NEW YORK — MTV is staking its brand on a lesser-known one: Russell Brand. The British actor and comedian will host this year's Video Music Awards, set to air live from Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles on Sept. 7, MTV told The Associated Press on Thursday. Brand recently co-starred in the Judd Apatow-produced comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and the Reese Witherspoon-produced fairy tale "Penelope." He is currently filming the Adam Sandler comedy "Bedtime Stories," slated for release later this year. Brand told the AP that he hadn't started thinking about how he would approach the assignment _ not that there's much planning to be done for the infamously anything-goes show. "I've just been invited to do it," Brand said in a telephone interview from London. "It'll be good to preside over what is sure to be only vaguely coordinated televised insanity." Not that chaos or improv a problem for the 33-year-old comedian. "That's how I've made my name in this country: Flying very much by the seat _ and the crotch _ of my pants." MTV hired Brand to be a VJ on its Britain-based show "Dance Floor Chart" after catching his comedy act in Edinburgh, Scotland. He also hosted a call-in show called MTV Select. Brand has hosted numerous TV shows and events in the U.K., performed sell-out comedy gigs and written a best-selling memoir, "My Booky Wook," published last year. His popular radio show, The Russell Brand Show, debuted two years ago ...
Anytime
