The Terry Richardson shot video for ‘Do What U Want’ single has been branded as “literally an advert for rape” by one source.
The scrapped video for Lady Gaga’s ‘Do What U Want‘ single from the less than impressive ‘ARTPOP’ has been leaked online. Filmed and directed by photographer Terry Richardson, who is no stranger to controversy, the axed music video showcases Gaga and R&B star R-Kelly talking, as Gaga lies in bed following an apparent accident, mimicking her real life hip injury last year. “Will I ever be able to walk again?”, Gaga asks, in which R-Kelly, the portrayed ‘doctor’, replies “Yes, if you let me do whatever I want with your body. I’m putting you under, and when you wake up, you’re going to be pregnant”. According to TMZ and the Huffington Post, the video also presents a scene where R-Kelly reaches under the bed sheets as Gaga moans.
What follows the opening scene has been branded by Gigwise as a “carnival of overtly sick antics”, with “people writhing around on Gaga’s unconscious body, while R Kelly and Terry Richardson lap it all up”. The clip has been shared and discussed world wide. An undisclosed source talking to Page Six of the New York Post has subsequently tarnished the video: “Gaga had a video directed by an alleged sexual predator, starring another sexual predator. With the theme, ‘I’m going to do whatever I want with your body’? It was literally an ad for rape”. Both representatives for Gaga and Richardson have not since commented on the matter.
Of course, R-Kelly is no stranger to sex scandals. In 2002, footage of the singer, real name Robert Sylvester Kelly, surfaced, in which he allegedly engaged in sex with and urinated on an underage girl. Subsequent charges were later reduced to soliciting a minor for child pornography, seven counts of videotaping the acts, and seven counts of producing child pornography.
With the video originally intended for a December release, Lady Gaga sent a message online to her fans explaining that the delay for the video was due to time constraints and through being “betrayed and mismanaged” over the ‘Do What U Want‘ project. Other factors are also said to have halted the release of the video. Around the same time, director Terry Richardson was accused of sexual misconduct on his sets by several models.
On thursday, TMZ obtained a clip of the scrapped video.