"Kids, don't really smoke fake weed like this," Rogen sarcastically told the crowd at the Gibson Amphitheatre.
As they pulled out the "contraband," the cameras pulled away to a wide angle, staying that way until Rogen and Franco left the stage. The awkward moment made some in the audience laugh, but left Robert Downey Jr. who accepted the award on behalf of "Iron Man" with a puzzled look.
Actor Will Smith arrives at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday June 1, 2008 in Los Angeles.
"Thanks fellas," he said, "for that intoxicating introduction."
Franco later told the AP backstage that MTV put them up to the joke, but that someone from the network decided at the last minute that they couldn't go through with it. By then, it was too late to pull back.
"MTV wrote it! ... Then backstage there was this big commotion: 'You guys can't say that,'" Franco said. "It says right in the script: 'Lights fake joint.'"
The nearby studio fire broke out 4:30 a.m. on a soundstage featuring a New York brownstone facades at the 400-acre property. It was contained to the lot but burned for more than 12 hours before the final flames were extinguished.
"I actually came here early because I wanted to see it," Chris Brown said before the show. What did he see? "A whole lot of chaos."
Rihanna, left, and Chris Brown are seen at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday June 1, 2008 in Los Angeles.
Winners were threatened to keep their speeches short by a man resembling Javier Bardem's character from "No Country for Old Men" complete with the bob hairdo and pneumatic cattle gun. Best female performance winner Ellen Page from "Juno" escaped unscathed, but best fight winners Sean Faris and Cam Gigandet were ushered off stage by the menacing lookalike.
