I happened to catch Lady GaGa’s new video Bad Romance
or shall I say Nemiroff’s Vodka new video?

I had to both laugh and cringe at the story behind her video and the rampant amount of product placement.

By the looks of this video, it seems like Nemiroff Vodka (which you can see about seven times in the video) is the winner of the “most shoved in your face award” hands down.

The video not not only shows the Lex Nemiroff bottles repeatedly, they show people drinking glasses of clear liquid which is supposed to insinuate drinking the vodka. They also show someone pouring it into a glass, and also forcing a glass of clear liquid down GaGa’s throat. 

Nemiroff Vodka is not only being shoved down GaGa’s throat in the video, but GaGa chose to shove it down her fan’s throats.

Then there is the story behind the video, that can be very questionable to certain audiences. Doesn’t GaGa have an awful lot of young fans? Was booze, kidnapping and sex slaves the right direction to go with this video? We will get to that in a bit.

The product placement is EVERYWHERE in this video.

In the beginning of the video, once you get past the first picture of the Nemiroff Vodka bottle, there is a group shot of the “cast” in the video and right up front on either side of GaGa is a Parrot by Starck pair of black funnel tower speakers with an iPod or iPhone perched on top on the left speaker.

Then you can see GaGa’s mesh covered finger push the button on a Parrot by Starck iPod speaker. Parrot by Starck was designed by French product designer Philippe Starck (although the real product name is “Zimku”). It is a $1,600 sound system for an iPhone or iPod.

We then move on to GaGa wearing a pair of her very own silver Lady Gaga Heartbeats head phones in the bath tub scene. These will set you back $100.00 and of course, they’re available on her website.

Then THREE times you see GaGa wearing a pair of white “Safari” sunglasses by Carrera.

And last but not least, there is the HP Envy Beats Limited Edition laptop and headphones by Monster. There is a whole row of these laptops to show the “sex slave bidding” results in the video’s story. The laptop logo was very prevalent. A real bargain at $2,500. 

Also making an appearance, was a Wii controller a couple of times which was used to bid on GaGa the sex slave by the bidding Russian mafia men. Wonder how Wii weighs in on what their controller was used for?

Now there are a few smaller product placements in the video, but they are not as visible. There are gold aluminum cans in the beginning of the video on the floor and some of the “actors” are holding them. Maybe someone knows what they are? 

There are also plastic bottles of a red “drink” on the tables which are seen several times. It also shows one the “actors” drinking one of these bottles. Looks like Vitamin Water (acai blueberry) to me, but the name is not visible. I guess they didn’t pay enough moolah for their name to be visible in the video. Funny they showed people pouring vodka, made it look like people were drinking vodka, but put no emphasis on the Vitamin Water.

They showed SO much vodka in this video, I was kind of shocked. Even though you don’t actually see the word vodka on the bottle, I still think it was a big mistake. Gaga has a lot of young fans, what kind of message does this send? In one of her earlier videos,LoveGame, it shows people drinking Campari on the subway. Again, more booze placement.

I know many other artists do this too. Rappers show a lot of crap they shouldn’t be showing when it comes to excessive behavior and demeaning women, but this video wins the award for booze placement.

This new video is definitely Lady GaGa’s style in all her wackiness and her “edgy” shenanigans. One of the things I did like about this video, was the scene with the floating crystals around her, I thought that was pretty darn cool.

Now the premise behind the video according to Wikipedia:

“Gaga is kidnapped by a group of supermodels who drug her and then sell her off to the Russian mafia for sex slavery.”

The Russian mafia? OH! That’s where the Nemirfoff Vodka ties in — their bottles state it’s a product of the Ukraine.

Lovely story for young fans, isn’t it? Hello sexual degradation…your table it waiting!

Lady GaGa believes that the opening scene with her wearing a pair of razor blade glasses “portrays a tough female spirit.”  I didn’t really pick that up from that scene.

I guess the “tough female spirit” is then squashed with the rest of the video’s story:

“Two women pull her out of a bathtub, rip her clothes off and force her to drink a glass of vodka. As the second verse begins, Gaga seductively dances for a group of men bidding on her. She straddles one of the men and performs somewhat of a lap dance on him.

