Britney Spears in "Piece of Me"

We asked for your help, and you did not disappoint. You voted in record numbers, whittling the list of Moonman hopefuls for Best Male Video and Best Female Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards down to the final five, as the nominees were revealed Friday (July 25).

After thousands of votes on VMA.MTV.com (along with ballots from select industry insiders), two diverse battles are set. A pair of legendary pop icons will square off against two relative newcomers and one wily underdog in the fight for Best Female Video. Pop queen Britney Spears takes another step on the comeback trail as her "Piece of Me" grabs a nomination, while Mariah Carey will try to end her VMA dry spell with "Touch My Body." "American Idol" champ Jordin Sparks scores a nomination for her Chris Brown collaboration "No Air," and Rihanna is in the running as well with "Take a Bow." Quirky long shot Katy Perry rounds out the Best Female race with her cheeky summer anthem "I Kissed a Girl."

Meanwhile, hip-hop's hot streak continues in the Best Male Video category as two of the hottest MCs in the game face off against some of R&B's leading men. Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" exploded this year, so it's no surprise that he's in the running, along with T.I., whose "No Matter What" chronicles his struggles over the past year. Chris Brown and Usher made the list with "With You" and "Love in This Club" respectively, and Flo Rida is in the mix with "Low."

Of course, when one door closes, another opens, my friends — voting in two other categories is now officially open at VMA.MTV.com. Hundreds of hopefuls will now duke it out in the Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Pop Video categories! The nominees will be announced on next Friday's installment of "FNMTV." After that, two more rounds of voting remain to determine the nominees for Best Dancing in a Video, Best New Artist, Best Rock Video and the highly coveted Video of the Year.

The 25th VMAs will take place at the legendary Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood on September 7. The Jonas Brothers are confirmed to perform, and British funnyman and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" co-star Russell Brand was just announced as the show's host.

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• Britney Spears
• Mariah Carey
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Britney Spears (file)
Photo: Chris Wolf/FilmMagic.com

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's custody settlement is final, according to TMZ.com.

Under the settlement, which was filed Friday (July 25) in L.A. County Superior Court, Spears must pay $250,000 in Federline's legal fees. Also, Federline will get $20,000 a month for child support, up from his previous $15,000. The agreement doesn't mention visitation, TMZ reported.

On July 17, Spears agreed to give Federline sole legal and physical custody of their two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James, while she would retain visitation rights. Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, told E! News last week that the agreement had been signed by all parties but still needed to be approved by the court.

TMZ says Spears will have three days and one night a week with her sons, with more visitation possible in the future. The singer has only been allowed monitored visits with her children since late February, following her multiple hospitalizations. She was recently granted the right to have one overnight visit a week as well.

According to E!, the Federline camp credited Spears' father, Jamie — who was appointed the co-conservator of his daughter's estate in February — for helping to get the troubled 26-year-old singer back on the right path. The conservatorship is up for review at the end of July, at which point a court commissioner will decide whether to make the arrangement permanent. Kaplan said that there is language in the custody agreement that anticipates a possible end to the conservatorship, but he couldn't discuss what those terms are. "Nobody can predict what the future will bring, but ... to the extent possible, I think we have really anticipated how to proceed," he said.

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• Kevin Federline

Britney Spears
Photo: WENN/ Newscom

For the past year, we'd gotten used to the nearly daily photos of Britney Spears tooling around Los Angeles aimlessly in her car. But on Monday, Los Angeles Police might have made it a bit harder for paparazzi to get those shots, arresting two photographers who staked out a spot on a fire-access road on a hillside near Spears' Studio City home on suspicion of loitering.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the two photogs, Alexandre Passos, 35, and Eduardo Ravalha, 35, were arrested after an unidentified person called police around 4 p.m. on Monday to report that the men were loitering on city-owned property that has restricted public access and is blocked by a chain-link fence.

Police told the two to leave the area, but when officers returned nearly an hour later, the photographers were still there. An LAPD spokesperson said the photographers were "detained, questioned and eventually arrested," before being released a few hours later. Ravalha's Mercedes was impounded. Police may have been so quick to respond because they were called to the same spot two weeks ago on a similar report and noticed that signs warning trespassers to stay off the property had been removed.

The arrests Monday were part of an initiative by the LAPD to crack down on aggressive celebrity photographers. In February, four paparazzi were arrested by the LAPD on suspicion of reckless driving after they followed Spears on a street in the San Fernando Valley, and police alleged that at least one had tried to run the singer off the road.

• Britney Spears

Britney Spears (file)
Photo: Damian Dovarganes/ AP Images

Britney Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline have settled their long-running custody dispute over their two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James. According to E! News, Spears agreed on Thursday to give Federline sole legal and physical custody of the two boys, while she will retain visitation rights.

Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, said the agreement was signed by all parties. "The case has been settled," Kaplan told E! "The court still has to approve it." Spears and Federline are due in court Friday morning (July 18), which was to be the final hearing in the case before it was scheduled to go to trial next month. Earlier in the week, Kaplan had brushed off rumors that a settlement might be in the works, but some court watchers had speculated that might be the case when an earlier court date on Tuesday was postponed until Friday.

