America Abuzz Over Gaga-Cooper Duet At Oscars
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Everyone's talking about Sunday night's Academy Awards, but one performance in particular caught people's attention.
We're talking about Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Was their chemistry just that of co-stars or is it something more?
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Gaga and Cooper performed "Shallow" from their film "A Star Is Born." The co-stars got cozy on the piano bench, eyes closed and cheek to cheek. Cooper's girlfriend of four years, Irina Shayk, watched from the front row, but was not shown on camera during the song, CBS2's Ali Bauman reported.
"Boy oh boy, what I would've given to see a cut-away of Irina's face when those two were staring in each other's eyes," Entertainment Tonight host Kevin Frazier said.
When Gaga won the Oscar for Best Original Song, she reached over Cooper's girlfriend to hug him before going onstage.
"Bradley, there is not a single person on the planet that could've sang this song with me but you," she said during her speech.
Cooper choreographed the performance, Oscars director Glenn Weiss told reporters on the red carpet.
"I've seen two really great professionals. And Bradley took a heavy hand in staging the whole thing," Weiss said.
"So if it fails, it's on me," Cooper added.
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Later in the night, Gaga revealed what Cooper told her before the big number.
"Right before we did our last rehearsal for this performance of 'Shallow,' he said, 'Let's just drop a little bit of joy,' and I said, 'OK.' And turns out joy did a whole lot for me," Gaga said.
Lady Gaga is recently single, parting with her former fiance earlier this month after two years together. In January, she brought Cooper on stage at her concert in Las Vegas, where she kneeled at his feet and they once again sat together at the piano, this time hand in hand.
"They obviously care very much about each other professionally," body language expert Dinah Day said.
But Day said, it's just Hollywood, baby.
"I don't think they were acting or forcing anything," Day said. "You need to have that intimacy, that warmth. The people who are watching feel, 'Oh, that could be me.'"
Gaga did hug Cooper's girlfriend when she went back to her seat after winning the award.
"A Star Is Born" was Cooper's directorial debut.
