Soon after Kanye West apologized the first time for ruining Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, we polled readers to ask if they believed his remorse was sincere.

Out of 12,000 responses, 7,000 (58%) replied, "It's a fake apology. Secretly, Kanye has no regrets and digs the infamous attention he's getting now."

After Kanye apologized the first time, he yanked it from his website, leading many people to believe that he didn't really feel regret. But then he posted a new apology.

Last night he added more mea culpa to Jay Leno: "It's been extremely difficult ... just dealing with the fact that I hurt someone or took anything away from a talented artist. I only wanted to help people. My entire life I've only wanted to give and do something that I felt was right. I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong, that it wasn't a spectacle ... . It was actually someone's emotions that I stepped on. It was just rude — period. I'd like to be able to apologize in person .... I need to, after this, take the time off to analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve. I am a celebrity, and that's something I have to deal with. If there's anything I can do to help Taylor in the future — or help anyone — I'd like to."

Vote in our poll below plus give us your thoughts in these other polls too: Do you think Kanye West will ever win another MTV VMA? Do you think Kanye West's MTV VMA fiasco will hurt his music sales? and Was Kanye West's MTV VMA tantrum just a PR stunt for his Jay Leno gig?

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Photo: Kanye West and Taylor Swift/ Associated Press

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OK, now that Kanye West has apologized on national TV (Jay Leno's new NBC show) and at his website (twice) for spoiling Taylor Swift's first-ever victory at the MTV Video Music Awards, do you think Kanye will ever win a VMA in the future?

Kanye had his first and only victory back in 2005 when he triumphed for best male video for "Jesus Walks." Otherwise, he lost 13 times, including three defeats this year. "Love Lockdown" lost best video of the year to Beyonce ("Single Ladies, Put a Ring on It"), best male video to T.I. ("Live Your Life") and best hip hop video to Eminem ("We Made You").

Remember, the MTV VMAs have a new voting system in place that empowers visitors to MTV.com to choose who wins. That means average folks like you and me. That means the general public will have to forgive Kanye for his childish tantrum. Hmmmm.

Vote in our poll below plus give us you thoughts in these other polls too: Do you think Kanye West's MTV VMA fiasco will hurt his music sales? Do you think Kanye West's apology to Taylor Swift was sincere? and Was Kanye West's MTV VMA tantrum just a PR stunt for his Jay Leno gig?

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Photo: Kanye West talks with Jay Leno. Photo credit: NBC

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According to MSNBC.com, Kanye West addressed the fiasco he staged last night at the MTV Video Music Awards by writing the following — in all capital letters — at his blog soon after the show: "I'M SOOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD'VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED!"

Apparently, the apology was yanked from his blog later. It's not there now, as of 2 p.m. eastern time on Tuesday, but other news sources reported that it appeared there too.

Assuming that Kanye has not retracted his apology, what should we think of it? Do you believe Kanye was sincere?

Vote in our poll below plus give us you thoughts in these other polls too: Do you think Kanye West's MTV VMA fiasco will hurt his music sales? and Was Kanye West's MTV VMA tantrum just a PR stunt for his Jay Leno gig?

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Photo: Christopher Polk / Getty Images

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Can it be a coincidence that Kanye West had an outrageous meltdown on the MTV Video Music Awards just one night before he will appear on the first episode of Jay Leno's highly anticipated new prime-time show on NBC?

And do you think Kanye will offer a heartfelt, sincere apology to Taylor Swift when dishing the MTV VMA fiasco with Jay? Or a snarky, doesn't-really-mean-it kind of apology? Kanye can't avoid talking about the incident and addressing the widespread outrage over his bad manners.

Kanye usually remains defiant and seldom apologizes for anything. He likes being a bad boy, relishes in the attention he gets for it. But maybe things are different this time?

UPDATE, SEPT. 14: Apparently, Kanye issued an apology, but then yanked it from his blog. Vote in our other polls: Do you think Kanye West's apology to Taylor Swift was sincere? and Do you think Kanye West's MTV VMA fiasco will hurt his music sales?