Afterwards, he raises his bid and becomes the highest bidder for Gaga. When the chorus is played for the third time, Gaga is shown wearing a jacket made of a polar bear hide. She walks toward the man, who is sitting on a bed, unbuttoning his shirt. Gaga has a look of indifference on her face and removes her jacket and sunglasses.

Suddenly, the bed spontaneously combusted with the man still sitting on it. The video ends with Gaga laying beside a smoldering skeleton on top of the destroyed bed with ashes everywhere. She smokes a cigarette, while her pyrotechnic bra goes off”

The Russian Mafia Bidding Scene

Ok, I am not a fan of censorship, but again, she has MANY young fans. Between all the vodka drinking and sex-slave bidding…is this the message GaGa wanted to send? FYI.. Her website sells Lady GaGa back to school supplies.

There was a comment left on her website by a women who said her daughter loved the video so much that she watched it 100 times. Now I know it is up to the parent to police their kids, and I don’t know how old this girl was, but it’s close to impossible to watch your kids 24/7.

I also DID NOT LIKE the polar bear coat, (don’t care if it was fake or not, it is what it implies) nor the dead bat on her head, or the dead impala head mounts on the wall on either side of the bed at the end of the video. Very irresponsible dead animal placement which was certainly not necessary with all the other crap going on in this video.

And some of the lyrics?

The hook of the song is:

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah!
Roma-Roma-ma-ah!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

“GaGa-ooh-la-la”? I can’t stand when artists sing about themselves. Especially when they compliment themselves. Sorry, it’s too damn cheesy.

Some fans think that Bad Romance sounds too much like a faster remix of her other song Poker Face. (eessh, it su-su-sucks) 
If you play the two songs back to back, they are very similar. Some fans think it’s her best song that she has done so far.

But you have to admit, for a five minute video that had so many products shown over and over, it came off more like a vodka commercial, rather than a video. She should of used her noggin and just done a Nemiroff Vodka music commercial for them and gear it towards older adults. Oh wait…that’s what she did.

But was the product placement in the video and it’ premise her record company’s idea or hers? Could she say no to product placement in her videos if she wanted to? Did Nemiroff Vodka fund the entire video? I really don’t know how the politics of record companies work. I do know they are quite ruthless, and some record companies have a lot of control over their clients.

BUT with a little research I found…the video was done by Francis Lawrence. He also did I Am Legend. FYI.. GaGa says she is a huge fan of Will Smith. Careful Gaga! I am sure Scientology would love to get you in their clutches!

Back to who was responsible for the video, Lady Gaga stated:

“I wanted somebody with a tremendous understanding of how to make a pop video, because my biggest challenge working with directors is that I am the director and I write the treatments and I get the fashion and I decide what it’s about and it’s very hard to find directors that will relinquish any sort of input from the artist.”

So….GaGa was responsible for the premise behind the video and agreed to the product placement too? That’s what it sounds like. If so, shame on GaGa for not considering her fan’s young impressionable minds.

Hey GaGa! Question…Do you think kidnapping women, forcing liquor down their throats, dancing for men, doing a lap dance and having men bid on women to be their sex slaves while showing a butt load of vodka in your video is showing the same “tough female spirit” as your razor blade glasses?

I couldn’t include all the pictures of all the products in her video, or the whole sex slave story pictures. So watch the video yourself and see how many products you can spy and let me know if this video’s story was a good idea for young eyes.

Now as you can guess, I am not a Lady GaGa fan.

This broad is doing THIRTY ONE gigs between 11/27-1/18 in the US, and then between 2/9-3/08 she is all over Europe with another eleven shows on her tour.

Her eight song album, sells for a reasonable price, (smart move GaGa)  and it had four #1 radio hits. So it’s quite obvious that her fans are in love with her ”cover your face up with crap“ get ups and they find her pop songs ever so edgy and innovative. 

