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Kim Kardashian defends Kanye West in wheelchair kerfuffle

The final stops on Kanye West's "Yeezus" tour included a concert in Sydney, Australia, on Friday night. It was the first of two shows in that city.
The final stops on Kanye West’s “Yeezus” tour included a concert in Sydney, Australia, on Friday night. It was the first of two shows in that city.
(Mark Metcalfe / Getty Images)
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The story about Kanye West stopping his concert until a person in a wheelchair and another with a prosthetic leg stood up has been twisted by the media, Kim Kardashian says.

“What an amazing Australian tour! Its frustrating that something so awesome could be clouded by lies in the media,” the reality star said Monday on Instagram before landing Tuesday morning at LAX with her daughter and husband.

West, of course, had walked a mile -- or at least the length of a stage -- in Joe Biden’s shoes during one of his weekend concerts in Sydney, Australia, where he announced he was stopping the show until everybody in the audience was standing up. Unfortunately, the “Yeezus” rapper was a stickler for detail and waited -- and waited -- because he really wanted everyone to stand up.

“I can’t do this song, I can’t do the rest of this show until everybody stands up,” he said. “Unless you got a handicapped pass with special parking ...”

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At one point, he asked the crowd if they wanted any holdouts to stand up or “be removed.” Later, a chant of “Stand up! Stand up! Stand up!” echoed through the venue.

“This is the longest I’ve had to wait to do this song. It’s unbelievable,” West said.

The two who weren’t playing along, however, had good reason: Namely, those aforementioned disabilities. When a bit goes wrong during a live show, it can go very wrong indeed; no malice required.

“Now, if he is in a wheelchair, then it’s fine,” West said to someone, presumably from his staff, who’d gone into the audience to see what was up. “He in a wheelchair there? Only if he’s in a wheelchair.” The woman with the prosthetic leg waved it and got a pass too, according to the Daily Beast.

So the show went on.

Days later in Brisbane, at the final show of the “Yeezus” tour, West defended himself to his fans, positioning himself as a victim of exaggerated headlines aimed at people who’ve never even heard one of his albums.

Which of course never happens to celebrities.

“Welcome to today’s news, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve got Americans getting killed on TV. We have kids being killed every weekend in Chicago. We have unarmed people being killed by police officers ...,” he told the crowd. “It makes you just want to reflect on what are the things that are a little bit more sensationalized about this.”

He declared himself a “married, Christian man with a family” and suggested the media find a new target, because he was just trying to make sure his fans had as much fun as possible at his concerts.

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“Kanye never asked anyone in a wheel chair to stand up & the audience videos show that,” Kardashian wrote. “He asked for everyone to stand up & dance UNLESS they were in a wheel chair. #JustWantedEveryoneToHaveAFunNight #TheMediaTwistsThings.”

Addressing the audience in Brisbane, West offered no apology or further explanation. And judging by footage of what went down at that Sydney show, he probably shouldn’t have to.

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs.

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