Here’s Taylor Swift on the cover of December’s In Style Magazine. I like it, but it’s not a groundbreaking cover shot or anything – In Style covers rarely are. But it is a big deal that Taylor got the cover for the December issue, one of the biggest “gets” of the year. Just goes to show you that Taylor is a girl on the move, she’s the new family-friendly “It Girl” after Miley Cyrus’s family-friendly image crashed and burned with half-naked pictures, Teen Choice pole-dancing, and general sketchiness. Our little Taylor would never do anything like that, right? Actually, I totally believe she wouldn’t. Maybe it’s an act, but this kid seems very genuinely wholesome. Here’s People Magazine’s excerpt from In Style’s cover story:

It’s the next best thing to having Taylor Swift show up in the flesh in your living room – the country singer in 3-D on the cover of InStyle magazine’s December issue, out Nov. 20.

But the special effects and fashion-magazine first is beside the point for fans who want to learn more about her rumored romance with Taylor Lautner, he costar in the upcoming movie Valentine’s Day.

“He and I have gotten really close,” she says. “It would be confusing on the set with two Taylors in the same scene. They were like, ‘Taylor, on your mark – no, not you, the other one!’ So halfway through the shoot, I said, ‘How about you guys call me Swifty and call him Taylor?’ ”

Yet, at the same time, she seems to deflate the rumors.

“I’ve never thought it was a curse to be single, and at this point in my life, I’m in the mind-set where I choose to be single –] like I got to light scented candles and write in my diary and I wouldn’t have time for that if I had a boyfriend right now!”

As for Lautner, he enjoyed portraying her wanna-be boyfriend on the silver screen – if that’s all it was.

“Taylor is hilarious,” he says. “It was definitely not hard to play her love interest.”

[From People]

Meh. The bad thing about being so wholesome is that you give really boring interviews. In other Swifty news, Taylor is not dead. Apparently that rumor was going around over the weekend, but it’s just another fake report.

Meanwhile, Wynonna Judd has had to backtrack from her (bitchy) comments about Taylor Swift CMA “Entertainer of the Year” win last week. Judd told reporters on the CMA red carpet that Taylor’s win was “too much too soon. Time is God’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. It’s just too much of a good thing too soon.” Now Wynonna has either felt the Swifty wrath, or she just realized that she was pissing all over Taylor’s award, just like Kanye West. Judd wrote on her website a few days later: “My intent was not to take anything away from her talent and contributions to the country music industry, all of which are truly unprecedented for an artist of any age. Taylor is a beautiful, hard-working young woman that deserves the success she has had and I support her as an artist and as a woman in the business.” Jeez… can anyone just let Swifty win an award in peace? Does everyone have to chime in?

Much like the Kanye West thing, the Wynonna Judd thing became a touchy subject for Swifty defenders. Tim McGraw defended Swifty, saying “I’ve been doing this a long time and she’s got a better head on her shoulders than I do, so I don’t know how anybody could complain about that.” His wife, Faith Hill also defended Swifty: “I think she worked her tail off the last couple [of years] and she deserves to win.” But Randy Travis just had to step up, saying “As a writer, she is a phenomenal talent and when you look at the body of work that she has written at the age when she came into this business, it’s remarkable. It really is. But do I think that Entertainer of the Year might have been a little early.” Ruh-roh! Randy Travis, welcome to The Wrath of Swifty. You will not take her down!

In Style cover courtesy of CoverAwards. Additional photos of Taylor “Swifty” Swift and Taylor “Taylor” Lautner on October, 28 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Credit: WENN.

Someone always seems intent on crapping on Taylor Swift’s big wins. This time, playing the role of Kanye West we have country singer Wynonna Judd. Judd told USA Today that Taylor’s win at the Country Music Association Awards was “too much, too soon.” Judd, by the way, hasn’t won any CMA awards since going solo seventeen years ago.

On Wednesday, Taylor Swift became the youngest artist ever to win the Country Music Association Awards’ top honor: Entertainer of the Year.

But Wynonna Judd doesn’t think Swift, 19, is ready for such a top honor.

“You want my honest comment? It’s too much too soon,” the singer told USA Today before the show. “Time is God’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. It’s just too much of a good thing too soon.”

Judd, 45, added: “My thing is, being a home-school mom, I want kids to earn it, and I think some time … ’cause mom and I rode in a car for the first year of our career to visit radio stations. There was a making of the star, there was a rising up, and the fans went with us.

“Now it’s over coffee breaks, the success, almost,” she added. “You have to play catch up … It’s like the girl who wins an Oscar and she’s under 20. What do you do from here?”

[From Us Weekly]

Honestly I think if anyone deserves – and can handle – success at such a young age, it’s Taylor Swift. She has repeatedly shown herself to have more maturity and grace than performers much older than her. And frankly, I don’t think Wynonna knows a lot about how hard Taylor worked when she was starting out. And she still has the reputation of being a hard worker and consummate professional. Taylor just started at it younger, but from what I read that’s because she had such an intense desire to sing. That’s nothing to knock her for.

I hate to say it because it seems like such an obvious conclusion to come to, but this really does strike me as the ugly green monster rearing its head. Wynonna was huge in country music when she was in the Judds, and while she’s certainly been successful since then, it hasn’t been to the same degree. She’s also had a lot of drama and heartache in her life, from dealing with her food addiction to having to divorce her second husband after he was “indicted on three counts of aggravated sexual assault and battery against a minor under the age of 13” in 2007.

And while I don’t like to say things implying that older women are inherently jealous of younger women, Wynonna is 45 and Taylor’s 19. Wynonna isn’t retired but she’s sort of… low key in her career. Taylor’s is just getting started. Hell, I’m envious. But I think it’s more appropriate to wish her continued success, rather than imply she’s got nowhere to go from here.