TAINTGATE is what the episode from last night’s MTV Movie Awards is being called today over a stunt between Sasha Baron Cohen and Eminem.

Furious Eminem stormed out of the MTV Movie Awards after prankster Sacha Baron Cohen aka. Bruno bared his buttocks just inches from Eminem’s face. The question of the day: was the prank staged?

The rapper was left fuming when Cohen, dressed as his flamboyant fashionista alter-ego Bruno, descended from the ceiling dressed as an angel in a thong and landed in his lap.

You could easily read Eminem’s lips as the sensors beeped him out and know by the look of shock and disgust that he wasn’t happy. Eminem raged: ‘Are you serious? Are you f***ing serious?’ as he sat pinned down to his chair with Cohen on top of him. Seconds after Bruno landed, Eminem’s entourage came to his rescue throwing and pushing Cohen, who was still suspended from wires, away from Eminem before the rap superstar got up and stormed off. Celebrities in the audience looked as stunned as Eminem did when they panned to Cameron Diaz, Star Trek’s Zachary Quinto and even Zach Efron, who has just been announced as the winner of the award. Cohen continued to crack jokes even as he was manhandled by Eminem’s bodyguards, making me thing the entire scene was just a prank. But was Eminem in on the joke?

Clearly, MTV planned to drop Bruno in Eminem’s lap, but was Eminem privy to the information that he would be getting a faceful of taint? As Eminem got up to leave, Cohen mocked: ‘Is the real Slim Shady about to stand up?’

Baron Cohen’s publicist, Matthew Labov, had no comment after the show and a spokeswoman for MTV would not confirm whether Eminem was caught by surprise. Last night Eminem’s representatives didn’t comment, but today they are saying that the rapper was aware of the bit beforehand.