Tony Bennett's Nude Sketch of Lady Gaga Up for Auction

Lady Gaga, charcoal on paper, 18' x 24'

© 2011 Benedetto/Bennett

Tony Bennett's nude sketch of Lady Gaga, made during an Annie Leibovitz photo shoot for Vanity Fair, is up for auction. Bennett, who is a painter as well as a singer, made the drawing at Leibovitz's urging. 

The sketch is up for sale at eBay Celebrity, with proceeds to benefit the singers' foundations – Bennett's Exploring the Arts and Gaga's Born This Way. The two singers recorded a version of "The Lady Is a Tramp" for Bennett's recent Duets II album.

On her Thanksgiving TV special, Gaga joked about posing for the picture. "I walked in and said, 'Well, Tony, here we are,' and I dropped my robe and I got into position," she recalled. "I felt shy and thought, 'It's Tony Bennett. Why am I naked?"

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

More Song Stories entries »

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