Los Angeles - Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran have staged a fake Twitter spat.
The 29-year-old R&B star and singer/songwriter Ed have recreated the dispute between Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj over the latter's failure to receive more nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards by contriving an argument of their own."
Bruno tweeted: "Yo I want in on this twitter Beef!! VMAs is the new WWF!! @edsheeran F**k You! SHOW YOURSELF!!! @edsheeran (sic)"
Yo I want in on this twitter Beef!! VMAs is the new WWF!! @edsheeran Fuck You!
— Bruno Mars (@BrunoMars) July 22, 2015
SHOW YOURSELF!!! @edsheeran https://t.co/J07BphUedV
— Bruno Mars (@BrunoMars) July 22, 2015
And Ed was happy to rise to the challenge, warning his pop rival he would be defeated in the wrestling-style spat.
The 24-year-old Brit said: "Any way we do dis you gon' come up short (sic)."
@BrunoMars any way we do dis you gon' come up short
— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) July 22, 2015
Bruno responded: "That Cut deep..U always know how to sheer me to the core. I can't believe we're Sheeran this in public. How dare u! (sic)."
That Cut deep..U always know how to sheer me to the core. I can't believe we're Sheeran this in public. How dare u! https://t.co/fdYOVnlScF
— Bruno Mars (@BrunoMars) July 22, 2015
A Twitter user also replied with this photo of the two stars:
@BrunoMars @edsheeran SAY NO MORE. Place yo bets people pic.twitter.com/VsSzsWuIoc
— Angelie Censon (@echosei_ACE) July 22, 2015
The spat between Taylor and Nicki - which inspired Bruno and Ed's social media prank - erupted after the hip hop star bemoaned being nominated for just three VMA awards, with her Feeling Myself promo missing out entirely and Anaconda being overlooked for the top prize, Video of the Year."
Nicki tweeted: "Hey guys @MTV thank you for my nominations. Did 'Feeling Myself' miss the deadline or...?
"If I was a different 'kind' of artist, 'Anaconda' would be nominated for best choreo and vid of the year as well.
"When the 'other' girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination.
"If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year.
"I'm not always confident. Just tired. Black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it (sic)."
Taylor - who received nine nominations in total, including for Video of the Year and Best Female - felt the tweets were aimed at her due to her Bad Blood promo being up for Video of the Year and replied: "I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot."
Katy Perry also joined the Twitter feud on Wednesday, tweeting: "Finding it ironic to parade the 'pit women against other women' argument about as one unmeasurably capitalises on the takedown of a woman."