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Lady Gaga at her parfume launch in New York last week. - Source: Reuters -
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Lady Gaga's former personal assistant insists the star has "no right to privacy".
Jennifer O'Neill is suing the Bad Romance singer for US$380,000 ($461,000) in unpaid overtime from the US$75,000 ($91,000)-a-year job, alleging she was on call at all times and has issued a subpoena demanding some unpublished photos of Gaga, which she says support her claims.
However, the pop star is fighting the request for the photos - which were taken by Terry Richardson for the 'Lady Gaga x Terry Richardson' book - calling them "private and personal" in court papers, prompting her former employee to argue against her "ludicrous" claim to privacy because of Gaga's outlandish behaviour.
O'Neill's lawyers wrote in papers filed in Manhattan federal court last week: "[Gaga] is probably the last person in the world to care about her 'privacy', exposing herself in all manner of bizarre and intimate ways for the world to see every day."
In the book, Gaga - whose real name is Stefani Germanotta - is pictured topless with her hands covering her breasts, lying with her legs spread to expose a hole in the crotch of her stockings and another exposing her breasts while dressing.
Jennifer - who does not appear in the book - is seeking access to the unpublished pictures as she says they show her toiling for the star at all hours of the day.
According to the New York Post newspaper, she said in the court papers: "I was frequently at Ms. Germanotta's side, often ready with coffee and/or water, from dawn to dawn.
"I was glued to Ms Germanotta to such an extent that at one point I was asked ... to step back so that I would not be in the way during photo shoots."
She also said she served as Gaga's alarm clock, helped in "ensuring the promptness of a towel following a shower" and accompanied the musician everywhere, including her New York home, "stadiums, private jets, fine hotel suites, yachts, ferries, trains and tour buses".
Gaga denied O'Neill was on call at all times or helped with costume changes, and has dismissed the request for the photos as "irrelevant".