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"Uh oh, it&amp;#039;s about to get crazy in here! Never mind that MTV has become known less for its actual music videos and more for its promotion of teen moms and Jersey party-goers, it&amp;#039;s time for the 2012 Video Music Awards! With lots of the biggest stars tapped to perform - from Rihanna to One Direction - and many others stepping on stage to present, it should be a good night. Wait - the absolutely hilarious Kevin Hart is hosting, so make that a great night.  There&amp;#039;s sure to be some insanity going on, or maybe we&amp;#039;re just hoping. Either way, stick with Digital Spy live from 8/7c for all the action!  22:03Well, that&amp;#039;s it for the 2012 MTV VMAs. And immediately as the ceremony ends, MTV has started it over from the beginning. I think once is enough for me. We&amp;#039;ll be back next year! 22:02Ha - cleverly, the cameraman pans to the audience and focuses on Taylor Lautner, who famously dated Taylor for a few months a couple of years ago. He claps and seems... blank. Much like his acting. Zing! (Sorry, it&amp;#039;s the best I had.) 22:01She gets the whole auditorium clapping along and singing as the song ends - I even catch Liam Hemsworth, of all people, getting totally into it. Lots of confetti falls and basically what I&amp;#039;m saying is that I would see Taylor Swift in concert. So, sue me. 22:00This performance is a nice little farewell to summer, complete with bright colours, sunglasses, and... culottes? Alright, I&amp;#039;ll go with it.  21:59For the last performance of the night, it&amp;#039;s Taylor Swift, debuting &amp;#039;We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together&amp;#039;. God, I love this song. No shame! Everyone in the audience seems to be singing this at the top of their lungs, which is both amazing and hilarious. Whoever doesn&amp;#039;t like Taylor Swift sucks. She&amp;#039;s so enjoyable in a totally non-ironic way. And this is a total tune, so shush, all you naysayers. 21:57Kevin is screaming like a banshee onstage as he presents the award, getting a playful slap from Rihanna as she takes her statue and the mic. She thanks MTV and most importantly, her fans. &amp;#039;I love you, Rihanna Navy is navy or die - it&amp;#039;s navy til we go,&amp;quot; she says. Everyone at the label gets a thanks, as well, but Calvin Harris stands lonely on his DJ podium and goes without a thanks. :( 21:56Of course, the award rightfully goes to Rihanna! 21:56Well, the show is nearly over. There&amp;#039;s just one more award to be given out and one more performance. It&amp;#039;s been a... rather underwhelming night, to be honest. But in any case, it&amp;#039;s Video of the Year time. The nominees are Rihanna for &amp;#039;We Found Love&amp;#039;, Drake (featuring Rihanna) for &amp;#039;Take Care&amp;#039;, MIA with &amp;#039;Bad Girls&amp;#039;, Katy with &amp;#039;Wide Awake&amp;#039; and Gotye and Kimbra for &amp;#039;Somebody that I Used to Know&amp;#039;. 21:49Halfway through the performance, she pulls Gabby Douglas up on the stage with her to do a few leaps... it&amp;#039;s a bit odd, but I can dig it. 21:46Hey, it&amp;#039;s the US women&amp;#039;s gymnastics team! They all look lovely and are so tiny! They&amp;#039;re introducing Alicia Keys, who&amp;#039;s debuting her new song &amp;#039;Girl On Fire&amp;#039;. I&amp;#039;m a big Alicia fan - I think she&amp;#039;s great, and a really lovely person, to boot. She plays her piano standing up and her voice sounds a bit different than usual, but still really good! I&amp;#039;m looking forward to her new album, for sure. 21:39No surprises here - since this was voted on by the fans (read: hordes of teen girls), One Direction takes the prize. It&amp;#039;s dedicated to the fans, of course - they&amp;#039;re good kids.  21:37Ke$ha and Wiz Khalifa are on stage now, and they&amp;#039;re here to announce the Best New Artist award. Before they announced the nominees, however, they bring up the fact that Wiz and Amber Rose are going to have a baby. The nominees for this award are fun. for &amp;#039;We Are Young&amp;#039;, Carly Rae Jepsen&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Call Me Maybe&amp;#039;, Frank Ocean&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Swim Good&amp;#039;, One Direction&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;What Makes You Beautiful&amp;#039; and The Wanted&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Glad You Came&amp;#039;. 