Miley Cyrus’ desperate attempts at making sure no one dares see her as sweet young Hannah Montana anymore have been successful! Miley has been voted the number one worst celebrity influence by tweens and teens on AOL’s Just So You Know website. Congrats! No one has put more effort into successfully alienating their fan base and making sure they gyrate their hips into eventual irrelevance and bankruptcy. Your manager must be thrilled.

Who’d Miley beat out? Britney Spears and Kanye West, who came in second and third. That’s right, Kanye’s rushing the stage and stealing the spotlight from Taylor Swift (amongst all his other selfish and rude shenanigans) still doesn’t make him as bad an influence as Miley. So let that be a warning to you, 9 to 15-year-olds: it is more okay to blog in rage caps and get drunk off your ass at awards shows than it is to kinda-sorta-maybe pole dance. Frankly your parents would probably prefer you do neither, but if you’ve got to do one or the other, follow Kanye’s lead before Miley’s.

Miley Cyrus, one of Disney’s hottest stars of the past three years with hit records and hit films, has been voted the worst celebrity influence of 2009 by the very people who made her a star, tweens and teens, according to an online poll on Wednesday. Cyrus, 16, took 42 percent of votes in the poll for AOL’s JSYK.com (Just So You Know) website aimed at 9-15 year-olds, pushing Britney Spears and rapper Kanye West into second and third places, respectively, in a section on worst celebrity influences of the year.

No reasons were given for the poor showing of the singer-actress and the popular star of Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” television series. But the ranking follows a year which has seen Cyrus controversially dating a 20 year-old model, making “slant eyes” in an informal snapshot criticized as mocking Asians, and being accused of pole-dancing on a teen awards show.

Cyrus also came in No. 4 in the category of favorite female artist, behind 19-year-old country sensation Taylor Swift, “I Kissed a Girl” singer Katy Perry and R&B star Beyonce. The poll attracted almost 50,000 votes. “I think Miley is in an interesting space where she is trying to graduate from being ‘Hannah Montana’ and a Disney channel celebrity and coming into her own and having a career beyond Disney,” said Stephanie Cohen, editor of JSYK.com.

“I think her fans still want her to be the sweet Hannah Montana and she is trying to age up…Parents are definitely resisting it,” Cohen told Reuters.

[From Reuters]

All kids and teenagers want to be older than they are. It’s that constant desire to grow up too fast. And it’s the parent’s responsibility to do everything they can to slow it down. But Miley’s parents were chomping at the bit to help their little girl wear skimpy outfits and take inappropriate webcam photos. Because it gets her more attention, and attention equals dollars. Congrats, Cyruses!

The editor of JSYK goes on to talk about how well Taylor Swift has done this year, and she chalks it up to a few important things: first, Taylor is talented. And pretty, though she doesn’t mention that. But secondly, Taylor’s gotten most of her attention for coming across as genuinely kind, smart, well-raised with excellent manners, and she writes songs kids and teens relate to. I’m not really a fan of her type of music, but I’m going to force myself to be. I love that Taylor proves you can be rich and famous for being good instead of being naughty. And if I were a betting girl, I’d bet Taylor will be much richer and more famous than Miley in ten years’ time.

And to think… she probably doesn’t even know how to pole dance.

Here’s Miley performing in concert at the United Center in Chicago on Tuesday. I have no idea why even teenagers would find this inappropriate. Images thanks to WENN.com .

We haven’t even gotten to see Gerard Butler as host of Saturday Night Live (I’m counting that sh-t down… T minus 2 days and 13 hours), and NBC is already announcing the next crop of hosts and music acts. This morning they announced Taylor Swift will host on Nov. 7. No mention if she will also be the musical act, which is always a difficult double-gig. She’s already been the musical act once before, and she thinks being asked to host is “mind-blowing”. Swift, as always, is a total sweetheart about her gig: “I love being around people who I feel have a different kind of creative genius. And the funny genius is definitely a fascinating one to be around.” But Taylor isn’t just some sweet kid with no sense of humor. She has some ideas for skits, and they’re probably going to involve Kanye West and the infamous VMA incident:

Watch out, Kanye.

