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'Fake weed' sparks controversy at MTV Awards

  2. Justin_Gunn
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Seth Rogen and James Franco held up a big bag of marijuana (or was it fake?) and then lit up a "big fatty joint" right on stage at the MTV Movie Awards. If it was really fake and part of a pre-written bit, why were the cameras pulled wide and return to the stage?

What do you think was really going on there?
Justin_Gunn

47 responses // 'Fake weed' sparks controversy at MTV Awards

  • I think by cutting away, MTV made this non news story a major headline, thus ensuring massive viewership for the endless replays this show will get throughout the week..
    Scott_Bromley
  • People still watch MTV?
    sapere_aude
    1 response to this
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here and here
    Pulling away seems odd.. Maybe MTV did it on purpose so it would be taked about. I don't know if MTV has any ties to the movie that Seth Green [editor's note: "Seth Rogen"] is in but seems like a good way to promote of both, the Awards and the Movie. It's got people talking about it today.
    Jbomb08
  • i'm with sapere. who watches mtv anymore?
    Betico
  • Is smoking weed controversial anymore?
    uroborus8
  • Bag, fake, joint, fake, lighter, real!

    If it was all real, you would find news stories of them being fined or arrested, stupid laws in america still outlaw the use of the greatest plant ever found.....
    danieldewinter
  • MTV realizes its audiences no longer comprise the music-loving people it once did. It figures it might be cooler if it tries to act a little more like the rockers and rappers of this era.
    mrpibb19
  • Yeah, I caught some of it last night and it all seemed so lame -- just like Iron Man. Pineapple Express, however, does look cool. So James Franco smokes? That makes me like him better.
    ag0093
  • this is what we all need to do...take a doobie and go to jail! Join NORML
    pokesmot
  • Who cares?
    merasyad
    1 response to this
  • Since MTV awards where on the Universal lot - which sadly caught fire Sunday morning - was this an attempt to make "light" of it
    mpegcto
    1 response to this
  • Apparently Seth didn't get the memo that smoking weed to be a "hip, dangerous rebel!" went out of fashion in 1972.

    "Lookit me! I'm being a bad boy! Look at how hip and out of control am! Those stuffed suits at MTV can't stop me! Better pull those TV cameras back grandpa because this kid is firing it up!"

    Riiiiigth.

    Next he'll change lanes without using his turn signal!
    crob80227
  • MTV? whats so musical about it? MTV sucks!!!! Who cares if that weed was real or not. They should rename MTV PTV(pointless television).
    realitybytes
  • I remember when MTV was relevant, ahhhh those were the days
    iammyfathersson
  • Why does this matter? It's weed, fake weed at that! It's not like they were pretending to sniff coke, calm down.
    Kallico75
  • This is news? Who watches MTV?
    current89
  • Flat out, I don't care.

    This is a waste of time and a waste of space.
    cwc_agent
  • How did this get on Current TV? There are more important issues than this being offered.
    uglycasanova10
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here, here and here
    Fake or real, this is a great stunt. The more it is used in common jokes like this ,the more people will accept it for what it is ... HARMLESS.
    pigmonkey
  • Aren't there regulations about portraying drug use (real or fake) on television? Perhaps it would bump the show's PG rating up a notch too high or something if they allowed it to be shown?
    Elligirl
  • Chances are the weed WAS fake but according to the censors, they still can't show a joint or lighting it up on cable.
    imabettie
  • Its possible that somone (ie the director)wasnt in the loop about the bit. and decided to play it safe and avoid massive fines by taking the long shot and crowd reactions.

    But you never know.
    parisinla
  • as a pothead: this made me chuckle... also, it maybe not as lame because i got to watch it on my computer, without that whole mtv mess...
    djaudible27
    1 response to this
  • i could really use some real weed right now
    Thargor19
  • I think that what Rogen and Franco were trying to prove, was not that they were "hip dangerous rebel"s because they smoke pot, but exactly the opposite. That you can just be a normal person, who enjoys the herb and that it's not, and shouldn't be, this big scary controversial thing.