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When Kanye West ruined Taylor Swift's triumphant moment at the MTV Video Music Awards — let's be honest: it wasn't the first time that he acted like a baffoon/ jerk/ brat at a major kudosbash and got away with it. (Read about some other past fiascos here.) But it hasn't hurt Kanye's superstar status, record sales or ability to fill up concert seats.

But maybe this time is different? We got to see the wounded, sweet face of his victim, Taylor Swift, and observe how embarrassed Beyonce rallied to support her. (Relive the details of the tragedy here.)

After voting in our poll below, give us your opinions by responding to these polls too: Do you think Kanye West's apology to Taylor Swift was sincere? and Was Kanye West's MTV VMA tantrum just a PR stunt for his Jay Leno gig?

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Photo by Justin Lane/EPA 

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It sure took a lot of guts and nerve for Kanye West to ruin the big victory by Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards. (Read the full story here.) Maybe Kanye had some liquid courage to help juice the mischief?

Check out the photo of Kanye below that's from The Envelope's photo gallery. He's pictured prior to the kudofest on the red carpet clutching Amber Rose on one side and a bottle of Hennessy cognac on the other.

If booze played a role in this MTV awards fiasco, it wouldn't be the first time for Kanye. Soon after he disrupted the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2006 to decry losing a trophy to Justice and Simian ("We Are Your Friends"), he admitted to reporters, "I had a little sippy sippy" before the show. He admitted that, after the show, he planned to do "a little more sippy sippy."

Do you think this fiasco will affect Kanye's music sales with fans? Vote in our poll here.

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During the MTV Video Music Awards we held a live chat session to pool the reax of viewers. Check out what people said as Kanye West upstaged winner Taylor Swift. Read the outrage of posters when Green Day beat Kings of Leon for best rock video. Plus more. 

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Oh, yeah, Kanye West is also nominated for best video of the year at MTV's Video Music Awards, which will be bestowed on Sept. 13, but this is a VMA battle among Beyonce Knowles, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Eminem.

Kanye has never won. He was nominated for "Jesus Walks" in 2005 (losing to Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams") and for "Stronger" in 2007 (Rihanna clobbered him with her "Umbrella"). Of course, Rihanna also beat Beyonce ("Irreplaceable"), which was the latter's only other nomination in this category.

Eminem won this race twice: "Without Me" (2002) and "The Real Slim Shady" (2000). Britney won last year for "Piece of Me," but that was part of her industry-wide welcome-back-from-the crazy-house hug. Previously, she'd lost all 16 nominations in all MTV VMA categories.

There's a problem with looking back at past winners to predict who'll prevail this year. The voting process has changed radically through the years. Prior to 2006, winners were chosen by a hodgepodge of media hipsters tapped by MTV. Ballots were distributed willy-nilly among various folks like producers at E! Entertainment and VH1, etc. Then in 2006, all online voters got to decide.

Personally, I loved the outcome that year, but the victory by Panic! at the Disco ("I Write Sins Not Tragedies") was considered horribly, shockingly uncool, so voting was returned to hand-picked hipsters again in 2007 and 2008, but of a slightly different mix. This year democracy triumphs again as voting is being returned to the great unwashed.

A MTV rep explains to Gold Derby the latest voting process: "This year nominees were chosen by a voting academy which consists of label reps, management reps, press, production companies and a few talent 'tastemakers' plus 2,000 first-come, first-serve mtv.com account holders who signed up for mtv.com extras e-mails. Winners will be determined by the general public this year through voting on MTV.com and via mobile. The best new artist category will be open to the public and remain live into the show on Sept. 13."

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Photo: Matt Sayles / Associated Press

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As regular Gold Derby readers know, I own what's believed to be the world's largest private collection of historic showbiz awards outside of Jack Nicholson's house. (More details about all that here, here and here.) So I'm not one of those snobs who goes into fits of outrage at the thought that the sanctity of these statuettes somehow gets violated whenever they're bought and sold. If the practice is OK for art treasures, why not showbiz ones as well? And, quite frankly, the latter variety are often just gold-plated, so harrumph, harrumph.

