MTV Movie Awards 2010: New Moon, stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are the obvious top choices
Chris Weitz’s Twilight sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon and stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were the expected winners at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, held on June 6 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, located on the other side of the hills overlooking Hollywood.
Comedian Aziz Ansari hosted the expletive-/bleep-filled ceremony while The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’s wolf pack member Chaske Spencer acted as MTV International’s red-carpet correspondent.
Nominees ranged from James Cameron’s mega-blockbuster Avatar and Christopher Waltz’s Academy Award-winning villainous performance in Inglourious Basterds to the fight between Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Strong in Sherlock Holmes and Megan Fox’s vomit in Jennifer’s Body.
Sandra Bullock gets standing ovation, kisses Scarlett Johansson
Unquestionably, the highlight at this year’s MTV Movie Awards ceremony was not New Moon and its leads but Best Actress Oscar winner Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) receiving an enthusiastic standing ovation while accepting the MTV Generation Award from Bradley Cooper, her costar in the critical and box office dud All About Steve; Betty White, who has a supporting role in last year’s hit The Proposal; and Scarlett Johansson, the wife of Bullock’s The Proposal costar Ryan Reynolds.
Of course, one can’t tell whether the crowd’s ardor had to with the fact that they were applauding Hollywood star and top box office draw Sandra Bullock – of Speed, Miss Congeniality, and The Blind Side fame – or whether that was a spontaneous combustion resulting from another fact: Bullock, whose off-screen public persona is that of Miss Affability, had been keeping a low profile after becoming the real-life star of a family melodrama in which the U.S. media cast her as the victim of a monstrous, cheating husband.
As per MTV, Bullock, also a Best Female Performance contender for The Blind Side, was this year’s MTV Generation Award honoree “for her riveting and diverse contributions to the film industry and for entertaining generations of the MTV audience over the last two decades.” And not for her all-but-guaranteed – considering all the goings-on – TV-ratings allure.
Bullock’s most memorable moment while on stage was her turning to Scarlett Johansson and saying, “This is so weird, Scarlett. I love you and all, but this is really uncomfortable…. Why are you here?“
Unfortunately, the much too brief girl-on-girl kissing that followed felt anticlimactic – especially when compared to Bullock’s smooching it up with Meryl Streep at this year’s Critics Choice Awards.
Just as unfortunate was that Bradley Cooper didn’t plant a big one on Zac Efron, as guy-on-guy kissing remains a rarity at entertainment award ceremonies. (Well … see below.)
What else?
Also at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, Tom Cruise’s notoriously crass Hollywood mogul Les Grossman* (first seen in Tropic Thunder) danced with Jennifer Lopez during the musical introduction to the show. Whatever you thought of that depends on the state of your mental equilibrium.
Bradley Cooper and Jessica Biel introduced the Best Kiss Award, which, shocker, went to Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson for New Moon. More interesting (odd/weird) was something called a “kiss camera” (or some such) that showed celebs sitting in the audience – Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, Get Him to the Greek leads Russell Brand and Johan Hill – doing a bit of lip-locking while the crowd screamed in ecstasy (or in agony, it wasn’t clear).
As himself, Tom Cruise and his Knight and Day costar Cameron Diaz presented the award for Best Movie. When laughter followed an attendee yelling at Cruise, “Show me the money!” (tired line from Jerry Maguire), Diaz, taking her cue, remarked that the guy likely wanted to see a (bleeped) part of Cruise’s anatomy.
Next came Peter Facinelli, who, while his fellow New Moon cast members looked on, thanked director Chris Weitz, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, and so on, while repeating the word “fucking” more often than most people have used it so far this decade. Facinelli refrained to fucking-thanking only Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer “because you’re a Mormon.”
Whether or not you find that funny, television viewers must have appreciated the reaction shots of celebrities in the audience. Some were clapping unenthusiastically, others looked bored to tears, others yet were seen checking out other celebrities.
Of note, the best and most concise homage/speech at the event came courtesy of Scarlett Johansson: A monosyllabic “No,” in answer to Bradley Cooper’s question whether she wanted to say something in Bullock’s honor.
* Among the various 2010 MTV Movie Awards promos, one featured Zac Efron with his head attached to the body of a squirrel, while a couple of others starred Tom Cruise as Les Grossman. In one of these, Grossman tells the Tom Cruise of Risky Business that “teens love [unclear expletive] ass” and then rips the young actor’s pants so his bubble butt can be seen under his tight white underwear. In another, he lambastes Robert Pattinson for wanting to wash/comb his trademark “filthy” hair.
