Ex-boyfriend sues ungrateful Lady Gaga for $35mn

Fusari has filed a $30.5 million lawsuit at a Manhattan state court, claiming that despite his major contribution in making Lady Gaga the star she is today, the pop star ousted him from the scene once her career took off.

“All business is personal,” says the lawsuit. “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.”

Bringing out the talent in Lady Gaga
Acording to Fusari, a “young Italian girl 'guidette'” arrived at his studio in Parsippany, New Jersey, to work on music in 2006. He realized that the girl Stefani Germanotta had the potential to become a star and spent months working on her, bringing out her talent.

“He pushed her to explore different musical genres,” according to the court papers. “Over the course of the next several months, Germanotta commuted from New York to Jersey seven days a week, radically reshaping her approach. They put their focus on writing music and finding a sound for her.”

Fusari also takes the credit for her stage name, which was created after a message on his phone was accidently spelled as ‘Lady Gaga.’

Working closely for several months, the two got romantically involved with each other but their relationship went sour after Lady Gaga started rising in her career.

Though they split in early 2007, Fusari went on to keep a professional relationship with the singer. But in May 2007, she stopped answering his phone calls. Despite such insolence, Fusari claims, he helped Lady Gaga bring out her debut album.

“It’s an age-old story in the music business. You become famous and you turn on the person who discovered you.” -- Fusari’s lawyer Robert Meloni

Fusari was the co-producer of her first album, The Fame, which came out in 2008. He also takes co-writing credit for her songs ‘Paparazzi,’ ‘Beautiful, Dirty, Rich,’ and ‘Brown Eyes.’

“The couple was now constantly bickering as Germanotta became more and more verbally abusive towards Fusari,” said the lawsuit. “Fusari wanted to return their relationship to a purely professional level, so in January 2007, he ended their romantic involvement.”

Fusari was denied his share
However, a contract signed by Germanotta and her father entitles Fusari to a 20 percent share of her song royalties and 15 percent of merchandising revenue.

He received a payment of $611,000, but Fusari insists that the singer owes him more.

“It’s an age-old story in the music business,” said Fusari’s lawyer Robert Meloni. “You become famous and you turn on the person who discovered you.”

Lady Gaga’s publicist refused to comment on the issue.