>>320 I read she had a jury service date in December last year, so she would have had to have given a second date when she deferred that one, and showed up for it. To that extent - not gaming the system.

However I am sure these award show go in the diary months in advance. So it does rather suggest that she gave this date because even in December she never intended to show up at the VMAs (probably at that time because she knew she had no video worth submitting and wasn't going to win, and not because of the Kanye stuff).

Alternatively she did intend to show because she has a private jet so she could make it home from NY and then to jury service in time. Why not spend the day of voir dire, when nothing happens, slightly hungover? Then once she decided she didn't want to go to the VMAs for lots of reasons, it was a convenient excuse. And a PR opportunity.