …is Gaga really the problem here?  

Here's Madonna out for dinner in London the other day.