Lady Gaga smoothly transformed herself into "Jo Calderone" for the 2011 MTV VMAs, creating a gender-bending look she has anonymously trotted out before. What iconic tough guys influenced it?
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nThe Brooklyn-born Jon "Bowzer" Bauman was a leading member of Sha Na Na - a band from the 70s that was all about nostalgia for the 50s. They even had their own variety show!
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nThe hunched posture, the almost visible chip on his slender, womanly shoulders - Calderone is almost an exact replica of Macchio's Johnny Cade. Would that make Queen's Brian May -- who accompanied her during her VMA performance -- Ponyboy? Only he (and the late Freddie Mercury) know for sure.
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nSeriously. Tell us you didn't glance at the TV quickly and think, "Hey, I didn't know The Hebrew Hammer was a singer."
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nIn the movie "Just One of the Guys," Joyce plays an ambitious high school girl who disguises herself as a boy in a scheme to win a journalism award. Joyce was into the whole "girl dresses as Ralph Macchio" thing before it went mainstream.
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nThe similarities are striking between Jo and the Vancouver Canucks goaltender. The only difference is that Lady Gaga has more trophies on her shelf (yeah, that Game 7 loss still hurts, huh, Vancouver?)
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nIf Sha Na Na honed the image of the greaser as a street-wise tough in the 70s, then Cryer (and Macchio) were a big part of showing the concept's more sensitive side in the 80s.
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nWe wish the VMAs were in New York this year (Hurricane Irene aside) if only for the chance that Gaga could have exited the show and nearly get hit by a cab just so she could mouth off "Hey, I'm walkin' here, I'm walkin' here!" Ratso Rizzo style.
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nGarth Brooks was way into the whole "musical alter ego" thing - though, thankfully, he didn't feel the need to switch genders (bullet dodged). As "Chris Gaines," the country star got to indulge his proto-emo side.
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nIn the song "Graceland (Never Been To)" Charlie Sexton sings that, instead of paying homage to the evidence of Elvis's later, more debauched years, he'd "rather think of Elvis as a greasy Memphis kid." Clearly, so would Gaga.