Author: Erin Carlson

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

When Kanye West crashed Taylor Swift‘s VMAs speech, everyone booed him offstage as Swift struggled to keep it together; when Aubrey Plaza pulled the same stunt with Will Ferrell at the MTV Movie Awards, the Anchorman star asked, “Are you OK?”

While Ferrell was accepting his Comedic Genius Award on Sunday, Plaza — best known as the droll and deadpan April on NBC’s Parks and Recreation — rushed the stage and attempted to wrest the trophy from his grip. 

STORY: MTV Movie Awards: ‘The Avengers,’ ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ Take Top Honors

“What’s happening? Are you OK?” said Ferrell, seemingly caught off guard. Plaza responded in a word (“yup”) and returned to her seat in the front row, displaying this Twitter hashtag scrawled in black marker underneath her collarbone: #TheToDoList, an obvious bit of marketing for her upcoming comedy, The To Do List, arriving in August.

“Aubrey Plaza everyone, just like we rehearsed it,” said Ferrell, his sarcastic tone of voice implying that perhaps he hadn’t expected Plaza to pull a Kanye.

Apparently, MTV didn’t either. Plaza was removed by security during the next commercial break. Afterward, she tweeted: “thanks for the advice @kanyewest went better than planned!”

Twitter: @ErinLCarlson; Email: erin.carlson@thr.com

Adam Rose/FOX

Thursday night’s Glee, which involved a school shooting, has drawn a warning to “watch with caution” by an anti-violence organization formed following the Sandy Hook tragedy in Newtown, Conn.

Ahead of the episode’s airing, a post on the Newtown Action Alliance‘s Facebook page urged people to avoid tuning in to the Ryan Murphy-created Fox dramedy. “I would suggest if you do watch this TV show to either not watch it tonight or watch with caution,” the post read.

The Newtown-based volunteer group posted a message shortly afterward explaining that the suggestion was meant for town residents, not the wider world.

“So, Glee is really going there… and we are interested in your feedback,” said the post. “What do you think about this? Does it further the gun debate? Do you think the episode was timed to coincide with the events happening right now in Washington? Is it just a sensationalist attempt at ratings? Are you planning on watching it?”

The Newtown Action Alliance as well as reps for Fox and studio 20th Television did not immediately respond to THR‘s request for comment. Neither did Murphy, who canceled a planned Tuesday teleconference with reporters because of Glee production demands. The call has yet to be rescheduled. Reps for Fox and studio 20th Television did not immediately respond to THR‘s requests for comment.

STORY: ‘Glee,’ Sue Sylvester Take on School Shootings

Andrew Paley, whose two sons survived the Sandy Hook massacre, slammed the show on Facebook for going forward with the shooting story line while the community is still healing from the events of Dec. 14.

“Those of us with kids that survived the shooting do not need to watch this episode,” he wrote. “It’s too soon as our kids and our own wounds are still too new. I understand keeping it in the minds of the Nation but dammit, at least let the people of Newtown know before hand. I found out because an old friend who blogs about the show have me a heads up. The producers should be ashamed to not think of us and how we’d feel if we just happened to be watching.”

Paley echoed that sentiment in a Friday morning appearance on CNN, arguing: “We have no problem, at least the parents I’ve spoken to, that they aired an episode that had a school shooting. It’s reality. It happened here. It happened at Columbine. … What’s really upsetting is that no one, none of the producers, reached out to the town of Newtown to let us residents who were so close to this episode know … .”

According to NBC News, the Newtown school superintendent issued a letter to parents on Thursday that warned: “This has the potential to be disturbing to many of our students, so I wanted you to know ahead of time.”

The award-winning series’ latest socially relevant episode, called “Shooting Star,” opened with a parental guidance warning. It shows members of New Directions hiding in a classroom after hearing gunshots in the hallway; there were no injuries but the harrowing experience left students shaken and cost Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) her job.

As previously reported, a spokesman for 20th Television told THR that the plot would continue in the four remaining episodes of season four. “All we can say on that front is, ‘Stay tuned,’ ” he said.

Lesley Goldberg contributed to this post.

Getty Images

The fifth installment Real Housewives of Atlanta was so explosive and over the top (two words: Kenya Moore) that Bravo has stretched out the reunion footage over three episodes filled with another season’s worth of verbal smackdowns.

“I’m so stressed and everything is so tense prior to us going to tape the reunion, and then for Todd — he already hates being on the show, so he was dying,” cast member Kandi Burruss, who’s engaged to producer Todd Tucker, tells The Hollywood Reporter. 

“The whole week up until the reunion, every day he’s like, ‘oh my god, I don’t know if I should do this,’ you know, ‘Ask me some questions! What do you think they’re gonna say?’ I was like, ‘Will you calm down? Nobody’s really going to bother you!’ It’s the rest of us that’s gonna be put on a stake.”

She adds: “For me, once the reunion is over, I get to finally breathe. … Everybody’s so tense and barely saying anything to each other because you know you’re about to have these arguments. And it’s crazy.”

STORY: ‘Real Housewives’ Star Porsha Stewart to Divorce Husband Kordell

Part one aired last Sunday, with two more to go featuring cameos from Tucker as well as exiled Real Housewife Kim Zolciak, who walked off the show early in season five following a dispute with the other women. So far, Burruss and NeNe Leakes have butted heads over Leakes’ dismissive attitude toward the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. (But that was nothing compared to the combative Moore hurling low-blow insults toward a pregnant Phaedra Parks in a war of words that had Moore dissing Parks as “overweight.”)

“We don’t really have anything to say to each other,” Burruss says of Leakes. “We really don’t talk to each other outside of things we’re doing for the show. Like I don’t really have a problem with her for real. And I don’t think she really has a problem with me. But every time I turn around she has something smart to say to me so I just give her the same energy she gives me.”

As for Moore, who clashed with Parks while consulting on the attorney’s Donky Booty workout video and later released the similar Booty Boot Camp starring herself, Burruss admits: “I like Kenya. I think she’s funny. I think she’s cool. But I don’t like everything she does. … I wouldn’t trust her with any of my great ideas.”

Meanwhile, the multi-tasking Burruss — who recently launched the sex toy line Bedroom Kandi — is headlining her very own Real Housewives‘ spin-off, The Kandi Factory, a singing competition show that airs Tuesdays on Bravo. It follows Burruss, a former member of the ’90s girl group Xscape and writer of hits for TLC, Destiny’s Child and Mariah Carey, among other artists, as she mentors 16 wannabe performers chasing their dreams of superstardom. In each episode, Burruss writes songs for a pair of contestants who then compete in a showcase for the grand prize: the release of their song online along with a music video.

“I do have some favorites, hands down,” says Burruss, not naming names. “I know that, this season, a lot of people thought that we were gonna stick a whole bunch of people who were challenged vocally. But we actually have all different levels of talent who were on this show this year. So we had some people who could really, really sing great and we had some people who were in dire need of our help.”

Twitter: @ErinLCarlson

Email: erin.carlson@thr.com