Maybe if I didn’t witness Madonna’s fame rise up in the 80’s and other bands in the 90’s, I would think that Lady GaGa was edgy and innovative too. But I have seen it all before well before Gaga was born.

This video reminds me of Madonna’s voice (although not in her early years when her voice was really high) with a touch of Marylin Manson’s “Dope Show” video freakishness, and Grace Jones’ costumes all rolled up into one. Now I am not a Madonna, Marilyn Manson or Grace Jones fan either, but they did do it first. And I am not saying their videos were for young eyes either, and Madonna and several other artists (hello Britney) and rappers are FAR from being decent role models. But you would think that GaGa could have used a little more sense for this video, since many of her fans are so young.

Truth be told, like it or loathe it, Lady GaGa’s ”Bad Romance” song is a tough tune to get out of your head. (drat!)

When I watched the video several times and tried to count all the product placements, I had to turn the sound off. This song gets tired real fast. But I am sure it would be a lot of fun to dance to after a couple of martinis in a dance club. Hell ,after a couple of martinis, I will dance to just about anything.

But I can’t imagine having to sing this song for 42 shows. I would be SO tired of dressing up in all that crazy shit every night and singing this song over and over. A performer’s life can be far from glamorous.

GaGa has set herself up for a tiresome future. Her fans will always expect to see her looking outrageous, and wondering what wacky outfit she will be seen in next. Very exhausting way to go career wise, unless she can evolve gracefully.

 I saw a couple of pics of her where she wasn’t dressed up at all and she was out and about in town. The first thing the gossip rags commented on, was how plain she looked, and people seemed a tad disappointed in that. Well I guess a true fan could care less what she’s wearing. Right? Still.. it has to be all very exhausting.

Speaking of exhausting…Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (GaGa’s real name) best be careful on her Fame Monster Tour. With a grueling schedule like hers, she can easily burn herself out right quick. Fans can are also be very fickle. What’s in this year may be gone the next. So invest wisely Gaga!

The picture below is a behind the scenes shot which was posted on her website. It’s a shot from the end of the video, minus the cigarette hanging out her mouth which is seen in the finished video. Again…. did she have to include a cigarette? Weren’t the exploding fembot tatas enough?

Hey! Was Amy Winehouse In The Video Too? *snicker*

Marilyn Manson (I struggled for a description, and finally gave up, so y’all write your own intro) apparently called up ex-wife Dita Von Teese to apologize for the breakdown of their marriage, and she’s letting him talk but that’s pretty much it:

Sexy Dita says she’s well and truly moved on and is too pre-occupied with her new LOVERS.

Dita said: “He’s been in touch a little. The apologies come, and he was like, ‘I made a big mistake’. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I know. Go ahead and say what you need to say to feel better and to sleep at night.’

“Right now I’ve got three (men). They’re all in different parts of the world. … That’s my biggest sin – juggling men.”

The former couple divorced citing “irreconcilable differences”, though it’s been alleged Manson’s relationship with actress EVAN RACHEL WOOD – his now girlfriend – was the reason behind their split.

I remember back in the day when they broke up, and ol’ Brian didn’t exactly come off as the model husband back then:

Manson, she says down the line, has a party lifestyle that she found impossible to live with. ‘It was difficult, because I was trying to get him help for his problems, and eventually I realised that he didn’t want help. I wasn’t supportive about his partying or his relationship with another girl, and as much as I loved him I wasn’t going to be part of that.’ After the wedding the relationship went into sharp decline, according to Von Teese. ‘Everything went downhill after we got married. I started working a lot to escape my home life.’ Manson, she says, lapsed into depression.

There was also an alleged infidelity. Indeed, in his Rolling Stone interview, Manson dropped a lot of hints about having a new relationship. His new album, he said, ‘was clearly written to seduce somebody’. He attributes his musical revival to a close friend’s gesture of devotion. ‘She picked up a butcher’s knife and said, “Here, you can stab me,”‘ he says. ‘When someone was willing to drown with me, I really didn’t want to drown any more.’