Taylor Swift is hosting Saturday Night Live Nov. 7 — two months after the rapper brazenly interrupted her at the MTV Video Music Awards, claiming that Beyonce deserved to win best female video

“I’ve been thinking about skit ideas for a long time,” Swift, 19, says of her SNL stint. “There are definitely some hilarious things that have happened to me over the past couple of months that I think will be pretty substantial skits.”

Swift — who performed on the show last January — said it’s “mind-blowing” she was asked to do the show over the summer — and it’s been tough keeping it a secret.

She hopes to collaborate with cast member Andy Samberg on a digital short music video.

“Of course, I’ve been such a fan for a long time, but I’ve gone back and re-watched everything over the past couple of months and digital shorts would be so much fun to do, because they’ve been done so well,” she says. “Andy Samberg is hilarious.”

In addition to SNL, Swift will perform on Dancing With the Stars Oct. 27.

[From Us Weekly]

I think she’ll do well. She really is a talented, hard-working kid with a great attitude, so I’d imagine she’ll work hard and get some laughs. Taylor told Oprah yesterday that she had accepted Kanye’s apology. She also confirmed that her mom had talked to him during the VMAs. Taylor told Oprah: “I feel like being raised by two parents who basically brought me up with the idea that the world didn’t owe me anything really helped. My whole life, I just loved music and I’d see these people on big stages, and I didn’t think I could actually do that.”

Also great news for Taylor – she’s the nomination leader for the American Music Awards with six total noms. Kanye, by the way, has none. Taylor’s album Fearless has sold 1.8 million copies, and Taylor is up against Beyonce “It‘s about standing up for art” Knowles in the Best Female Pop/Rock category (ruh-roh).

Kanye West has been having a rough month of it, y’all. Does anyone feel for him? Not really. But it does seem like Kanye has taken note of how many people were and are disgusted with him, and maybe he’s trying to change – not by going to rehab (as some hoped), but by possibly going on a “spiritual retreat” to India. Um… do you think Kanye read Eat, Pray, Love?

This comes after Kanye has had one of the worst months ever. The first was totally his fault – he got drunk on Hennessy at the VMAs and threw a hissy fit all over Taylor Swift’s VMA win. A week-long debacle followed, with Kanye apologizing several times in several different ways. A couple of weeks later, it was a charity concert in which Kanye once again acted like a baby, as reports surfaced that Kanye pitched a fit over chicken. After that it was the cancellation of his tour with Lady Gaga, and Beyonce’s idiotic defense of his VMA controversy – her defense was that Kanye was “standing up for art”. I’d need a spiritual retreat too after that mess:

The BET Hip-Hop Awards went uninterrupted Oct. 10, as Kanye West, who was nominated for nine awards, was a no-show. Just where was he? According to some reports, West was seeking refuge in India.

Friends of the musician say that he’s keeping his location private, but India isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“Kanye might do some dumb things, but he’s smart,” said one source close to West. “He knows he needs to come back from this break changed, and that isn’t going to happen at some rehab overlooking the ocean. He goes to India, he has a chance to come back seeming like he learned something from what happened.”

Sources within the West camp say there’s no plan yet for him to step back into the spotlight soon any time soon. He’s still blogging, but performing is off the books for now. Not only did West recently cancel his tour with Lady Gaga (she’ll tour solo), but he’s also scrapped plans to perform a New Year’s Eve show at Madison Square Garden.

[From MSNBC’s The Scoop]

If this is true, it’s a really smart move, and one that I wish more troubled celebrities would employ. Just get out of the way, go away, don’t seek the press out, just lay low. Come back in six months or a year with some perspective and much will be forgiven. Do you think we could get Kate and Jon Gosselin to go on a spiritual retreat?

