And now, the official video premiere of “Telephone” by Lady Gaga, featuring Beyonce.

Things I loved:
The concept. Pulp Fiction meets Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill! Half Grindhouse, half glamour…and it’s all guts and glitter in the end. How is this not a Quentin Tarantino production?
The Miss Mann cameo. Did you catch it? The second jail guard? It’s Miss Mann from Scary Movie! Which tucks away nicely into the next moment I loved…
The penis puns. “I told you she didn’t have a dick.” She’s taken a lot of shit in the press for her big dick, so why not have a little fun slapping it in our faces now and then?
The Beysus-to-Godga Honeybun snack munch. So cute, so fierce, etc. etc.
The Poison TV concoction sequence. A deadly serious Gagz takes a quick turn as an ice cold Paula Deen gone-terribly-wrong. Coupled with the peen punches, it’s nice to remember that ‘art’ doesn’t always have to be serious business.
Literally everything Beyonce did. The .gif Gods were truly smiling upon us tonight. How immense were those repeat-heavy shots of Beyonce manically wielding that telephone? Amazing.
The flowing outfits at the end of the video. Thelma and Louise take a stab at haute couture.

Things I didn’t love:
The gratuitous girl-on-girl kiss on the prison yard. It felt forced and, as Hard Candy Music‘s Matt pointed out to me in our conversation, felt like Gaga was merely going for a ‘Banned on MTV’ video with that move. A smart move, though contrived.
The product placement. I know it must be done sometimes–that’s how these big budget productions get funded. But really, spending screen time on the home page of a dating website? There’s a thin line between tongue-in-cheek sponsorship and a full-length pop up ad.

In summation: The video is basically perfection.

With each boundary breaking video she’s released, Gaga continues to one-up herself as an entertainer in every way possible. There is literally no artist in the industry that is more powerful, influential or entertaining than Lady Gaga at this point in time.

There’s just no use arguing anymore…

Lady Gaga truly is the next Madonna, isn’t she?

Today has been a very good day in the land of leaks.

The collaborative efforts between the two reigning forces in the pop music industry, Godga and Beysus, have surfaced: “Video Phone” and “Telephone.”

“Video Phone” is of course not entirely new, having already been released on I Am…Sasha Fierce back in 2008. But along with the song’s impending single release comes a brand new, mega-wattage collaboration: A “featuring” spot by Madame Gaga.

As if the song wasn’t already good in the first place, the ladies jazz up the original with an overly dramatic, Tarantino film-like Western twang introduction. Add in Gaga’s verse (“Hubba, hubba!”), “Tell ‘em, B,” and the induced orgasm ending, and you’ve got yourself a superstar extended mix.

“Telephone,” on the other hand, is the soon-to-be second single off of Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster, with a brand new, mega wattage collaboration: A “featuring” spot by Queen Beysus.

While the fan forums and tweet responses has been lukewarm at best, I happen to find myself enamored. What’s not to love?

There’s a harp, some glitchy electro noises, a beat recalling Timbaland‘s unusually non-annoying “The Way I Are,” and above all, rampant telephone talk! Just because it happens to be less concept-heavy than her latest work doesn’t make it any less Gaga–even if it was originally penned with Britney in mind.

At the same time, I have to play devil’s advocate for a moment: While I adore both of these tracks, does anyone else feel as though the “featuring” spots are unnecessary–if not somewhat invasive?

Sure, it’s almost always an automatic “epic” when two divas share the stage (“No More Tears (Enough is Enough),” anyone?), but mixing up the swagger of “Video Phone” with Gaga’s theatrical delivery seems all sorts of wrong. Similarly, hearing Beyonce run through the Auto-Tune ringer of “Telephone” feels…well, it just feels downright dirty.

Then again, who can resist a good beat?