I will have to admit I just do not get Lady Gaga.  To me her persona is just weird.  When her first album The Fame was first released in 2008 I thought she would be a “flash in the pan” “here today and gone tomorrow” type.  Boy was I wrong.

Lady Gaga has become the best-selling artist in digital history with 20 million downloads.  The two artists who are close behind here are Rihanna with 19 million and Taylor Swift with 18.5 million downloads.  What is 1 to 1.5 million amongst competitors?

I do like Lady Gaga’s new song “Born This Way”.  However, I like it because of the message it sends about accepting who you are and screw everyone else who tries to change you, not because of her ability to perform the song.  Otherwise I still say she is just weird.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s got a thing for music. She just played a fallen country singer in her latest film Country Strong, and over the weekend, the Oscar-winning 38-year-old mom transformed into a backwoods cutie again for a parody of singer Taylor Swift that aired on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

The knee-slapping sketch saw Gwyn perform a cover of the young singer’s hit “Love Story” at a Bar Mitzvah –complete with curly blonde wig and acoustic guitar!

“Thank you so much for having me,” she bellowed at the crowd. “Y’all are awesome.”

Taylor famously parodied hip-shaking singing star Shakira during her own guest stint on the long-running sketch series last fall.

If you can dish it out, you gotta be able to take it, gurl!

That was quick.

Duck down, Jake! We hear a diss track on the horizon. In fact, we can already hear Swifty strumming the first chords on her next big hit!

The pair — who never confirmed their romance — first prompted romance rumors in October, when they were seen canoodling backstage at a taping of Saturday Night Live. The Rumor Mill continue churning out Taylor-Jake dish after the two were snapped enjoying lunches and ice cream and coffee dates. “Swyllenhaal,” as they were sometimes calls, kept a very low profile even through reports that Jake presented Taylor with a pricey bracelet and guitar for her 21st birthday last month. There were even rumblings that the pair were sharing a loft together!

No more, sources say.

“They’re over. It ended last month,” informant types tattled to PEOPLE on Tuesday afternoon.

Taylor spent New Year’s Eve at a party in Nashville, while Jake rang in 2011 in New York. They were last spotted together in Los Angeles on Dec. 9.

Geez, Joe, John, Taylor L., and now Jake. Swifty’s about as good at keeping a man as we are at raising baby chickens! Maybe it’s her cooking? Careful Taylor, if you don’t watch out, you’ll end up like the Grand Ole Opry’s answer to Jennifer Aniston.

The year isn’t done with us yet, but MTV has gotten an early start on handing out its Year-End honors.

This year’s Man and Woman of the Year trophies go to Kanye West and Lady Gaga.

What a 2010 it’s been for pop sensation Lady Gaga. The multi-awarded “Poker Face” singer — Billboard’s Artist of the Year — has added MTV’s much-lauded Woman of the Year title to her esteemed list of career achievements for the second year running. According to the network, Gaga is the perfect candidate for the award, citing her continued chart success, continuous campaigning for gay rights and the controversial video for “Telephone” among their reasons for choosing her.

“Lady Gaga didn’t even release a proper album in 2010, and somehow, she managed to become an even bigger star,” MTV explained.

The outre star will release her second full-length studio album Born This Way in 2011.

In the Man of the Year poll, Kanye West edged out Eminem to take the first place spot with 64 percent of the vote. The “Love Lockdown” rapper garnered the honor thanks to his self-imposed exile and triumphant comeback to the limelight following his 2009 Swift stage-crashing and subsequent public backlash.

 Kanye West says he understands why George W. Bush says the “all-time low” during his presidency was when the rapper claimed the former president “doesn’t care about black people” — because he went through the same criticism after interrupting Taylor Swift.

“I definitely can understand the way he feels, to be accused of being a racist in any way, because the same thing happened to me, where I got accused of being a racist,” West told  Houston radio station 97. 9 on Wednesday, referring to his mic-swipe from Swift at last year’s Video Music Awards.

The former president recently told Matt Lauer that hearing West’s off-script comments during the Hurricane Katrina telethon in 2005 was “a disgusting moment,” as the rapper accused him of botching the government’s response to the disaster.

West said Wednesday that both situations showed “basically a lack of compassion.”

“With him, it was a lack of compassion of him not rushing, him not taking the time to rush down to New Orleans,” he said. “For me, it was a lack of compassion of cutting someone off in their moment. But nonetheless, I think we’re all quick to pull a race card in America. And now I’m more open, and the poetic justice that I feel, to have went through the same thing that he went [through] — and now I really … connect with him on just a humanitarian level because … the next morning when he felt that, I felt that same thing too.”

The Lady Gaga juggernaut steamrolled the competition at this weekend’s 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. The odd pop queen was crowned queen of the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, winning eight coveted Moonmen — including Video of the Year for her hit futuristic clip “Bad Romance.” The viral sensation was revered for its skin-baring scenes and bizarre costumes.

Gaga was presented with the night’s biggest prize by nother larger-than-life diva — entertainment icon Cher. The Oscar winner showed up in an outfit very similar to the one she wore to the VMAs in 1989, when her “Turn Back Time” video was one of the most talked about of the year.

The flamboyant pop singer — as famous for her fashion sense as her musical talent — led this year’s nominees with 13 nominations. In fact, Gaga was followed in nods by Eminem, who came in a distant second with a respectable eight nominations.

Gaga — who got her start wowing dance crowds in gay clubs across America — thanked “The Gays” and hailed her beloved fans (whom she affectionately calls “Little Monsters”) “the cool kids at the party” as she accepted her prize for Best Female Video.

In addition to winning Best Female Video and Video of the Year for “Bad Romance,” Lady Gaga also took home the prizes for Best Pop Bideo, Best Dance Video, and Best Choreography, Direction, and Editing. (Exhaling…) Gaga’s “Telephone” — featuring Beyonce — won for Best Collaboration.

The flamboyant pop singer tied Norwegian rock group A-Ha, whose “Take On Me” vid swept the awards in 1986, as the second most honored act on a single night. British rocker Peter Gabriel retains the 1987 record for nine competitive wins his innovative video “Sledgehammer.”

As Gaga took the stage to accept her final award, she teased fans by announcing the name of her new album: Born This Way.

On a more comical note: The outrageous singer wore an outfit sure to anger the zealots with People for the Ethical treatment of animals: a dress and chapeau made of cuts of meat! Gaga’s already in hot water with the animal rights group after covering an issue of Japanese Vogue adorned in a meat-made bikini.

Taylor Swift has absolved Kanye West of last year’s onstage sin with one somber song.

The 20-year-old delivered a poignant and powerful ode about West at Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles that instead of criticizing him, sympathized with his difficult time in the spotlight and West’s own admissions that his ego has often gotten in his own way.

“Thirty-two and still growing up now; who you are is not what you did,” she sang softly, adding: “You’re still an innocent.”

Swift’s dramatic performance delivered on the hype promised from a sequel to last year’s incident when West marred Swift’s acceptance speech for best female video by jumping onstage and insisting the award should have gone to Beyonce. In the aftermath, West endured intense backlash, despite an apology, as well as a serious dent in his career that has yet to be ironed out.

Last week on Twitter, West poured out his heart, again apologizing to Swift and saying how much he had suffered since the incident, and adding that he had grown.

While Swift is known for skewering those who have done her wrong, for West, she offered an olive branch with her song, written earlier this year: “Everyone of us has messed up too… I hope you remember today is never too late to be brand new.”