Can I please stand up, please stand up?

Poor Eminem. After battling his demons and finally launching his big comeback with new CD 'Relapse', he settled into his seat to enjoy Sunday's 2009 MTV Movie Awards. But part way through the show, Sacha Baron Cohen took to the stage in character as Bruno, and Eminem was left with more than just egg on his face.

The thing is, Bruno likes to make an entrance. And did so, suspended on cables, wearing a jockstrap and angel wings. As he flew across the auditorium he demanded to be let down, and was dutifully dropped straight into Eminem's lap. Bottom side up.



After much writhing and tussling, Eminem was finally freed by his entourage, and supposedly stormed out of the theatre with a face like thunder.

Now, I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but Eminem had to have been in on the joke. Wirework is notoriously difficult to pull off at the best of times, and the precision programming needed to drop Cohen right on top of Eminem would have taken a good deal of preparation. This was a carefully choreographed stunt from the get-go. And although Eminem played angry about the whole affair, his response was a little too muted to be genuine.

But the funniest thing about the whole affair was the reaction of fans. Half of them refused to believe that Eminem would stoop to being teabagged at an awards ceremony, whilst the other half thought MTV went too far. My favourite response was posted on www.wwtdd.com by Bill03:
"I can’t imagine eminem was in on this stunt. No thug life black rapper would go for being tea-bagged on tv and since eminem is white and has to act extra black to be accepted into the thug life community he would never go along. He get’s major bitch points for this..."

Whether Marshall Mathers III was in on the joke or not will no doubt be settled soon enough. Given that he performed a duet with Elton John to answer accusations of homophobia, and his fondness for smutty sex-based humour, I'm hoping that he's not too put out at getting up close and personal with Baron Cohen waxed sack and crack.

As for Bruno, he got some great extra footage for his forthcoming movie, once again showcasing America's tendency towards gay panic.