I have to admit, the first time I read Beyonce’s latest quotes about the Taylor Swift-Kanye West VMA controversy, my first thought was “Big B is a beeyotch.” Now that I’ve read them several times, I still kind of think she’s being a tad bitchy, but I also think her intention was to simply be nice to both Taylor and Kanye, it just didn’t come out the right way. Beyonce’s trying to have it both ways – she’s trying to defend both Taylor Swift and Kanye West, but she does it in a way that seems… snotty. Maybe it’s just me. Beyonce tries to explain what was going through Kanye’s drunken mess of a mind at the VMAs, and she says, “Well, I knew his intentions, and I knew he was standing up for art…When they didn’t call my name, he was, like, completely shocked.” Is she saying that she creates “art” and Taylor doesn’t?

Beyonce Knowles is finally breaking her silence about Kanye West storming the stage at the VMAs to declare that she should have won Best Female Video instead of Taylor Swift.

“Well, I knew his intentions, and I knew he was standing up for art; and he told me before, when they said the nominees, he’s like, ‘You have this award,’” Beyonce, 28, told O: The Oprah magazine editor at large Gayle King (via MTV News) at the Billboard Awards over the weekend, when she was named Woman of the Year.

“When they didn’t call my name, he was, like, completely shocked,” Knowles says. “And when he walked on the stage, I was like, ‘No, no, no!’ and then he spoke, and I was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no!’”

Knowles — who handed the mic over to Swift after winning Video of the Year later that night — continues, “But in the end, it ended up being a great night, and Taylor Swift did get her moment — and I didn’t have to make an acceptance speech.”

After his outburst, West, 32, apologized multiple times on his blog, to Jay Leno and to Swift — and declared he was taking time away from the public eye to “analyze how I’m gonna make it through the rest of this life and improve.”

It was announced last week that his Fame Kills tour with Lady Gaga had been canceled.

[From Us Weekly]

So it really sounds, to my overanalytical mind, like Beyonce is trying to defend her friend Kanye by saying that he took a stand for art, and while that’s noble, he was still rude. Am I getting that right? Because I don’t think Kanye was taking a stand for art. I think he was just drunk and dumb. And I definitely think B should stop talking.

Beyonce is shown at Billboard’s Women in Music Awards on 10/1/09. Credit: WENN.com

Kanye West told Jay Leno in his mea culpa speech for his VMAs interruption that he needed to “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.” Kanye had a big three month tour with Lady Gaga set to kick off in November, and as much as he needed some down time to work on his warped attitude, it didn’t look like he was going to get it.

Then yesterday an announcement was made by tour organizer Live Nation that West’s tour with Gaga was canceled. They didn’t give a reason, and promised that ticketholders would be able to secure refunds. TMZ has the insider news that the tickets just weren’t selling, and that Gaga and West’s staff were fighting constantly. West previously said that Gaga wasn’t opening for him and that it would be shared billing, stating “She’s talented and so incredible that she’s not an opening act. We’re doing it together, with no opening act.”

If Kanye West doesn’t regret hijacking Taylor Swift, he will now — we’re told his concert tour with Lady Gaga was scrapped because ticket sales sucked. And “sucked” happens to be a nicer version of the word we were told.

And not only that — our insiders say another factor in the cancellation was West and Gaga’s people were at each others throats like their last names were Gosselin.

When it came down do it, we’re told Gaga decided she’d be better off playing smaller venues … and far from the headache caused by Kanye’s ever present drama.

[From TMZ]

So were people boycotting Kanye because he made a bigger ass of himself than usual, was he just overexposed, or are ticket sales low because people aren’t shelling out money for concerts lately? Lady Gaga is certainly popular enough to headline her own shows, and you can understand why she would chose to no longer share venues with Kanye. He’ll have that time he needs to work on himself, although I think we’ll be hearing about more “give me my chicken” and paparazzi-bashing incidents instead of getting a break from the guy.

