Was Eminem in on Bruno’s MTV prank?

The mystery is deepening over 'kugelsack-gate'. Was Sacha Baron Cohen's cheeky Eminem stunt at the MTV Movie awards staged, or not?

On Sunday night the comedian, dressed in character as gay fashionista Bruno, flew into the awards ceremony and made an intimate crash-landing onto Eminem's head. Supposedly spontaneous, Bruno's in-your-face prank saw the rap star head swiftly for the exit doors.

Although Eminem and his bodyguard looked bummed out, it seemed plausible that the singer - currently promoting his first album in five years, Relapse - was in on the stunt. Health & Safety would never have cleared the prank without a rehearsal, said Helen Terry, a UK awards organiser. "There is no way [they] would allow those wires to be operated without several rehearsals and the agreement of all parties," she told the Guardian.

It was too much of a coincidence that Eminem "just happened to be there", comedian and awards show regular Kath Griffin pointed out to the Los Angeles Times. "These celebrities don't stay in their seat for longer than 30 seconds, they are photographed and then they're in the green room."

Yesterday MTV's head writer Scott Aukerman confirmed on his blog that the incident was indeed a set-up. "Yes, the Bruno/Eminem incident was staged," he wrote. "That's all anyone wants to talk about, so let's get it out of the way. They rehearsed it at dress and yes, it went as far as it did on the live show then." However, the post was later taken down, without any explanation from Aukerman.

It has also emerged that Paris Hilton was Baron Cohen's first choice of target. An MTV staffer told US magazine Life&Style that the show's producer Mark Burnett approached the hotel heiress but she declined.

Meanwhile Sacha Baron Cohen aka Bruno features on the cover of next month's Marie Claire, in a photo shoot with Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio (pictured above). In an interview with the magazine the camp Austrian stylist gets his manicured claws out for a range of celebrities, from Madonna and Amy Winehouse, to his fellow 'countryman' Josef Fritzl. In his A-Z of Fashion, A is for Austria, he says, where people are raised to "try und achieve ze Austrian dream - find a job, get a dungeon und raise a family in it". ·