There were several memorable arrivals at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, including Lady Gaga showing up with a Muppet on her arm, Pink cruising in a fire truck and Taylor Swift emerging from a horse-drawn carriage. But one of the arrivals was so big it simply couldn't fit in the confines of the preshow. Before storming Radio City Music Hall, sitting in with house band Wale and UCB and voicing their opinions about Kanye West, the All-American Rejects brought along a marching band and arrived at the red carpet on a massive parade float.

The band eased their way to the VMA red carpet on the very patriotic-looking float as the two-dozen member marching band played the group's hit "Gives You Hell." Once the conveyance stopped, frontman Tyson Ritter (dressed in a red suit, obviously before he donned his all-glitter ensemble), drummer Chris Gaynor and guitarists Nick Wheeler and Mike Kennerty emerged from the vehicle and hit the red carpet. Ritter gave the MTV cameras some devil horns before greeting fans and heading into the venue for the show.

After taking some time off for the show, the Rejects head back out on the road on Friday to re-join the Blink-182 reunion tour. They'll stick with them for the rest of the U.S. stretch of the tour and then head over to Europe for another set of dates before returning to the States for a tour with Taking Back Sunday. Though the group wasn't nominated for any awards on Sunday, their in-house performance coupled with their larger-than-life arrival made it a memorable night for the Oklahoma quartet.

Over the weekend, in preparation for the MTV Video Music Awards, MTV News gave you an uninterrupted live peek at the ongoing construction of the red carpet area outside of Radio City Music Hall. Once the show wrapped up, we gave you a behind-the-scenes look at the red carpet construction with a few statistics thrown in (5,000 square feet of carpet, over six miles of electrical cable, 50 stagehands finishing a five day job in about 36 hours). But in case you want to take a look at the red carpet being built but don't have that much time on your hands, fear not, as we've got the entire construction in thirty seconds. A time-lapse camera was installed to capture single frames every few seconds, and here is the result.

It's not included in the video, but the strike was even more efficient: Everything was cleared out of the front of the building by the time the big show ended so that people could exit out of the main doors of Radio City Music Hall, and by mid-Monday there was nary a trace of MTV's presence in the area. It was a tremendous undertaking, but clearly it paid off, as it allowed us to see Lady Gaga's date, Buzz Aldrin's VMA debut, iJustine's Twitter coverage and, of course, Beyoncé.

By Matthew Wenzel

That's right. Yours truly was the Moonman on the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards Preshow on Sunday night. How did I land that job? I don't want to get into it. But I would like to say that it was a great opportunity not only to work for MTV, but also to hang out with lots of cool people in the audience and on the carpet — and of course the multitude of stars who showed up.

However, every job has its pros and cons. While I did have a lot of fun and walk around the red carpet and make a fool of myself, I was sweating like crazy. It must have been 150 degrees inside that suit. OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was hot. I also could only see out of the MTV logo on the middle of the helmet, so seeing where I was going (as well as who I was standing near) was tough.

All in all, I had a great time, and would not pass up the opportunity again. My only regret is that most people didn't get to see what I got up to on the red carpet. For example, I had a battle with Jack Black, got punched in the helmet by Perez Hilton and got sniffed by Tre Cool while Green Day posed for a picture with me. None of these silly moments made it to the air, and while I understand that more important things needed to be shown, it still would have been fun to see.

But there's always next year. At least, I hope there is. I think the right people have my number. Are you guys reading this? Call me! Tim Kash told me to get a better job at the close of the show, but I'm down for putting the suit on anytime.

After weeks of anticipation, the time has come to get the party started off right. Welcome to the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards! We'll begin by live-blogging the preshow, giving you the inside scoop on all the big arrivals, awesome fashion and unpredictable moments that are bound to flood the red carpet outside Radio City Music Hall. So join MTV correspondents Jocelyn Vena, James Montgomery, Shaheem Reid and Tamar Anitai, get your refresh button ready and let the Newsroom take you through what will be an unforgettable night.

8:59 - That's enough out of us. To keep following along, head on over to the VMA live blog over at Buzzworthy. And stay tuned for the post-show!

8:57 - Sway hands out the award for Best Video That Should Have Won a Moonman. The prize goes to the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage." A deserving win. Get well soon, MCA.

8:55 - Beyoncé makes a splash on the carpet with her hair done curly and wearing red ruffles. Her interview with Tim Kash is nearly hijacked by her security. Beyoncé is looking forward to Lady Gaga and the Michael Jackson tribute.

8:53 - According to Jim Cantiello, Joe Jackson is the biggest celebrity in the room, and a bunch of celebs have come up to him to pay their respects.

8:51 - Moment of the night: Buzz Aldrin busting a rhyme on the red carpet and saying he likes rap. He also met Swizz Beatz, and they discussed art.

8:50 - J.Lo is here in a beige strapless dress and leopard shoes. She's also wearing a ton of bling, including hot earrings.

8:48 - From Hayley Williams' Twitter: "Radio City!! I remember when 'NSYNC and Britney performed here around school desks and killed it."

8:47 - According to iJustine, Shakira and Pink are wearing the same dress. So speak out, commenters: Who wore it better?

8:46 - Wale and the house band are starting, and Radio City just went from "intense" to "on fire." Wale says, "We gonna burn this motherf----- down."

