Confirming what many folks had already suspected (and one MTV writer had previously confirmed himself), Eminem spoke with Rap Radar and admitted that he was totally in on the ass-in-face gag that comic Sacha Baron Cohen pulled off at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards this past Sunday night. As you may recall, Cohen — while promoting his upcoming new movie Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Male — descended from the rafters dressed as an angel and landed in Eminem’s lap, making sure to thrust his entire bare ass in his face in the process. Eminem, who looked visibly upset, got up and stormed out of the awards show ceremony. Today we learn from him that the whole thing was staged from the start. Here is a pic of Em and Sacha at the MTV Movie Awards rehearsal and portions of his interview with Rap Radar:

Three days ago at the MTV Movie Awards, Sacha Baron Cohen caused a firestorm as “Bruno” when he landed ass first on Eminem. Many speculated for the days whether the stunt was staged or real, with everyone speaking except the man himself. Breaking his silence, Em spoke exclusively to Rap Radar about the entire “ordeal”.

RR: Can you clear up the Bruno stunt at the MTV Awards? Was it staged or planned?
Eminem: Sacha called me when we were in Europe and he had an idea to do something outrageous at the Movie Awards. I’m a big fan of his work so I agreed to get involved with the gag.

If it wasn’t planned the way you agreed to, do you hold MTV or Sacha responsible and will you take any kind of action?
I’m thrilled that we pulled this off better than we rehearsed it. It had so many people going “nuts” so to speak. Everyone was blowing me up about it.

After you left the ceremony, where did you go?
After the ceremony I went back to my hotel and laughed uncontrollably for about 3 hours. Especially after I saw it on air.

And that, folks, should settle matters. I am very glad to know that Eminem is a good sport and that he can take a joke, especially being the prankster that he is. The producers of the 2009 MTV Movie Awards (headed by Mark Burnett Productions) should deffo be commended on pulling off a great awards show this year. They managed to put on an entertaining show and pulled off a gag that got a lot of buzz for days to come after it was all said and done. Staged or not, you’ve got to admit that the gag was pretty funny. Well done, MTV, Eminem and Sacha Baron Cohen.

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Clearly, the folks who voted for the 2009 MTV Movie Awards were BIG Twilight fans because they chose to heap numerous awards on the film and its actors over bigger movie blockbusters like Batman: The Dark Knight and the Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire. The show should’ve been renamed the 2009 MTV Twilight Awards cuz, really, that’s what the whole thing turned out to be. Here are a few pics of some of the red carpet arrivals at the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal Studios in Hollywood, CA, a run-down of what went down last night and some pics from the show itself:

The MTV Movie Awards were a blood bath Sunday night with “Twilight” taking five trophies, including best movie. But it was Sacha Baron Cohen who gave the show its trademark bizarro moment when he landed upside-down on the lap of Eminem, who may or may not have been deeply offended. “Twilight,” the popular vampire drama starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, sucked up golden popcorn trophies for best movie, best fight, best kiss, breakthrough male performance and female performance during Sunday’s freewheeling and often-bleeped ceremony at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, Calif. “The fans are the ultimate driving force,” Stewart said while accepting her best female performance trophy (which she promptly dropped on the floor, breaking off a chunk of the golden popcorn). Awards were decided by fan votes. Other winners included “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” star Zac Efron for male performance and his co-star Ashley Tisdale for female breakthrough performance. Miley Cyrus accepted the best song from a movie prize for “The Climb” from “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” preventing “Twilight” from sweeping all six nominated categories. An award new to this year, the “WTF moment,” went to Amy Poehler’s scene in “Baby Mama” where she urinates in a sink. But even that was upstaged by Baron Cohen, who flew in on a wire, hanging above the audience. Dressed as flamboyant character “Bruno” in a pair of feathery white wings and his rear end mostly exposed, the comedian crashed into an overhead obstacle and was lowered headfirst into the lap of Eminem, his bare hindquarters in the rapper’s face. “Is the real Slim Shady about to stand up?” chirped Baron Cohen. Eminem seemed visibly upset by the encounter, and members of his entourage roughly removed Baron Cohen as the rapper struggled to get out. But had the rapper’s self-styled homophobic character been punked by Baron Cohen and MTV, or was he in on the elaborate stunt? Free of the scene, Eminem stormed out with his entourage in tow — and cameras rolling — and hit the exits. Baron Cohen’s descent to the audience was included in rehearsals, but Eminem — who performed Sunday night — didn’t take part in that piece of the run-through. As the rapper stormed off, it sounded as though he was wearing a microphone, and cameras were in position to record his fast exit, but he was not seen or heard from again. Baron Cohen’s publicist, Matthew Labov, had no comment when reached after the show. A spokeswoman for MTV would not confirm whether Eminem was caught by surprise, and representatives for the rapper did not immediately return requests for comment Sunday night … Besides handing out awards for movies from the past year, MTV debuted new footage from the upcoming films “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” and “New Moon.” The highlight of the “Twilight” sequel clip: A newly buff Taylor Lautner transformed instantly into a giant, menacing canine, fans’ first look at one of the storyline’s werewolves.

