Lady Gaga's Fantastic, Fantabulous Flying Machine

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At a big event in Brooklyn last night to celebrate the release of her new album ARTPOP, performance art student Lady Gaga unveiled her senior thesis, and it is a wonder of engineering. The piece is called Volantis, and it is a flying dress. Of Volantis, Gaga said "Although she is a vehicle, she is essentially a metaphor for me. I will be a vehicle today for their voices." Really, it's a big, remote controlled personal gyrocopter with some stylized elements. Gaga straps herself into the thing, which has six propellers sprouting up out of the "dress" part, and then her "pilot" remote controls her into the air. Last night the thing rose about five feet off the ground and sputtered around for about 30 seconds until it landed and did not move again. Not all that impressive, but the demonstration was met with a good deal of enthused applause anyway. (Which is what Gaga lives for, she is insistent on telling us.) The whole thing seemed a little silly, especially when you consider that Gaga had to employ an R&D team of engineers to build this thing, a bunch of Rensselaer grads who never thought they'd be working on something like this. But, hey, here they are, making Lady Gaga buzz around in a whirlygig to the curious delight of people like Tony Bennett. What a thing. Anyway, happy ARTPOP Day! May it be everything you hoped it would be. [Page Six]

Aw. Leonardo DiCaprio is all grown up! The actor turns 39 today, and to celebrate the occasion, he had a lavish party at the new Manhattan restaurant/club TAO Downtown last night. Featured guests included Kanye West and 2 Chainz, who both performed. Because these are the times we live in, there are Instagram videos of the performances, and of DiCaprio reacting in the crowd. He's sporting a beard and a funny little cap and keeps trying to kiss the blonde girl who is hanging off of him but she misses his cue a few times before realizing what's going on. Neither appear to be sober. Which is fine. It's a birthday party! It's just kind of funny that at 39 years old, Leo still likes this scene. Still these loud, hippest-of-the-moment clubs full of skinny twig things flailing their bony limbs in the air. He's spent so much time in nightclubs! More than most people ever will. And he's still at it. He still enjoys it. At 39 years old. I guess it's going to be a lifelong passion. [Vulture]

Oh dear. More problems plague the South American leg of Justin Bieber's world tour. For one thing, he got kicked out of his hotel. And it wasn't even his fault! The singer's hotel in Buenos Aires decided that he had to leave after a pack of insane Beliebers wreaked havoc while camping outside. The damage was too much, the hassle too great, so the hotel said adios to el Biebs. And apparently other hotels in the area followed suit. So Justin will have to, I dunno, find something on Airbnb I guess. Come on, Beliebers. I know this is really really important to you, that this strange moon-boy know just how much you love him, but come on. You're ruining his life. He's doing a bang-up job of that himself, for sure, but you're not making it any easier. So now he's without hotel, which means without a bathroom, which is a problem, because the poor boy now has food poisoning! He ate somethin' gross, so he's poopin' and pukin' and all that stuff. (Well, I'm assuming. That's usually what food poisoning does.) So that sucks. Man, this whole South America trip has been a complete bust. Maybe just leave, Justin. Write this trip off and just go home and consider South America lost. Don't be like Percy Fawcett, stubbornly, foolishly pressing on and on until you meet some mysterious doom. Cut your losses and give up this strange, dangerous continent. You've enough gold as it is. [TMZ; TMZ]

Bethenny Frankel is releasing a new line of drinking chemicals! It's a non-alcoholic assortment of elixirs billed as "flavored sparkling waters." So... It's seltzer? Or like Clearly Canadian? Are these allegedly potable serums going to be lightly flavored or stingingly sweet? I guess we won't know until we try one, or rather until we hire someone to taste one for us, and if they do not immediately start spasming and convulsing on the floor, we will take a sip ourselves. For science! [People]

In just three weeks time, Prince Harry will be trekking across the Antarctic, huddling close with his teammates for warmth. Yeah, he's doing that Walking With the Wounded race to the South Pole, as a part of team Britain, and it's coming up soon! Alexander Skarsgard will be racing with team US. Too bad they're rivals and not teammates. All that lost potential for sleeping bag sharing and accidental eskimo kissing. Oh well. Harry's got other things on his mind anyway. Other people. Kate murmuring to him on a recent night, "If you get too cold down there, just think of this," and placing his hand in a particular place and Harry knowing that he would, when lost on those lonely plains of snow, think of this moment just then and feel cheered, and ready to press on for Britain. For love of Queen and country, and for the love of a woman. A Duchess, a goddess, a Kate. [TMZ]

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