Doing a public Q&A right before one of your biggest scandals comes to a head? The audacity that that has! But that didn’t stop Scooter Braun from talking with Variety’s Shirley Halperin at the 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference on Thursday. “I know where you’re going to go,†he said at one point in the conversation. “I’m kind of getting ahead to it. Ask the question!†Halperin did so, asking what it’s like to have Swifties turned against him, and Braun acknowledged that it’s the first time he’s talked about the much-publicized Taylor Swift feud “in six months.†Well, here we are, giving you your attention, sir! “I just think we live in a time of toxic division, and of people thinking that social media is the appropriate place to air out on each other and not have conversations,†he said. “I don’t like anybody doing it, and if that means that I’ve got to be the bad guy longer, I’ll be the bad guy longer, but I’m not going to participate.†He later added, “I think people need to come together and have a conversation,†without mentioning Swift by name.
“I know this is going to be the most controversial thing I say. I don’t know where we got messed up along the way that we decided being politically correct is more important than having conflict resolution,†Braun said later at the event. Oooh, controversy! Political correctness! So, Braun is waiting for a conversation with Swift, Swift is waiting for word on the state of her American Music Awards Artist of the Decade performance, and we’re waiting for whatever happens to the actual show. Dick Clark Productions said it hadn’t reached a reported agreement with Braun’s Big Machine Records over Swift’s performance of old songs. Fix it, Iyanla!