Vanity Fair is kicking off 2012 with Lady GaGa and she is red hot on the cover of the magazines January 2012 issue, on newsstands nationwide on Tuesday (December 6).

Mother Monster posed for an artsy and provocative spread shot by Annie Leibovitz while speaking with the magazine about everything from relationships to moments of self doubt.

Image courtesy of Annie Leibovitz / Vanity Fair

These amazing photos of Lady Gaga in Italian Vanity Fair just came out, and really, people. It’s not even fair anymore. It’s like Katy Perry said yesterday on Twitter: “Yep, Gaga’s game is on point, she’s on another planet that no one else can get to right now… She’s eating, breathing, living it. RAD.”

As if Lady Gaga’s next-next level video for “Bad Romance” (which scorched retinas — and a bed — all across the Internet yesterday) wasn’t enough, here are some brand-new pics of her from the Italian version of Vanity Fair magazine.

This is just bananas. Is that a faux-baby-bump corset? (PREGNANT Gaga!!!??) Is this supposed to be Italian Futurism meets steampunk meets Russian ballet? What. Are. Those. Shoes? All signs point to Gaga as Italian ballerina in Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli’s upcoming one-of-a-kind piece for Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art’s 30th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, November 14. In the exclusive piece, entitled Ballet Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again), Lady Gaga will premiere her new ballad, “Speechless,” flanked by dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet. In other words, Lady Gaga the performance artist will become a living piece of art.

Article: buzzworthy.mtv.com / Images: vanity fair Italia