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"You know you&amp;apos;ve reached The Fame when someone slaps you with a massive lawsuit. Lady Gaga is being sued for $30 million by producer and ex-boyfriend Rob Fusari, the co-writer of Gaga&amp;apos;s hit &amp;quot;Paparazzi,&amp;quot; who claims he discovered the singer in 2006 and created the moniker &amp;quot;Lady Gaga.&amp;quot; In the suit, Fusari seeks a 20 percent cut from Gaga&amp;apos;s two companies Team Love Child and Mermaid Music, saying he entered into a contract with Gaga in 2006 that also promised him a portion of her merchandising and revenue, the New York Daily News reports. Fusari, who previously had hits with Will Smith&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Wild Wild West&amp;quot; and Destiny Child&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Bootylicious,&amp;quot; also claims that he was shortchanged on his royalty fees. UPDATE: Lady Gaga is counter-suing Fusari, the Daily News reports, arguing he tricked her into signing an illegal contract.\r\nGet a look at Lady Gaga&amp;apos;s wildest outfits.\r\n&amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s an age-old story in the music business,&amp;quot; said Fusari&amp;apos;s lawyer Robert Meloni. &amp;quot;You become famous and you turn on the person who discovered you.&amp;quot; According to the suit, Fusari initially recruited Gaga, then just Stefani Germanotta, to join what he envisioned as &amp;quot;an all-girl version of the Strokes.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Fusari was expecting someone a little more grunge-rocker than the young Italian girl &amp;apos;guidette&amp;apos; that arrived at his doorstep and was worried that he had made a mistake,&amp;quot; the suit contends. Recognizing Gaga&amp;apos;s ability, Fusari claims he helped craft Gaga&amp;apos;s songwriting to something with more of a dance feel. Their collaboration resulted in three songs that eventually appeared on The Fame &amp;#x2014; &amp;quot;Paparazzi,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Brown Eyes&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Beautiful, Dirty, Rich&amp;quot; &amp;#x2014; plus the bonus tracks &amp;quot;Disco Heaven,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Again Again&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Retro Dance Freak.&amp;quot;\r\nFusari also claims he accidentally created the &amp;quot;Lady Gaga&amp;quot; name, explaining in the suit &amp;quot;one day when Fusari addressed a cell phone text to Germanotta under the moniker &amp;apos;Radio Gaga&amp;apos; [a song by Queen], his cell phone&amp;apos;s spell check converted &amp;apos;Radio&amp;apos; to &amp;apos;Lady.&amp;apos; Germanotta loved it and &amp;apos;Lady Gaga&amp;apos; was born.&amp;quot; Rolling Stone told the tale a little differently in our June 2009 Lady Gaga cover story, where Brian Hiatt reported that Fusari was struck by some Freddie Mercury-like harmonies the singer recorded and began singing &amp;quot;Radio Gaga&amp;quot; to her as a running joke; Gaga texted Fusari her new name and never answered to &amp;quot;Stef&amp;quot; again.\r\nBesides being collaborators, Fusari and Gaga also shared a romantic relationship, though Fusari&amp;apos;s suit claims that ended in January 2007, adding that Gaga was a &amp;quot;woman scorned&amp;quot; and eventually became &amp;quot;verbally abusive&amp;quot; to Fusari. &amp;quot;All business is personal,&amp;quot; the suit says. &amp;quot;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. This is what happened here.&amp;quot; When reached by Rolling Stone for a response, Lady Gaga&amp;apos;s rep said the singer has no comment on the suit.\r\nCheck out photos from Lady Gaga&amp;apos;s Monster Ball show.\r\nRelated Stories: &amp;#x2022; Lady Gaga Talks &amp;quot;Telephone&amp;quot; Clip, MTV Confirms Video Not Banned &amp;#x2022; Lady Gaga Announces Massive Summer Monster Ball Arena Tour &amp;#x2022; Lady Gaga and Beyonce Unleash Orgy of Sex, Violence, Product Placement in &amp;quot;Telephone&amp;quot; Video"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lady-gaga-sued-for-30-million-by-producer-ex-boyfriend-rob-fusari-20100319>