Ah, 2002. What a different time it was.

Avril Lavigne was in her combats and wearing a tie phase and people still looked at the MTV VMAs as something resembling an awards show rather than a place for Lady Gaga debut her annual costume.

Kelly Clarkson was on Howard Stern's show earlier this week and was discussing her own experience at the 2002 VMAs in which the aforementioned Lavigne smashed her in the face with an elbow - all of which was supposedly caught on camera.

Here's the clip in question. Skip to 1:37 for the moment in question.

So, did it look like someone got elbowed in the face? Because it didn't to us. However, Clarkson believes it did - and what's more, she's been thinking about it for years. According to Clarkson, Lavigne apologised for said elbow smash.

"Years later I saw her and she said, ‘Oh my gosh, people keep saying I elbowed you in the face and I’m so sorry!’ And I don’t know...she did it...but I don’t know if she felt bad about it, or she didn’t mean to do it, or what...but it felt purposeful!"

Over to you. Did it look like she elbowed her? It looked more like Lavigne was trying to awkwardly get away from a hug or something. See, this is half the problem with awards show nowadays. Considering almost every has a cameraphone, you'd get this from about twenty different angles and you could compare it ala the courtroom scene in JFK.

Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left.

Lavigne has made no comment on Clarkson's accusations so far.

 

Via SiriusXM / Billboard