Don’t Mess With The Gaga

Oh no you didn’t diss the Mother Monster, Mr. Politician! I wonder if Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro is regretting his harsh choice of words from earlier this week in regards to one of the most popular celebrities on the planet right now.

Molinaro effectively pissed off millions of little monsters (a pet name for Lady Gaga’s fans) when, at a kickoff event for a youth anti-drug program, he targeted Lady Gaga as the primary reason today’s youth are going to the wayside.

"We have to understand that there's a tremendous influence with our youth, which I didn't have as a youth," Molinaro began (I’m not sure exactly what he means by this comment either. Is this a cry for help? Is he saying he wasn’t hugged enough as a child?)

"And there's the influence right there.” Molinaro continued, motioning to the large poster board next to him with two large pictures of Lady Gaga smoking a marijuana joint, along with the heading “Stop glorifying the drug use.”

The picture was snapped last week while Lady Gaga was on stage during a show in Amsterdam. Although marijuana is not legal (yet) in the U.S., it most certainly is legal in Amsterdam, so Gaga was technically not breaking any rules or laws.

Lady Gaga had apparently not planned on smoking pot during her show, as she initially pulled out a cigarette (not that that’s a better example), but someone from the crowd presented her with a marijuana joint instead. Gaga accepted the offering, smelled it, and took a few puffs before returning it to the crowd.

The 26-year-old performer did clarify to the crowd, "And for those of you who are wondering if I'm high right now, I am not. That is not nearly enough to get me high.”

Apparently not satisfied with his initially statement against Gaga, 81-year-old Molinaro continued his tirade against her, taking it to a whole new level when he added, "There's Gaga. Here's this...this...I would call her a slut. This slut is influencing many, many children."

Zing!

He seriously busted out “slut” about a woman he known next to nothing about! Molinaro then immediately demonstrated how little he actually knows about Lady Gaga by referring to her by the wrong profession.

"To me, she's not an actress, she's a slut...in the pure meaning of the word.”

Molinaro did broaden his attack to the entertainment industry in general for part of his speech, "So, we have a job to do also with these actresses, actors, ballplayers. They use drugs as if it's nothing. We shouldn't praise them. We shouldn't honor them. We should really hit them. We should hit the sponsors that she [Gaga?] has ... where her millions of dollars come [from].”

Almost a week later, and having had some time to think about his word choice, Molinaro decided he is sticking to his guns on this one. He explained to The New York Times after his speech, "Looking up the word ‘slut’ to see if it was properly used before I used it, it said ‘improper conduct.' Now, isn't it improper for someone who is so high-profile to be smoking reefer in front of children?"

To his credit, Molinaro’s passion in the fight against drugs is very personal, as he lost his eldest son, Stephen, to a drug addiction despite his attending the short-term rehabilitation clinics. Stephen overdosed and died in 2006.

Molinaro shared, "I remember many days my son crying in my arms -- 'Help me,'" he said. That's why I say prevention is the best cure. What we're doing here today is alerting the moms, the dads, the children."

Okay, yes, I am not contesting Molinaro’s belief that Lady Gaga is not setting the best example for her adoring fans by smoking anything – I completely agree with that. But that hardly qualifies her as a “slut.”

The word “slut” may have originally been a term for general “misconduct,” but it basically only means one thing in our society today, and I highly doubt Molinaro is ignorant of that fact. He intended for his comment to turn heads.

And turn heads it did. Including that of another New York politician, as well as the very famous head he was trying to stake.

Apparently not happy with Molinaro’s degrading of a fellow New Yorker, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer came to Lady Gaga’s defense, referring to her as a “symbol of individuality and artistic expression.”

Stringer’s support seemed to give Lady Gaga the platform she had been waiting for before responding to Molinaro’s attack.

Lady Gaga tweeted on Thursday, September 27^th, "To @scottmstringer of Manhattan, thanku for your support of my activism as a new yorker," and “You show political integrity + a modern vernacular.”

Bravo, Lady Gaga. Very clever response, and far classier than Molinaro’s comments.