RINGS LORDS OVER MTV MOVIE AWARDS WITH FOUR HONORS

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers towered over the competition at MTV's 12th Annual Movie Awards ceremony, held Saturday night at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium. The show will air on the network Thursday (6/5) at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).

The epic film won four awards, including Best Movie, Best On-Screen Team and Best Action Sequence, while the digitally created Gollum walked off with the first-ever Best Virtual Performance honor.

Hosted by Justin Timberlake and Seann William Scott, the show, featuring a clever comic book hero theme, handed out a pair of the traditional golden popcorn statuettes apiece to Eminem (for Best Male Performance and Best Breakthrough Male in 8 Mile) and Kirsten Dunst (Best Female Performance and Best Kiss for her infamous lip-lock with Tobey Maguire in Spiderman).

Eminem sent videotaped greetings from Detroit, where he was in the studio working on Obie Trice’s new album for his Shady label.

Dunst was on hand to accept her two awards, as was, to the crowd’s delight, Star Wars’ Yoda (for Best Fight sequence with Christopher Lee), who accepted his popcorn while director George Lucas looked on beaming from his table. Gollum sent a profanity-laced clip from New Zealand, where director Peter Jackson is putting the finishing touches on the third installment of the epic trilogy, due out before the end of the year.

Performers 50 Cent, P!nk and controversial Russian duo t.A.T.u. performed on elaborate sets, the latter accompanied by hundreds of Catholic schoolgirls in plaid skirts and anklets who stripped down to T-shirts and underwear for the evening’s set piece.

Among the highlights were a pair of Joel Gallen-directed shorts, one a Matrix spoof with Timberlake and Scott, featuring hilarious cameos by Andy Dick, Wanda Sykes and Will Ferrell as "The Architect." The other was a Charlie’s Angels 2 parody, with Vince Vaughn as an "ass consultant" for stars Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu.

The presenters included upcoming summer movie co-stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence (Bad Boys 2), Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson (Alex and Emma) and Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett (Hollywood Homicide), making the show the place for Hollywood to get out the word on its hottest hot-weather blockbusters. Demi Moore brought down the house with knee-high boots and slinky dress, giving out Best Actor honors, as did Keanu Reeves, who presented the Best Movie popcorn. Queen Latifah turned the tables on Adrien Brody by re-enacting the latter’s Oscar night smooch with Halle Berry while appropriately handing over the Best Kiss award to Dunst.

The other winners included Austin Powers in Goldmember’s Mike Myers for Best Comedic Performance, The Ring’s Daveigh Chase for Best Villain and Daredevil’s Jennifer Garner and Colin Farrell for Breakthrough Female and Best Transatlantic Breakthrough, respectively.