However, I don't own a MTV Video Music Award or American Music Award as yet. Do you? Maybe we can bid against each other next month when Julien's Auctions puts up for sale five of Michael Jackson's MTV Video Music Awards, eight American Music Awards, two Billboard Awards, seven NAACP Image Awards plus lots of other kudos, including gold and platinum record awards.

The auction will be held from April 22 to 25 adjacent to the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Meantime, the items are on public view at the Hard Rock Café in New York's Time Square from March 25 to 28.

Michael Jackson's lawyers recently filed papers to shut down this auction, but that may just be one of those "Wacko Jacko" things that will mysteriously vanish soon. I recently talked about that with auctioneer Darren Julien, one of the most respected dealers in Hollywood memorabilia. He's handled auctions in the past for Cher, Barbra Streisand and U2. I've purchased many of the items in my personal collection from him. Darren assures Gold Derby that the auction will proceed as planned and will be completely legit. Jackson entered into a formal contract with Julien's Auctions to do this sale. Jackson and his manager chose the items to be sold and delivered them to the auction house as follow up. Part of the proceeds will go to the Grammys' MusicCares charity. See more details about the auction here.

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The new U2 album "No Line on the Horizon" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts by selling 484,000 copies. The band's last album -- "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" -- moved 840,000 units in its first week of release back in November 2004. However, as the always insightful Todd Martens of the Pop & Hiss blog points out in this must-read story, "a closer look at U2's sales stats suggests that 'Atomic Bomb' was an aberration in the career of the Irish superstars." Turns out that U2 usually sells its albums over the long run rather than in a short burst in the first few weeks of release. All of its first 11 albums eventually went at least platinum. Interestingly, "Atomic Bomb" moved almost 30% of its 3 million copies in that first week.

Reviews for this new album were always respectful if not raves. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Ann Power gave the disc three out of four stars. She thought, "U2's celebration of life has always also been a celebration of itself, and Bono still has a gift for radiating joy in a way that feels inclusive, not egotistical. At the same time, 'No Line on the Horizon' is most interesting when the band and its producers let their well-deserved wallowing become a drift down the river toward something different."

While part of the promotional effort had U2 appearing all last week on "The Late Show With David Letterman," the band premiered the first single -- "Get on Your Boots" --- on the Feb. 8 Grammy Awards telecast. Though that track has been only a modest success with 188,000 downloads, there are many more to come in the months ahead. And taken individually and as a whole, how many of these will figure in the Grammy nominations when they are announced at the end of the year?

Over the years, U2 has won 22 Grammys spread out over 11 categories. That haul ties the group with Stevie Wonder. However, Wonder has won three album of the year Grammys, as did Paul Simon and the late Frank Sinatra. U2 has taken this top honor twice -- for "The Joshua Tree" and "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb."

While the band's first five albums failed to break through with Grammy voters, all that changed with disc No. 6 — "The Joshua Tree." U2 won album of the year in 1987 and the first of seven rock duo or group awards (the other wins in that category came in 1988, 1992, 2000, 2001, 2004, and 2005).

U2's next studio album, "Achtung Baby," lost album of the year to Eric Clapton's "Unplugged" in 1992. While "Zooropa" won the alternative album award in 1993, U2's follow-up "Pop" went flat with Grammy nominators. "All That You Can't Leave Behind" contended for the top prize in 2001 but lost to the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. But "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" won album of the year in 2005.

Besides their two album of the year Grammys, U2 has won record of the year twice -- "Beautiful Day" (2000) and "Walk On" (2001) -- and song of the year twice as well: "Beautiful Day" (2000) and "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" (2005). And in addition to those seven Grammys for rock group, U2 has won rock album twice -- "All That You Can't Leave Behind" (2001) and "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (2005) -- and rock song twice: "Vertigo" (2004) and "City of Blinding Light" (2005). And they have three video wins -- performance ("Where the Streets Have No Name," 1988)' long-form ("Zoo TV," 1994), and short-form ("Vertigo," 2004) -- as well as single wins for alternative album ("Zooropa," 1993) and pop group ("Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of," 2001).

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