A producer who helped launch Lady Gaga’s career is suing the pop star for $35 million over allegations she dumped him as soon as she hit the big time.

Rob Fusari signed a production deal with the singer in 2006, and claims to have come up with her stage moniker. He also maintains he was instrumental in landing her a deal with record label Interscope.

The hitmaker, who has also worked with Destiny’s Child and Will Smith, produced several tracks on Gaga’s debut album, The Fame – including the hit Paparazzi – but Fusari reveals his working relationship with the star soured after she allegedly ditched him upon gaining global recognition.

He filed a lawsuit against the star in New York on Wednesday.

The producer hit the headlines recently when he took aim at his former collaborator Beyonce, who ironically appears alongside Lady Gaga on new single Telephone, accusing the star of taking all the credit for using a Stevie Nicks’ riff in Destiny’s Child hit Bootylicious.

Fusari claimed it was his idea to use the sample and he was upset when Beyonce claimed it was her initiative.

In an interview with Billboard magazine, he said, “I came up with the idea to build a track using the guitar riff from Stevie Nicks’ Edge of Seventeen. I figured I’d put the guitar loop on there temporarily, and later go into the studio with a guitar and replay it, because I’d learned, after sampling Stevie Wonder’s I Wish for Will Smith’s Wild Wild West, that I didn’t want to lose 50 per cent of the publishing (royalties).

“I vividly remember telling (Destiny’s Child manager and Beyonce’s father) Mathew Knowles, ‘Mathew, you got to book me into your studio and let me replay that riff.’ He didn’t want to do it. So 50 per cent got cut for one note. That whole experience was bittersweet for me.”

A songwriter and music producer who claims he helped launch pop star Lady Gaga says she squeezed him out of her lucrative career after he co-wrote some of her songs, came up with her stage name and helped get her record deal.

Rob Fusari filed a $30.5 million lawsuit against the Grammy Award-winning performer, saying his protege and former girlfriend ditched him as her career soared.

“All business is personal,” said the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a Manhattan state court.

Lady Gaga’s spokesman, Dave Tomberlin, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail sent Thursday by The Associated Press.

Fusari had credits on such hits as Will Smith’s “Wild, Wild West” and Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious” when a friend steered the piano-playing singer – then known by her real name, Stefani Germanotta – to him in March 2006, according to his lawsuit.

Though he initially dismissed her, he realized she had star potential after hearing her play in his Livingston, N.J., studio, the suit said. He spent the next several months working with her every day and “radically reshaping her approach,” persuading her to drop rock riffs for dance beats, it said.

As they co-wrote songs such as “Paparazzi” and “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich,” which would appear on her debut album, “The Fame,” he transformed Germanotta into Lady Gaga, a name adapted from Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga,” the lawsuit said.

In a 2009 interview with the AP, Lady Gaga said her “realization of Gaga was five years ago, but Gaga’s always been who I am.”

“I was Gaga from the time that I was 19 through my first record deal,” the 23-year-old said of her over-the-top, avant-garde style, which has captured the imaginations of millions of fans. “I always dressed like that before people knew me as Lady Gaga. I was always that way … I stuck out like a sore thumb.”

According to the lawsuit, Lady Gaga and Fusari’s relationship turned romantic and then became a business partnership in May 2006, when they created a joint venture called Team Love Child LLC to promote her career. Fusari’s share was 20 percent, it said.

Fusari – whose account of his role in the multiplatinum-selling artist’s early career has been told in interviews – says he introduced Lady Gaga to a record executive who ultimately shepherded her to Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records, which released “The Fame” in 2008. The album has sold more than 3 million copies in the United States; Fusari has a producing credit.

But the lawsuit says their personal and business relationship had soured by then and he has been denied a 20 percent share of song royalties, 15 percent of merchandising revenue and other money he’s owed. He acknowledges getting checks for about $611,000 but says that isn’t his full share.

Lady Gaga won two Grammys in January: best dance recording, for “Poker Face,” and best electronic/dance album, for “The Fame.”

Lady Gaga has sparked fears for her health after she appeared dazed and dizzy during a concert in Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday.

The Poker Face sensation jetted to New Zealand last week after completing the sold out U.K. leg of her global The Monster Ball tour.

She took to the stage at Auckland’s Vector Arena, but her hectic schedule appeared to have taken its toll – she appeared woozy and tired, and struggled to stay on her feet during a lacklustre performance of her closing number, Bad Romance.

In a video taken by a fan, the singer can be seen half-heartedly joining in the dance routine, before removing her elaborate headwear, dropping to her knees and lying down on the floor.

But Gaga has a long time before she can enjoy a break – the star is touring Australia, Japan, Europe, the U.K. and America until the end of August.

An executive at MTV has denied the network has banned Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s racy new video for Telephone.

The nine-and-a-half minute long promo has caused a stir online, attracting more than 12 million viewers in the three days after it debuted on YouTube.com.

The video shows the Poker Face hitmaker being taken into a women-only prison, where she is abused by inmates and stripped naked by two female guards.

Gaga even refers to rumours she has both male and female sex organs – by pixelating her genitalia in the raunchy footage.