Kanye West is shown on 9/13/09. Credit: Sylvian Gaboury/PRPhotos. Lady Gaga is shown on 9/30/09. Credit: AAR/Fame Pictures

Of course Kanye hasn’t really learned any lessons from the Taylor Swift incident. Of course he’s not really a changed man. Of course Kanye is still the biggest, bitchiest, nastiest diva in any given room. Of course. On Saturday, at the Hollywood Palladium, a fundraiser concert was held for the Common Ground Foundation. In addition to Kanye, Nas, Ludacris, Common, Mos Def, De La Soul, Heavy D and Queen Latifah were also in attendance and performed for the charity. With all of that talent, with all of those entourages, with all of the possible divas in the backstage area, who do you think the biggest bitch was? Kanye! And the drama was about chicken. I shall name this “The Great Chicken Dramz of 2009”.

Apparently, Kanye West’s character-check getaway isn’t going too well.

According to reports, the rapper showed up over the weekend to Common’s highly publicized benefit show at the Hollywood Palladium, and threw another one of his egotistical tantrums backstage.

The rapper was allegedly upset over his not being offered food while in the dressing room backstage. After spotting a man eating chicken, West blurted, “Why wasn’t I offered chicken? You want me to perform for free, [and] everyone is eating… why am I not eating?”

When the waitress explained that he never asked for food, ‘Ye yelled, “Well, I’m asking now!” After receiving chicken, he allegedly proceeded to take a bite and then throw the rest in the trash. Meanwhile, the rapper’s beau Amber Rose, stood silent, while other celebrities backstage watched in awe.

Other guests that night included Nas, Ludacris, Mos Def, De La Soul, Heavy D and Queen Latifah.

[From Vibe]

Yeah, why didn’t the waitress just know that Kanye wanted chicken, without him even having to ask for it? It takes real balls to pitch a hissy at a charity concert… over chicken that you didn’t ask for. Did I say “balls”? I meant “Kanye is nasty little brat who should grow the f-ck up”.

Fox News Pop Tarts has another version of Kanye at the charity concert – their sources claim that Kanye appeared to be “really nervous” and “keeping a low profile” backstage, quietly “thanking anyone who would bother to listen.” Then something happened:

Common told the sold-out crowd that he asked his buddy West to perform for the charitable cause but with all that happened with him and the backlash he received from the VMAs (oh, poor Kanye) he sent his love and apologized he wasn’t able to make it. But despite recently vowing to take a break from the limelight, West couldn’t help himself at the event.

“He stormed the stage and everyone went insane,” a partygoer told Tarts. “After the show he seemed much more outgoing, back to his old self…”

Hmmm, so is that a good thing?

Meanwhile his girlfriend Amber Rose hung chilled on the VIP couch, Common’s leading lady Serena Williams who was celebrating her 26th birthday.

[From Pop Tarts]

I bet Amber Rose was chillin’ with some chicken. HATER! Maybe not though – Amber has a new piercing- it’s a diamond hoop on the middle of her bottom lip. If she got it over the weekend, she was probably not eating for fear of infection. I find it gross… but I’m sure Kanye likes it. He seems to like really gross things.

Kanye is shown below looking sad on 9/22/09. Credit: Fame Pictures

Once the initial furor over Kanye West’s “I’m gonna let you finish” Taylor Swift VMA debacle died down, some people began whispering about Kanye’s drinking. As in, maybe Kanye has a drinking problem, and maybe the Hennessey was the one yelling “I’m gonna let you finish”. While I think the Hennessey was probably doing most of the critical decision making at the VMAs, it’s not like Kanye doesn’t have a reputation for being, in the President’s words, a jackass. Which came first, the jackass or the Hennessey?

Anyhoodle, the “Kanye might go to rehab” rumors are here to stay – and I’m starting to wonder if they may have some merit. Some sources are claiming that Kanye might check himself into rehab after his tour with Lady Gaga is done. Other sources are saying the rehab rumors have no merit:

Before Kanye West rushed the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards, the singer was filmed on the awards show’s red carpet drinking Hennessey cognac straight from the bottle. Now, the next logical thing has happened: people are talking about West going to rehab.

Star Magazine and other publications are reporting that West is blaming alcohol for his breach in decorum, and that as soon as West wraps his “Fame Kills” tour with Lady Gaga this January, he’ll head to rehab.

