The VMAs

MTV's Awards Show Returns to New York City

Who won the Moon Man trophies? More importantly, who did what to whom at last night's twenty-third annual VMAs?

Washington Post staff writer Jose Antonio Vargas was on hand Friday, Sept. 1, at Noon ET to take your questions and comments about the "predictably unpredictable" spectacle that was the MTV Music Video Awards.

MTV Video Music Awards: Living For the Moment ( Post, Aug. 31 )

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Jose Antonio Vargas: Hi,

Thanks for joining us. What I remember personally remember most about last night: the band OK Go; Pink being Pink; and Sarah Silverman taking on Paris Hilton.

Let's get to the questions!

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Atlanta: Here's what I don't understand. You're a singer whose celebrity is based on how you look far more than how you sing (shocking that could EVER happen, I know) and you've put on some serious weight since the last time you were seen on screen in a goofy movie. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Jessica.) So why emphasize the fact that you now look like a Russian swimmer whose gone to pot by wearing a dress that covers zero? Delusional? Trying to make overweight the new sexy? What?

Jose Antonio Vargas: Jessica's new look was the talk in the press room last night after she presented. As it happened, I was actually backstage before rode on stage, and, yes, she looked a bit, well, different. I wasn't particularly digging the black outfit -- which looked a little better in person than on TV -- and she couldn't read the teleprompter. Maybe she was nervous that Nick was in the room?

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Falls Church, Va. : I missed it. Tell me everything.

Jose Antonio Vargas: Well this is a good place to start. I was lucky enough that I was allowed to roam last night -- backstage, in the control room, in the press tent, and, yes, on the red carpet. So at about 1a Friday, when I was finally done with my story, I sent this e-mail to a couple of friends:

Sarah Silverman was funnier, way funnier, than Jack Black. Al Gore, in his very serious best, rocked the house. (The applause inside Radio City Music Hall seemed genuine.) How appropriate that Pink was presented Best Pop Video by none other than Nicole Ritchie. And Beyonce, well, she's at the peak of her powers right now. But, at least for this viewer, the highlight was OK Go. They represent so much about what's right and what's wrong with the VMAs. Yes, it was genius to invite them to perform their treadmill routine. But what does it say to the VMAs, and to MTV, that OK Go's video found success on YouTube and not on MTV?

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Bethesda, Md.: I agree with your list of highlights, but the other thing that stands out for me is how bad some of the newer bands are in live performance. I like Panic! at the Disco and All-American Rejects on the radio, but they just can't bring it live. (Having seen the All-American Rejects on Conan a few months ago, I don't think it was just an off-night, either.) The Raconteurs, for example, made them look like amateurs. And, though I loved OK Go on the treadmills, their performance on Letterman the night before showed that, had they actually played the song instead, they also would have shown the others how it's done.

Jose Antonio Vargas: Agreed. That's the thrill of live performances. There are some Beyonce and Justin Timberlake haters out there, who say that B and JT are too pop and therefore not considered "Artists" with capital "A's", but they can perform live. No question that JT can move, and he's growing as a performer. As for B, well, she's like Diana Ross and Tina Turner rolled into one.

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Washington, D.C.: I LOVED it that Nick Lachey and Nicole Richie presented the Moon Man to Pink, seeing how she spoofed BOTH Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton in her video. Was anyone talking about that backstage from where you were, Jose?

To me, it was perfection. (p.s. I swear Im not hating, but is it just me or has Jessica put on some serious weight?)

Jose Antonio Vargas: Great that you caught that. To me, Pink poses what I like to call the Rosario Dawson question: Why isn't Pink (and Rosario Dawson) more popular? Say what you will about her, but Pink is authentic. And her win last night, which was a complete surprise to her, as she told reporters in the press room, was a highlight for me. And it was especially biting to see Pink act all Valley Girl-ish as she accepted her Moon Man.

As for Jessica putting on weight, I say, why not? Some of these singers loked so rail-thin in person -- I'm trying not to name names -- that I wanted to pass chewing gum to some of them on the red carpet. Here, eat something! Please!