LOL. I was surprised that Twilight only won 5 awards … from watching the show, it seemed like the movie won every category announced. It’s very clear that the Twilighters have spoken … and they love their vamps! They also love their awkwardly, fidgety starlet Kristen Stewart … who fumbled and itched her head thruout her acceptance speech for Best Female Performance (she looked like a crack addict pheenin’ for a hit) — and then dropped her award trophy onto the ground. In case you missed it the first time or just wanna watch it again, you can watch the full video of her onstage acceptance speech (and fumble) after the jump …

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The 2009 MTV Movie Awards, held in LA last night, were chock full of fun and memorable moments (which I’ll get to in more detail a little later on today) but none more memorable or more buzzed about than the Sacha Baron Cohen gag played on Detroit rapper Eminem. As he introduced the nominees for Best Male Actor, Cohen in character as the very flamboyant Brüno descended from on high into the lap of Eminem and managed to thrust his bare ass in Em’s face. An obvs pissed off Eminem stormed out of the audience, causing uproarious laughter from the crowd. Some contend the whole thing was staged, I personally think that while Em was in on the initial joke, Cohen and MTV might’ve really got him with the ass in face thing. Here are a few pics of the incident:

Eminem apparently has flown the coop from the MTV Movie Awards after a close encounter with Sacha Baron Cohen. In character as flamboyant fashion reporter “Bruno,” Baron Cohen flew in above Sunday’s award show audience on a wire — and in a pair of feathery white wings and his rear end mostly exposed. But the comedian crashed into an overhead obstacle, and he was lowered into the audience — right into Eminem’s lap, his bare hindquarters in the rapper’s face. Eminem seemed visibly upset at the mishap. Or was it a joke he was in on?

See … Eminem is such a prankster, he made a career of lampooning other celebrities … but he does have a pretty solid track record for not being able to take a joke himself. My guess is that he agreed to be part of a gag but prolly was not let in on the full extent of the final punchline. It’s hard to be sure but he really did look pissed off. After the jump, check out video of the gag and judge for yourself …

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MTV has released this year’s nominations for their annual MTV Movie Awards and, shock of shocks, the big screen adaption of the wildly successful book Twilight garnered the most nominations. Including a nom for Best Movie and two for Breakthrough Performance (one for Robert Pattinson and one for Taylor Lautner), Twilight ended up with 7 nominations total this year. The multi-Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire (which was named Best Picture at this year’s awards show) came in second with 6 nominations. It should be noted that the nominations for this year’s MTV Movie Awards were chosen by public (ie. the rabid fans). As well as Slumdog did at the Academy Awards this year, I’m thinking that Twilight will be the movie to clean up at this year’s MTV Movie Awards:

This year, for the first time ever, we entrusted you with the task of selecting the MTV Movie Awards nominees, and like the pop-culture superfans we knew you were, you did not disappoint! Now, we’re pleased to reveal your list of who will vie for the coveted Golden Popcorn trophies on May 31. “Twilight” took the lead with seven nominations, including nods for Best Movie, Best Female Performance (Kristen Stewart) and Breakthrough Performance Male (Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner). “Slumdog Millionaire” garnered six nominations, including Best Movie, Breakthrough Performance Female (Freida Pinto) and Breakthrough Performance Male (Dev Patel). Starting Monday (May 4), you’ll be able to vote for a winner in every category at the MTV Movies Awards site. Joining “Twilight” and “Slumdog” in the Best Movie category are “The Dark Knight,” “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” and “Iron Man.” In addition to the “Twilight” and “Slumdog” boys, the Breakthrough Performance Male category consists of Ben Barnes (”The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”) and Bobb’e J. Thompson (”Role Models”). Other Breakthrough Performance Female selections are Ashley Tisdale (”HSM 3″), Vanessa Hudgens (”HSM 3″) and Miley Cyrus (”Hannah Montana: The Movie”). Other Best Female Performance nominees include Anne Hathaway (”Bride Wars”), Angelina Jolie (”Wanted”) and Kate Winslet (”The Reader”), while other Best Male Performance nods went to Zac Efron (”HSM3″), Shia LaBeouf (”Eagle Eye”) and Robert Downey, Jr. (”Tropic Thunder”). MTV will also introduce two brand-new categories at this year’s show. Best Song From a Movie nominees include tracks from “Hannah Montana” (Cyrus) and “The Wrestler” (Bruce Springsteen). Best WTF Moment selections honor such outrageous scenes as Ben Stiller tasting a decapitated head (”Tropic Thunder”) and Amy Poehler peeing in a sink (”"Baby Mama”"). Battling it out for Best Fight will be folks like Christian Bale and Heath Ledger (”The Dark Knight”) and Seth Rogen, James Franco and Danny McBride (”Pineapple Express”). The Best Kiss category will see another showdown between “Twilight” (Stewart and Pattinson) and “Slumdog” (Pinto and Patel), with other lip-locking nominees including Franco and Sean Penn (”Milk”), and Paul Rudd and Thomas Lennon (”I Love You, Man”). “Saturday Night Live” funnyman Andy Samberg will host the 18th annual MTV Movie Awards live at 9 p.m. ET on May 31 from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. Eminem is already set to take the stage for a performance. The list of presenters and additional performers will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Now that we know who they are, MTV is hoping that YOU will weigh in and cast your votes for who you think should take home the golden popcorn statues this year. It seems pretty obvs to me that the Twilighters will show up in force at the polls for this year’s awards so I’d expect the movies who are vying for awards in the same categories save their acceptances speeches for another time. Tho, now that we know that Robert Pattinson is competing with Taylor Lautner for the Breakthrough Performance award it looks like we’ll find out soon enough if Team Edward or Team Jacob will come out on top. The 2009 MTV Movie Awards will air live on MTV on Sunday May 31. So what are you waiting for, get voting!!

