Lady Gaga Denies Copying Bette Midler’s “Mermaid on Wheelchair”

Lady Gaga was recently accused by stage artist Bette Midler for stealing her on-stage act and now the Mother Monster has offered her explanation.

When asked by Access Hollywood if the idea of dressing up as a mermaid on wheelchair was copied from Middler’s decades-old stage act, Gaga replied, “I had no idea that she did that and I’m a huge Bette Midler fan.”

She continued, “Not in the beginning it wasn’t ’cause I didn’t know that she’d done [it], but I do now and I think it’s great. Obviously I feel connected to women in theater and women from the past. Maybe we’re just cut from the same cloth.”

“I couldn’t hop around in that tail so I just stuck myself in a wheelchair,” the Born This Way singer explained before sending out some customary ‘’Gaga-compliments” for Midler, who is also known as “The Divine Miss M.”

The 65-year old had posted a tweet at the weekend that had enlightened the world with Gaga’s “act-stealing” antics. “I’m not sure @ladygaga knows that I’ve performed my mermaid in a wheelchair for millions of people — and many of them are still alive…..Dear @ladygaga if you think a mermaid in a wheelchair seems familiar-it’s because it is!You can see it on youtube 24/7-with ME performing it,” Middler wrote.

In another tweet the Oscar-nominated actress further clarified her claim before ending the message on a light note. The tweet read: “Dear @ladygaga Ive been doing singing mermaid in a wheelchair since 1980-You can keep the meat dress and the firecracker tits-mermaid’s mine. @ladygaga, let’s drink this over at the Emmys in September. Fabulous mermaids can coexist!,”

Gaga had used the ‘mermaid on wheel chair’ act on a few previous occasions too but it went unnoticed until she repeated it on a show in Australia. A few days after her concert, Katy Perry also used a mermaid outfit during one of her shows and that forced Little Monsters to accuse Perry of stealing what they thought was Gaga’s creation. Middler’s tweets then opened the matter wide open for everyone to see that she is the earliest and the original creator of the act.

Here is Bette Middler dressed in the mermaid costume on her Broadway drama “New York, New York”:

Source: [aceshowbiz,Access Hollywood]