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Washington, D.C. : Jose, please explain why MTV has embraced Justin Timberlake, but still shuns Janet Jackson. I know MTV was embarrased by the Superbowl nipplegate and has punished Janet by not showing her videos, but uh, come on, Timberlake was also at fault.

Jose Antonio Vargas: Great question. Where was Janet? Her album's dropping soon. She's one of the best-selling female artists of all time. And her second single, "So Excited," is getting the kind of noise that "Call on Me," the first single, didn't get. But she was a no-show last night. I wonder if she was even invited. I don't know the answer to that question. Will investigate.

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Washington, D.C.: It's true that Jessica Simpson can't sing. But she is NOT overweight. She lost a lot of weight for Dukes, and put some of it back on. But my god - you people slam Nicole Richie for being skinny and then slam Jessica Simpson for looking normal!

Jose Antonio Vargas: Amen, amen.

This is why I appreciate JLo. Bad outfit or not, she's got curves and not afraid of them.

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Nick Lacheyville:: Tell us the truth--did Vanessa Minillo look that bad in person? Who wins, Jessica or Vanessa? Vanessa looks better in the body department. She's also a fellow journalist, like you....what do you think?

Jose Antonio Vargas: This is a question of types, of apples and oranges, of Phish Food v. Cherry Garcia. And I'm more of a Vanessa kind of guy. And the fact that she's a journalist helps.

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Newport Beach, Calif.: Al Gore rock star. It sounded like he got the biggest ovation of all. What do you make of that?

Jose Antonio Vargas: Now that was interesting. Al Gore, who joked that he wanted to bring sexy back, got a huge ovation after his short lecture on the effects of global warming. As the cliche goes, you could hear a pin drop inside Radio City Music Hall as Gore spoke.

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Washington, D.C.: Why was there a Viewers Choice Award if the viewers were selecting the winners of all of the other categories? The awards were incredibly uneven last night with the Video of the Year winner (Panic! At The Disco) not good enough to win in their own genres, Best Rock Video (Avenged Sevenfold) or Best Group Video (AFI).

The VMAs this year seemed to loose their legitimacy and turned into a popularity contest with band websites encouraging fans to vote for them. Blackeye'd Peas best Hip Hop, come on. They couldn't even win Best Plastic Surgery Done By A One-Armed Midget.

John "dinosaur trying to be hip" Norris called this year's VMAs the "year of the upset," but I'd prefer to call it the year that MTV lost legitimacy in the music world as fans failed to recognize the art and craft of creating a music video. I was waiting for Milli Vanili to walk on stage and call shananigans, but alas, MTV proved that it has degraded into a pre-teen-driven self-marketing bore!

Jose Antonio Vargas: Here's the thing: The VMAs, in my mind, is not an awards show. As I wrote in today's piece, which you can buy in newstands nearby (plugging my paper!), the VMA is like Us Weekly on TV.

I can't begin to explain the categories, or who-won-what. Let me put it in this context -- the award for Best Concept Video, a category that even VMA snobs couldn't object to, is now defunct. Which is probably a good thing, because they probably couldn't find five nominees to fill the ballot. What, exactly, is the concept behind "Hips Don't Lie," one of the most nominated vids of the year? Well, except that Wyclef thinks Sharika is so caliente that he wants to learn Espanol?

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Washington, D.C.: Is this show still relevant?

Jose Antonio Vargas: Next week, please be sure to check out Star, Us Weekly, People, EW, et al, to answer that question.

And, as a moment of reflection, let me quote one of my favorite film critics, Anthony Lane: "What exactly is the point of Demi Moore?"

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Washington D.C.: Paris dirt!! Pleeze! I read that Brandon Davis, her-pig date seemed really wasted. What did Sarah S. have to do with Paris??

Jose Antonio Vargas: How I would have loved to have sat next to Paris Hilton as Sarah Silverman said on live TV: " want you to be happy and thin. "You're supposed to be Paris Hilton, not Paris, France."