West hasn’t blogged about it, there was no comment from his camp, and friends close to West say it’s not true, so maybe this is just the product of a game of telephone gone awry during a slow news week.

But if there’s a real reason for West to go to rehab, of course, he should go. However, if people think that a trip to rehab is just another way to say you’re sorry … in the words of Amy Winehouse, no, no, no.

Look no further than Michael Richards and Mel Gibson for evidence that headline-making slurs aren’t erased by any such stint. It just doesn’t take 30 days to learn to say, “I’m sorry, I was a complete jerk and there’s no excuse.”

[From MSNBC]

Yeah, it’s perfectly possible that Kanye’s management team are trying to convince him to go to rehab to change the story and get some kind of public sympathy. But that kind of p.r. move is so 2007, right? Ah, back in the day. In all seriousness, I think there’s a 50-50 chance that Kanye might have some kind alcohol dependence. The other side to that is that there’s an equal chance Kanye might simply be a a–hole who recreationally drinks. We’ll see.

Kanye and Amber are shown below on 9/22/09. Credit: WIC/Fame Pictures

Taylor Swift has been nothing but gracious and classy in the aftermath of Kanye West’s interruption of her “Best Female Video” speech at the VMAs a week and a half ago. Kanye issued a public and I thought pretty genuine apology to Taylor on the first night of Jay Leno’s revamped show on Monday of last week. The next day, Taylor Swift said on The View that Kanye hadn’t personally called her to apologize yet. Kanye swiftly remedied that and called Taylor to offer his heartfelt apology. According to Taylor, his apology was sincere and she says she’s heard enough apologies in her nearly 20 years to judge when someone truly means it:

When Kanye West phoned Taylor Swift Sept. 15 to apologize for interrupting her at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, it was heartfelt, the singer says.

“I’ve been alive for 19-and-a-half years, and I’ve experienced a few different kinds of apologies, and that one was sincere,” she said on SIRIUS XM’s Morning Mash Up radio show Friday.

In addition to issuing two apologies on his blog, West, 32, also told Jay Leno he was planning to “take some time off” to try to understand why he made his latest outburst.

Said the rapper, “I’m just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else’s hurt.”

[From US Weekly]

Kanye’s line “I’m very happy for you and Im’ma let you finish” has gone viral, with plenty of lol cat-style photos, videos, and Internet chatter mocking the incident. JayBird let me know about a facebook quiz “Where will Kanye interrupt you?” I just took it, and it predicted I’d get interrupted while fighting with my significant other: “Yo yo just uhh dude.. lemme let yall finish this in a minute… all I wanna say was Chris Brown and Rhianna had the best fight of all time… just sayin… the best fight of ALL TIME’” It will be a long time before Kanye lives this down, and that’s how it should be. I don’t hate the guy or anything, and after watching him on Leno I feel like we’re watching him try and figure out how to cope with his giant ego. It’s like he knows he has major issues but has no idea how to keep them in check. At least he admits he has a problem. Does the douche stop here?

Thanks to Kanyegate for the images below. The last image is a screenshot from Facebook.

Kanye West’s girlfriend Amber Rose is working hard on her modeling career, in large part to Kanye. She’s splayed about in all sorts of trashy poses in October’s Elle. The best part is the spread (so to speak) is that it’s credited as “styled by Kanye West.” I laughed and laughed when I saw that. It explains a lot, considering Elle normally isn’t as tacky as these photos. And these outfits. Just everything about it screams “Kanye wants to put his woman on display.” We’re very impressed.

The interview talked a lot about style and how Amber burst onto the scene last year in all sorts of lycra spandex and giant glasses. Oh, and the cue ball look. Never forget the cue ball. Anyway, Amber says she and Kanye have really different senses of style, and while he might “style” her now and then, she’s not his Barbie and has ultimate say. Which might not be a good thing, because it turns out she’s not too smart. She didn’t know what the Met was.

