Lady Gaga dismissed as 'Madonna wannabe' for 'Catholic bashing' music video

New York City, N.Y., Jun 12, 2010 / 10:43 am

Catholic League president Bill Donohue dismissed pop sensation Lady Gaga in her recent controversial music video – which features highly sexualized images coupled with Catholic religious symbols – as a mediocre, “Madonna wannabe.”

The starlet's recent video for her hit song “Alejandro,” features the singer clad at various points in a red, latex nun's habit, swallowing a Rosary, and engaging in simulated erotic encounters with her male back up dancers.

“Lady Gaga is playing Madonna copy cat, squirming around half-naked with half-naked guys, abusing Catholic symbols – they're always Catholic symbols – while bleating out 'Alejandro' enough times to induce vomit,” wrote Donohue in a statement Friday.

The singer “has now become the new poster girl for American decadence and Catholic bashing, sans the looks and talent of her role model,” he added.

Fox News covered the controversial video on Friday as part of a growing trend of anti-Catholicism in Hollywood.

Giving a brief history, the news outlet wrote about how pop icon Madonna ruffled feathers with numerous music videos during the 1980s and 90s, some of which featured burning crosses, erotic encounters with saints, and references to abortion.

Fox also cited model Joanna Krupa's recent stint with PETA, where she posed nude with a strategically placed cross as part of an advertisement in support of humane treatment for animals. Also referenced was Comedy Central's alleged plans to run a satirical cartoon series on Jesus Christ, titled “J.C.”

Talk show host and film critic Michael Medved asserted to Fox News that there is a long history of mocking Catholicism in the U.S.

“The reason this is considered to be OK is because the Catholic Church is the most visible and powerful, single religious institution on the planet,” said Medved. “There is no comparable, unifying force in Islam or in any other religious faith or tradition.”

“Alejandro” director Steven Klein recently defended the Lady Gaga music video to MTV, according to Fox. The video, asserts Klein, does not “denote anything negative, but represents the character's battle between the dark forces of this world and the spiritual salvation of the Soul.”

“She chooses to be a nun, and the reason her mouth and eyes disappear is because she is withdrawing her senses from the world of evil and going inward toward prayer and contemplation,” he added.

But Donohue would not have any of the reasoning. “Madonna, Lady Gaga was raised Catholic and then morphed into something unrecognizable.”

“'So I suppose you could say I'm a quite religious woman that is very confused about religion,' she told Larry King last week,” he quoted.

“That she is confused is an understatement. In any event, we hope she finds her way back home.”