I'd quote the posts I'm about to respond to, but I'm on my Droid and it's hard to manage, so I'll just do this.
Brobzoid: I understand where people come from when they say GaGa is just an act, but to me, manufactured pop stars look and sound like Avril Lavinge, Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus. I'm normally the first to call out fakes, but I don't see that in Lady GaGa. Even if the idea was somehow brilliantly formed by some corporate genius, she puts a lot of herself into the image that was created for her, and even that I can admire. Her music, costumes, videos and everything haven't been exhibited unless she's had her hands on it in some way.
Viscen: I dunno, uh, I care? The people in that line cared? None of them felt entitled to being fed or paid attention to, but it happened anyway. I don't worship Lady GaGa and I don't like her anymore than my friends in real life. I simply love music and musicians and when they do more than just get in a booth and play an instrument. Music has been around for so long that hardly anything sounds original anymore so it's up to artists to find some way to send their musical creativity through different channels. I could bombard you with a list of artists I listen to that some people consider to be the anithesis to Lady GaGa, but what does it really matter? Music is art and art is about interpretation. It's something that anyone can like for any reason, not just what is immediately seen or heard. If people see the news controversies and find them to be manufactured or manipulative well I suppose that would hurt the ability to see Lady GaGa as a genuine artist, but I don't pay attention to that because it has absolutely nothing to do with her music or who she is.
Most pop artists see what the paprazzi print and capitalize on it, but I haven't seen Lady GaGa do that. She hadn't even bothered to mention the hermaphrodite bullshit until the Telephone video, and even then it was a sophomoric joke buried under the rest of the shit going on. For a comparison, when Britney Spears appeared critics found her to be childish and after that point her career had become a race to see how blatantly sexual she could be advertised as. An impromptu kiss with Madonna turned into a hit single. I haven't seen Lady GaGa do ANYthing like that, in fact it seems as if her style and music is more about her doing her thing and not giving a fuck what people think. I admire that because to me that's what art is. Candid exposition of yourself and all your flaws.
I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything. If you see Lady GaGa and see fake, I see Lady GaGa and see genius. Not to make an undue analogy here, but it's not unlike art critics seeing Picasso's cubism and seeing horror where others found beauty.
Sorry I'm so quick to write essays on this topic, but you guys are asking and I'm trying to prove eloquent enough to get my point across clearly.