When asked about the collaborative process with West on their inaugural shoot for ELLE, Rose laughs. “We’re like total opposites,” she says. “he’ll pick out something and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, God, I don’t like that at all.’ And then I’ll pick out something and he’ll be like, ‘Babe, just… no.’ I’m more electric pink and bright yellow. And Kanye’s more like nude and bone. Like, bone is his favorite color. I’m like, whose favorite color is bone?”

Rose, a video vixen who’s appeared in music videos including Ludacris’ “What Them Girls Like,” Young Jeezy’s “Vacation,” and West’s “Robocop,” recently signed a contract with Ford Models and is planning to study acting a possibly launch her own line of sunglasses. She admits that she and West “are dating and enjoying each other’s company,” but is adamant that her personal style is just that, personal. “I’m not like his Barbie,” says Rose about West, who wanted her to try on a gown for the Metropolitan Opera’s 125th Anniversary Gala at Lincoln Center in March. Instead, Rose chose an all-white cocktail wrap-dress by Alexander Wang, complete with a thigh-flashing slit.

“I didn’t want to wear a long gown,” Rose says. “So then we get to the Met and everybody has a long gown. I was like, great. I didn’t know what the Met was!”

[From Elle, Oct. 2009, print ed.]

I don’t know why but Amber actually came across as fairly endearing to me. Normally I’d find that last comment dumb, but I like that she admitted it. It’s a funny little story. I mean she is dumb, but at least she’s not so full of herself that she won’t admit it. How stupid is it to go to a big event – where your fashion-knowledgeable boyfriend is trying to get you to wear a formal gown – and not do a little basic research first? Like, “Should I show up in jeans or a ball gown?” It’s good to know the basics. But really her job is just to be Kanye’s arm candy. And because it’s very important for Kanye to believe that we’re impressed and envious, she obviously needs to wear ridiculously form-fitting attire that’s so tight you can practically see her freckles through them. Yeah, that tight. Remember, lyrcra spandex.

Regardless of all this, I know I’m supposed to hate Amber and find her really annoying, because everyone else seems to. But for some reason I don’t. I don’t care for her sense of style whatsoever, and I’m not impressed by her. But she’s basically inoffensive and a little dull and that’s it. And that’s not really enough for me to hate her. I think most people dislike her because of her look (voluntarily bald) and they think she’s just with Kanye for attention, which she probably is. She’ll pass in a year at most, but I don’t really find anything about her personality to be so provocative one way or the other. Just her clothes.

First we had a deleted tweet claiming that President Obama called Kanye West a jackass for his stunt interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs. Everyone kind of shrugged and said they agreed with him. Obama made the remark off the record before a CNBC interview, and CNBC apologized that the news got out. ABC Nightline anchor Terry Moran tweeted then deleted the news, and CNBC issued an apology, saying Moran “prematurely tweeted before our editorial process had been completed.” Then TMZ posted audio of Obama saying it, which pretty much proved that it happened. Now there’s video of Obama’s offhand exchange, which was never meant to get out but is still pretty amusing nonetheless. After Obama says that Kanye’s a jackass he kind of realizes that nothing he says is off the record and wonders aloud if this sound bite will become like that crazy video of him swatting a fly – viral. (The fly part is in the audio, not the video show above.) Yeah, it will. CNN even aired it.

There’s been some speculation that the whole Kanye West incident was a set up by MTV. After all, this is the network that staged the Bruno Enimen freak out at the MTV Movie Awards. Plus Kanye and Taylor were both pre-scheduled for talk shows the next day, with Kanye to appear on the opening night of Leno’s revived show. I’m just not buying that explanation, though. Kanye’s apology on Leno was way too serious and Taylor was said to be bawling backstage. Sure this worked out to a lot of publicity for all the parties involved, but Kanye seemed really mortified, and I doubt it was staged ahead of time.

One really priceless thing to come out of this way overplayed and over-discussed incident is the “Kanye interrupting” meme. Someone commented with a link to the site Kanyegate, which has plenty of humorous Kanye photos, and there are photos and videos of Kanye interrupting just about everyone and everything with his unique brand of one-upmanship. E! Online and The Daily Mail have more. Kanye won’t live this down for a long time.