A Tony Bennett album is NOT going to save Gaga's career. Nobody in the general public is checking for that album, only the fomos on this site and people who are in retirement homes.
Still, while her abrupt transformation from perky, idealistic Betty to jaded, heartbroken Diane is hugely impressive, the scene (or rather, two scenes) that changed Watts’ life came straight from the pilot. In the first, Betty rehearses some of the lousiest dialogue ever penned, playing the lines just as they were (atrociously) written. Sissy Spacek herself couldn’t do better using that approach—it’s a lost cause. But in the second scene, at the actual audition, Betty instinctively decides, after the first few cruddy lines, to play against the text, speaking ostensibly angry words in a tremulous, passionate whisper and thereby turning the material upside down. In the context of the movie, this is eventually revealed as a wish-fulfillment fantasy—washed-up Diane’s dream of flabbergasting a room with the unexpected force of her singular talent. In the real world, however, that’s exactly what Watts accomplished, and she’s never looked back. When I conducted a survey of about 40 critics and hardcore cinephiles in late 2009, inviting them to vote for the best performances of the previous decade, Watts as Betty/Diane was the runaway winner for actress, beating the nearest competitor (Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake) by more than 100 points. It’s that significant and unforgettable a tour de force, and people will still be talking about it decades from now.
It would be kind of tragically hilarious if old fart Bennett bit the dust while promoting a Gags ablum. Soon she'll be a murderer too!
And not to be outdone, Madonna will die the same week, stealing attention from Tony and leaving Gaga alone to deal with the flop of the album. With this being the final straw, Gaga kills herself.