    They took their bag (if real) on stage, took a huge hit in front of the faces of America and said, enough. WE like pot. Who cares?
    squidteeth
  • http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080602/ap_en_tv/mtv_movie_...
    oh and btw it looks like MTV was behind the whole thing anyway:

    according to yahoo news....

    UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Like the stoners they play in the upcoming "Pineapple Express," Seth Rogen and James Franco stumbled unkowingly into trouble Sunday at the MTV Movie Awards.
    ADVERTISEMENT

    And of course, the weed was someone else's.

    Early on in the show, Rogen and Franco took the podium to present the award for best summer movie so far, joking that MTV chose them because only "two potheads like us" would be willing to announce such a strange category. Then they pulled out a bag of "fake weed" and a "huge fatty joint" — and proceeded to light it.

    "Kids, don't really smoke fake weed like this," Rogen told the crowd at the Gibson Amphitheatre, with a degree of sarcasm to suggest that the only fake thing was the idea that it was fake.

    But before TV audiences could see the "contraband," the cameras pulled to an extremely wide angle, and stayed that way until Rogen and Franco left the stage. The awkward moment made some in the audience laugh, but left Robert Downey Jr. — who accepted the award on behalf of "Iron Man" alongside director John Favreau — with a puzzled look.

    Backstage, Franco told The Associated Press that MTV put them up to the joke, even supplying the script, the fake marijuana and the fake joint — then had a last-second change of heart about the bit.

    "MTV wrote it! ... Then backstage there was this big commotion: 'You guys can't say that,'" Franco said. "It says right in the script: 'Lights fake joint.'"

    He liked the bit, saying: "that was the joke, because the No. 1 question we get about 'Pineapple Express' is, 'What kind of research did you guys do?'"

    Franco said he was disappointed that the cameras went wide.

    "I think they killed the joke," he said.

    So what was really in the bag?

    "I don't know! MTV gave it to us."
    djaudible27
  • They should of made that into goodie bags
    MaRibElfalcon76
  • Why are we talking about this?....
    Mobius2012
  • camera direction was poor on this. They should not have stayed on that wide shot for so long. While their dialogue went on, they should have continually filmed the audience's reactions.
    stephenthomson
  • This is freaking funny! Man, i wish i can a do stunt like that at school. If i did that at school it would be like the best thing ever!
    Dubdice23
  • the pulling away was just really weird. It's odd to see the camera back that far. I wanted it to get closer. I tried to stare hard enough to make it happen.
    J_Jammer
  • As long as Seth "Green" (subconsciously correct) didn't toss that monster roach onto the tinder box that is the Universal Lot, I have no problem w/ the aforementioned "stunt"

    As for the pussy Director...
    Michael Bay would've used 11 cameras to show the lighter ignite the joint in slow motion, followed by an internal shot of Franco's lungs, highlighted by a massive explosion.

    Now that's Art!
    nkovach
  • Which all makes you wonder about the stunt...'it was in the script' and then MTV pulls back the cameras. MTV is not what it used to be!
    cibalin
  • fake awards show on a fake music channel. whatever music they play, is genetically modified and not organic, gross.
    Wessagusset_Oracle
  • Seriously? MTV? That once awesome channel, but now plays awful scripted dating shows, celeb houses that make me feel poor and pimp my ride that makes useless custom designs (fish tank in the car, what is that?), is still being watched?

    And how did this make Current News Headline? I simply don't understand.
    pogschampion
  • Let's remember MTV used to mean Music Television...
    TyMarshal
  • I thought smoking in the work place was illegal?
    Cretony38
  • I think that they shoulda just chilled and smoked a blunt right on stage!
    iknew
  • Kinda lame. But I'm gonna go hit the bong now, really.
    piff
  • shit lets all get hi " is the Mtv Promotion of the years yeppy
    LethanoWun
  • Cool? Well props to them regardless.
    cerealforeal