Kanye West was not scheduled to be interviewed when he appeared on the premiere episode of The Jay Leno Show tonight, but after last night’s shenanigans at the MTV Video Awards, some damage control was in order. And what better way to do it, than to apologize in front of millions of people on a talk show!
Hey, it worked for Hugh Grant after he got caught with a hooker back in the 90’s (Grant was redeemed and Leno pulled ahead of Letterman in the ratings) why not give it a whirl!
West looked barely contrite, and was completely inarticulate on top of that. He got choked up when Leno asked him what his late mother would have thought of the incident, but I wasn’t entirely convinced. What do you think?
ETA: I’m not condemning Kanye so much as calling bullshit on the whole deal, from beginning to end. From MTV allowing Kanye to take the stage in a likely inebriated state to cause an incident and then conveniently staging the Beyonce/Taylor moment afterward, to the typical talk show “apology” after the incident. It’s all good TV, isn’t it? Personally, I think Kanye’s apology should be the end of it. No matter how screwed up he seems to be, the dude is a brilliant artist in my opinion. He wouldn’t be the first to have some issues.
Update: New video of the entire interview, plus his performance with Jay Z and Rihanna
Watch the clip, after the Jump…
