Ex-producer and beau sues Lady Gaga for $30M

New York (ANI): An ex-boyfriend and mentor of singer Lady Gaga has in a 30-million-dollar lawsuit claimed that he was cut off from a deal that made him 20 percent owner of her companies. Songwriter Rob Fusari said in the lawsuit that he helped develop Gaga, 23, real name Stefani Germanotta, into the talent she is today, and even gave her, her now-renowned stage name.

According to Fusari, once their romance came to an end, it also affected their business partnership. "All business is personal," the New York Post quoted the lawsuit by Rob Fusari Productions as stating. "When those personal relationships evolve into romantic entanglements, any corresponding business relationship usually follows the same trajectory so that when one crashes they all burn. That is what happened here," it said.

As per the suit: Fusari said he was introduced to Germanotta in 2006, when he was looking "for a dynamic female rock-n-roller" to "front an all girl version of the Strokes". Germanotta took a Port Authority bus to his Parsippany, NJ recording studio, and when Fusari saw "the young Italian girl ''guidette'' that arrived at his doorstep", he was "worried that he'd made a mistake".

He then asked her to play one of her songs on his piano "and within seconds realized that Germanotta had star potential. The trick would be coaxing it out of her". The pair worked together seven days a week, 'radically reshaping her approach', and co-wrote her later hits 'Beautiful, Dirty, Rich' and 'Paparazzi'. "Fusari also created the name ''Lady Gaga'' for his protege," the suit stated.

Their relationship soon reached "a new, personal and romantic level and the two began to spend all of their time together as a couple". They formed a company with Germanotta's dad called 'Team Love Child' "for the purpose of exclusively professionally exploiting Germanotta and the songs that Fusari co-wrote and or produced".

The suit went on to say that he helped Gaga land her first record deal at Island Def Jam, which dropped her soon after it signed her. Gaga's "confidence was bruised, but Fusari encouraged her to keep writing and recording". The stress took a toll on their relationship, and they were "constantly bickering", while Gaga became "more and more verbally abusive".

He "wanted to return their relationship to a purely professional level, so in January 2007, he ended their romantic involvement". He then approached a pal at another record company, who set up a meeting with Interscope Records head Jimmy Iovine. She signed a deal with Interscope in May of 2007, and Fusari was listed as a co-producer on her smash album "The Fame".

Since then, Fusari says he's been practically frozen out. He says he was sent a check for 209,000 dollars in June of last year, but the next check, which arrived in December, had a message on it saying it would be the last. The suit ended by saying Gaga's companies have breached their agreement, and that he's entitled to 20 percent of the royalties and merchandising rights she's pulled in.