It was reported by CNN.com that bosses at MTV had decided to ban the video because of concerns over its sexual content, as they did with the promo for Madonna’s 1990 hit Justify My Love.

However, MTV’s manager of programming, Tuma Basa, has hit back at the reports.

In a post on his Twitter.com page, he writes, “The reports are false… the video’s been airing since Friday morning on MTV.”

Check out the video:

Lady Gaga believes celibacy is a good thing.

The ‘Poker Face’ singer – who has previously admitted to being bisexual – suggests girls should save themselves for someone special.

She said: “If you can’t get to know them, you shouldn’t have sex with them. It’s OK at this point, in this day and age, we have to grow up and we now know that we can’t be that free with love.

“I’m single because I don’t have the time. You know what? It’s OK. Even Lady Gaga can be celibate, you don’t have to have sex to be loved.”

The 23-year-old – real name Stefani Germanotta – also claims she doesn’t need a man in her life to make her feel safe.

She said: “My fans are my roommates. The thing that keeps me warm at night is my sense of self. When I see my beautiful fans I feel how much they protect and mean to me. It would be irresponsible if I didn’t protect them and teach young people to be self expressive, to love yourself.”

Lady Gaga, who was speaking at the launch of a new Viva Glam lipstick for Mac Cosmetics in London, went on to say that sex education is the most important tool to stop the spread of AIDS and HIV.

She said: “Here in the UK, six in ten women that are effected by HIV are as young as 13 years old. I believe so much in education, but instead of putting that education into a programme, we are putting it into our hands and educating each other as women.” The singer recently took a HIV test when she was home in New York because she was worried about her behaviour while on tour.

She said: “When I’m on the road, I forget about taking care of my body. I don’t go to the doctor as regularly as if I were in one place all the time. So I woke up and thought, ‘Oh, I’m home in New York. I’m going to see my gynaecologist and I’m getting an HIV test.’ “

Sharon Osborne

Lady Gaga’s topless photo on the cover of Q magazine has been banned by several leading stores in the U.S.

The Poker Face hitmaker walked out on the recent magazine photoshoot after bosses at the publication refused to let her strike a controversial pose – in a desperate bid to address rumours she is a hermaphrodite.

Editors weren’t impressed with her demands, and following a series of tense negotiations, the star reportedly burst into tears and walked out.

Bosses at Q eventually rearranged the shoot and the final pictures show Gaga posing topless in just a pair of leather trousers.

But despite efforts to tone the images down, some stores across the U.S., including bookstore Borders, have refused to stock the publication unless it is placed in a sealed cover, according to .

Lady Gaga recently had a sexual health screening in New York because she “forgot” to look after her body properly when she was performing live shows for The Monster Ball Tour concerts.

She said: “I had an HIV test two days ago – and it’s not because I’m taking off my clothes every night with a different man. When I’m on the road, I forget about taking care of my body. I don’t go to the doctor as regularly as if I were in one place all the time. So I woke up and thought, ‘Oh, I’m home in New York. I’m going to see my gyno and I’m getting an HIV test.’ ”

The 23-year-old star – who is believed to be dating her stylist and friend Matthew Williams – has made it her personal mission to make it “fashionable” for women to carry condoms and practice safe sex.

She told MarieClaire.com: “You put that condom in your purse and save your own f**king life. And don’t call me in a week and cry. Because you know that infamous call from your girlfriend – ‘Oh, my God, I got caught up, and I was afraid he wouldn’t like me.’ I mean, what year is it? It’s scary, but I want it to be fashionable to be smart.”

Lady Gaga recently blasted contradictory attitudes to sexuality which let men be more vocal about their conquests than women.

She said: “When a guy says, ‘Oh I f**ked all these chicks this week’, there’s a high-five and giggling. But when a woman does it and it’s publicized or she’s open about her sexuality or she’s free or liberated, it’s ‘Oh, she must have a d**k’. There’s a threat.”

Lady Gaga studied Spencer Tunick in college. Now Tunick wants to study Lady Gaga.

Tunick is the photographer who specializes in gathering together hundreds of people and having them strip naked to pose for group shots.

The pop singer recently told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that when she was a student at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she did a “crazy thesis, like 80 pages on Spencer Tunick.” When Tunick heard this, he e-mailed a friend: “Can someone find me that thesis, maybe I can get some tips to financial success in there.”

Lady Gaga threw a photoshoot for a U.K. magazine into disarray after bursting into tears and storming off set, according to a new report.

The outrageous Poker Face singer sparked concern for her wellbeing after a bizarre scene in which she lashed out at a Q Magazine photographer during the shoot at London’s May Fair Hotel.

Gaga told staff she hated the provocative photos, in which she posed topless in a pair of spiked trousers, before sobbing and threatening to walk out unless her boyfriend was allowed to photograph her.

She reportedly told onlookers, “I’m just not in a good place right now.”

A source tells Britain’s Daily Mirror, “The magazine wasn’t going to stand for that so they told her people where to go. Her behaviour was weird.”

Gaga is in Britain for her revamped Monster Ball tour, which was hit with a series of setbacks, including missing costumes and technical mishaps, when it kicked off on Thursday.