She’s not performing, but Britney Spears, as part of her latest comeback attempt, will have a presence at this year’s Video Music Awards. Last week, Britney’s manager, Larry Rudolph, pulled the plug on speculation that she’d be opening the awards just like last year. But she is nominated for an award for her video, “Piece of Me,” and rumor has it that she’ll also be presenting an award along with Olympic champion Michael Phelps.

Britney Spears is to make her return to the MTV VMAs next week accompanied by Olympic swimming golden boy Michael Phelps.

The troubled star had been planning to perform live at the show too, but her manager pulled the plug on the idea – probably a good idea after her disastrous bikini-clad performance at the show last year.

Instead, it’s emerged that Britney will take the stage with human fish Phelps to present one of the many awards on September 8, introduced by host Russell Brand.

She may well end up accepting a gong too – she’s been nominated for her single Piece Of Me.

[From The Daily Mirror]

The official MTV VMA web site doesn’t list Britney as a presenter, though it does confirm that Phelps will be there.

He walked away from this summer’s Olympic Games with a record-setting eight gold medals. So what’s swimming sensation Michael Phelps going to do next? Well, after his requisite trip to Disney World — he’ll be heading out to Los Angeles’ Paramount Pictures Studios on September 7 to hand out a Moonman or two during the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

MTV revealed Thursday (August 28) that Phelps, Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Ciara, Scarlett Johansson, “Superbad” scene-stealer Christopher Mintz-Plasse and “High School Musical” stars Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens will be presenters at the show, which will air live at 9 p.m ET. They’ll join “Twilight” stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, who were also announced as presenters on Tuesday.

Additionally, it was announced that DJ AM and Blink-182 kitman Travis Barker will be mixing live drum beats to scratched records throughout the evening. Later in the show, the pair will team up with Katy Perry, T-Pain, Lupe Fiasco, the Ting Tings and other special guests to perform new and past MTV hits as part of a special celebration of the VMAs’ 25th birthday.

The news follows the recent announcements that Rihanna, Pink, T.I., Kid Rock, Paramore, Lil Wayne and the Jonas Brothers will be taking the VMA stage this year. Additional presenters and performers will be announced in the coming days.

This year’s VMAs will be hosted by British comic and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” co-star Russell Brand.

[From MTV.com]

Of course, that doesn’t mean Britney won’t be presenting- MTV might just be keeping it under wraps for now.

Britney Spears is shown on 6/26/08. Micheal Phelps is shown yesterday and this morning, 8/27/08 and 8/28/08. He should definitely keep his shirt off. Credit: WENN. Edit – more shirtless photos added by popular demand. Credit: PRPhotos

More proof that Britney Spears is associating with people who actually care about her and her career: the recovering singer is not scheduled to perform at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Though Spears appeared on some promotional spots for the awards and may be attending them, her management team has issued a statement saying that there will be no repeat of last year’s trainwreck seen ’round the world.

“Britney Spears will not be performing at the VMAs this year. I’m telling you officially and unequivocally,” Ryan Seacrest quoted her manager, Larry Rudolph, as saying on his KIIS-FM radio show Monday morning.

Rudolph told Seacrest that Spears “is in the middle of recording her next album, which is going amazingly well, and was never supposed to perform at that show.”

The possibility of Spears performing had been rumored for weeks. (Her hair stylist Kim Vo even told E! News that he was creating three VMA looks for the singer, hinting that one of the ‘dos was for her performance.)

The singer is still involved in the show in some capacity, however.

She is appearing alongside host Russell Brand in cheeky TV spots promoting the September 7 show.

She is also up for three VMAs — including “Video of the Year” — for her song “Piece of Me.”

Spears has never won a “Moonman,” despite being nominated 17 times.

Last year, she raised eyebrows after her rocky opening performance of “Gimme More.” The New York Times called her “awful,” writing that she “tottered around the stage, dancing tentatively and doing nothing that sounded or looked like real live singing.”

[From Us Weekly]

While most gossip bloggers are probably disappointed by this news, I’m glad. It shows that Britney has the right people around her again who aren’t looking to exploit her or push her into something she’s not ready to handle yet. And it also means we won’t be subjected to another tearful diatribe by a whacked-out fan.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Britney is shown out driving with her bodyguard on Sunset Boulevard on 8/22/08. Next week’s tabloids are going to be saying there’s romance there. Credit: O’Duran/Fame Pictures.

Kanye West is pissed that MTV won’t “give a black man a chance” (his words, not mine) by giving him any of their prestigious Moon Man awards. And in a cutting off his nose to spite his face move, Kanye is boycotting the network. The dude is seriously a poor loser.

“Rapper Kanye West has vowed to boycott cable channel MTV after missing out on five awards at the Video Music Awards on Sunday. The ‘Gold Digger’ hitmaker made his hurt feelings known after the event in Las Vegas, hurling abuse at MTV bosses as cameras rolled backstage. He ranted: ‘That’s two years in a row… Give a black man a chance.’

“And he hadn’t calmed down by the time he hit the airwaves on New York radio station Z100 on Monday morning. He even attacked the VMA organisers for exploiting Britney Spears, who opened the show with a disastrous performance of her new single. He told the radio station: ‘They exploited Britney in helping to end her career. When Britney was opening, near the end, I felt so bad for her. I said: “Man, it’s a dirty game. This game will chew you up and spit you out.”’

“He went on to tell Z100 DJ JJ that he felt misled and ‘betrayed’ by MTV bosses, and promised to never work with the network again. West revealed he has already cancelled planned appearances set for this week.

