Bare-Bottom Sacha Baron Cohen Steals MTV Awards

June 1, 2009 — -- It's tradition for the MTV Movie Awards to bring together mega stars from different spheres of pop culture.

But usually the coming together doesn't culminate in a rapper staring at the bare bottom of a leading man who just landed in his lap.

Sacha Baron Cohen's pants-less descent from the rafters of the Gibson Amphitheatre into the outstretched, seemingly outraged arms of Eminem was the most memorable moment of this year's ceremony. Dressed as Bruno, his gay Austrian fashion reporter alter ego, Baron Cohen flew into the arena on a wire wearing a pair of white wings and a blond wig.

Giving Eminem a front-row view of his hindquarters, Baron Cohen cracked, "Is the real Slim Shady about to stand up?," while the rapper shouted, "Are you serious? Are you f****** serious?" as he and his entourage attempted to bat Baron Cohen away.

It's unclear if Eminem was in on the joke or genuinely angry. Baron Cohen's descent to the audience was included in rehearsals, but Eminem -- who performed two singles off his new album "Relapse" before the stunt -- didn't take part in that piece of the run-through. Whatever the case, before Baron Cohen's bottom could bob in front of his face again, Eminem and his crew made a run for the exits and didn't return to the show.

"Twilight" dominated the awards portion of the night, picking up five awards including best movie. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, the stars of the vampire drama, seemed to garner as much stage time as host Andy Samberg, a testament to the text-voting power of their teen and tween fans.

Other winners included "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" star Zac Efron, who scored the Golden Popcorn for best male performance. His co-star, Ashley Tisdale, won for female breakthrough performance. Miley Cyrus racked up the award for best song from a movie for "The Climb" from "Hannah Montana: The Movie."

Samberg proved his humor can play as well in an awards show arena as it does on the set of "Saturday Night Live" and online in his digital shorts. He opened the show by reenacting the outhouse diving scene from "Slumdog Millionaire," went on to call sex kitten of the moment Megan Fox "ugly" and along with Will Ferrell, sang about how cool action stars don't look back at the explosions they orchestrate.

MTV Movie Awards Mock Oscars

LeAnn Rimes, Chris Isaak and Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker paid homage to Samberg while poking fun at the medleys featured in traditional awards shows with an operatic rendition of Samberg's most popular "SNL" digital shorts: "Ji** in My Pants," "I'm on a Boat," "Lazy Sunday" and "Di** in a Box."

That was followed by another dig at the awards show establishment: Kiefer Sutherland, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Efron mocked the Oscars' over-the-top, multiple-person awards presentation, lauding Ben Stiller with praise before a moved-to-TV-tears Sutherland gave the MTV Generation Award to Ben Stiller.

Along with honoring the best of the past year of pop culture, the MTV Movie Awards debuted new footage from upcoming films: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" and "New Moon," the latest installment in the "Twilight" franchise, sure to be honored by a hearty helping of Golden Popcorn awards at next year's shindig.