RUSSELL BRAND is a bad, bad boy. Thank the punk rock saints for that! As the English comic and sole male inheritor of Amy Winehouse's hairstyle laid waste to good taste as the host of this year's MTV Video Music Awards, somewhere in heaven's dark alley Joey Ramone and Sid Vicious shared a laugh.
Since the program aired Sunday, Brand has been pilloried by some pundits and applauded by others for his banter, which was far more politically minded -- and friskily filthy -- than that of any awards show host in recent memory. He's been called out for advocating a candidate, Barack Obama, in a race to lead a country not his own, for describing President Bush as a "retarded cowboy" and for relentlessly teasing committed virgins the Jonas Brothers about their purity rings.
That last transgression might not seem overtly political, but it touched on a hot point that is continuing to reverberate throughout the culture. Without any visible help (yet) from the Jonas Brothers, vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin is returning teen sexuality to the center of public debate. Her policies do so: She's an advocate of abstinence education and an opponent of abortion. More widely discussed is the drama of her daughter Bristol's unplanned pregnancy.
At the VMAs, the collision of Brand and the Jo Bros conjured the specter of the inescapable Palin, connecting her hot-button issues of family, sex and self-determination to current trends in teen-oriented pop.
It didn't take Brand's cracks about Bristol Palin and her now-fiance Levi Johnston ("The best safe sex message of all time: Use a condom or become a Republican," he said) to make youthful pregnancy a presence at the VMAs. There was expectant Ashlee Simpson, huge in an evening gown, answering country music darling Taylor Swift's questions about her "little dilemma." And there, everywhere, was Britney Spears, whose struggles with motherhood have been a constant source of debate -- and whose sister, Jamie Lynn, was America's favorite teen mom before Bristol was forced upon the scene.
These ingenue moms are part of a pop scene that's strangely split between exhibitionism and old-fashioned morality. The VMAs weren't that racy this year -- there was no steamy scene like Madonna's 2003 three-way with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera -- but hot pants and cleavage still defined evening wear for most female performers. T-Pain, who's built his career on sweet-talking strippers in song, was a triumphant presence. Yet so was the cast of "High School Musical," who've fought back gossip to stay clean-cut.
