UPDATE Jan. 13: Creator of the forthcoming American Crime Story drama has confirmed that Lady Gaga will not be portraying her friend Donatella Versace.
Ryan Murphy told Variety this week that despite the Bad Romance singer being confirmed by several sources, she was never in the running due to her demanding schedule.
“Not really,” Murphy said, when asked if there had ever been talks. “She’s a friend. But she’s very busy this next year – she’s doing Super Bowl and then she’s doing A Star Is Born and I believe that she’s going on tour. And when you’re going to do a show like Versace, it’s a five-month commitment, it’s a very big show, we’re shooting it all over the world. So I just don’t think with her schedule, I knew that it would never had worked. But I would love to work with her on something in the future.”
ORIGINAL STORY: Lady Gaga has been tapped to play her real-life friend Donatella Versace in an upcoming American Crime Story drama about the murder of the latter’s brother, Gianni.
Directed by Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Glee), the announcement comes on the heels of the immense success of the show’s first season, The People v. O.J. Simpson, which starred Sarah Paulson and John Travolta, and earned nine Emmy Awards.
Rumours had been swirling about the pop songstress’s involvement in the project since late October when Murphy answered a Los Angeles PopFest moderator’s suggestion that she would be “the perfect Donatella” with a sly, “You think?”
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Lady Gaga has built a rich relationship with the house of Versace and its creative director Donatella, who took over the design reigns after her brother’s death. The singer recorded a “love letter” titled Donatella on her 2013 album Artpop and starred in the Versace spring 2014 ad campaign. The duo even walked the red carpet together at the 2016 Met Gala.
Discussing her song Donatella with entertainment website JustJared, Lady Gaga said: “Donatella, maybe she’s a bitch, maybe she’s too skinny, maybe she’s too rich, maybe she’s too out there. Or, maybe she’s brilliant, maybe she’s intelligent, maybe she’s strong, maybe she’s everything, maybe she’s Donatella.”
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Versace/Cunanan: American Crime Story will centre on the 1997 murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace outside his Miami Beach mansion at the hands of Andrew Cunanan. The killer had gone on a crime spree in the three months leading up to Versace’s death, murdering at least five people before gunning down the designer in broad daylight in July 1997. Cunanan fled the scene, inciting an eight-day search by police that culminated in his suicide.
The 10-episode drama will be the focus of the third season of American Crime Story, while the second season will centre on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Both shows will start filming in early 2017.