MTV Movie Awards executive producer Mark Burnett broke the silence Tuesday about the Sacha Baron Cohen/Eminem stunt on Sunday’s broadcast.

Baron Cohen “had the power to get dropped anywhere he wanted to get dropped,” Burnett said of the stunt, in which Baron Cohen’s Bruno character landed on Eminem’s face with a bare bottom. “I knew Sacha was coming in with angel wings and would be dropped from the ceiling. There were clearly safety discussions. But Sacha was going to do what Sacha wanted to.”
Burnett demurred when asked whether he knew Baron Cohen was planning to land on Eminem or whether Eminem was in on the stunt. “There were many things hinted at to me, and many people could have been reached,” he says. “I wasn’t completely sure what was going to happen, and I didn’t really care. I was ready for anything.”
The Associated Press reported that MTV Movie Awards writer Scott Aukerman wrote on his blog Tuesday that the stunt was rehearsed.