Jake Gyllenhaal, Taylor Swift LA Romance! - Right Celebrity

Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Swift are back at it again in LA! Find out what these two lovebirds have been up to, and see recent photos and video here.

This relationship took off in a hurry. It all started when the couple was spotted in NYC looking a little too cozy to merely be friends. Before long they were being considered one of the hottest new items in showbiz, and now they are being hounded by the paparazzi at ever turn.

After a short week apart, Taylor hopped on a private jet to LA where they spent some more quality time together at Jake’s home in the Hollywood Hills. The next day they were photographed all over the place, cruising around town together.

At first they really seemed like an odd pairing to me, but after seeing them together, they actually meld pretty well.

Prior to hanging out in LA, they’ve were seen together in Tennessee and NYC. They even took their romance overseas to London, where they attended a dinner at Gwyneth Paltrow’s home. It seems Paltrow has a connection to both young stars; Swift with her country music, and Jake with his acting. Sources even claim she may have helped hook them up together.

On the more wacky side of their courtship, X17 reports that they actually called the police on the paparazzi this week. Apparently they were being followed by overzealous paps through Beverly Hills and Jake wanted nothing of it. Celebrity rumor control site Gossip Cop verified the news, and noted that things became dangerous when they were pursued into a crowded residential area.

Police reportedly stopped most of the rabid paps from getting too close. Sounds saucy.

Check out some recent photos and video of Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Swift here. Your thoughts?

Tags: Jake Gyllenhaal, los-angeles, Taylor Swift

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Taylor Swift is EW’s Entertainer of the Year: This week’s cover

Taylor Swift kicked off 2010 with a No. 2 single debut (“Today Was a Fairytale”), a hit movie (Valentine’s Day), and four Grammy wins, including Album of the Year. She then spent months headlining arena concerts and big-ticket awards shows. But there was one achievement — the Oct. 25 release of her third record, Speak Now — that topped everything. Buoyed by strong reviews and the radio-friendly hit “Mine,” Speak amassed a jaw-dropping 1,047,000 units in first-week sales, the highest tally for any release in five years. For all that, the confidently sweet 20-year-old who was only 2 months old when Entertainment Weekly launched in 1990 is now our youngest-ever Entertainer of the Year.

In our interview, Swift talks about all the speculation surrounding the subjects of the songs on Speak Now, understood to include ex-boyfriends Taylor Lautner, Joe Jonas, and John Mayer. “Sometimes I would laugh because I would see it in print and it would say, ‘This song, which is written about her ex, so-and-so…’ And they would write about it as if it was fact. The fact is, I haven’t ever confirmed that any song is about any particular person. There’s something kind of freeing about that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all still up in the air.” She also explains how she decided to perform her song “Innocent,” which sure seems to be about Kanye West, at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. “I had decided that I didn’t want to perform on the show. Or even go. Then I woke up in the middle of the night and I realized that I had to, and that I wanted to perform that song.”

For more with Taylor Swift and our 14 other entertainers of the year — including James Franco, Jon Hamm, and Katy Perry — pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands Friday, December 3.

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Taylor Swift: Entertainer of Year!

Taylor Swift kicked off 2010 with a No. 2 single debut (“Today Was a Fairytale”), a hit movie (Valentine’s Day), and four Grammy wins, including Album of the Year. She then spent months headlining arena concerts and big-ticket awards shows. But there was one achievement — the Oct. 25 release of her third record, Speak Now — that topped everything. Buoyed by strong reviews and the radio-friendly hit “Mine,” Speak amassed a jaw-dropping 1,047,000 units in first-week sales, the highest tally for any release in five years. For all that, the confidently sweet 20-year-old who was only 2 months old when Entertainment Weekly launched in 1990 is now our youngest-ever Entertainer of the Year.

In our interview, Swift talks about all the speculation surrounding the subjects of the songs on Speak Now, understood to include ex-boyfriends Taylor Lautner, Joe Jonas, and John Mayer. “Sometimes I would laugh because I would see it in print and it would say, ‘This song, which is written about her ex, so-and-so…’ And they would write about it as if it was fact. The fact is, I haven’t ever confirmed that any song is about any particular person. There’s something kind of freeing about that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all still up in the air.” She also explains how she decided to perform her song “Innocent,” which sure seems to be about Kanye West, at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. “I had decided that I didn’t want to perform on the show. Or even go. Then I woke up in the middle of the night and I realized that I had to, and that I wanted to perform that song.”

For more with Taylor Swift and our 14 other entertainers of the year — including James Franco, Jon Hamm, and Katy Perry — pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands Friday, December 3.

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Taylor Swift reaches out to fans, and they to her - Los Angeles Times

Taylor Swift (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

In the fractured world that is pop music in 2010, 20-year-old country-pop star Taylor Swift has proven that the day of 1-million-plus first-week album sales hasn't completely disappeared by selling 1,047,000 copies of her new "Speak Now" CD out of the gate.

That makes it the fastest-selling album in more than five years, since March 2005, when rapper 50 Cent's "The Massacre" moved 1,141,000 units. Since that time, overall album sales have dropped nearly 50%.

"It's an incredibly rare feat," Keith Caulfield, associate director of charts for Billboard, said Wednesday. "Even if you put aside the depression of the music market, and look back over the last 20 years, this has only happened 16 times, including this week. That's already a staggeringly tiny number.

"Thinking of it in terms of where we are today," he said, "it speaks volumes as to her popularity, how she engages her fans and how she engages with more than just one hot single; it's more about the whole package."

