Was Kanye West's VMA outburst planned?

Kanye West steals the spotlight from Taylor Swift. (Associated Press)

CALL ME CYNICAL, but I am not at all convinced that Kanye West’s spontaneous outburst at Sunday MTV Video Music Awards was all that spontaneous.

What, people — even stars — can just wander on stage whenever they feel like it? Even at an awards show as essentially meaningless as the VMAs? What, they have no security at all?

If you missed it, Taylor Swift won a VMA (which are chosen by fan voting) for best female video. As she was accepting her award, West ran on stage, took the microphone away from her and told viewers that Beyonce should have won for her “Single Ladies” video.

It’s entirely believable that West is that big a jerk, because, well, he’s clearly demonstrated that time and time again. But it’s less believable that it happened entirely without the collusion of the show’s producers.

If not for this incident, would anybody be talking about the VMAs? Nope.

It’s not like West hurt his image, he just reinforced it. But it is fascinating to see Swift — who’s not exactly a darling of the media — suddenly become so sympathetic. And Beyonce made herself look great. When she won the video of the year award, she invited Swift back on stage to finish her interrupted speech and share the spotlight.

Am I cynical? Absolutely. But, over the past two decades, I’ve found it’s impossible to underestimate the cynicism of the folks in the TV industry who would manufacture an incident like this.

Hey, maybe Kanye was just trying to get himself in the news so he could help Jay Leno launch his prime-time show tonight — he’s one of the guests. And controversy is always good for ratings.

What do you think? Does this VMA thing feel manufactured to you?