LOS ANGELES – When honoring a movie star who doesn’t exist, who gets to accept the award?

The irreverent, back-slapping MTV Movie Awards was debuting its category for best “virtual performance” at its 12th annual ceremony Saturday night.

MTV says the award goes to the character – not necessarily the flesh-and-blood actor involved or special-effects team that create it.

That means the trophy could be in the little green hands of Yoda from “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones;” the jabbering marsupial from “Kangaroo Jack;” the raspy creep Gollum from “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers;” Dobby the self-torturing elf in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” or the talking dog from “Scooby-Doo.”

The event at the Shrine Auditorium is more satire than ceremony, honoring show-business types for such categories as best kiss, villain and fight.

“Spider-Man” and “The Two Towers” led the nominees with five each, and both were up for best movie, along with “8 Mile,” “The Ring” and “Barbershop.”

Brittany Murphy, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Mark Wahlberg and Kate Hudson were among the scheduled presenters for the ceremony, and singer Justin Timberlake and actor Seann William Scott (Stifler from the “American Pie” movies) were to be the hosts. Performances were planned from rapper 50 Cent, the Russian girl duo t.A.T.u and pop singer Pink.

The ceremony, being taped Saturday at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, is scheduled to air June 5 on MTV.