Vmas

For fans who want to see more of Beyonce or Ludacris at next week's Video Music Awards, MTV is offering a trip backstage at Radio City Music Hall. Not physically, of course. That would get way too crowded. The network is putting on a broadband program to run concurrently with the VMAs on Aug. 31 and giving people at home a taste of what is happening beyond the reach of the TV station's cameras.

The go-to-place for music videos MTV is not. Yet the   MTV Video Music Awards tonight are not about videos . This is a show about a promotion, a 120-minute teaser trailer for the fall's big albums, with appearances by  Alicia Keys, Green Day and Taylor Swift, among others, here to sell.  And make no mistake, MTV remains brilliant at generating headlines for nonstories. As the destination for music videos has shifted to the Web -- the word "Video" remains in the "Video Music Awards" title more for tradition than anything having to do with the telecast -- the network has honed its craft at the fine art of promotion.

A Green Day member sporting a "Free Pussy Riot" T-shirt was about as political as the 2012 MTV VMAs were able to get. The band unveiled yet another new song, "Let Yourself Go," and the song, again, saw the band moving away from the political and social overtunes of "American Idiot" and "21st Century Breakdown. " Green Day, in fact, has been doing everything in its power to state that it should not be considered an important band. As evidence, the band has its own "Angry Birds" characters.

MTV Video Music Award host Kevin Hart is Team Bella. At the top of Thursday's VMA broadcast, after One Direction scooped a trophy for best pop video, Hart decided to pontificate on the tabloid scandal involving Kristen Stewart and her recent indiscretion with married director Rupert Sanders. "You can't stop me," Hart said of going there . "I want to talk about Kristen Stewart. Everybody's mad at Kristen Stewart for making a mistake. "   PHOTOS: 2012 MTV Video Music Awards | Arrivals Hart informed those in the Staples Center that didn't know KStew, long rumored to be dating her "Twilight" costar Robert Pattinson, was photographed canoodling with the "Snow White and the Huntsman" director, married to former model Liberty Ross.

Hip-hop and R&B are the strongest backbeat of MTV at the moment, and that was evident Tuesday with the naming of the 2004 nominees for the channel's annual Video Music Awards. Jay-Z led the field with six nods, and his gritty "99 Problems" will contend for best video honors with "Hey Ya!" by OutKast, "Yeah!" by Usher, "My Band" by D12 and "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Wednesday. Craig Ferguson had an anthrax scare when a letter with white powder was sent to his CBS show. ( Los Angeles Times ) Uncle Frank from "Jimmy Kimmel Live" has died. ( Los Angeles Times ) It turns out Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are not separating. As you were. ( Los Angeles Times ) A clip from "The Hunger Games" will air during MTV's VMAs. There's one reason to watch. ( Los Angeles Times )

It's not often you get to mention Taylor Swift and McKayla Maroney in the same sentence. But you can do it more often now that they have one thing in common: They will both be on stage at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards next month. The U.S. women's gymnastics team (Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Alexandra Raisman, Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber) won the women's team gold medal at the London Olympics and were announced as presenters for the Sept. 6 show. Swift will sing a song during the show.

'Glee': Given our vague resistance to musicals, we were suspicious of this newcomer, especially after it enjoyed an avalanche of blog-hype last month. But after catching up last week, this comedy has become music to our ears. Think of "Election" crossed with "Freaks and Geeks" (and surprisingly solid singing) and you've got the idea. It's a "High School Musical" that doesn't require being in high school to enjoy. Chevy Chase: He taught us sportsmanship in "Caddyshack," offered a cautionary example of family travel in "Vacation" and kept us looking for Jane Doe in our archives thanks to "Fletch."

The Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot has received praise from artists including Björk, Madonna, Green Day and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now the band is returning the favor. In a new video communique released by MTV, two members of the group thanked all those artists for their outspoken support while rappelling down the side of a large structure draped in a Pussy Riot banner. The video closes with them setting off flares to ignite a portrait of Vladimir Putin. It's unclear whether  those two balaclava-clad members are the same two who recently escaped from Russia under threat of prosecution . The group prizes anonymity, and technically, anyone can don the mask and be an axillary member of Pussy Riot.  But the video's curiously high production values and perilous stunt work -- a reference to some members' madcap rooftop escape from Russian police -- raises its own questions, especially given its release just before tonight's Video Music Awards on MTV. Chris Martins at Spin raises the hypothetical possibility that it's no coincidence at all . MTV is reportedly asking artists about Pussy Riot on the red carpet, and it broke the story of the video message.