Taylor Swift, Conor Kennedy, and the etiquette of RSVPs

There has been much talk about Taylor Swift’s controversial appearance at the Boston wedding of Kyle Kennedy last weekend. Mother-of-the-bride Victoria Gifford Kennedy has claimed that Swift and her boyfriend, Conor Kennedy (Kyle’s cousin), showed up without RSVPing to the event and were asked to leave twice before they disappeared. Meanwhile, Victoria’s stepmom, “Today” cohost Kathie Lee Gifford, who was also at the wedding, criticized Swift on national television for showing up without permission.
The incident got us wondering about wedding etiquette and who was in the wrong — Taylor and Conor for crashing the party without a proper RSVP, or Victoria Gifford Kennedy, who asked a relative to leave the wedding and then whined about the family drama to the Boston Herald?
According to Massachusetts manners expert Jodi R. R. Smith , author of “The Etiquette Book: A Complete Guide to Modern Manners,” Swift is the biggest offender in this mess. Smith says that under normal circumstances, when an unexpected guest shows up to a wedding, the host should simply alert the caterer and pull up an extra chair. That rule goes out the window, however, if the unexpected guest is an international pop superstar. Smith says that even if Conor Kennedy and Swift had RSVP’d for the event on time, it was on Swift, as a celebrity, to ask the bride and groom if she should provide extra security for herself that night. Even though Swift is only 22, she should know that her presence greatly affects all events, Smith said. “She can’t go to the bathroom without someone reporting that she flushed,” Smith quipped.
Smith believes that Swift can make amends by buying the newlyweds a big gift from the registry (“She should not be sending her latest CD,” Smith said), and that “in a month, she should send the mother of the bride a giant Winston floral arrangement.”
Of course, not all etiquette experts side with the mother of the bride. Robin Abrahams — also known as Miss Conduct from the Boston Globe Magazine — believes Swift is the innocent bystander in this debacle. Abrahams says Swift was just the date, and that it was on Conor Kennedy to make sure the singer would be welcome. Abrahams also maintains that Victoria Gifford Kennedy should not have aired her gripes about the superstar to the media, no matter what. “That’s the worst — going public about it.”

 

Taylor Swift Has 'Cool News' For Fans On Monday

The singer announced on Tuesday (August 7) that she will be doing a live webcast on Monday (August 13) at 7 p.m. ET. The event will go down on her official YouTube channel. The date of the livestream is hardly a coincidence as 13 just so happens to be Swift's lucky number.
"Hey, it's Taylor. So I really want to talk to you about something. I would love it if you would join me August 13 for a live webchat," she said in a video tease posted online. "You can ask questions. I want to share some news with you, some really cool news. Not gonna go into it too much, but it's cool. I'll see you there."
Fans who want to get in on the action can ask Swift questions through a live social chat that will take place during the stream. Additionally, there will be a Google+ Hangout created around the event.
Given that Swift has been hard at work on her follow-up to 2010's chart-topping Speak Now, it seems likely that Swift's "really cool news" has something to do with some new music.
She has worked with folks like British singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran on the release, and when MTV News last caught up with the singer at the top of 2012, she explained that this album will show her growth as an artist.
"I made my last album, Speak Now, with this idea I really wanted to make an album without writing with anyone else just because I always wanted to do that. And now I have a different approach to this record. I'm getting to work with people that I've always wanted to work with." That means that she's seeking out some assistance "from all different places in music."
"I'm trying to be as much of a sponge as possible," she explained. "You have to evolve and try new things and change and that's what I've loved to do with this album."
While some of what she's putting out may sound different, there will remain one central Swift-ism that remains. She will be writing about the ups and downs of love.
"I think that love is always going to be a huge theme in what I write about just because there are no two similar relationships, there are no two times that you feel love the same way or hurt the same way or [feel] rejection [in] the same way. It's all different and I'm fascinated by that," she said. "I really love to go back to human interaction and the way we make each other feel. But that at 22 is different than it was at 18 or 19 when I made my last album and 16 and 17 when I made Fearless. As you grow, you change in the way you process emotion."