Michael Jackson and his Mrs., Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson, opened the 11th annual MTV Video Music Awards Thursday at Radio City Music Hall with a solid smooch.
"I'm very happy to be here," said Jackson. "And just think, nobody thought this would last," referring to the union and embracing his bride.
The audience's reaction: applause, gasps and laughter.
They gasped at host Roseanne, too. People ask if she's upset about her divorce, she said. "I'm only upset that I'm not a widow."
And the crowd booed when Public Enemy's Chuck D, co-presenting the rap award to Snoop Doggy Dogg, defended rap as a political forum and said the USA had its own political prisoners, who should be freed - including former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, serving time for rape.
The big surprise: David Letterman escorting blond Madonna to present the final award. "And you thought we wouldn't last," she drawled to the crowd, echoing Jackson. To a chorus of groans, she wound up trading masturbation jokes with the band that won, Aerosmith.
Chief performance coup this year was the Rolling Stones, who pranced through current hit Love Is Strong as well as the classic Start Me Up.
They received a lifetime achievement award presented by Rolling Stone honcho Jann Wenner. "Without us, Jann," said Mick Jagger "the magazine might've been called The Herman's Hermits Monthly."
Backstage, all talk was of the Stones. Singer Sheryl Crow, looking foward to meeting the band, said, "I'm gonna run up and lick Keith's boots."
MTV VJ Daisy Fuentes bragged that the Stones "were between changes, and I got to see them all drop their drawers and get naked." The most memorable sight? "Mick Jagger's tiny little a--."
Other crowd-pleasing acts included viewer's choice award winners Aerosmith, the Beastie Boys, punk-pop trio Green Day, the Leningrad Cowboys, Stone Temple Pilots and Salt-N-Pepa.
