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Wendy Starland wins over $7 million from former Lady Gaga producer for work discovering the popstar

By | Published on Friday 21 November 2014

Wendy Starland

Lady Gaga’s former producer Rob Fusari has been ordered to pay $7.3 million to Wendy Starland, the talent scout who originally discovered the star. A US court ruled yesterday that Fusari had broken an agreement to split his earnings from Gaga with Starland.

Starland was tasked by Fusari to find “the female equivalent to the lead singer of The Strokes” in 2005. She eventually discovered 20 year old singer Stefani Germanotta and introduced her to him. The singer and producer then began working together, eventually developing her into Lady Gaga.

As previously reported, Fusari himself sued Gaga in 2010, claiming that he was due a bigger cut of her income than what he was already receiving for production credits on her first album. The pair eventually reached an out-of-court settlement.

That put behind them, Fusari became involved in a number of other disputes, including that with Starland – details of which Gaga attempted to have sealed by the court, on the grounds that some information in papers relating to the case was “sensitive, private and personal” and would “inflict significant personal and professional harm upon” her if it was made public.

A partial seal was granted, which made details of Gaga and Fusari’s settlement confidential, though other details have been made public. These include the singer’s deposition in the case, given in September, which seemingly helped Starland’s claim greatly.

According to reports, Gaga said: “My understanding was that Wendy and him had initially agreed upon 50/50 perhaps before Wendy ever found me, and after I was signed to Rob and made music, Rob began to change his mind”.

The singer added that Starland had pushed Fusari to sign a contract to put their verbal agreement in writing, but that he had continually delayed this, which had in turn put a strain on the friendship that had grown between Gaga and Starland.

Speaking to Billboard following the ruling, Starland said: “Fusari asked me to find an artist under the age of 25 who could be the female equivalent to the lead singer of The Strokes. I had attended about 50 live performances and searched for countless hours online before finding an artist who fit the bill. Someone who was edgy and bold. Someone you couldn’t take you eyes off of. These were the specific characteristics of the ‘Strokes girl’ Fusari identified that he would need to approve before signing her to a production deal. I only brought Rob Fusari one artist for us to work with and that artist became Lady Gaga”.

She added: “The original deal we made was in 2005. Rob had made several promises to honour our agreement before attempting to alter it in late 2008/early 2009. I was incredibly surprised when he did that”.

A rep for Fusari told Billboard: “We are very disappointed with the verdict and are in the process of analysing our options”.



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