Kanye West Apologizes for VMA Incident

Kanye West appeared on "The Jay Leno Show" on Monday night (September 14), delivering a third public apology to Taylor Swift, followinghis onstage outburst at VMA-show on Sunday.

West sat with Leno on his couch before his scheduled musical appearance with Jay-Z and Rihanna to perform "Run This Town." The rapper's apology was unplanned, Leno noted.

Kanye was measured with his words as he admitted that the pain from his mother's death still haunts him. West revealed to Leno that he plans to take some time from the spotlight to continue to cope with the matter. When Leno mentioned that he'd met Kanye's mother, Donda West, and asked what she would have thought about the VMA stunt, the rapper sat silent for more than 20 seconds as he attempted to compose himself.

"Obviously, I deal with hurt, and so many celebrities, they never take the time off, and I never took the time off, really," West explained. "I've really never taken the time off. It's been music after music and tour after tour. And I'm just ashamed my hurt caused someone else hurt."

Leno said West asked to speak prior to the Jay-Z-led performance and thanked the superstar for honoring the commitment to perform.

West said the past 24 hours had been extremely difficult for him. He said he immediately knew his behavior was inappropriate and apologized for stepping on Swift's emotion, as the young starlet was jittery onstage celebrating her big VMA win, MTV.com reports.

In the meantime, Kanye is a serial spoilsport.

The last time he did this was even better, at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2006. After his "Touch the Sky" video lost to Justice vs. Simian's "We Are Your Friends," he jumped up and grabbed the mike - a phallic move he keeps repeating - and ranted that he deserved the award because his video "cost a million dollars and Pamela Anderson was in it."

He later made the excuse that he'd had some "sippy sippy" before the show.

He had some sippy sippy this time, too, chug-a-lugging from a bottle of Hennessy.

You have to wonder about Kanye, who was so righteous in after Hurricane Katrina when he said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," New York Daily News reports.

It was also reported, on Monday, celebrities reacting to the incident were unanimous in their support of Swift. Katy Perry posted on her Twitter account that it was like West had "stepped on a kitten." A Kelly Clarkson blog post offered a scathing takedown of West, with the "American Idol" winner writing "you just keep amazing me with tactless . . . ways." Speaking on "Today," Pink said of West, "I just think he's an idiot. He's just a waste."
Also, ABC reporter Terry MOran wrote on Twitter that he overheard President Obama refer to West as a "jackass" during a Monday interview with CNBC, but it was apparently off the record, and ABC removed the post and issued an apology to CNBC and the White House.
Swift was scheduled to appear on ABC's morning talk show "The View" today.
MTV has become adept at walking the line between fiction and reality in its award shows. When Sacha Baron Cohen's flamboyantly gay Brüno character crash-landed on the face of rap star Eminem at the MTV Movie Awards in May, the media had a field day debating whether the stunt was real, all while MTV was silent for more than 24 hours.
The network did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday's incident, but reported on its website that West had been asked to leave the Radio City Music Hall after the interruption. Brian Philips, the president of MTV's sister station Country Music Television, said that he has never seen an "intruder" interrupt an acceptance speech, adding, "I hope not to see it again," Los Angeles Times reports.