izzyhoey2: Katy Perry Breaks Silence On Divorce

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Katy Perry Breaks Silence On Divorce

'There were times when what was going on in my personal life was so overwhelming,' Perry says in a new interview.
By Gil Kaufman

Katy Perry on the cover of <i>Hollywood Reporter</i>
Photo: Hollywood Reporter

Katy Perry has been mum on the details of her divorce  from Russell Brand. But in a new cover story in the Hollywood Reporter Perry gives a peek into the difficulty she faced in the split, as well as her plans to launch her own record label.

"There were times when what was going on in my personal life was so overwhelming that I had to bend over to let those tears fall straight out of my eyes and not my false lashes just as I'm about to go up on that ramp and sing 'Teenage Dream,'" she said. Speaking in advance of the release of her 3D concert documentary, "Katy Perry: Part of Me,"  the 27-year-old pop singer said it's impossible for anyone else to know what went on inside her brief marriage to the British comedian. "Nobody knows what really happened except the two people who are in it."

Part of her vision for the movie was to document her relationship with Brand as it crumbled just as her career was launching into the stratosphere with a record-breaking string of hit singles from Teenage Dream. That kind of honesty was in keeping with her heart-on-sleeve method of writing songs and she said, "Honesty has always worked for me ... so if it ain't broke, why f---ing fix it?"

After putting up $2 million of her own money to make "Part of Me" a reality, Perry and her team are expecting the movie to have an opening to rival Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never" $30 million first weekend. First, though, she had to convince her nervous business manager that it was worth dropping the cash to film her November 2011 concert at Los Angeles' Staples Center in 3D. "I was like, 'Please trust me,'" she said she told him. "That's kind of been the mantra I've said to everyone my whole life: 'Trust me, I have a vision.'"

That same vision came into play in the recently released video for "Wide Awake," which Perry wrote for the film and which ends with a shot of her triumphantly ascending to the stage during her smash California Dreams Tour. Regardless of how the movie does, the relentlessly driven Perry has other business ventures in mind, including launching her own record imprint. Her as-yet-unnamed label will help give struggling artists a hand up in the same way that some music industry folks took a chance on Perry early on. "When it does come to fruition, I'm going to try and avoid the things that take away any fighting chance for an artist to have financial success," she said. "As people are coming to me with opportunities, I'm thinking, 'How would I want to be treated?'"

Check out everything we've got on "Katy Perry: Part of Me." 