Lady Gaga, controversial celebrity-type individual and award-winning singer, is always in the spotlight for one thing or another. If the media isn’t foaming at the mouth over her latest meat costume, chances are they’re explaining to the world why countries don’t want her performing music within their borders. Now, it would seem, Gaga is the target of a lawsuit by MGA Entertainment, the company responsible for birthing the Bratz line of dolls.
According to reports, MGA paid Lady Gaga an advance of $1 million to produce a series of dolls based on her likeness. After the singer pocketed the money and agreed to the conditions, the company set forth to create said merchandise. MGA had originally planned to release the toys this summer in hopes of drumming up some interest before the holiday season rolled in. Unfortunately, Gaga and Universal Music Group had other plans.
In April, Bravado, the merchandising firm owned by said music mogul, decided they wanted to unleash the toys upon the masses in 2013, around the same time that Lady Gaga’s next album is scheduled to drop. This, of course, did not settle too well with the folks at MGA, who have invested quite a bit of money in the product. Seeing as how they anticipated nearly $28 million in revenue from the fall 2012, it’s understandable that MGA is a little ticked off at the moment.
As a result of the whole debacle, the company is suing Lady Gaga, Universal, and Bravado for $10 million due to what they feel is a breach of contract. MGA claims they put reputation on the line to secure plenty of shelf space for the toys, and now they’re left with a rather large problem thanks to the delay. Now they want compensation.
“This is a dispute between Universal Music Group’s merchandising company and MGA,” a spokesperson for Lady Gaga said in a statement. “There was no legitimate reason for dragging Lady Gaga into that dispute. Lady Gaga will vigorously defend MGA’s ill-conceived lawsuit and is confident that she will prevail.”