Tuesday September 15, 2009

Kanye Swift has been (in the media) apologizing left, right and center after he hijacked Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards — but he hasn’t made the effort to personally reach out to the star.

In an interview on Jay Leno’s first primetime show on NBC Monday night, West blamed the pain from his mother’s 2007 death for causing him to grab the mic from Swift as she accepted her Best Female Video award.

“And you know, so many celebrities, they never take time off. I’ve never taken the time off to really — you know, just music after music and tour after tour,” Kanye said.

“I’m just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else’s hurt — and I don’t try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That’s period.

“But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I’m going to make it through the rest of this life, how I’m going to improve. Because I am a celebrity, and that’s something I have to deal with.”

While West has been happy to discuss the incident in the media, he hasn’t offered to meet with Swift and apologize in person.

“I mean, he has not personally reached out or anything,” Swift said on ABC’s The View Tuesday.

Asked about the incident, Swift, 19, said, “I think my overall thought process went something like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I won. This is awesome. Don’t trip and fall. I’m going to get to thank the fans. This is so cool. Oh, Kanye West is here! Cool haircut.’”

Then as he spoke — telling audiences that Beyonce deserved to win — Swift said she thought, “‘What are you doing there? … Ouch.’ And then, ‘I guess I’m not gonna get to thank the fans.”

“I’m not gonna say I wasn’t rattled by it,” Swift said, adding that was appreciative of all the support she received.

Said Swift, “All the artists came and showed me love and all the people Tweeting about it … all the fans … I never imagined there were that many people out there looking out for me, defending me so I didn’t have to.”

Tags: kanye west, mtv vmas, taylor swift