Peter Facinelli explains the expletives
Update: Regarding his expletive-filled speech at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, Peter Facinelli explains:
“My acceptance speech was meant as a satirical commentary to poke fun at the record breaking number of f-bombs dropped during the show. Secretly, I hope that David Mamet tuned in last night in case he’s prepping a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross.”
MTV Movie Awards 2010 performers & presenters
Performers at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards ceremony included Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, and Snoop Dogg.
Among the award presenters/show participants not already mentioned further up were Taylor Lautner, Paul Rudd, Jessica Alba, Eva Mendes, Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Aubrey Plaza, Jessica Biel, and Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, 2009).
Also: Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kieran Culkin, Miranda Cosgrove, Michael Cera, Mark Wahlberg, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jason Segel, and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Which is which?
Lastly, in case you are unable to tell the difference between the MTV Movie Awards and the People’s Choice Awards (and facsimile), don’t feel bad. They all serve the same purpose: Promoting current and upcoming releases in the American market, and, by extension, elsewhere on the planet.
When it comes to the winners and nominees, there isn’t even a pretense that quality – or de facto popularity (vote as early and as often as you like) – have anything whatsoever to do with the results.
And lest we forget: As posted on the MTV Movie Awards website, one of host Aziz Ansari’s ideas to get the show going was the following: “How bout [sic] this time, Tom Hanks whips his balls out? Just onstage, whips it out there. That would be pretty crazy, right? That would get on Twitter!”
Further below is a partial list of this year’s MTV Award winners.
MTV Movie Awards 2010 TV ratings
June 9 update: New Moon and stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner; teaser trailers for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and The Last Airbender; Sandra Bullock kissing Scarlett Johansson; Betty White talking about her ovaries; Tom Cruise as Les Grossman; host Aziz Ansari singing a tribute to James Cameron’s Avatar; Peter Facinelli delivering countless expletives; the Jersey Shore cast; etc.
Did that pop culture cauldron translate into solid U.S. television ratings for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards?
Well, it’s complicated.
According to several reports, 16.4 million U.S. viewers checked out this year’s ceremony – a 2 percent increase from last year. Others reports, however, assert that ratings were down 13 percent.
Who to believe?
In The Hollywood Reporter, James Hibberd explains that despite strong competition from sports programming on other channels, 5.8 million viewers watched the 2010 MTV Movie Awards on MTV, MTV2, and VH1 – slightly down from last year’s 5.9 million. But at MTV alone the drop-off rate was 13 percent.
As for the 16.4 million figure … Well, that’s supposed to represent the total number of U.S. viewers who watched at least a – one-minute – segment of the show on MTV, MTV2, or VH1. That’s indeed up 2 percent from last year.
Wrapping this up, the MTV powers-that-be have apologized for all the expletives voiced (though not necessarily heard) on the show. They should have apologized instead for all the annoying bleeping.
MTV Movie Awards 2010 winners (partial list)
Best Movie: The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Best Male Performance: Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Best Female Performance: Kristen Stewart – The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Best Breakout Star: Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Best Comedic Performance: Zach Galifianakis – The Hangover
Best Scared-as-S**t Performance: Amanda Seyfried – Jennifer’s Body
Best KIss: Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Best Fight: Beyoncé Knowles vs. Ali Larter – Obsessed
Global Superstar: Robert Pattinson
National Movie Awards 2010: More Twilight Saga gleaming
In the United States, movie lovers of a certain age (and mindset) have the MTV Awards, the People’s Choice Awards, the Kids Choice Awards, etc. In the United Kingdom, they now have the National Movie Awards. The winners of this year’s (third) edition were announced on May 26 at a London ceremony hosted by Waking Ned actor James Nesbitt.
Winners included Chris Weitz’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which also earned Robert Pattinson Best Performance honors; David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (up for Best Family Film but not for Best Fantasy – go figure); and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes.
A third award for the Twilight Saga franchise went to David Slade’s upcoming The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, named the year’s Most Anticipated Summer Movie.
Among those at the ceremony were Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, whose blockbuster franchise received the Special Recognition Award.
Immediately below is the list of this year’s National Movie Award winners.
National Movie Award 2010 winners
Best Fantasy: The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Best Action Movie/Thriller: Sherlock Holmes
Best Family Movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Best Breakthrough Movie: The Time Traveler’s Wife
Best Performance of the Year: Robert Pattinson – The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Most Anticipated Summer Movie: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Special Recognition Award: The Harry Potter franchise
Screen Icon: Tom Cruise
“MTV Movie Awards 2010” notes
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson The Twilight Saga: New Moon image: Summit Entertainment.