Beth Ditto Patterson of Gossip plays to a packed house at NYC’s Terminal 10

She’s a fat lesbian wonder. She’s part Janis Joplin. Part Big Mamma Cass. Part Humpty Dumpty with red lipstick. And Beth Ditto, lead singer of Gossip (formerly called “the Gossip”) flaunts every inch of skin (and some tattoos) across the stage wherever she performs. So many friends waited in frenzy for Gossip to perform in NYC last week and she held them at bay, going on later than expected. Once she pounced on stage, you could hear those lungs up and down the highway. “It was a big lesbian festival,” Said one who had to duck her way under swarms of girls locking arms and screaming lyrics. Ditto, originally from Arkansas, has copped to eating squirrel growing up and not shaving her armpits. “I’m a punk and I guess punks stink” she’s told various press outlets. It doesn’t hold her fans back, including designer Karl Lagerfeld, who once self loathing in his own chubby frame, notoriously lost several pounds to achieve the current gaunt Kaiser in slim jacket physique. Ironically, when asked about the preponderance of skinny underage models on the runway by a reporter for Prestige Magazine, Karl brought up the current obesity problem in France and said, “Let’s talk about the fat ones, shall we?” Yes…. let’s talk about them indeed. Better yet, let’s just let them sing! videos

Beth Ditto… up close and personal (*ALL PHOTOS BY GAVIN DOYLE)