FASHION-MAD
SHE is pop’s undisputed queen of fashion and slays every time she steps out on the red carpet.
Yet playing the wronged wife who ordered the murder of Maurizio Gucci is sure to take Bad Romance singer Lady Gaga well out of her comfort zone.
For while her role as “Black Widow” socialite Patrizia Reggiani in movie House of Gucci will have its challenges, Gaga may have been unsettled at some of the parallels the two women share.
Chief of all, they are both renowned big spenders. Very big spenders.
Reggiani – or Lady Gucci, as she was known – sailed the Caribbean on a 200ft yacht and, at one point, was spending £9,000 a month just on orchids.
In words which could have come straight from Gaga’s own lips, the wife of the fashion heir once purred: “I would rather weep in a Rolls-Royce than be happy on a bicycle.”
Meanwhile Gaga, worth an estimated £230million, has properties around the world, 19 cars, a diamond encrusted iPad and once spent £36,000 on an “electromagnetic field reader” – to help her keep ghosts away as she performed on stage.
The superstar singer, who travels by private jet, has been known to make strange and extravagant backstage demands, including on one occasion a “mannequin with puffy pink hair”.
During the Monster Ball tour from 2009 to 2011, she would insist on her hotel room being kitted out with silver satin sheets and hung with posters of David Bowie, Queen and Elton John.
I would much rather weep in a Rolls-Royce than be happy on a bicycle
PATRIZIA REGGIANI ON PUTTING HER LOVE OF LUXURY OVER HAPPINESS
STEAMER
On top of that, it had to have white leather couches, yellow, lavender or white roses… and a steamer.
Reggiani – who married Maurizio in 1973, when they were both 24 – also had a penchant for colour, throwing regular themed parties where the clothes, décor, and food were all of a single hue, orange being her favourite.
Exuberant Gaga is known to call herself the “Queen of the Universe” – a revelation made in court papers after she was sued by former personal assistant and ex-best friend Jennifer O’Neill.
Reggiani too was defined by a need to be the centre of attention, her husband’s empire allowing her to command a global stage that even brought America’s Kennedy family into their circle.
Directed by Ridley Scott, the movie is based on the book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden.
It tells how Maurizio Gucci’s decision to divorce Reggiani, having left her after 12 years for a younger woman, led her to plot his death.
Forden said: “She always envisioned herself as La Senora Gucci. That had become her identity.
“When he divorced her that was the ultimate rejection – that was, in a way, a rejection of the piece of herself.”
Maurizio, 46, was shot dead on the steps of his office in March 1995.
After being convicted three years later of ordering the hit, Reggiani was asked why she had not shot him herself. She replied: “I didn’t want to miss.”
Perhaps the most striking thing Lady
ROMANCE Gucci heir at wedding
Gaga shares with the woman she plays on screen is a love of fashion.
Gaga, 34, has worn everything from pork chops to art installations – and was said to have been left “bankrupt” during part of her Monster Ball tour after spending nearly £2million on outfits. As a part of the Gucci empire, Reggiani was known as the queen of the fashion world and, now aged 72, still loves stepping out in glamorous outfits.
Released in 2016 after serving 18 years of a 26-year jail sentence, she currently lives in Milan. Yet Poker Face singer Gaga – nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her debut leading role in 2018’s A Star Is Born – has refrained from meeting with Reggiani to research her role.
Instead she has been studying hundreds of hours of interviews, documentaries and books about her.
That has brought criticism from