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Despite the fact that a portion of the Universal Studios Lot burned to the ground in the early hours of the day yesterday, the 2008 MTV Movie Awards went down without a hitch at the Universal Amphitheater on the portion of the Universal Studios Lot that wasn’t affected by firey destruction … natch. Here are a few photos from the MTV Movie Awards red carpet yesterday:

Photo credit: Splash News
Except for the purpose of shamelessly promoting new movies (like Sex and the City, The Incredible Hulk, etc.) folks like Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Hudson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler and Ed Norton came out to the MTV Movie Awards to help distribute some awards. OK, so maybe they really came just to promote their movies but still …

Anyways … MTV trotted out a few celebs of their own to join in the festivities …

Photo credit: Splash News
I must admit, all of The Hills cast members were lookin’ pretty damn faboo if I do say so myself. Lauren LC Conrad, Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt and Audrina Patridge all looked amazing on the red carpet. No one was shiny and no one suffered any close calls with wardrobe malfunctions …

… that was reserved for super special guest attendee Lindsay Lohan who almost showed the world her nether parts when a big gust of wind blew across the red carpet:

Photo credit: Splash News
Fortunately, Lindsay decided to wear undies and managed to keep her biz on lockdown. Whew.

So yeah … the awards … there were a few handed out … so lets get to that … and check out a few pics from the actual show itself:

Photo credit: Wireimage
The destruction of King Kong and part of the iconic Back to the Future clock tower in a fire that broke out early Sunday morning at the Universal Studios back lot did not prevent Kong-size stars such as Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Ben Stiller and Charlize Theron from showing up for the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, held Sunday night at The Gibson Amphitheatre, not far from the site of the fire. By the time stars arrived, the smoke had cleared and the blaze provided some material for laughs. The Office’s Rainn Wilson laid claim to having set the fires to strike the wrath of God into Hollywood. “I meant to destroy the amphitheatre,” he joked. “I made a mistake on MapQuest.” Like at most MTV Movie Awards, just about every star had a film to promote (Wilson’s The Rocker opens Aug. 1) — and few were shy about it. Host Mike Myers kicked off the show with a joke about promoting The Love Guru, due June 20. Presenters also had product to push: Smith and Theron (Hancock, July 2); Cruise, Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder, Aug. 15); Will Ferrell (Step Brothers, July 25); Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Get Smart, June 20); Edward Norton and Liv Tyler (Incredible Hulk, June 13); Seth Rogen and James Franco (Pineapple Express, Aug. 8); and a gaggle of gals from The House Bunny (Aug. 22): Anna Faris, Rumer Willis, Katharine McPhee and Emma Stone (who also stars in The Rocker). There was a special salute to Adam Sandler, whose You Don’t Mess With the Zohan opens Friday. But some of the biggest cheers went to double-winner Johnny Depp, who gave laid-back thanks amid squeals from women in the crowd. Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Hudson, whose Sex and the City: The Movie, just brought home big bucks at the box office, were among the few without an upcoming movie to sell. With the success of the movie’s opening, Parker was asked about a sequel. “Honestly,” she said, “(producer/director/screenwriter) Michael Patrick King and I have not even talked about the idea.” Backstage, she received congratulations for the No. 1 opening from Cruise, who was there with wife Katie Holmes.

Okay … so the MTV Movie Awards is kind of a huge movie promotion vehicle but it’s also deffo a fun show that provides a lot of entertainment and has become an annual ritual for kicking off the Summer Movie Blockbuster Season. As usual, I really enjoyed watching the show … Mike Meyers is funny as hell (tho, I think Wayne’s World really needs to stay in the 90’s where it belongs) and, to be frank, the promo really worked on me. I’m very much looking forward to many of the movies that were promoed last night so … I guess mission: accomplished.

OH yeah … MTV Japan had their own little soiree this weekend … here are a few pics from the 2008 MTV Music Video Awards Japan which took place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan:

Photo credit: Wireimage
Paris Hilton managed to appear at both the MTV Music Video Awards Japan and the MTV Movie Awards all in the same weekend … she should get an award for that, no? I mean, what else could she possibly be qualified to win an award for? In any event, I think it’s safe to say that a good time was had by all … deserving folks went home with golden popcorn and all is well with the world.