21:36Hey look, it&amp;#039;s the Twilight cast, sans Kristen Stewart. They&amp;#039;re premiering an exclusive clip from The Twilight Saga: breaking Dawn - Part 2 which isn&amp;#039;t so much a clip as it is an alternate trailer. There&amp;#039;s a bit about Renesmee, a bit about the Vulturi, a lot of running on snow... standard stuff. 21:27Green Day aren&amp;#039;t really my bag, but they&amp;#039;ve performed on the VMAs more than any other band, ever, so go them! Billy Joe Armstrong has apparently had some sort of weird stomach bug lately so they weren&amp;#039;t sure if this performance would go on, but here we are! 21:26Yes, it is the same person and it&amp;#039;s Ezra Miller, before any of you kick off. IMDB is your friend. 21:25A YouTube star who doesn&amp;#039;t speak English is on stage now. I&amp;#039;ve never seen the original video, but Katy seems to love it and tries to explain it to Rihanna in the audience. Rihanna just looks perplexed. But back to the stage - Emma Watson is here, along with the guy from We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. They&amp;#039;re the same person, right? Whatever - Green Day is performing now. 21:21Bookend skit time - Kevin&amp;#039;s teasing Ke$ha about how she needs to stop with her new age spirituality and put on sexy clothes. My, how yoga changes a person. 21:16Lil Wayne is shirtless as ever and most of his rap is censored as it&amp;#039;s clearly not fit for TV. He&amp;#039;s always wearing some bizarre animal print - tonight, his pants scream giraffe. Gotta love him, though... er, right? 21:13Time for another performance - it&amp;#039;s 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne! They&amp;#039;e doing &amp;#039;Yuck&amp;#039; and there&amp;#039;s not much to say about it besides the fact that 2 Chainz is in fact wearing more than just two. Zing? (Weak, I know - they&amp;#039;re not giving me much to work with tonight!) 21:06Nicki Minaj wins the award, which... just no. It&amp;#039;s a good song, sure, but Rihanna should have taken that. Not feeling that. She also mouths a nice &amp;#039;Oh my f**king god&amp;quot; before the cameras can cut away and then brings SB (her hype man, for the uninitiated) and the pink shirt man on stage. She acts surprised and starts shrieking and then cuts herself off before looking around to figure out where in the hell to go to get off the stage. 21:04The nominees for Best Female Video are... Rihanna for &amp;#039;We Found Love&amp;#039;, Katy Perry for &amp;#039;Part of Me&amp;#039;, Selena Gomez for &amp;#039;Love You Like a Love Song&amp;#039;, Beyonc\u00C3\u00A9 for &amp;#039;Love On Top&amp;#039; and Nicki Minaj for &amp;#039;Starships&amp;#039;. Tough category!  21:02Rebel Wilson and The Wanted are here to present the next award - Rebel&amp;#039;s wearing one of those shirts with a bikini body on it that&amp;#039;s meant to make you look like you&amp;#039;re actually wearing it. She&amp;#039;s also eating a bag of crisps and jokes about being able to take home one of The Wanted band members. 21:00I was close! It&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;One Thing&amp;#039;, but I suppose those of you who actually care will already know that. 21:00Hey look, it&amp;#039;s One Direction. I have to say - back when they were cobbled together as a group on X Factor UK, I never would have believed you if you&amp;#039;d have told me... well, actually, yes I would believe that they&amp;#039;d be popular. Teenage girls are nuts. And indeed, they&amp;#039;re all screaming and moshing. A group of them are even allowed to do so on stage with the boys. They&amp;#039;re singing a song that I imagine is called &amp;#039;That One Thing&amp;#039;. Is that a real One Direction song? Sigh. I suppose I&amp;#039;ll have to Google. 