M.I.A. gets paid and tells at an MTV Movie Awards after-party

Part of Universal may have blazed to the ground yesterday but that didn't stop the MTV Movie Awards or a West Hollywood after-party last night, which featured glittering party people from Central Casting, not to mention a performance by M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam. The staff of the hoedown, sponsored by Target and Converse One Star, were especially vigilant about fire codes last night, leaving some 40 people waiting in an outside line minutes before the performance, but hey, we're not about to get mad at that.

Dressed like a techno-colored jester, M.I.A. jumped around and sang her 30 minutes of clattering hits, punctuating between-song time with "London Town" air raid sirens, but the most interesting moment arrived when Arulpragasam hopped on top of one of the many photo booths at the party and told her price for the gig: "They're giving me $100,000," she said. Not bad, eh? "I'm going to use it to build schools in Liberia," she said. "It costs $52,000* $2,000 to build a school for 1,000."

The show wrapped up with Arulpragasam inviting women onstage to dance to "Paper Planes," including Jessica Szohr, Jessica Stroup and Rumer Willis, who, between them, might have $100,000 in change falling out of their pockets.

Soundboard has no word yet from the party confirming or denying Arulpragasam's statement.

--Margaret Wappler

Photo of MIA performing at Coachella in April by Charley Gallay / Getty Images

*FOR THE RECORD: An Interscope Records representative has clarified that Arulpragasam said, "It costs $52,000 to build a school for 1,000."

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