[From Ireland Online]

It’s hard to say if that’s a bad move for Kanye or a bad move for MTV. The network has really been struggling lately and has lost a huge amount of their audience to BET and the internet. Though they were certainly the forerunners in television music, they’ve focused far too much on reality programming and not enough on airing music videos. Losing another popular artist couldn’t help things for MTV – the question is whether it can help things for Kanye. Though he could stand to be taken down a peg. I think he’s around 6 feet tall – five and a half of that is actually Kanye, the other six inches are his ego. If this move ends up being a mistake, maybe it’ll humble him… but likely just piss him off even more.

Kanye was also annoyed with Pamela Anderson, even though they were friends, and she co-starred in his video for “Touch the Sky.”

“The rapper also had harsh words for his one-time video co-star Pamela Anderson, who he felt ‘disrespected’ him as she introduced his VMA performance.

“The former Baywatch babe said: ‘One of the best times I’ve ever had was making out with the next performer in the middle of the desert.’

“‘I think I had my tongue so far down his throat I could taste his fiancée – and I might need a repeat performance later tonight.’

“West was far from amused: “I’m engaged, and I feel like it’s disrespectful to my relationship.’”

[From Ireland Online]

I’m not going to say that was the smartest joke I’ve ever head, but it was way too smart for me to believe that Pamela Anderson wrote it. I’m sure some MTV writer thought he was being clever, and Anderson just read it off the teleprompter. Kanye is one of those guys that just wants to be mad at people. He can always find someone to have a beef with. I agree with some of our commenters who said they couldn’t see what was so special about Kanye. Apart from spending a lot of money on is music videos, I don’t see what sets him apart from most other rappers. He doesn’t seem particularly innovative – or at least not enough so to justify his ego.

Update: Here’s a video from “The Insider” of Kanye’s expletive-laced tantrum. It’s even worse to hear it than to read it. He seems slightly off his rocker.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Kanye at the VMAs in Las Vegas. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Well, her much-hyped “comeback” was once again a massive failure. Like most of Britney Spears’ other comebacks of late, she underperformed and horribly embarrassed herself. Britney opened the VMAs with what was supposed to be an impressive, magic-laced performance of her new single, “Gimme More.” She left the audience thinking the same thing. Spears wandered around the stage aimlessly with a bleary, drugged out expression on her face. Instead of dancing, she swayed her hips randomly and let a dancer grab her a few times. She half-heartedly shook her hips and did a couple body rolls, and at a few points it looked like she might stumble, but she managed to right herself. And that was about it. She’d completely forgotten how to lip-sync… hello, don’t you have a hairbrush and a mirror to practice with like the rest of us?

“Somewhere, Kevin Federline is laughing.

“An out-of-shape, out-of-touch Britney Spears delivered what was destined to be the most talked about performance of the MTV Video Music Awards – but for all the wrong reasons. Kicking off the show Sunday night with her new single, “Gimme More,” Spears looked bleary and unprepared – much like her recent tabloid exploits on the streets of Los Angeles.

“She lazily walked through her dance moves with little enthusiasm. It appeared she had forgotten the entire art of lip-synching; and, perhaps most unforgivable given her once taut frame, she looked embarrassingly out of shape.

“Even the celebrity-studded audience seemed bewildered. 50 Cent looked at Spears with a confused expression; Diddy, her new best friend, was expressionless.

“Some comeback.”

[From the Associated Press]

It’s clear that Britney’s days of super-athletic routines are far behind her. Though she’s always lip-synced in concert, most people forgave that, since there’s no way someone could dance the way she did and sing. But most of us could stumble around confused without a problem. I don’t think she looked bad in terms of her physique, but she’s clearly forgotten how to dance and how to perform. So essentially, she’s forgotten how to have a career. Either she was incredibly tired or she was on something… my guess is both. According to 24/Sizzler, Britney partied until 6 a.m. the night before the Video Music Awards.

“Britney Spears, donning a fedora hat and blonde extensions arrived at Tao for a Samsung Gleam bash around 1 a.m. Sunday morning with her partying partner-in-crime Diddy…The duo partied in the club’s VIP area and danced to Britney’s new single ‘Gimme More’…Former rehab inpatient Britney drank Grey Goose vodka and sugar-free Red Bull, while Diddy downed Patron…

“On Saturday, Britney sidekick Alli Sims arrived at the Tao Hospitality suite – sans Britney – but with two other friends…’Alli claimed that Britney was so tired from the night before partying until 6 a.m. that she wanted Alli to pull “fun” swag from the suite,’ tattles a 24Sizzler.com eyewitness. Alli grabbed Britney product from Disney Couture, Treesje Handbags, Luxottica sunglasses but kept the Oceanaut watch for herself.’”

[From 24/Sizzler]

It’s not like a lot of people were pulling for Britney anymore, but I naively thought that if MTV was going to let her open the VMAs, she must have a good performance ready. The VMAs have lost a lot of viewers the last few years, and MTV has been trying to revive the awards show. But apparently they were willing to take a risk on an old commodity, and it definitely didn’t pan out. Sarah Silverman caustically summed up Brit’s performance “Was that incredible? Britney Spears, everyone. Wow. She is amazing. She is 25-years-old and she’s already accomplished everything she’s going to accomplish in her life. It’s mind blowing.” Watching Britney limp around on stage was sort of sad, but it doesn’t make me pull for her. It just makes me hope she goes back into rehab – or wherever she needs to be – stays away from the spotlight, and gets her life together. Then, when she can actually do a great job, she should work on a comeback.

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the video thanks to Britney.cl

Pictures via Britney.cl and JJB.