20:54Drake takes the prize - Lil Wayne comes up with him since he features in the song and is also part of the whole Young Money crew. That means Nicki Minaj is heading up, as well, along with another hoodie-sporting gentleman whose name I don&amp;#039;t know. There&amp;#039;s also a fella in a pink t-shirt. Lil Wayne still has headphones on, so apparently he thinks this whole thing is played out, as well. Drake is feeling emo (so, same as usual) and dedicates the award to &amp;quot;any kid who ever had a long walk home&amp;quot;. Well... that is pretty sweet, I suppose. The camera keeps flashing to Katy and Rihanna, who are seated together and who both look a bit confused. We&amp;#039;re going by first names tonight, okay, guys? Keep up. 20:51Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg are here to present the award for Best Hip Hop Video. It&amp;#039;s between Kanye&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Mercy&amp;#039;, Drake &amp;#039;HYFR&amp;#039;, Nicki Minaj &amp;#039;Beez in the Trap&amp;#039;, Childish Gambino&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Heartbeat&amp;#039; and Watch the Throne&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Paris&amp;#039;. 20:47Ha, another bookend sketch sees Kevin with The Wanted. He&amp;#039;s got a room backstage decked out in English memorabilia and a framed photo of Prince Harry, but then one of the guys reveals that he&amp;#039;s actually Irish, so Kevin changes into a leprechaun outfit before proclaiming, &amp;quot;Nevermind, f**k it!&amp;quot; 20:42That was lovely. That&amp;#039;s all I can even say about it. 20:41The backing track is a very simple guitar line that comes off a bit awkward as the timing is just awkward, but whatever, Frank is a genius so everyone can just pipe down (I&amp;#039;m imagining people complaining about that). There are a lot of illuminated rocks on the stage and plenty of flames. Sigh. He&amp;#039;s so wonderful.  20:39Zoe Saldana is out next in what seems to be a pink camel skin for a dress. Whatever, the point is, Frank Ocean is here and he&amp;#039;s performing &amp;#039;Thinkin&amp;#039; About You&amp;#039;. God, I love Frank Ocean and I love this song. 20:32Chris Brown won, and out of respect for all decent people in the human race, I&amp;#039;m going to refuse to say anything else about his win. Let&amp;#039;s talk about how great Rita Ora is, though! Her album is so amazing - have you listened to it? She&amp;#039;s a great live performer, as well. I was lucky enough to catch her during one of the dates she opened for Coldplay and she was great. 20:31We can&amp;#039;t waste any time, though - it&amp;#039;s Demi Lovato and Rita Ora with the nominees for best male video. It&amp;#039;s Justin Bieber for &amp;#039;Boyfriend&amp;#039;, Usher for &amp;#039;Climax&amp;#039;, Chris Brown for &amp;#039;Turn Up the Music&amp;#039; (UGH), Drake for &amp;#039;Take Care&amp;#039; and Frank Ocean for &amp;#039;Swim Good&amp;#039;. 20:30This performance has a LOT of confetti flying around, I will say that. It ends with Pink sitting on a flying lip-shaped swing. Taylor Swift says &amp;quot;I love her&amp;quot; to Wiz Khalifa in the audience. Stars, stars everywhere! 20:28She starts with a few notes of &amp;#039;Get the Party Started&amp;#039; before launching into the single. Pink is one of those completely underrated performers and pop stars in general, I think - she&amp;#039;s so great. She comes down into the audience, where the people up front are holding glowing red lips. Women in lingerie also carry giant lips out as part of the performance. 20:26Miley Cyrus and Mac Miller are on stage to present the next performer - it&amp;#039;s Pink (whose hair Miley has clearly copied). Mac Miller seems like a bit of an idiot, saying from behind his sunglasses, &amp;quot;Yeah, Pink is tight, Pink is tight.&amp;quot; Enough of your nonsense, Mac Miller. Pink is singing &amp;#039;Blow Me (One Last Kiss)&amp;#039; - another absolute TUNE! 20:25We&amp;#039;re back and Kevin brings up NBA star Dwight Howard. He&amp;#039;s incredibly tall, and Kevin is incredibly short. It&amp;#039;s sort of hilarious. Dwight&amp;#039;s going to be playing for the Lakers, so he gives a little pep talk to the hometown crowd about what a great season it&amp;#039;s going to be. Dwight&amp;#039;s also got him a jersey, which Kevin puts on right away - it fits him like a dress. 