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Grieving mom to @ladygaga: Where’s the email?

After Lady Gaga promised to email her, a grieving mom gets silence.

 

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Posted on Jun 30, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 4:10 am CDT

It’s been a busy week since Lady Gaga tweeted she would email a dead teen’s mother after watching a video featuring a photo montage of a teenage fan who hung himself—due to homophobic bullying, according to friends.

As Gaga toured Japan and apparently launched a Tumblr, media outlets ran with the James Bassett story, writing headlines like “Lady Gaga Reaches Out to Mother of Late Teenage Fan”, “Lady Gaga Reaches out to Mother…”, “Lady Gaga reaches out to James Bassett’s family.”

YouTuber DanKrysKez even made a video talking about how the musical superstar’s efforts to make contact with James Bassett’s mother has helped her.

The only problem: According to James’ mom, Julie Bassett, Gaga never actually emailed her.

A receptionist at Gaga’s PR firm, 42West, referred the Dot to Gaga spokeswoman Holly Shakoor, who has yet to return inquiries by phone and email about the matter. (We will update this story if we hear back.)

Meanwhile, Julie Bassett goes on Twitter every day, pleading for Lady Gaga to email her. And while she waits for an email from Lady Gaga that might never come, she’s been beset with Twitter trolls—accounts whose owners seem to derive entertainment from taunting the mother of a dead teen.

Some of the comments were so vicious that the original maker of the James Bassett video, who goes by @Lil_MonstaJudas on Twitter, released a statement revealing that James Bassett’s family and friends have been trying to get a hold of Lady Gaga for months.

Julie Bassett told the Dot that she did not wish to give an interview “at this moment in time.”

To be fair to Lady Gaga, the email address given in the James Bassett memorial video belongs to a friend of James, not to Julie Bassett, so it’s possible that Gaga emailed the wrong person. But no one involved in the video reports having been contacted, either.

The Daily Dot will continue to track efforts to unite Gaga with the mother of one of her most loyal fans.

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*First Published: Jun 30, 2011, 9:27 am CDT