View from the VMAs: A Miley Cyrus bottleneck

7:08 p.m.: Shia LaBeouf and Slash traipse down the revolving mirrored staircase. Careful, Shia! Both men arrive in front of the microphone without peril. The actor keeps his injured hand — which he suffered in a car accident — behind his back. While the montage of nominees plays, LaBeouf leans over to introduce himself to the woman holding the Moon Men trophy for best rock video. He shakes her hand — with his uninjured paw.

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7:14 p.m.: Inside Stage 16, most of Pink’s performance is obscured as stage hands construct a smooth metal set piece.

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7:23 p.m.: Christopher Mintz-Plasse — the geeky McLovin from “Superbad” — drops an expletive! The crowd giggles.

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7:28 p.m.: Following T.I.’s back lot performance of “Whatever You Like,” Rihanna rises out of that metal set piece to join him — she does love an entrance, doesn’t she? — and the crowd goes nuts. Stage 16 is now so packed that people are sitting on the floor, in the aisles, on the risers. Afterward, Rihanna stops to greet the Jonas Brothers on the way back to her seat.

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7:38 p.m.: Loudest performance of the night so far goes to the agile Christina Aguilera. Her comic-themed endeavor began near the ceiling of Stage 16 and ended in the middle of the catwalk, but the expansive decibels had even a few younger audience members jamming their fingers in their ears. Aguilera’s exit was less super than her entrance. She just walked off with her dancers in tow.

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7:48 p.m.: Several audience members groan when Paris Hilton joins Brand on stage to present the award for best pop video. As the nominees are announced, Brand chats with Hilton then shoots her a thumbs-up and goes backstage. Hilton pops open the envelope while the video is still playing and flashes a smile. The audience seems to cheer genuinely when Hilton announces Spears as the winner — her second award of the night following best female video.

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8:04 p.m.: Taylor Swift raises her fist during Kid Rock and Lil Wayne’s performance. The Jonas Brothers, who are sitting next to Swift, keep their arms down. Spears is sitting two rows ahead of the young pop stars and seems to have an MTV cameraman solely dedicated to her all night long. Maybe that’s because she keeps winning?

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8:16 p.m.: In the middle of Kanye West’s outdoor performance, the audience inside Stage 16 is completely emptying out. Guess they wanted to get a head start at the after-party instead of watching West return to the award show he said he would boycott after losing all five categories in which he was nominated in 2007.

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8:24 p.m.: That’s a wrap! Get it?

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