#3: "Kanye" Believe This?

I'm still not convinced this wasn't a stunt.

I didn't watch this live, or even recorded, but I've been hearing about it all day (and you probably have, too).

Teen country starlet Taylor Swift (the attractive lady in the picture) won the award for "Best Female Video" at the MTV Video Music Awards. While she was on stage to give her acceptance speech, hip-hop artist Kanye West (not the attractive lady in the picture) gets up on stage, takes the microphone from her and says, "Taylor, I'm really happy for you. I'll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time ... one of the best videos of all time!"

Where to start with this one...

It is reported that alcohol was involved, so that would explain it to some degree if true. But West would not qualify as the first person to have had a few before and/or during an awards show.

West is probably also not the first person to be disappointed in a particular result.

So, why this?

I find nothing defensible about this, but I'll try:

At least he wasn't throwing a tantrum about losing this particular award for himself...it was for someone else. Since he's not a female, I think that would go without saying, though, so, no dice...

And at least he tried to temper the blow with his introduction to his opinion. Still, raising a little hell during Swift's moment, rather than saying something later to reporters (as he apparently did in 2004 after the American Music awards when he was "snubbed" for Best New Artist...oddly enough in favor of another country artist, Gretchen Wilson).

I almost expect this event to spawn a series of copycats that we'll see reported about in the "Odd News" section of Yahoo! News or the like for various (and far-lower profile) award ceremonies, banquets, pageants, etc, where someone will try to steal someone else's thunder thusly.

It's gotten to a point, apparently, where not even your friends can lose gracefully.

Ah, but that is the upside.

For as little class as West showed during the ceremony, it was Beyonce herself that truly stole the show, upon winning "Video of the Year" (which is like "Best Picture" at the Oscars, to my understanding).

Instead of heaping praise upon those who made her winning project possible, Beyonce showed humility, compassion, and grace.

I remember being 17-years-old, up for my first MTV Award with Destiny’s Child and it was one of the most exciting moments in my life. So I’d like Taylor to come out and have her moment.

I find it a little suspicious that Swift and Beyonce were both wearing red dresses at that point, and that Swift had emerged from backstage - with a microphone, no less - but a lesson can still be taught.

Even if this was a well-executed publicity stunt (wherein certain people would have had to know who was winning what and when), this is still the point when all cameras and microphones should be off of West for a while, and directed squarely upon Beyonce.

It is a prime opportunity for show business to finally focus on a true example where the triumph trumps the controversy.