British comedian and actor Russell Brand, who was once let go by MTV because he dressed up as Osama bin Laden, and is well known for stirring controversy and mayhem in the media through the execution of various pranks, will be the host of this year’s MTV Movie Awards.
MTV President Stephen Friedman expressed what may be interpreted as hopeful optimism regarding Brand’s performance as host of its annual movie awards event, to be held on June 3rd, in the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California: “With his amazing ability to span the full spectrum of comedy from the most high to low brow Russell’s smart, unpredictable wit uniquely connects him to our audience.”
British actor/comedian will host the 21st annual MTV Movie Awards on June 3 (Image: CC Flickr, M'aidez)
Russell will join a growing list of accomplished comedians who have hosted the annual MTV movie awards including Dennis Miller (1992), Eddie Murphy (1993), Will Smith (1994), Ben Stiller (1996) and more recently, Mike Myers (2008), Aziz Ansari (2010), and Jason Sudeikis (2011).
Thirty-eight year old Brand, who is also well known for his short marriage to pop singer Katy Perry, in 2004 hosted a spin-off of the popular British reality game show “Big Brother”, called “Big Brother’s Big Mouth”, earning him national fame in Britain. Brand’s first significant acting role was in the movie St. Trinian’s (2007) and he played rock star Aldous Snow in the movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshal” (2008), winning him an American audience.
Brand again played Aldous Snow in the movie “Get him to the Greek” (2010) but this time he starred in the film, earning high praise from movie critic Roger Ebert, who, speaking of the friendship between the movie’s two main characters Aldous and Aaron said: “The reason the friendship works is because Russell Brand and Johan Hill are good actors.” Ebert said “Russell Brand is convincing as a rock star, imperious, self- destructive, smarter than he seems, measuring out wretched excess in survivable portions.”
Brand, with the help of other and more famous actors like Charleze Theron, Mark Whalberg, and Mila Kunis, will be measuring out recognition and praise when he presents golden popcorn statuettes to the winners on June 3rd.