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The 1999 MTV Video Music Awards | page 1, 2
If you wanted real angst and real anger, you should have
hung out with the press corps covering the stars' arrivals.
Corralled into a series of narrow gated holding pens beneath
threatening skies, toting cameras, crates, stepladders,
microphones and those little fuzzy purses that New York
girls have instead of pets; penned up for over an hour with
nary a star appearing: It wasn't long before the assembled
reporters turned on each other. "These word people!" shouted
one photographer, gesturing at the writers blocking his view
of Christina Aguilera's entourage. "Get 'em out of here! Put
them way in the back! They're only word people." It got
ugly, as some of the word people used a few choice bits of
their vocabulary on him. And then it started to rain. Hard.
The reporters retreated to the press tent, where we'd spend
the next three-plus hours engaged in what felt like a game
of Bizarro Jeopardy. With photographers screaming on one
side and TV sets blaring live feed from the other, it was
impossible to hear each other's questions, so we had to
figure out what they were from the stars' answers. In some
cases, that was easy: When somebody said, "In December,"
they were either talking about a new album or a new baby.
Likewise responses like "Armani," "Versace" and "What really happened was, I walked her out to her car and kissed
her on the cheek and the next day the tabloids said we were
in love." (That last was from Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath,
putting the lie to the rumors that there's something going on
between him and Madonna.) But sometimes it was next to
impossible. "I'll tell you the truth: I was taking a shit,"
said Eminem, in response to I have no idea what. And on it went. Jay-Z said he'd be working on his acting skills in the
new millennium. "Anything I do," he pledged through a
walnut-sized wad of bubblegum, "I want to do well." Gavin
Rossdale says that his next video's going to be based on
shao-lin Kung Fu. Opera moppet Charlotte Church says she's
had movie offers but will be sticking with the singing for
now. Jay Mohr said he'd never appear on "Friends." "Hell, no,"
he sneered. "I'm on funny shows." Stone Cold Steve Austin
bemoaned his bad knees and beer belly. Wyclef Jean pleaded,
in a tone that sounded only half-joking, for someone to
please ask Lauryn Hill to take his phone calls. Mary J.
Blige disclosed that she's still "looking for love in all
the wrong places, and you know what, I haven't found it."
(She does seem to have found a prolific tattoo artist, however.) Tupac Shakur's mother is publishing
a book of his poetry in time for Christmas; Biggie Smalls'
mother is working on a biography and a screenplay about her
slain son's life; McGrath blames the carnage of Woodstock on
people who charge $4 for water; he also has his little dog's
pawprint tattooed on his arm. And Ricky Martin? He's doing
a lot of meditation and a lot of yoga. He's wearing a lot of
Armani, which is sponsoring his next concert. "The one thing
I want to keep in touch with is my emotion," he says
sincerely. Oh, and he's hard at work on the video for "Shake
Your Bon Bon." Amid this treacly gale of good feelings, it
fell to Will Smith to inject the tiniest dose of irony and
reality into the proceedings. Do you see yourself focusing
more on becoming a serious actor? a reporter asked. Smith
rolled his eyes. "What do you think I've been doing?" he
demanded. Did he mind only winning one award, for best male
video? "I’m excited any time I can get on … as long as I
don't have to sit there with the dumb face on for the whole
show." And finally, was Chris Rock too harsh on poor Jennifer Lopez?
Smith considered. "He went at her ass a lot tonight," he opined, "but she knows, and he knows, too, that
she's got a beautiful thing going there." It was, as the music channel endlessly reminded us, the last
Video Music Awards of the millennium.
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