'It's shocking and it's not,' one music writer tells MTV News.
By Jocelyn Vena
Lady Gaga
Photo: WireImage
After spending nearly her entire career working with Laurieann Gibson, Lady Gaga confirmed Monday (November 14) that she and her creative director had decided to part ways.
It was a move that may have been surprising to Gaga's Little Monsters, considering how closely the two have created some of the Mother Monster's most-memorable visuals, but did the split surprise music-industry observers?
"On the one hand, I get why [they split], because it seems like Laurieann's been doing a lot outside of the Gaga universe," Entertainment Weekly's Kyle Anderson told MTV News, referring to Gibson's starring roles on the BET dance-competition show "Born to Dance" and another dance reality series, E!'s "The Dance Scene." "On the other hand, it's a little bit strange, because Gaga's circle of people is so small, and all those people have been with her since pretty much the duration. She's really, really loyal, so it's a little bit strange to me, because I think she has this circle of people she trusts with her work."
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As a key member of the Haus of Gaga, Gibson was never afraid to share her honest opinion about Gaga's work. Most notably, she spoke out publicly against Gaga's Jo Calderone performance at the VMAs, as well as her Nick Knight-directed "Born This Way" clip.
That unbridled honesty could be behind the Gaga/Gibson split, according to Us Weekly senior music editor Ian Drew.
"It's shocking and it's not," Drew told MTV News. "They were extremely close, and she let Laurieann have an unprecedented amount of control in her camp. Let's face it: Laurieann is very headstrong, never holds back what she thinks, and that tends to rub people the wrong way. I'm not totally surprised; it was only a matter of time.
"Look, I love Laurieann, and as a journalist, she's an interviewer's dream, because you'd catch her and she'd always just say what was going on," he added. "Laurieann would just say it. She would give you that perfect sound bite. She tended to be a little bit loose-lipped. But on the other hand, I can see why that maybe ruffled Gaga's feathers, because Gaga's all about the performance piece and not giving away too much. Laurieann really liked to take credit — not that that was bad, [and] maybe it was due, but maybe Gaga didn't want everyone knowing that. In the end, I do tend to think it was something to do with creative differences."
The big question is how the duo's severed partnership will impact Gaga's future endeavors. Will Little Monsters notice Gibson's absence?
"It always puts a really, really heavy focus on whatever the next project is," Anderson explained. "With stars like these, people become curious to know: 'Well how much do these individual cogs play into what we see in front of us?' These two have been together [for years], so we don't yet know what Gaga is like without her. So we don't know exactly what part of that personality plays into her projects."
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