The interview clearly cut Von Teese to the quick. ‘He says how depressed he was. I get the impression he thinks I was unsupportive,’ she says. ‘But the truth is I wasn’t supportive of his lifestyle, and someone else came along who was.’ Von Teese issued Manson an ultimatum, and, she says sadly, ‘It didn’t work. Instead, it made me the enemy.’ She decided to move out on Christmas Eve, essentially empty-handed. ‘I left with nothing. I knew that there was an inappropriate relationship going on in it, and I didn’t want any part of it around to remind me. I didn’t want that sofa. I didn’t want that bed. I didn’t want the knife you read about in the article.’

Sorry, but this guy is just beyond ridiculous.  What more is there to say?  It’s not like this is something he puts on and takes off, like a stage persona kind of deal.  And anybody who allegedly collects Nazi memorabilia has to be a little off.  I mean, yeah, I get that he’s trying to be all, uh, whatever he is…but come on.  The man is my age.  When you’re forty (oh wait, I ain’t forty yet, so nevermind on that whole “my age” thing) and you’re still acting like this guy, it’s time to take a good long look.  Or maybe not.  He might scare himself.  He ain’t no Alice Cooper!

Dita, for her part, seems to have totally moved on.  Personally, I think she’s gorgeous.  She surely doesn’t need this loser back in her life.  Good riddance to bad rubbish!

This is likely one of the most disturbing leaked pr0n stories I’ve read in a while. TMZ is reporting burlesque performer and ex-wife of shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, Dita Von Teese has been identified as an “actress” in a girl-on-girl film getting *did* with a high-heel shoe.

Von Teese, known more for her failed marriage to Manson than anything else, has managed to keep a relatively clean image, despite posing for racy photos and doing a high-end sophisticated live strip tease.

Several big celeb sites, Perezhilton included, kiss her ass on a frequent basis, commenting on her perfection, glamour and fashion sense (she has a 40’s Hollywood vibe). It will be interesting to see what they have to say about this.

Personally, anyone who would be willing to marry a semi-talented pseudo-vampire like Marilyn Manson is probably NOT someone who should be revered for anything other than a high-puke tolerance.

This gives a whole new meaning to the whole “I’m gonna put a foot in your ass” threat.

Cheese on rice already!!

Marilyn Manson (age 38) is so completely enamored with his own cleverness ,is now trying to milk the recent claims that he and his teenage paramour were getting it on for real in his recent video for “Heart-Shaped Glasses.” The video’s dumb as hell and contains more cliches than a post game press conference for the World Series. If Manson were smart he’d pretend it was someone else’s video and call it a day. But no, the middle-aged vampire wanna-be has now released an intentionally ambiguous statement in an effort to create more controversy — and certainly much more than a person his age who humps teenagers on film should receive.

Marilyn on the rumors:

“Let’s say there were some conservative people involved (with the video) that got a little upset about things that were taking place, and there’s been rumors back and forth, but I will not confirm or deny them.” He adds, “It does look real.”

Let’s say there were some MM fans left who weren’t totally repulsed by Manson’s maturing backwards into a state of infantile regression, and there some of those fans were willing to buy his records despite his pedophilic proclivities, would that make them as big of a losers as Manson? Perhaps, but I will not confirm or deny — although it certainly looks that way though.

So now, in addition to the “real sex” issue with the video, information has been released which states the actress from the video, Evan Rachel Wood, Manson’s teen girlfriend (age 19) was paid the highest figure ever for a music video. I’m just not sure how to even respond to that, other than maybe: Evan Rachel Wood is a high paid hooker. Manson’s statement on Wood’s salary for the video:

“I did insist that Evan be paid the most that any actress has ever been paid in music-video history to be in this, even though she wouldn’t have asked for it. There’s no one else that could’ve been in it, because it was inspired by her.”

E.R.W. had sex on film and got paid well for it, clearly barely-legal porn is just a stone’s throw away for this classy young lady! Her parents must be swelling with pride.

Manson and a future girlfriend? 

The blogosphere was abuzz with word that shock-rocker Marilyn Manson’s new video for his single “Heart-Shaped Glasses” actually features he and new girlfriend, 19-year-old Evan Rachel Wood having sex.  And by “having sex,” I mean they were not simulating it like Tom Cruise does, but were really “going at it” on film.  Which, if you think about it isn’t that shocking coming from Manson, but still quite nauseating.