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Alabama: Just a note about OK Go; I saw them open for They Might Be Giants in Pittsburgh about five years ago. Really great live band, treadmills or not. (Oh, and same for TMBG, too.)

Jose Antonio Vargas: Here's little insight to the mind of a journalist on deadline, which, as I like to say, is like running through hell with kerosene on your underwear:

So it's 9:15, you have to file an early version of your story by 10:30, and you're looking for a way to end the story. You're looking for a good kicker. And then backstage, Andy Ross, the guitarist of OK Go, still sweating, tells you he hopes that his band is nominated next year. You say, thank you, deadline gods, for giving me a kicker.

The OK Go guys were friendly and warm backstage. They seemed genuinely excited at just being there.

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Jose Antonio Vargas: So sorry folks. I was having some laptop problems. I'll get to as many questions as I can.

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K St., Washington, D.C.: You were there, so tell us: Whose "money maker" looked the best up close between Beyonce, J. Lo, Xtina, and Shakira?

Jose Antonio Vargas: I'm bias. I've got a poster of Shakira -- the hips, the voice, the fact she speaks more than four languages -- on my desk. Does that answer your question?

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Brooklyn, N.Y.: Hi Jose- I thought the highlight Justin's dancing! He was great visually, but I don't think that he can sing. Thanks!

Jose Antonio Vargas: Yes, JT's dancing, which opened the show, was a highlight. He's a natural -- not too force, not too self-conscious, just right in his moves. As for the singing, I was inside Radio City Music Hall for the opening of the show, and as for someone who was in a jazz band in high school, I thought JT was on key. He's got a small voice, airy and a little shrill, but it works.

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Philly, Pa.: Scariest moment? When Jared Leto tried to make a group sex joke. I heart Jordan Catalano, but Goth Jared? Not so much. Your thoughts?

Jose Antonio Vargas: I had a battle to myself because I thought about something very snarky as Jared Leto whisked by, and snarky is easy to do and I wasn't sure...Well, long story short, I wrote this in today's piece: "Lighten up on the eyeliner."

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Chicago, Ill.: I haven't heard a peep about Jay-Z. Was he there? I find it hard to believe that he was not there too far behind Beyonce.

Jose Antonio Vargas: He was there alright. One of the highlights on being on the red carpet was seeing how tightly 50 embraced LL Cool J before they got interviewed on Extra (or some show like that). I tried listening in to what LL was telling 50, but I couldn't hear a thing, and LL's body guard, who could give the best linebacker for the Patriots a run for his money, was downright scary.

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Arlington, Va.: I think the real winners were the MySpace kiddies and their emo haircut overlords.

The fan voting is a bit idiotic, as a few fans voting thousands of times (or creating a program to do it for them) is kinda dumb, but overall the show has just grown to be just another award show. There is something so un-MTV about MTV now. The show is as stale and boring as watching the Oscars. When did musicians start actually taking themselves so seriously; probably around the same time MTV stopped playing music videos.

Jose Antonio Vargas: Let's be serious about this. The VMA is still not the Oscars, Grammys, Tonys, Emmys, et al. It's just that we expect the VMAs to be so outrageous, so out there and avant guard, a la Madonna-tounging-Britney, that our standards of what a good VMA show is naturally high.

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Anonymous: Was J. Lo a DIVA. Did she look preggers?

Jose Antonio Vargas: Now please don't go starting rumors. And, yes, JLo is a diva.

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What it says: "But what does it say to the VMAs, and to MTV, that OK Go's video found success on YouTube and not on MTV?"

It says that MTV lost whatever edge it had when it began showcasing boy bands in the late 90s. It says musical success is often unrelated to musical ability. And it says that music companies have been incredibly stupid in hitching their fortunes to one or two superstars, rather than building a stable of viable, creative acts.

Jose Antonio Vargas: It's perhaps appropriate to end this chat session with this comment.

Thanks for joining me. I'd answer more questions but I gotta run!

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