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It would have been so weird if Taylor Swift was sitting at home, in her rented New York apartment on Sunday night, watching the VMAs go down. I’ll admit, my mind wandered a few times and I thought, “Hm, is Taylor reading the tweets right now?” She was like the Ghost of VMAs Past, haunting Madison Square Garden. As it turns out, Taylor was not in New York on Sunday. She flew to Nashville over the weekend, and she reported for jury duty bright and early Monday morning. Seriously! You know how we know? Because the other people in the potential jury pool were tweeting about her and outright tweeting photos of her. So here are a few things I’ve learned.

Taylor votes! I always wondered if Taylor even bothered to vote, but now we know – she’s registered to vote at her Nashville address. I wonder how many times she’s voted? I’ve voted at my current address for years, and I’ve never been called in for jury duty, ever. I honestly think I never make the cut because of my foreign-sounding name.

Taylor doesn’t ask for special treatment. That we know of! The way it looked on social media, Taylor arrived sans entourage, low-key with little-to-no makeup, and she talked to everyone, took selfies, signed autographs and didn’t seem to “pull rank” at all. The only thing out-of-the-ordinary was that she did have security guards in the building, but not in the jury selection room.

How does she define herself? During voir dire (where lawyers question jury pool members directly), Taylor was asked what she does for a living. She could have said “pop star” or “singer” or “Professional Snake Emoji.” But she said “I’m a songwriter.”

She’s not impartial. Per local Nashville media: “When asked, Swift tells prosecutor she is involved in civil sexual assault case that hasn’t gone to trial yet but says she can be impartial.” That’s the case about a radio host allegedly groping her and she got him fired and now he’s suing her. Apparently, the judge disagreed with Tay-Tay though – the judge thought her involvement in the lawsuit meant that she could not be impartial, so she was dismissed for cause.

Taylor was dismissed within a few hours. She did her civic duty, she went through several rounds of voir dire, and she was not selected for the trial. What was the trial? It was a case involving multiple charges of rape, aggravated assault and kidnapping. Yikes! I thought it was going to be, like, petty larceny or something.

So, is this just the kind of news cycle Taylor needs? As others have pointed out, many can take a pass on jury duty if they’re busy, and reschedule for another time. Apparently, Taylor was called for jury duty last December, but she couldn’t make it because she was on tour. So did she pick a certain moment when she knew she needed a good new cycle? Hm.

.@taylorswift13 reports for jury duty in Nashville https://t.co/KxLDWgRZER pic.twitter.com/4On7uiFsNg

— Stereogum (@stereogum) August 29, 2016

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, Twitter.
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