edithrouth: Justin Bieber Fans Nearly Crush Chelsea Handler, In 'VMAs Revealed'

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Justin Bieber Fans Nearly Crush Chelsea Handler, In 'VMAs Revealed'

Learn how an army of Beliebers almost mauled the 2010 VMA host on 'VMAs Revealed,' airing Saturday at noon ET on MTV.
By James Montgomery

Justin Bieber at the 2010 Video Music Awards
Photo: WireImage

It seems that Justin Bieber can't so much as step outside without inciting a riot of considerable magnitude, so it was to be expected that his performance at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards — supposedly a secret song-and-dance routine set outside the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles — would probably attract some attention.

But VMA producers had no idea just how out-of-hand things would get — or how close VMA host Chelsea Handler would be to being mauled by Justin's army of Beliebers as a result. It was all thanks to one harmless tweet by JB himself, as we learn in "VMAs Revealed," a new behind-the-scenes special set to air this Saturday at noon ET on MTV.

It all started before the VMAs, during Bieber's rehearsals. Producers planned to have Handler exit the theater and take a spot at the front of the stage, holding a sign that read "Chelsea hearts Justin." Everything was going swimmingly until an army of Bieber fanatics got wind of things.

"Out on the Nokia Plaza, they were rehearsing Justin Bieber's performance," MTV News VP Ryan Kroft explains in "Revealed." "[And] if you sort of stopped and paid attention, out comes Chelsea Handler in curlers."

Of course, on the night of the big show — after Bieber had tweeted about "free tickets to [his] VMA performance" — things changed. The Nokia Plaza was positively packed with screaming Bieber fans, who didn't take kindly to Handler's intrusion — and they let her know by crowding up against a barricade, nearly crushing her and sending all plans out the window.

Producers never quite got a good shot of Handler and her sign — "I think you can see her sign bobbing around, you just can't see her head. She should've worn the curlers," Kroft said — but luckily, she escaped serious bodily harm. And the true Beliebers ended up being happy too: Not only did they get to see a once-in-a-lifetime performance from their idol, but Bieber would go on to win the VMA for Best New Artist later that night.

For more backstage stories from the 2010 VMAs — like Rihanna's wig mishap, Lady Gaga's unforgettable meat dress and 30 Seconds to Mars' unconventional white-carpet arrival — tune in to "VMAs Revealed" this Saturday at noon ET on MTV.

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live on Sunday, August 28, from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT. See the list of nominees, revisit last year's highlights and vote for your favorites in the general categories by visiting VMA.MTV.com.

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