Swift's album easily dislodged Eminem's "Recovery" album as the first-week sales champ of 2010. That collection sold 741,000 copies when it was released in June. "Speak Now" also surpassed Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III," the last album to top combined physical and digital sales of 1 million in its first week, with 1,006,000 copies in June 2008.

"I think this shows that when we do it right, we can still get hundreds of thousands of people to line up and buy [an album] the first week," Scott Borchetta, head of Swift's Nashville-based label, Big Machine Records, said Wednesday. "There are so many factors behind why certain things are happening and why certain things are not happening in our industry: what the real unemployment level is, the fact we don't have record stores anymore … . We attacked all of that. You can't do that with every release, but you can do it with superstars."

That marketing push followed a relatively quiet summer for Swift. In the last two weeks she has gone on a media blitz to promote her third album.

She appeared on NBC's "The Today Show," CBS' "Late Night With David Letterman," ABC's "Live! With Regis & Kelly" and " Dancing With the Stars," while daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres gave over her entire Nov. 1 show to Swift and the new album. Swift also is currently on the cover of Glamour and People magazines, and had cover stories in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and Parade magazine the day before the album's Oct. 25 worldwide release.

Last Friday she shut down Hollywood Boulevard with a surprise midday free concert atop a double-decker bus outside the Kodak Theatre. She serenaded JetBlue Airways passengers last week at JFK airport in New York with a free show, and spearheaded "Read With Taylor Swift," a Scholastic 90th Anniversary Literary event telecast to 25,000 classrooms, to an estimated audience of 1 million students. She gave Target Stores an exclusive expanded version of the album that the mass merchant is supporting with a $7-million TV ad campaign. Universal Music Group, the parent of Big Machine Records, also persuaded outlets including Starbucks and Rite-Aid stores to carry the album.

"What people are telling us is that you need to stay engaged," Borchetta said. "I'm not sure you can go away now for three years, as far as that fan base is concerned. If fans find you on Facebook or somewhere else online and you haven't given them a message [recently], you will lose them; they will go elsewhere."

Added Caulfield: "It's not just about being engaging. There are a million artists who are super personal and super engaging who will not sell this many albums in their lifetime, let alone in one week. It's the combination of engagement, personableness, the way all the songs are coming from her [and] that her fan base is very widespread: She has young and old: Moms are buying it at Walmart on the weekend, and the 13-year-old girls who want to be Taylor are buying it on iTunes.

"The takeaway from this could be that 1 million copies in a week is still achievable, and it doesn't mean that anyone can do it," Caulfield said. "But if you have all the right systems in place, and a perfect artist like Taylor, it's still possible."

randy.lewis@latimes.com

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Taylor Swift Unveils Madame Tussauds Wax Figure - MTV.com

NEW YORK — Fans gathered at Madame Tussauds in Times Square on Wednesday (October 27) to catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift, who was on hand to unveil the museum's latest wax figure — this one of Swift.

In the moments leading up to the superstar's arrival, fans sang along to songs from her latest album, Speak Now, as TV crews, paparazzi and photographers counted down the minutes until the big reveal.

In a sea of camera flashes, Swift finally made her way to the room where her new statue awaited. Dressed in an outfit identical to the replica, the singer seemed excited about her wax likeness. Both Swifts were wearing a dress designed by Jenny Packham, which Taylor had donated for the occasion. Her statue held up a custom-made guitar, but it wasn't just any old guitar: This was a blinged-out version decorated with 2,000 Swarovski crystals. Swift gave it two thumbs up before telling the crowd, "I think that the face looks a lot like me and this is so crazy. This is wonderful. I'm really thankful."

The appearance capped off a week of stops around New York City, including a "Today" show performance and an intimate fan-attended Speak Now release party, where the singer dished a bit about the album.

"For me, Speak Now was inspired by the last two years of my life. ... That's why I write songs," she said. Asked whether there was anything she wouldn't write about, she laughed, "Well, I thought so before this album. There's a little more speculation now than when I was 12."

What do you think of Taylor Swift getting her own wax statue? Who else do you think should get one? Tell us in the comments!

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Taylor Swift Apologizes To An Ex On 'Back To December' - MTV.com

On her new track "Back To December," which was released to digital-music outlets on Tuesday (October 12), Taylor Swift wants an ex to know she is really sorry for not giving him the love that he deserved.

While fans — who are already eager for her third album Speak Now, which comes out October 25 — will probably focus on guessing the subject of the ballad, it's important to note that "December" reveals a shift in Swift's songwriting. She laments the way she messed up her relationship with a seemingly perfect boyfriend, who now finds it hard to trust her.

She sings, "You've been good, busier than ever/ Small talk, work and the weather/ Your guard is up and I know why/ Because the last time you saw me/ It still burns in the back of your mind/ You gave me roses and I left them there to die."

When the chorus kicks in, Swift tries to make amends. "So this is me swallowing my pride/ Standing in front of you saying 'I'm sorry' for that night/ And I go back to December all the time/ It turns out freedom ain't nothing/ Missing you, wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine/ I'd go back to December, turn around and make it all right/ I go back to December all time."

Even Swift admits that this song reveals a new side. She told E!, "It addresses a first for me in that I've never apologized in song. The person I wrote this song about deserves this. This is about a person who was incredible to me, just perfect to me in a relationship, and I was really careless with him."

This is the fourth song released in advance of Speak Now's late-October release. The release of the album's first official single, "Mine," was followed by the debut of "Innocent" at the VMAs in September. The album's title track debuted on October 5.

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