Nicki Minaj’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the VMAs was one of the most talked about moments in a night filled with awkward and uncomfortable moments, and it turns out it was all staged to grab as many headlines as possible. (And, if we’re being cynical, to pick some up when it all was revealed to be fake.) TMZ talked to people who watched the dress rehearsal Sunday morning who said that Minaj came out with her dress unzipped and “was wrapping her arms around the dress in a ‘weird’ sort of way … trying to manipulate it to see how much would be exposed.” The VMA camp also stuck to the story that this was all a mishap: In an interview with Billboard, one of the executive producers of the VMAs said that everything was normal in dress rehearsals. “Everyone involved wants each performance to go off without a hitch. When things go awry — like last year our revolving stage got stuck right before we went on the air — we improvise and make it work. In this case, we didn’t have to amend the performance. Nicki handled the situation perfectly.” Ratings for the VMAs were down this year by 18 percent, dropping from 10.1 million viewers last year to 8.3 million.

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