From the Radar scoopage:

According to a source close to the production crew, Manson and Wood elected not to fake their intercourse. Though their naughty bits are concealed on-screen by bedclothes and each other’s bodies, the logistics of the shoot ensured the crew members had an intimate view of the proceedings: The video was originally intended to be shot in 3-D, meaning the couple’s writhings had to be shot from several different angles simultaneously. And just to be sure they got it right, Manson and Wood got it on three times for the cameras.

And a rep for Manson insists, “It was simulated sex.” But our source had no doubts either about what took place, or about why Manson, who cultivates an air of calculated outrageousness, would be anxious to deny it: “The Christian parents will be sharpening their steak knives for him.

Oh, like it matters whether it was simulated or real to Christian conservatives, once a hater, always a hater.  Honestly, the conservatives in this country need not worry about Marilyn Manson influencing the youth of today.  He’s too old for the young kids to look up to.  Marilyn Manson practically eligible for AARP and early bird specials, add that his latest stunt and he is bordering on becoming a parody of himself.  The young kids aren’t interested and old people think he’s retarded.

Here’s the thing: Manson’s the same age as I am. I remember in ‘95 when his stuff was popular and I was in love with Trent Reznor and dreamt of us (Trent, not Manson) running off together to live in his castle in Transylvania, but that lasted like two months and then you know, you kind of move on.  Most people his age have kids, spouses, mortgages, lawns to care for.  His target audience is slowly disappearing as androgynous dudes like Pete Wentz take over the teen angst angle and the twenty-somethings get on with their lives.  They’re just waiting for their piercings to grow in and their natural hair color to return.

So what does Marilyn Manson’s ex-wife Dita Von Teese think of Manson’s new video featuring his teenage homewrecking girlfriend?  Not much apparently.

“I know a lot of people are shocked by it and think I should be shocked but he has put every one of his girlfriends in his videos… I was in three videos. Rose McGowan was in two videos.”

It’s not so much that it’s shocking that he featured his girlfriend in a video, as much as he featured the homewrecking slut who broke up his marriage.  Shocking is one thing, complete and utter lack of respect for a person he once claimed to have loved is another. 

*Burp*  He’s pathetic.  I still like that song though, it’s funny.

image source: helnwein

Again, I like the song. But the video is a self-indulgent piece of pseudo-goth crap that is clearly meant to insult and hurt his estranged ex-wife Dita Von Teese.  Also, Evan Rachel Wood will forever carry the taint of MM on her.  Nice screaming.  This video is NSFW or any other time for that matter due to stupidity and fake sex scenes.  I have seen flea-bitten alleys cats be sexier.

This is a preview of the forthcoming video for Marilyn Manson’s new single, “Heart-Shaped Glasses” from his new album, Eat Me, Drink Me, which was inspired by his new girlfriend, 19-year-old Rachel Evan Wood. The single is getting some heavy rotation on alternative radio. YouTube has full length versions of the song also.

And I don’t hate it. I kind of like it. It’s like a softer, gentler side of Manson. He gets in touch with his feelings. Feelings of lust for a much younger woman (well, I guess 19 is considered a woman, in a creepy way). Manson talks about how the song came about:

“When I wrote the song that’s the single ‘Heart Shaped Glasses’ it was one of the songs that I really expected an immediate response from the record label from, in the way like ‘of course that’s a single’ and it was almost embarrassing in the way that I thought it was so obvious. The song was written in a simple way, I was reading the book Lolita and it was something inspired by my current girlfriend Rachel Evan Wood who’s obviously much younger than me, but having the sarcasm to make the point of that and showing up to visit me once wearing heart-shaped glasses which is the same as the Kubrik movie poster for the film Lolita and me saying what I say in the Chorus of the song. I said that to her and I suddenly realized I should really write a song about that and it never occurred to me in my entire career, my entire life that, that’s how you should write songs. It should be the part of your personality that you might feel guarded or too secret to put out the rest of the world.”