8:45 - Jermaine Jackson says even he doesn't know what the tribute is going to look like. Earlier, Joe Jackson walked very soberly into Radio City.

8:39 - Cobra Starship pull up in a double-decker bus and declare that they want to make Taylor Swift "go bad." Good luck with that.

8:37 - Kristin Cavallari says she's presenting with Nelly Furtado tonight. Excellent combination!

8:34 - Adam Brody walks up next, tailed by a beefy-looking Timbaland.

8:33 - Alicia Keys promises to "burn the place down" during her performance with Jay-Z tonight. Here's hoping Pink's fire truck stuck around!

8:31 - Currently taking their seats in the house: Hayley Williams (who is stopping to chat with Pete Wentz) and Patrick Stump. On his way in, Wentz took a deep swig from Kanye's bottle of Hennessey as — no kidding — Kelly Clarkson's lyric "Sweetheart put the bottle down" (from "I Do Not Hook Up") blared over the PA.
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We're only a handful of hours away from the start of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, and we're even closer to the start of the VMA preshow, which will beam to you live from the Radio City Music Hall red carpet starting at 8 p.m. ET. (You can also follow the live blog right here at the Newsroom blog.) At last year's Video Music Awards (which were live from Hollywood), a handful of superstar acts made grand entrances (Tokio Hotel in a monster truck, T-Pain on an elephant), and there have been rumblings all week that another group of big stars would be kicking it up a notch again this year and showing up to the red carpet in grand fashion.

But how will everybody enter? The folks over at Buzzworthy got the inside scoop on a few of the big arrivals, and needless to say, it's an impressive and mind-blowing list. We still don't know exactly which stars will arrive in which ways, but we do know that Taylor Swift, Pink, Leighton Meester and the All-American Rejects will all make big arrivals via fire truck, Jaguar convertible, parade float and horse and carriage. But which artist will match up with which arrival? The idea of Taylor Swift on a parade float (after all, she does seem like America's favorite beauty queen) or the All-American Rejects on a fire truck (because they're hot!) is pretty enticing. But no matter what, it's going to make for a series of interesting and memorable moments to start the evening off right.

It's the day leading up to the MTV Movie Awards, and right now feels like the calm before the storm. I'm sitting here on the side of the red carpet, which is currently empty, except for the crew who are getting ready to rehearse the big preshow. It's amazing to witness the transformation. In just a few hours from now, this carpet will be packed shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the biggest celebs in the world: Megan Fox, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Miley Cyrus, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Shia LaBeouf and, of course, Brüno (Sacha Baron Cohen's newest character). Tonight is going to be a lot of fun to watch.

Inside, the producers of the main show are hard at work putting the finishing touches to tonight's big performances by Kings of Leon and Eminem, not to mention our host, Andy Samberg, who I promise you will have everyone in stitches.

Late last night, Eminem took to the stage for his rehearsal, and even though he's been away for four years, there's no doubt EMINEM IS BACK! I don't want to spoil it for you, but expect a really special performance and a little bit extra. That's all I'll say.
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Everyone wanted to look amazing at this year's Oscars, and it was definitely a night for actresses to grace the red carpet in red or some shade of white. Some people did it right, while others left a lot to be desired.

Here are our picks for best and worst of Oscar fashion:

Best

Sarah Jessica Parker: The "Sex and the City" star loves to look like a ballerina, but she knows how to do it right and make sure she looks sexy.

Natalie Portman: Breaking the night's trend of red and white, she showed up in shocking pink. Portman looked sophisticated and fresh. Read more...

MTV News is on the scene at the 81st Annual Academy Awards! We don't want to leave you out of the action, so all night long, Larry Carroll, Benjamin Wagner, Vanessa White Wolf and Jonathan Mussman will be logging on to tell you what's going on backstage, in the bleachers and on the red carpet on Hollywood's big night.

1:12 p.m. PT in the Kodak Theatre: The theater is totally reconfigured — basically 13 or so semi circle seating sections in place of the usual orchestra seats. It's very tight and jam-packed full of big names.

There will be some A-list singers performing on the show. Ones our audience is familiar with. And for the first year I recall, the show will feature men handing out the statuettes. The show producers are Broadway-trained so expect it for overall look and feel. Host Hugh Jackman is looking very jacked-up/muscular, more so than usual, since he was shooting "Wolverine." Read more...

I'm just getting out of the Grammy Awards. The show this year was cool. I especially enjoyed Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo in the tribute to the Four Tops. Jennifer Hudson is amazingly strong, and her voice is powerful. So many people in the building were crying.

During the red carpet beforehand, it was great to chop it up with so many of the presenters and performers. Was Katy Perry really flirting with me? We had a really playful conversation where she started off interviewing me. That pink dress was cute. Don't hurt 'em.

More of Sway's behind-the-scenes photos from the Grammy red carpet, after the jump!

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From classic tuxes to bouffants and questionable facial hair, this year's Grammy red carpet was full of hits and misses. The stunning variety of ladies' fashion at this year's Grammys was particularly up for debate.

Who do you think rocked the best gown at this year's Grammys? Let us know in our poll!

Was it Carrie Underwood?

Taylor Swift?

Audrina Patridge?

Katy Perry?

Jordin Sparks?

Don't see your favorite? Let us know in the comments!