Lady Gaga shouts out to Liza Minnelli, Marisa Tomei at final MSG show

Lady Gaga

Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles

NEW YORK -- Lady Gaga has managed to sell out all five of her New York Madison Square Garden shows, and she went out of her way tonight (Feb. 22) to give a shout out to two special guests -- Liza Minnelli and Marisa Tomei -- present at this fifth and final Monster Ball show at the storied arena.

During her piano-led performance of "Speechless," the Lady Fame went on a short tangent about her origins at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, mentioning how her acting and performance teachers told her she didn't have what it took, essentially, to be a superstar.

"'You'll never be the main character... the blonde... your hair's too dark... you look too ethnic,'" she mimicked her profs with a mouthful of New York accent. To retort in the face of such opposition, Gaga would apparently reply, "What about Liza?"

And as for Tomei, she said she was always assigned scripts that were originally performed by the iconic Brooklyn actress because, she said, she had "balls."

Gaga said she was quite thankful that she had "two bad bitches to look up to."

One Big League diva who wasn't present at MSG was Beyonce, who was rumored (as always) to take the stage as a surprise during her dueling hit with Gaga "Telephone."

"I love this part," Gaga smiled through Bey's part of the track, perhaps in attempt to curb such expectations.

The "Born This Way" singer said that this show would be the final MSG stop on the Monster Ball tour, though it'd certainly be on the map for whatever her next stint shall be. Check out her remaining dates here.

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

• Follow

After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.