Taylor Swift ducks spotlight in T.O.

PopGoesTheNews.com • Taylor Swift was in Toronto yesterday to promote a new album but went out of her way to stay out of the spotlight. The "You Belong With Me" singer, once very accessible to her fans, was tightly controlled during her 24-hour visit to the city.

Swift, 20, arrived from L.A. on Wednesday night aboard a private jet (while her "glam team" flew commercial) and ducked into the SoHo Metropolitan hotel on Wellington Street through the underground garage. The next morning she was whisked out of the same garage in a black SUV with tinted windows and taken to the CTV studios in the city's east end to tape an interview that aired today on Canada AM. The four-vehicle motorcade then returned downtown so Swift could tape an interview at CMT – slipping in and out of the Corus building on the lake shore via the underground parking garage.

Once back at her hotel, Swift did a round of media interviews before emerging from the underground once again. The singer was well aware that a small group of fans had waited for hours outside the hotel (earlier, her publicist refused to fetch them some autographs) but declined to roll her window down or stop – choosing only to give them a polite wave. Upon arriving at the CTV building on Queen Street, Swift ignored calls from photographers to turn around as she went inside.

Photographers representing local publications and global agencies were not permitted to shoot Swift during the live broadcast on MuchMusic – unlike her previous appearance there – and fans were warned sternly that taking photos was prohibited under threat of being forced to leave. Only a photographer from celebrity-friendly agency WireImage, working for Much, was permitted to capture Swift's appearance.

Fans outside the studio (including some who had waited all day in the cold) were told prior to the show that Swift would emerge at 5:30 and spend half-an-hour signing autographs and posing for pictures. But the pop-country superstar actually spent only 20 minutes outside. Many photographers were blocked by large signs promoting Swift's new album that were carried by people who said they were working on behalf of Swift's record label.

Click HERE to see a photo of Taylor Swift outside MuchMusic.

The strategy to keep Swift's image tightly controlled followed a day of similar behavior around her fellow country singer Carrie Underwood, who was in Toronto for a concert on Wednesday. A lone fan who stood outside the SoHo on Wednesday afternoon hoping for an autograph was strategically sent away by Underwood's handler after being given an autographed photo. Underwood and her husband, Ottawa Senators player Mike Fisher, were scheduled to exit the hotel via the front door and board her tour bus to the Air Canada Centre but when the singer's entourage noticed the paparazzi lying in wait, they used the bus as a decoy and snuck Underwood and Fisher out through the underground parking garage in a sedan. When eTalk's paparazzo took chase on foot, the car weaved through the streets of CityPlace to elude him.

The bizarre behavior of the two blonde pop stars came just a week after LeAnn Rimes took to Twitter with an embellished tale of being snapped outside of a Niagara Falls eatery. The singer hid her face and even walked backwards to avoid being photographed by a lone paparazzo standing several metres away.

Photo by Todd Gillis / CanadianTabloid.com.

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