Lady Gaga states the obvious in her Vogue US cover fashion story, October 2024 issue.

“Harley Quinn is a character people know.”

Gaga wears Maison Margiela Artisanal designed by John Galliano [creme above] and a Balenciaga 53rd Couture coat [blue below] on her second cover, styled by Alex Harrington and lensed by Ethan James Green [IG].

Gaga’s Quinn-inspired wardrobe also includes Dior embellished tartans, Dries Van Noten jacket, Givenchy Haute Couture by Alexander McQueen fall 1999 jacket, Hodakova argyle sweater, The Row coat, Valentino dress, Yohji Yamamoto black and white dress and more. / Makeup by Sarah Tanno; hair by Frederic Aspiras

With all the fan-related resources Gaga brings to her role as the psychologist turned turned villain in ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’, it seems totally plausible that Gaga’s unusually-fine mind and empathetic persona — combined with years of deep connection to those who view life through the lens of Gaga’s own — have armed her with the capacity to make the most of Harley Quinn’s crossing over to the ‘other side’.

The new ‘Joker’ debuted in Venice last week to mixed reviews. Some criticism is that the film is dull — first and foremost — because Gaga is sidelined and underused. Reviewing probably eight commentaries, no critic suggests that Gaga herself isn’t magnificent in ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’, opening in US theaters the first week in October.

Jonathan Van Meter interviews Gaga — and the writer reflects on the many times her has been in her presence, including his first sighting in 2010. It’s fitting in this ‘Joker’ drama moment:

The first time I laid eyes on her in December 2010, she was barefoot, covered in fake blood, mascara running down her face, wearing a robe made of voluminous red feathers—like a cross between Alice Cooper and Big Bird, I wrote. She was dressed like a lunatic and—you guessed it—behaving like one. On another occasion—in another astounding frock, hair in a Bride-of-Frankenstein updo—she had on shoes that made her feet look like they were screwed on backward and brought her up to nearly my height . . .

It’s clear that speaking and interacting with Gaga is both an enticing but also brain-disrupting adventure. Van Meter continues with more colorful memories from 2010:

Her bodyguard, a very handsome bald man, is holding on to her arm (she’s so weak!), and I look like her bodyguard’s lesser twin, perhaps a doctor carrying smelling salts, escorting a madwoman to the sanatorium. A description Gaga would have no doubt loved at the time!

The writer homages the star, referring to her as a ‘hyperobject’ . After explaining English professor Timothy Morton’s concept to her, Van Meter accords her the status. Gaga responds “like a 10-year-old who has just received a gold star”. Van Meter reminds her that the word is intended as a compliment; and Gaga assures him that being considered a ‘hyperobject’ is received as a compliment.

Surely, AOC readers know that Lady Gaga is engaged to her five-year love Michael Polansky.

Gaga’s mother Cynthia Germanotta, who runs the Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit focused primarily on supporting young people’s mental health that Gaga and she created in 2012 was the matchmaker.

They ended up at a party together, and it was Gaga who went looking for Polansky, prompted by her mom.

In this 2024 election season of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s down-to-earth introduction to Minnesota, Anne notes that Polansky is also from my home state.

“I was struck immediately by her warmth and openness—she was so genuinely curious about what my life was like growing up in Minnesota.” the future groom told Vogue.

The interview is long and goes in-depth on Gaga’s experience playing Harley Quinn, enriched by Jonathan Van Meter’s deep knowledge of our culture and Gaga’s personal history.

Unlike other interviewers of this stature, Van Meter never makes the narrative about himself; nor does he play mental gymnastics with Gaga.

Sometimes experience-endowed, life-rich writers about famous people struggle with a deferential approach. Not today. The writer left New York City for country life [Woodstock in the Catskills] in 2014.

In April, he wrote for New York Magazine ‘Jerry’s 103 Was the First ‘Nice’ Restaurant in the East Village’, adding that it’s also where Linda Evangelista told him that she didn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

We conclude with the author watching Wimbledon on his IG, a rare compliment from AOC.