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

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

More Song Stories entries »

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