Hot diggity! VMA Executive Producer (and all around MTV royalty) Dave Sirulnick just gave me a massive walking tour of the Paramount Lot and 'fessed up to a bunch of secrets surrounding Sunday night's big performances. Too bad for you: He wouldn't let me bring a camera along to document this auspicious occasion, and he was very specific about what he wanted to keep under wraps. But I can give you a few tidbits (and some photographic evidence!)
More photos from Jim's tour after the jump!
Dave took me to the New York sets on the Paramount lot. This here is a building in the SoHo neighborhood, and the cool part is that this is much more than just a facade: There are actually rooms inside! I got to check out one performer's VMA "bedroom," and this was the fire escape to that room. Fire safety can be fun!
Then we hit up the place where most of the performances are going to happen: Stage 16! What's really neat is that outside each studio, or "stage," there's a placard that lists all of the noteworthy movies that have shot in that particular stage. So before the VMAs took over, what movies got their shine on in Stage 16? Hitchcock's "Vertigo," Hughes' "Pretty in Pink" and JJ Abrams' "Mission: Impossible 3."
Inside Stage 16 I got a sneak peek at the VMA set. They're still building it, so I can't really tell what it will look like on Sunday. But no worries: What really matters to me is the seating chart! Now don't get your hopes up for a Lauren Conrad/ Britney Spears/ Chace Crawford encounter (pictured here). This is NOT the final seating arrangement. (The crew was just placing these seat covers over as a test.) Who knows where everyone will end up Sunday night? All I know is that this photo will be my Facebook photo ... for the rest of my life.