Days after her Oscars triumph, Lady Gaga has directly addressed conspiracy theories she and Bradley Cooper are secretly in love.

The A Star is Born co-stars’ super sultry performance of multi-award winning hit Shallow on February 24 sparked global buzz their chemistry proves they’re more than friends.

But Gaga, 32, told US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday (US time) she and Cooper, 44, are not in love.

Turns out – who knew? – they were just acting.

Gaga rolled her eyes when Kimmel asked Gaga about fans’ speculation about the sultry performance, specifically that she and Cooper – who is in a relationship with model Irina Shayk, 33 – are having an affair.

“Yes, people saw love,” said Gaga, who broke off her engagement to talent agent Christian Carino, 50, on February 19.

“And guess what? That’s what we wanted you to see. I mean, this is a love song, Shallow. The movie A Star Is Born, it’s a love story.”

She added, “I’m an artist, and I guess we did a good job. Fooled you!”

She was less loved up about all the social media scuttlebutt linking her and Cooper romantically.

“Social media, quite frankly, is the toilet of the internet. And what it has done to pop culture is abysmal,” she said.

Gaga pointed out that while, yes, she and Cooper made electric eye contact at the end of the song and snuggled close, she’s also hugged her regular performing collaborator Tony Bennett for three years during their world tour.

“When you’re singing love songs, that’s what you want people to feel,” Gaga said.

The steamy Oscars rendition of Shallow took the stars a week to prepare, and behind-the-scenes things weren’t all moonlight and roses.

Gaga and Cooper had a difference of opinion on how the staging should be done and how the audience should be lit.

She told her regular lighting expert she wanted “amber lights” and he told her, “Bradley wants honeycomb and we gotta give him what he wants.”

Regardless of whether the feelings shared onstage were fake, the Oscars performance has inspired a second wave of A Star is Born mania that is seeing the film re-released in US theatres today with an extra 12 minutes of footage.

Gaga teased the beefed up version on Kimmel’s show, saying when she went to the movies to see A Star is Born she had to leave half an hour early because she couldn’t handle the tragic romance’s ending.

The brief new cinematic run is in honour of the movie’s best original song Oscar win, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The entertainment site said the longer version will feature Gaga’s a cappella Shallow performance, new footage of Ally singing Is That Alright? to Jack during their wedding and both of them collaborating on a new song, Clover.

The film’s first release grossed more than US$425 ($598) million.