beefs

Lady Gaga Angers Bette Midler With Wheelchair-Bound Mermaid Routine

Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images, Jag Gundu/Getty Images
Bette Midler, Lady Gaga. Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images, Jag Gundu/Getty Images

Lady Gaga vs. Bette Midler: Fight! On Thursday, both performers were nominated for Emmys for outstanding performance in a comedy, variety, or musical special, but this week, there’s a feud afoot. (A-fin?) Lady Gaga performed in Sydney last week dressed as her mermaid character Yuyi, and thus was confined to a wheelchair on account of her mermaid fin. As Ariel told us, legs are required for jumping, dancing. And no one knows this better than Midler, who has performed her own mermaid-in-a-wheelchair routine for quite some time. (Do we really live in a world with two mermaid-in-a-wheelchair song-and-dance numbers?) Here’s Midler in 1983 performing with a whole backup set of mermaids in wheelchairs, though Midler does manage to jump around despite her fin:

“I’m not sure @ladygaga knows that I’ve performed my mermaid in a wheelchair for millions of people — and many of them are still alive,” Midler tweeted. “I’ve been doing singing mermaid in a wheelchair since 1980. You can keep the meat dress and the firecracker tits — mermaid’s mine,” she wrote. Gaga hasn’t responded yet, but Midler seems ready to bury the bedazzled hatchet: “Let’s drink this over at the Emmys in September. Fabulous mermaids can coexist!” Truer words, etc. [HuffPo]

Lady Gaga Angers Bette Midler With Wheelchair-Bound Mermaid Routine