New Lady Gaga album, 'Joanne,' to drop next month with lots of guest stars
Also in Tattle: Ariana Grande, Spike Lee, Blac Chyna, Larry Kane, The Beatles, Lena Dunham and more
Lady Gaga's new album, Joanne, will drop Oct. 21. The fashion-forward singer broke the news on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show Thursday.
Joanne is Gaga's first middle name, her aunt's name and the name of the NYC trattoria owned by her family, according to the Los Angeles Times.
First single off the album is "Perfect Illusion," featuring Tame Impala's Kevin Parker and producers Mark Ronson and BloodPop.
Of "Illusion," the Times' Mikael Wood said, "It. Totally. Rules."
Wood said the song was a "stomping disco-rock jam with a killer robot-Motown groove, buckets of scuzz-punk guitar fuzz and a key change designed to trigger Pavlovian fist-pumps ... (A)nd like all the best pop songs, it can't decide if it's sad or happy, paranoid or ecstatic; the tune lifts you up at the same time that it marches over you, a blast of serotonin under constant threat of reuptake."
Sheesh. Is that from the L.A. Times or Psychology Today?
The Times reported that Joanne is likely to also feature appearances from Josh Homme, Beck, Father John Misty, Florence Welch and Hillary Lindsey (the country music writer behind "Jesus Take the Wheel" and "Girl Crush").
La Grande Illusion
Now that politicians no longer feel obligated to answer questions from the press, other professions are following suit.
Athletes. Entertainers. No difference. Everyone wants to control every last bit of their own message. Answering a question that doesn't fit into their prepackaged narrative is not only ignored, it's treated as an affront.
According to the New York Daily News, pop princess du jour Ariana Grande went on Ryan Seacrest's radio show to promote Ariana Grande and got a tad testy when Seacrest asked her about her new "boyfriend."
This new "relationship" is not some secret Ariana is sneaking around to hide; she posted a photo to Instagram in which she and Mac Miller are in a full-on happy hug on the floor.
Seacrest took this as confirmation that Grande and Miller were now a couple.
"I mean is that what that (picture) means?" Ariana fired back.
"Well, did you confirm something?" Seacrest pushed.
"If I post something, that's what I'm willing to share at the moment," Ariana said. "That doesn't mean then you, Ryan Seacrest, with millions of listeners are entitled to more information."
Sure, Ariana is under no obligation to give Seacrest personal details, but he is entitled to ask questions. It's not like Grande is on the show to discuss U.S.-Russia relations or climate change.
He didn't "gotcha" her.
The only reason Grande is talking to Seacrest and he is choosing to broadcast her outermost thoughts to his millions of listeners is so that fans can hear her talk about her music and herself - because the two are inextricably linked.
It would be like Ariana refusing to answer questions about her ponytail.
(Later in the day, Ariana confirmed the relationship on Ellen. Maybe Ellen had the exclusive.)
TATTBITS
* Spike Lee is adapting and updating his 1986 feature She's Gotta Have It into a 10-episode series for Netflix.
Lee will direct the series.
* Radaronline.com reports that Rob Kardashian is not the father of Blac Chyna's baby.
A Radar source says Chyna has been sneaking around with Glee's Pilot Jones.
* Former area anchorman Larry Kane crossed the pond for the London premiere Thursday night of the new Ron Howard Beatles documentary, Eight Days a Week.
As a 21-year-old reporter, Kane travelled with The Beatles on their 1964 and 1965 U.S. tours.
"[The Beatles] came to like him and trust him, and he was invited back to the set during the filming of Help!," said producer Nigel Sinclair. "Larry gave us access to the hundreds of hours of interviews he recorded with them, and he's an on-camera figure in our film because he was right there."
* Eddie Vedder, Jackson Browne and Roseanne Cash will headline at New York's Beacon Theatre on Sept. 25 as part of the livestreamed Concert Across America to End Gun Violence.
It's one of the events featuring more than 1,000 artists at 250 venues across the United States.
Don Felder, Carnie Wilson, Sebastian Cole, Ryan Cabrera and Ed Begley Jr. will appear in Los Angeles. Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins will perform in Santa Barbara.
To find out about the 14 (so far) concerts in Pennsylvania, go to concertacrossamerica.org.
* Lena Dunham has a new role: spokesperson for a national campaign on behalf of independent bookstores.
The best-selling author and creator and star of Girls is backing "Indies First," a program conceived by Sherman Alexie in 2013 and run by the American Booksellers Association. In late November, events will be held at independent sellers around the country, with writers stepping in to help sell books. Dunham, author of Not That Kind of Girl, plans to spend Nov. 26 at Book Soup in Los Angeles.
In a statement issued Wednesday through the booksellers association, Dunham said that independent bookstores were a "cornerstone" of her identity.
Bookstores, she added, were "places for learning, community-building and falling in love with strangers."
We thought that was Tinder.
- Daily News wire services
contributed to this report.
215-854-5678 @DNTattle