Lady Gaga: Where Did She Get the Jo Calderone Look?
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?
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!
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.
nSeriously. Tell us you didn't glance at the TV quickly and think, "Hey, I didn't know The Hebrew Hammer was a singer."
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.
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?)
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.
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.
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.
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.
