Lady Gaga and Dom Pérignon Unveil their “Creative Dialogue” at Dinner in Los Angeles

Lady GagaKevin Mazur/Getty Images

Creativity improves with time, under a little pressure. Or is that wine? On Thursday night in Los Angeles, Lady Gaga and Dom Pérignon split the difference with a starry dinner party under clear night skies and panoramic Los Angeles views at the Sheats-Goldstein residence in Benedict Canyon. Bureau de Betak designed a stunning banquet table framed by loops of sculptural light installations on what is typically the property’s rooftop tennis court for the affair, accompanied by a menu from Jordan Kahn of Vespertine that had been planned to pair perfectly with the house’s rose vintage 2008 champagne—all poured from the holographic-pink-labeled bottles picked by Lady Gaga, of course. “Creation is work,” Dom Pérignon Cellae Master Vincent Chaperon said. “It’s passionate, unremitting work. It’s work that is never complete. It’s work in a relentless pursuit of harmony. And for Dom Pérignon, it’s a work that elevates itself.” 

Guests like Billy Porter, Anderson Pa.ak, Cindy Bruna, Mauricio Cattelan, and Quinta Brunson were on hand to toast the collaboration to appropriate heights. (Porter and Pa.ak at one point burst into song.) The lady of the hour arrived after the entrees in a black cocktail dress and heavy smoky eye to make a brief speech on what she called “the introspective nature of being an artist, reflecting on not just our talent but our imagination, all the possibilities and the specialness of what it’s like to truly collaborate.” What’s more, she added, revealing a hidden piano at the end of the table, “when you collaborate, it reminds you that there’s an audience. And maybe your friend is watching.” She then introduced Alex Smith, with whom she had been in the studio earlier in the day, as a collaborator and “a true artist,” before clarifying that her favorite jazz pianist is Thelonious Monk, and that “if jazz was a champagne, it would be Thelonious Monk maison.” Smith played classical renditions of a few recent pop hits, and the crowd headed downstairs to the nightclub for dessert. The sweetest treat of all? A dj booth appearance by Gaga herself kicked off the after-party.