[There was a video here]

Endlessly malfunctioning pop cultural disaster Michelle Shocked appeared on last night's Piers Morgan Live to clarify last month's seemingly anti-gay babble that pushed her into the spotlight like never before. She was, in a word, opaque.

Here are her initial comments to Morgan after he asked her why she went on that infamous rant that included the words, " If someone would be so gracious as to tweet out that Michelle Shocked just said from stage, ‘God hates faggots.' Would you do it now?":

I admit I made a mistake, Piers. If I had the chance to do it again, I don't think I would have taken the audience up on their choice. I had presented an entire performance, and I framed it as 'truth,' and then I came out back for an encore, and they requested 'reality.' What has consequently taken place ever since then is my manifestation of how little I think of reality.

Things went on like this with Shocked evading the question, "Are you homophobic?" a few times, and returning to her truth-versus-reality beat. When pressed for simplicity, she finally said that she is not homophobic, adding, "But the truth, I don't think, lies in the simplicity. I think it lies in the nuance and that's been completely lost." So that's exasperating. She also admitted that she supports gay marriage and full gay rights. It took her about 10 minutes to get there, but she did. She also said, at one point, hilariously, "I am not a gay," and said that rumor arose when she rebuffed the advances of a manager early in her career.

Ultimately, I think the truth-versus-reality thing means that while the truth is that gay people are no less deserving of rights than anyone else, the reality is that not everyone agrees with it. Only Shocked's god knows why she took such a circuitous route to expressing what everybody already knows, but hey, it's kept her occupied for a few weeks.

The interview ended with Shocked pleading with Morgan to discuss one of her projects. The last thing she said was an interrupted quote from her song "Peachfuzz" ("The apple tree's got some strange fruit / Even Adam would not try / But human nature is living proof / Beauty's in the beholder's eye"). In this interview she went from an amusing, incoherent kook to a desperate artist pleading to be heard. Sad.

[via Towleroad]