Taylor Swift has come under fire after she put her arm around a young man with a swastika drawn on his shirt and smiled for a photograph.
Images of Swift and the man, who TMZ reports is named AJ English, were taken at Katy Perry's birthday party in Los Angeles last weekend.
The photo has drawn the wrath of bloggers and gossip columnists since it was leaked onto the internet.
"Maybe someone should get her glasses or a handy guide to why it's celebrity suicide to pose with idiots who think Nazis are ironic or chic," Sabrina Brody wrote on Examiner.com.
But a representative for the 19-year-old country singer has issued a statement saying she did not realise what was on the man's shirt.
"Taylor took pictures with about 100 people that night," her representative said.
"She doesn't know who this guy is and she didn't realise what was on his shirt."
English claims the Nazi symbol was originally an X but it became "perverted" over the course of the night, TMZ reports.
He said he's "not a racist" and is sorry for dragging Swift into the controversy.
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