20:18Apparently Calvin Harris is the house DJ tonight. Good to know. We get to see a video sketch of Kevin meeting 2 Chainz and suggesting that he adds a &amp;quot;third chain&amp;quot;. Ha!  20:17&amp;quot;Thank you so much .We have grown up watching this show and to even be here is an honour and to collect one of these on behalf of our fans is incredible,&amp;quot; says the blond one whose name I don&amp;#039;t know or care. They thank the fans and dedicate the award to them. Then one of the brunette ones that&amp;#039;s not Harry or Zayn thanks the management and the other brunette thanks Syco and Simon Cowell. I&amp;#039;m not going to relay this pointless info for every award they win, don&amp;#039;t worry. 20:15Ah, whatever. One Direction takes it and they hug so tightly, you&amp;#039;d think they just won gold at the Olympics. It&amp;#039;s only MTV, lads. The camera gives a quick flash to Taylor Swift in the audience, who looks none too pleased. Should we expect a song on her new album about Harry Styles? I kid. 20:14Katy&amp;#039;s presenting the first award of the night, for Best Pop Video. If you weren&amp;#039;t aware, it&amp;#039;s between One Direction &amp;#039;What Makes You Beautiful&amp;#039;, Maroon 5 for &amp;#039;Payphone&amp;#039;, Justin Bieber for &amp;#039;Boyfriend&amp;#039;, fun. for &amp;#039;We Are Young&amp;#039; and Rihanna for &amp;#039;We Found Love&amp;#039;. Give this to Rihanna and let&amp;#039;s be done with it. 20:13It&amp;#039;s time to talk about Kristen Stewart - Kevin thinks people should &amp;quot;move on&amp;quot; because everyone makes mistakes. He lists Russell Brown hosting the ceremony twice as one of those mistakes. Well played, Hart. He tells everyone to prep for the unexpected before crowd-diving. All right, I... wait, nevermind. Katy Perry is on stage. My attention has been diverted. 20:11Next topic? Frank Ocean&amp;#039;s recent coming out, which also apparently happened when he &amp;quot;accidentally&amp;quot; sang the wrong lyrics in the studio. A bit week, but okay. Snooki isn&amp;#039;t off limits, either - Kevin says she shouldn&amp;#039;t &amp;quot;spraypaint the baby&amp;quot; but congratulates her on the new baby. 20:09He&amp;#039;s not kidding - he goes for Drake and Chris Brown right away, saying that they&amp;#039;re arguing over &amp;quot;a mistake&amp;quot; (the thrown bottle in the club incident). He claims that Drake was trying to recycle since he&amp;#039;s Canadian and that Chris misunderstood him. The camera flashes to Drake, who&amp;#039;s sitting next to Nicki Minaj (who looks a bit uncomfortable) and Lil Wayne, who&amp;#039;s... listening to music on his headphones?  20:07Time to introduce tonight&amp;#039;s host, Kevin Hart, who comes out with a group of little people dressed as Secret Service men. Kevin Hart is pretty raw and has promised not to go easy on any celeb, so let&amp;#039;s hope that&amp;#039;s the case. He makes a joke about requesting &amp;quot;a little security&amp;quot; from MTV and says that they took him a bit too literally. 20:05Giant white balloons are dropped from the sky as the song continues and to be honest, I&amp;#039;m wondering why they didn&amp;#039;t save this for last. Ah well, what an opener! 20:04Rihanna pushes down into the crowd and is immediately swallowed up by a group of fans who all reach out to touch her. This part is shot from above as otherwise, it wouldn&amp;#039;t really work. And hey, there&amp;#039;s Calvin Harris again! 20:03Is it me, or did Rihanna just slur through half the lyrics? Also, ASAP Rocky is here to do his part of the remix... most of which is censored. Ah, TV. But no worries - we&amp;#039;re transitioning to &amp;#039;Where Have U Been&amp;#039;. TUNE! 20:02And... we&amp;#039;re on! We&amp;#039;re live inside the Staples Center, where Calvin Harris has been spinning for the past few hours. Now, however, it&amp;#039;s the opening number by none other than Rihanna. She&amp;#039;s singing &amp;#039;Cockiness&amp;#039; and sporting her new pixie cut and just looking plain fierce because, hello, she&amp;#039;s Rihanna! Not too fond of the weird red outfit choice, but Rihanna can do no wrong. Also, MTV sees fit to censor the word &amp;#039;suck&amp;#039;. 19:58Alright, who&amp;#039;s ready to do this thing? It&amp;#039;s three minutes before start time and Taylor Swift is on the red carpet. And look, there&amp;#039;s Katy Perry! And Nicki Minaj! It&amp;#039;s a star-studded affair! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a404358/mtv-video-music-awards-2012-live-blog/>