I don’t approve of his relationship with Rachel Evan Wood, but you know what, it’s none of my business if a 38-year-old wannabe vampire feels the need to play out some kind of fantasy by preying on vulnerable young women who are taken in by their fame and iconistic charisma. Obviously what Marilyn lacks in maturity and appearance he makes up in personality and charm, because he’s had no shortage of hot women, including his two exes Rose McGowan, and more recently wife,Dita Von Teese.

And the new single is really, really listenable. Here are the lyrics for your enjoyment:

She reminds me of the one in school
When I was cut and she was dressed in white
And I couldn’t take my eyes off her
But that’s not what I took off that night

And she’ll never cover up what we did with her dress, no
She said: “Kiss me, it’ll heal but it won’t forget
Kiss me, it’ll heal but it won’t forget,”

I don’t mind you keeping me on pins and needles
If I could stick to you and you stick me, too

Don’t break, don’t break my heart
And I won’t break your heart-shaped glasses
Little girl, little girl you should close your eyes
That blue is getting me high

Don’t break, don’t break my heart
And I won’t break your heart-shaped glasses
Little girl, little girl you should close your eyes
That blue is getting me high
Making me low
That blue is getting me high
Making me low

She reminds of the one I knew
That cut-up the negatives of my life
I wouldn’t take my hands off her
She wouldn’t let me be anywhere but inside

I don’t mind you keeping me on pins and needles
If I could stick to you and you stick me, too

Just don’t break, don’t break my heart
And I won’t break your heart-shaped glasses
Little girl, little girl you should close your eyes
That blue is getting me high

Don’t break, don’t break my heart
And I won’t break your heart-shaped glasses
Little girl, little girl you should close your eyes
That blue is getting me high
Making me low
That blue is getting me high
Making me low

She’ll never cover up what we did with her dress, no
She said: “Kiss me, it’ll heal but it won’t forget
Kiss me, it’ll heal but it won’t forget,”

I don’t mind you keeping me on pins and needles
If I could stick to you and you could stick me, too

Just don’t break, don’t break my heart
And I won’t break your heart-shaped glasses
Little girl, little girl you should close your eyes
That blue is getting me high

Don’t break, don’t break my heart
And I won’t break your heart-shaped glasses
Little girl, little girl you should close your eyes
That blue is getting me high
Making me low

“I’ve found my double, my twin, with my new girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood,” Manson, 38, tells France’s Le Parisien newspaper.”She’s 19 and certainly that’s very young,” he added, “but that’s not a problem for me. She likes the same things as me. She understands I like to get up when night falls and go to sleep at dawn.”

Marilyn also talked about his failed marriage to burlesque beauty Dita Von Teese:

“Our relationship ended at Halloween. I was completely destroyed psychologically. I’d rented a house and begun working on this disc, which sort of tells everything that happened to me during the past year. I was married to someone who wanted me to change. Become more adult, more responsible. I began not to like myself, not like what I do. I lost my identity. Everything began collapsing around me. The record allowed me to put an end to that. Dita left at Christmas while I was recording.”

Indulge me here, but in the year 2007, with the whole goth-rock-industrial thing squarely behind us, is Marilyn Manson still clinging to his tired shtick? Seriously, time to clean it up, expand your horizons even. You are 38, on your way to middle-age, have been married and divorced twice — have some friggin’ dignity. You can’t really think it’s ok for a man your age to dress up like a mentally-challenged Transylvania reject and hope to scare people? Give it up, act your age and stop dating women who are literally young enough to be your daughter. I hope you get arthritis of the penis Marilyn. Shame on you.

And Rachel, as the latest homewrecker on the block, I can’t wait until you wake up someday (soon I am sure) and look over and see you are shacking up with a total wanker.

Marilyn isn’t the Dark Lord, you aren’t going to live forever and the embarrassment you feel now will eventually pass. Just keep saying “his name is Brian Warner and he’s a total nerd from Canton, Ohio.” That’s what I do when I wake up from nightmares featuring this ghoulish doofus.