MTV's always-avant-garde VMAs (airing live from Radio City Music Hall at 8 p.m. on Aug. 31) boast a red carpet unlike any other in the awards-show universe. Celebs — and just about everybody else — dress for scandal, and their outré behavior guarantees headlines. Below, exec producer Ocean MacAdams tells us in his own words what to expect this year.
1. ARRIVAL
''You name it, people want to arrive in it: pimped-out cars, 18-wheelers,
tour buses, motorcycles, boats. Rob Zombie once showed up in a Munsterscar. Then there's Diddy. In 2004, he cruised up to the VMAs — held that
year in Miami — in a boat that looked like a white oil tanker. One vehicle
you won't see this year: the helicopter. It's the No. 1 request. Do you
think you're going to land a helicopter in the middle of Rockefeller
Plaza? Do you understand the issues of that at all?''
2. PUBLICISTS PATH
''The people who dress the most scandalously are usually the least
famous. You're like, 'Who is that?' And it's a nobody, praying that lots
of people photograph them. [Those people] get shuffled along this path
behind the celebrities. Everyone who shows up with a celeb thinks they
belong on the carpet. The fantasy is that we won't have a carpet full of
Turtles and Dramas [from Entourage].''
3. INTERVIEW SPOTS
''There are three of them, referred to as the cube, the pod, and home
base. The cube is a rotating MTV news platform that is the one thing we
always have — it's tradition. The pod is a raised island in the middle of
the carpet that really puts you right in the action of the red carpet.
And the home base is similar to the spot where the 1995
Madonna-Courtney Love kerfuffle went down. With this year's 14-camera,
multi-screen experience, it'll be hard to miss anything.''
4. STAIRS''There are stairs at the beginning of the carpet [along] with escorts to give the ladies a hand. We are always terrified of stairs...but you can't exactly tell J. Lo to wear flats. The big thing we did last time we were here was we built this giant catwalk over the Rockefeller gardens. It looked like a fashion runway. It was awesome — except that paparazzi and fans were looking up dresses.''
5. PERFORMANCES
''The single most stressful thing: It's 6:27 p.m. and there are no
celebrities on the carpet. You know the nature of celebs — everybody wants
to be last. This year, TV is shutting down the red carpet for five
minutes while Fergie performs 'London Bridge' down the runway. It's
going to be hard to do but unbelievable. And at some point, a kick-ass
rock band will take the stage 70 stories above the red carpet at Top of
the Rock.''
