MTV Movie Awards: Was Aubrey Plaza’s stunt with Ferrell planned?

The MTV Movie Awards has cultivated a reputation for being one of those “anything can happen” awards shows, and on Sunday night, the incident that everyone was talking about was Aubrey Plaza’s attempted “Kanye-ing” of Will Ferrell.

Ferrell was on stage to accept the award for comedic genius when Plaza, known to most people as April from the NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation,” appeared next to him, drink in hand, and attempted to wrest the golden popcorn from his grasp.

Ferrell appeared confused, didn’t let go of the award and asked, “What is happening? Are you OK?”

PHOTOS: MTV Movie Awards 2013 Show Pictures

After a moment of awkward tugging, Plaza quietly gave up and returned to her front-row seat silently. A close-up of the actress revealed she had written the title of her upcoming movie, “The To-Do List,” across her chest.

Ferrell played the moment off, pointing out Plaza and replying, “Just like we rehearsed it.”

According to reports, the stunt was unplanned and unexpected, and Plaza was escorted out of the awards soon after. Speaking to MTV News later, Ferrell said, “I thnk she wanted to tell me something important, but there was no message. It was just a lot of hot liquor breath.”

Plaza, who tweets under the handle @evilhag, wrote, “thanks for the advice @kanyewestwent better than planned! #mtvmovieawards #chrisbosh #thesecret.”

The actress was referencing Kanye West’s infamous moment from the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when he crashed Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech and informed the crowd that fellow nominee Beyonce had done a more deserving job.

PHOTOS: MTV Movies Awards 2013 | Red carpet arrivals

West’s moment was apparently completely spontaneous and prompted a series of apologies through various media in the days following. But was Plaza’s stunt actually as completely unplanned as it seemed?

For one thing, the MTV awards shows have a history of creating shocking moments that appear unplanned but are anything but. In 2009, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in his guise as flamboyantly gay fashion reporter Bruno, dropped from the ceiling and landed his crotch in the face of rapper Eminem. Eminem seemed to not be in on the stunt and got visibly upset, storming out of the auditorium. But Eminem later admitted that he was in on the stunt from the beginning. And writer Scott Aukerman also admitted to having orchestrated the event.

As some have pointed out, it seems odd that a supporting actress from a network sitcom with so-so ratings (albeit one that generates warm feelings) would get a prime front-row seat at an awards show. But it did make her run to the stage quicker and easier, and the following close-up of her was a nice promo for the film.

Whether the stunt was real or planned, it did what it was intended to do: got lots of attention.

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