MTV VMAs keep the pop machine fed

At one point during the Sunday night broadcast of the 25th annual MTV Music Awards, the action apparently switched from Paramount Pictures to the Whisky a Go-Go on the Sunset Strip, where the rock band Paramore's performance was inciting a riot. Not really, though: Singer Hayley Williams and her boys were ripping it up in a simulated nightclub directly adjacent to the award ceremony's main stage. "Nothing is as it seems," said the night's host, the comic Russell Brand. Get it? Just like in the movies!

This gimmick at this most unrepentantly contrived of awards shows was to play up the artifice of the screen image, whether of the blockbuster film variety or more like something seen on a cellphone. Holding the event at a film studio allowed for this approach – though the move could also be viewed as a cost-saving measure, given that MTV and Paramount are both properties of the Viacom media conglomerate.

Throughout the evening, stars played their hits on sets that morphed as the music progressed. The Jonas brothers sat on a New York City stoop to play an acoustic version of "Lovebug," then jumped up as the row houses came apart around them and went electric, surrounded by screaming fans. Pink smashed some windows, action-heroine style, during her turn. T.I. took his lady shopping on a fake Rodeo Drive before joining Rihanna back on the main stage to perform their hot new duet, "Livin' My Life."

Read more of Ann Powers' "MTV VMAs keep the pop machine fed." For more VMA coverage, including Todd Martens' scorecard of VMA performances, visit The Envelope.

Photo from Wire Image