newsmakers

newsmakers

West tweets of despair over Swift debacle

NEW YORK

Hip-hop star Kanye West is still feeling the pain over his trophy grab from Taylor Swift last year — and he’s expressing his pain all over Twitter.

West unleashed a torrent of emotions on his official Twitter account Saturday, acknowledging once again that he was wrong for jumping on stage, taking the trophy that Swift won at the MTV Video Music Awards and saying that it should have gone to Beyonc .

But the rapper-producer said that he has experienced enormous pain, been the subject of death wishes and suffered a tremendous setback to his career.

“How deep is the scar ... I bled hard ... canceled tour with the number one pop star in the world ... closed the doors of my clothing office,” he tweeted.

The multiplatinum, Grammy-winning superstar had been one of the decade’s most successful and critically acclaimed stars, despite sometimes boorish behavior and meltdowns at other awards shows when things did not go his way.

However, when he upstaged Swift — the then-teenage darling of pop and country music worlds — the public had had enough. There was tremendous backlash against West.

At the time, he went on Jay Leno’s prime-time show to apologize and said he still had not recovered from his mother’s death two years prior.

He canceled a joint tour with Lady Gaga that fall, apparently due to low ticket sales. On Twitter, West talked about the backlash.

“I’m the guy who at one point could perform the Justin Timberlake on stage and everyone would be sooo happy that I was there,” he wrote.

After the incident, he said, “People tweeted that they wish I was dead ... No listen. They wanted me to die people. I carry that. I smile and take pictures through that.”

West said he’s now “ready to get out of my own way. The ego is overdone.”

He also apologized to Swift again and said he has written a song for her that he hopes she will perform.

West is working on a new album that is supposed to come out sometime this fall.

Lautner settles suit over RV-delivery issue

LOS ANGELES

A lawyer for Taylor Lautner says the “Twilight” star has settled a lawsuit with an RV dealership he claims didn’t deliver a $300,000 coach in time for a movie shoot.

Attorney Robert Barta said Friday that McMahon RV of Irvine, Calif., will pay $40,000 to Lautner, who will donate it to Lollipop Theater Network, a children’s charity.

The 18-year-old Lautner sued the dealership Monday, saying it missed a June deadline to deliver the 2006 Affinity Country Coach for use on the set of the movie “Abduction.”

Associated Press