And so ... another MTV Video Music Awards has come to an end. Ever since I've been able to attend the awards, I've had a different perspective than those of you who see the show on TV. I've received a few emails from readers who were disappointed in the show overall and many, many emails from those of you who were severely disappointed in Britney Spears's performance and with Sarah Silverman's jokes, in particular. I always have a great time at the VMAs but that prolly has a lot to do with the fact that I've been able to watch them live. So ... here is my take on the Big Show, from the red carpet to the last after, afterparty that David and I went to last night/this morning. We check out of our hotel in a couple of hours and then we're flying back home to our coasts ... so let's get to it.

The red carpet for the VMAs this year was inside the main lobby of the Palms Hotel and Casino. It snaked its way across and around the middle section of the lobby, with hotel guests and patrons milling about on all sides. It was a pretty frantic scene, as usual, but I had a great position on the carpet (chillin' with my ladies from Entertainment Weekly, OK! magazine and Life and Style magazine). Here is the first batch of pics:


I got to talk for a bit with Daniel Merriwether (the guy who collaborated with Mark Ronson on The Smiths cover Stop Me) about his new album (due out in February) and his single with Ronson. I asked him if he heard anything from Morrissey concerning his cover version of his song and he told me that Moz actually called Mark Ronson and told him that he loved the song. I also go to chat with Lil' Mama (who wore a baby outfit, like, for real) who I found extremely intelligent. She was very well-spoken and had a lot of great things to say about the other artists who were nominated for VMAs. When asked who she would like to collaborate with next (since she did a kickass remix with Avril Lavigne) she revealed that she would love to work with a rock band, like Linkin Park. Her interest lies in working with musicians who write all their own music, as opposed to an artist who relies too heavily on beats, production and outside songwriters. Sean Garrett, the really hot producer who has worked with Nicole Scherzinger, Usher, Ciara, Chris Brown and others, was able to reveal to me the title of one of the songs he did for Britney Spears's new album. As far as I know, there is no full tracklisting for Brit's untitled album (due out in November) but Sean Garrett revealed to me that the song Pull Out, which features Lil' Jon, will be on her new album (he said there was another song on the album that he did as well but kept that song title secret). Shar Jackson, one of my top 2 pics to win MTV's Celebrity Rap Superstar competition, was such a sweetheart ... I love her. I also loved the dress she was wearing and was surprised to find out that it was designed by Project Runway Season 3 designer Uli Herzner!

Here are a few pics of me with a few celebs -- Nicole Scherzinger, Cobra Starship, William Beckett from The Academy Is ..., Lil' Mama and Saaphyri (the winner of VH1's Flavor of Love: Charm School):


Nicole was chill as hell ... she looked amazing and was very soft-spoken. It's always great to see Gabe Saporta and the Cobra Starship kids ... as well as getting to chat a bit with William Beckett. All those guys are the downest guys. Lil' Mama was great to talk with and she gave me a big kiss on the cheek, making sure to leave a big ol' lipgloss mark ;) Saaphyri was another surprise ... you may recall she got expunged from The Flavor of Love on the first day of her season for beating some girl's ass -- then she went on to win the whole Charm School competition. She told me that she will be hosting the casting special for season 3 of Flavor of Love and that they managed to find a whole lot of new crazy girls for Flavor Flav to rub up on.

Here are pics with Megan Fox, Brody Jenner & Frankie Delgado, Shar Jackson, Larry Rudolph (Britney's former manager), Plain White T's and Melanie Brown/Scary Spice:


Megan Fox was just hot. She looked amazing in her pink dress ... I couldn't think of anything to say to her other than, "You look amazing!" Brody was lookin' fly in his just-purchased suit. When asked who he was wearing, he had to look inside his jacket to read the label (it was Dior, by the way). Shar promises that she will release an album if she wins Celebrity Rap Superstar -- I think she can do it. If she perform an Eminem song perfectly (like she did on the last episode of the show) then I think she's got the chops to make her own album -- it's bound to be better than K-Fed's album. So, yeah, I got to meet Larry Rudolph ... that was the closest I got to Britney all weekend (actually, not true -- David and I ran into Cousin Allie Sims in the lobby of the Palms at about 4AM [sans Britney] but we were way too tired to care). I honestly didn't have the heart to ask him what he thought of Brit's performance. Mel B. was so nice and her new hubby was the one who took the pic for us :)

I think it's pretty clear that everyone on God's green Earth (except Kanye West) was pretty disappointed with Britney Spears's opening of the VMAs. There was so much hype, so much anticipation and so much buzz that I was really looking forward to being wowed. The poor thing looked listless and kinda out of it ... almost as soon as the performance was over all sorts of excuses and explanations started to fly. Some say she overheard Sarah Silverman's routine rehearsal and didn't take too kindly to her jokes and that is why her performance was bad (which doesn't make sense to me), others say that MTV didn't let her do the Criss Angel/Mirror thing that was widely rumored to be a part of the performance and that is why it suffered (which really doesn't make sense to me and I sincerely doubt is even remotely true) ... I even heard a rumor that Britney is 2 months pregs and that is why she was so out of it. Personally, I think her heart isn't in performing any more ... she doesn't really seem to care about anything and no matter how hard people try to make her understand ... nothing. Blah. The other performances of the night were amazing ... here are a few pics from the show:


I don't really understand how people are surprised by Sarah Silverman's joke routine. That is what she does ... her jokes are outrageous and scathing. I would never say the things that she says but I get it that that's her shtick. Hands down, the Chris Brown/Rihanna performance was the best of the night ... it had theatrics, surprises and great choreography -- that performance should've opened the show. I don't understand how Paris Hilton managed to age 40 years but that hair-do has got to GO. MTV has posted the entire show on Overdrive for online streaming HERE. If you missed it, check it out. [Source]

Here are a couple pix of Kid Rock and Tommy Lee getting hugs from security after Kid Rock allegedly punched Tommy Lee:


After they were both ejected, the LVPD had to hunt down Kid and cite him with misdemeanor assault. Hey, Detroit boys have bad tempers. [Source, Source]

David and spent the majority of the night at the official VMAs afterparty at the Palms pool where we ate some amazing food and drank a lot of free booze. At about 1am we made our way up to the Sky Villas for the Belvedere Vodka Lounge party hosted by Pete Wentz:



We got to party a bit with Pete (who kindly gave PITNB a shout out on the mic), the Fall Out Boys Ashlee Simpson, Panic! At the Disco, Boys Like Girls, Nathan Dickinson (Janice's son) and Gabe Saporta into the wee hours before stumbling back to our hotel to crash. I also got to meet a bunch of great Pink readers (some of them pictured above) ... which is always a good time.

I MUST send out HUGE LURVE to my girl Emily Yeomans from MTV for always taking such amazing care of David and me. She is amazing and if MTV is smart, they will give her A BIG RAISE. Always professional, extremely accomodating and an absolute pleasure to work with -- Emily, you rule! Thank you so much for everything!!!!

So yeah ... the hotel is kicking us out in about 35 mins. so I have to jet. REMEMBER that there will be no goss post tomorrow in observance of 9/11. I ask that all y'all take the time that you usually spend reading the site to reflect and remember all those innocent lives that were lost on 09.11.01. Things will be back to normal on Wednesday. Have a great Monday ... I'm out.

[Permalink]