Did they just do that?

http://gawker.com/5012149/

No, I don't think they did. But Seth Rogen and James Franco made quite the buzz Sunday night when they presented at the MTV movie awards with what people are dubbing "Weedgate" (People meaning me). That video, linked above, is probably NSFW (although it aired on basic cable), so I'll summarize:

Seth Rogen and James Franco come out to present the award for "Best Summer Movie So Far". Pretty pointless award if you ask me. Iron Man, which I'm finally seeing tonight, kicked off the summer movie season, and everything since has been a disappointment. Summer doesn't really start for me until The Dark Knight debuts next month, but I digress. So Rogen and Franco do a shameless, yet ingenious viral type plug for their upcoming stoner action flick Pineapple Express. Rogen says they don't actually smoke real weed on set, and he proceeds to pull out a giant bag of "fake" weed that they use in the movie, followed by a "fake" joint. Rogen and Franco then "fake" light up. During this, the camera pans to various celebrities. Chris Brown's reaction in particular is priceless. Then, instead of showing Rogen and Franco "fake" light up, the cameraman zooms out so you can't see what they're doing. Naturally, this fueled speculation that they weren't merely "fake" lighting up.

I don't buy it. Sure, they could get away with smoking a joint at an event like that, filled with celebrities and not much in terms of law enforcement. But that bag of "fake" weed was big. Big enough to get them a possession with intent to distribute charge. They definitely ran the risk of attracting the attention of law enforcement, which they just don't need at this point in their careers. One possibility is that MTV intentionally filmed it that way to manufacture the controversy. But I don't think MTV is that clever anymore. I think the more likely scenario is that MTV initially signed off on the sketch, and then chickened out at the last second. Drug use, along with nudity, is really one of the last taboo's that mainstream television has yet to embrace. Whatever actually happened, it's sure to give a big boost for Pineapple Express. The movie's been on my radar for a while and is sure to jump to the top of my most anticipated list after The Dark Knight debuts, but I don't know of a lot of other people that were aware of it. A lot of people apparently do think that was real weed and they really smoked up on national television. I'm curious to hear what you guys think, so leave a comment.