People had been wondering why Taylor Swift had opted not to attend this weekend’s MTV Video Music Awards in New York, but now it seems as though she’s got a great excuse – she was busy turning up for jury duty in Nashville instead!

Her absence had been a topic of discussion the previous night at the VMAs at Madison Square Garden, but instead the 26 year old pop star was doing her civic duty by turning up to serve on a jury in her hometown in Tennessee – making it a memorable experience for her fellow jurors and proving she’s a woman of the people.

Taylor SwiftTaylor Swift amazed onlookers by showing up for jury duty in Nashville

She was gracious to those who wanted to take selfies and get autographs – fellow juror Tracy Bates uploaded a number to her Twitter account, but she has requested her images not be used by media outlets despite saying Swift had been “happy to take selfies with us all”.

“My mom just casually has jury duty with Taylor SWIFT!!” wrote another excited fan.

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In possible bad news for everybody tweeting about this – people serving on juries in the past who have shared pictures of their fellow jurors have consistently been strongly rebuked and even fined.

Whatever case this turns out to be – Swift’s jurors have been adamant that they haven’t yet gotten round to discussing the details of the case – it looks likely to be a non-starter. Oops.

Meanwhile, Kanye West took advantage of TayTay’s absence from Sunday night’s VMAs by referring to their feud while he gave an uninterrupted four-minute speech. When referring to Beyonce’s eight awards of the evening, he hinted at the time in 2009 he interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech by demanding she hand over her prize to Beyonce, joking he was “always wishing for Beyonce to win”.

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