Lady Gaga Addresses Hermaphrodite Rumors, Says She Gets Bravery From Dressing Up

CBS recorded 15 hours of footage of Lady Gaga for their '60 Minutes' profile on the pop diva, but only 12-and-a-half minutes were actually aired on Sunday night before the Grammys. The network is releasing behind-the-scenes and cutting room floor footage of the interview, much of which is just as compelling as what actually aired.

Interviewer Anderson Cooper asked Gaga about those pesky, web-generated rumors that she was a hermaphrodite with a "male appendage" and questioned why she didn't send out a statement addressing the silliness of such gossip. The gay icon took the question in stride, responding, "Maybe I do, would it be so terrible? Why am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don't care and neither do I."

It's Gaga's fans that power her battery, and she candidly admitted, "Sometimes I wake up and I don't want to be me. Then I remember my sweet, gorgeous fans, looking at me so glassy-eyed from the audience. I want to be brave for them and my bravery is in my heels … In my fishnets … In my clothing and in my jewelry and in my nails and in my wigs. I love my wigs. I want to give my fans everything they deserve and they do not deserve sweatpants and sneakers." Cooper even said he tried to fight to keep that clip and those statements in the piece because they truly sum up the Gaga experience.

The producers also say that Gaga joined a very elite club of divas that includes Barbra Streisand and Madonna when she did something that only they have done in the show's history and that's adjust the camera lights! Gaga refers to Babs and Madge as "two of my sisters" and then clips of the other divas asking to change the lighting angles are shown.

Longtime '60 Minutes' producer John Hamlin also said that at the executive level, profiling Gaga was not a "no brainer" but Gaga was "all in" and gave them more time than she initially promised. They also said there was no list of taboo topics that she would not touch or talk about either, as is standard for many celebrities.

One of the gutsiest scenes comes when the pink-haired, red-lipstick-stained pop star breaks down on the steps of the NYC tenement where she used to live before hitting the big time, saying, "I never thought about if it would work out or not. I just love it. To see these lights and these cameras in this hallway? It's validation for me of years and years of struggle and passion."

Another scene that ended up on the cutting room floor was her backstage tour of her dressing room, or as Gaga says, "Where the nakedness happens." She shows off her sparks-shooting brassiere and the matching bikini bottom, which looks like a modern chastity belt. Gaga also says that it takes lots of practice and Advil to dance in her dangerously sky-high platforms. Now you get what she means about sneakers and sweats, right? She also brings a prop in the form a jeweled saw to one interview, joking that it is an energy source and she would cut off her own head in order to create good TV in case she was boring!

Perhaps the most powerful thing Gaga says in these discarded clips is "I am just as delusional today as I was when I was 18. I was 18 telling everyone around me, 'I am going to be a superstar.' It was, 'Yeah, whatever, she's an ego maniac.' And then, 'ha ha.'"

Gaga got the last laugh.

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