"As of this evening there is a fully executed deal memo. ... All the issues that would have been addressed at trial have been settled," Kaplan said Thursday. "Can't speak to the exact terms of the deal. Orders in place ... will stay in place." Though Federline had been seeking full custody of the children, Kaplan said the final deal is not exactly the scenario his client had in mind.

"Kevin was not [out] to get custody. Kevin's goal was to set up some kind of template so the mother of his children can co-parent," Kaplan explained. "He said, 'I need to have Britney to be involved in the co-parenting of the kids, but I need there to be a structure.' " Regardless of how the final deal worked out, Kaplan said Federline was "absolutely delighted."

OK! magazine quoted Kaplan as saying that Spears' visitation rights could "increase over time." The singer has only been allowed monitored visits with her children since late February, following her multiple hospitalizations. She was recently granted the right to have one overnight visit a week as well.

Kaplan told E! that the resolution to the nearly two-year battle was unanticipated and cuts off the battle "at a point that is good for these children. Custody is always modifiable. If there is a final order, it means there is nothing to try."

According to E!, the Federline camp credited Spears' father, Jamie — who was appointed the co-conservator of his daughter's estate in February — for helping to get the troubled 26-year-old singer back on the right path. The conservatorship is up for review at the end of July, at which point a court commissioner will decide whether to make the arrangement permanent. Kaplan said that there is language in the custody agreement that anticipates a possible end to the conservatorship, but he couldn't discuss what those terms are. "Nobody can predict what the future will bring, but ... to the extent possible, I think we have really anticipated how to proceed," he said.

• Britney Spears
• Kevin Federline

Britney Spears
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

It's official: Britney's back in the studio. Two of the singer's producers have already spoken out, and now her label is also confirming, along with on-again manager Larry Rudolph, that the singer is hard at work "on a brand-new album."

"Britney Spears is spending her summer in the recording studio," Jive Records said in the joint statement Wednesday (July 16). "She's working with a team of top-notch producers and songwriters."

Two of those producers include Rodney Jerkins and Sean Garrett. Earlier this month, Jerkins told Rap-Up TV that the two songs he and Spears laid down are "very dance-y, really up-tempo, in the clubs, real aggressive, catchy and very hook-friendly.

"I'm trying to reinvent her and reinvent myself with the project," Jerkins told the site. "I think it's about to be her time again."

Last fall, in the hopes of a career comeback, Spears released her fifth studio album, Blackout, which included contributions by Garrett, Pharrell, T-Pain, Danjahandz, Bloodshy & Avant and Keri Hilson. The album was recorded mostly while the singer was pregnant and separating from then-husband Kevin Federline. Other than a much-ridiculed VMA performance and music videos for "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me," Spears barely promoted the album. Blackout sold 290,000 copies in its first week, but headlines about the singer's custody battle and mental-health issues quickly overshadowed her music career.

Now she has settled down a bit, under the watchful eye of her father, Spears seems to be concentrating on her work, which has also included shooting a video that will be featured on Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour.

"We're very excited about what she's accomplished so far," Jive Records said in the statement. No release date for the album has been set, the label said, but some speculate it will be slated for early 2009.

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Britney Spears and Madonna in 2003
Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

Five years after they famously locked lips at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna and Britney Spears are set to work together again. This time, however, their hook-up will be long-distance.

According to People magazine, Spears is slated to film a video piece soon that will be included as part of the stage show for Madonna's upcoming Sticky & Sweet Tour. "Britney is going to film something for Madonna's show in the next week or so," said Madonna's longtime spokesperson, Liz Rosenberg, according to the magazine. Details on what the clip will include, however, were scarce, as Rosenberg declined to comment on what role Spears will play in the production or where she will be filming. "I don't know. It's a secret," she said.

She did, however, deny published reports that Spears is in New York to film the video and that she's already shot the bit. This would be the second high-profile cameo for Spears in the past month. She shot some footage for the Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up" video last month, but her part was left on the cutting-room floor at the last minute.

An unnamed source told USMagazine.com that "Madonna specifically asked to work with Britney again." The singers have not shared a stage since the infamous VMA kiss, but Madonna did speak out in Spears' defense earlier this year when the singer was going through some hard personal times.

In March, Madonna — who is under the tabloid microscope herself these days due to since-refuted rumors of a possible divorce and an alleged relationship with Yankees star Alex Rodriguez — told the "Yo on E!" satellite radio show that the media needed to "step off" Spears and give her some room. "For real ... let's go save her," Madonna said, adding that she thought her 11-year-old daughter, Lourdes, was aware of what was going on with the pop star and felt "very protective of Spears."

At the time, Madonna also said she was digging Spears' Blackout album, which she listened to while working out.

Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, confirmed to "Access Hollywood" that the video tribute would be taking place but quashed rumors that Spears would actually be touring with or performing live with Madonna. The Sticky & Sweet Tour kicks off in the U.S. on October 4 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

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Britney Spears
Photo: MTV News

Britney Spears is working on a new album, and one of her producers has predicted it will be a return to form for the once-reigning pop queen. Rodney Jerkins recently told online music site Rap-Up TV that he and Spears have laid down tracks over the past month that he described as "very dance-y, really up-tempo, in the clubs, aggressive, catchy and real hook-friendly."

The untitled record, which is reportedly due out in early 2009, marks a reunion for Spears and Jerkins, who last worked together on her self-titled 2001 album..

"I'm trying some new things [with Spears]," Jerkins said. "I've always worked with Britney, and I love working with her. I'm trying to reinvent her and reinvent myself with her project."

Jerkins will reportedly produce two songs on the record. He said that despite the singer's sometimes-chaotic personal life, Spears has been a thorough professional during their sessions so far.

"It usually takes people a long time to record songs and we just did a song," he said. "She walked in at 8:30 and was out by 10:30 — did the whole song, in and out. I was very happy to see she's working on the positive side, and she's moving toward new things now. ... I think it's about to be her time again."

By most accounts, as Spears attempts to iron out her custody arrangement with ex-husband Kevin Federline and searches for a more secluded, kid-friendly home away from the paparazzi, the singer is in a much better space than she was earlier in the year when she was forcibly hospitalized twice.

Producer Sean Garrett, who is also slated to work with Spears on the new album, recently told People magazine, "I know she's been doing a lot better. ... You just want to give her the opportunity to get things back together."

Last year's Blackout was the worst-performing studio release of Spears' career. The disc, for which she did almost no promotion at all, was the first of her albums not to cross the million mark in sales. A spokesperson for Spears could not be reached for comment at press time to discuss the new album.

• Britney Spears

Kevin Federline
Photo: MTV News

On Thursday, Britney Spears, her father, Jamie, and her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, met at an undisclosed location for an all-day mediation session. Both sides wanted to see if they could hammer out an out-of-court agreement over the custody of the couple's two sons — Sean Preston and Jayden James — in advance of an August trial during which permanent custody of the young boys will ultimately be decided by a judge.

By the end of it, a compromise was not reached, meaning the August trial will proceed. Not long after Thursday's marathon mediation session, Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told E! Online that his client isn't about to let his guard down.

"Kevin is seeking to maintain the sole legal and physical custody that he presently has," Kaplan told the tabloid news site. "There's nothing magical about 50-50. There's nothing magical about 60-40. What's magical is that whatever order is in place, it's the order that best suits the best interest of the children."

In short, Federline wants his kids fulltime, cementing the temporary order now in place. "Kevin has had sole legal custody since January," Kaplan continued. "He wants that to become the permanent order at trial, and the visitation to be consistent with what the court expanded it to this week."

As it currently stands, Spears has been afforded overnight visitation with her sons, which will commence on Saturday night. She has also been awarded two daytime visits with the boys each week. And while Federline wants Spears to be a presence in his sons' lives, Kaplan said, he doesn't want to make concessions that would diminish his own right to be with his children.

"He wants to have an order ... that takes into account a certain stability and structure for the kids ... regardless of whose house they happen to be in at any given moment," Kaplan explained. "When the conservatorship was imposed, it brought a certain sense of structure and stability to an environment that seemed to be continually in flux. And in flux is not a description of what you want for a child's environment."

Although Thursday's mediation yielded no change in the couple's current custody arrangement, it did get both sides to the table, and it began a positive dialogue that Federline hopes will carry over into the August proceedings, his lawyer said.

"The mood was comfortable, positive, and it was a mood that was consistent with opening at least a great dialogue, which is necessary," Kaplan told E! Online. "The trial in August is going to determine two primary issues: custody and visitation, and attorneys' fees. ... If the existing arrangement was acceptable to both parties, we would have an agreement, and we wouldn't have to go to trial. But that didn't happen."

• Britney Spears
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Britney Spears leaves the Los Angeles Superior Court in May
Photo: AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys

Ever since her hospitalizations earlier in the year and a judge's order giving her dad, Jamie, control over her finances and estate, Britney Spears has mostly been on her best behavior. That change from her former partying, car-accident-prone persona might have played a role in a judge's decision on Tuesday (June 24) ordering a change in the singer's visitation agreement with her two young sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James.

According to People magazine, Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini confirmed that a change in the terms of the agreement had been ironed out during the closed-door court hearing attended by Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline. The terms of the new arrangement were not announced, but Parachini said Spears' parenting coach, Lisa Hacker, answered questions from the court and the hearing went well for the singer.

"There was a change in [Spears's] visitation status that was ordered," Parachini said. "Britney's demeanor in court was businesslike. I think any judge is pleased to see progress being made by parties in a case." While People was vague on the changes, citing unnamed sources, TMZ.com reported that the commissioner in the case had awarded Spears overnight visitation with her sons.

Another hearing on the matter was set for July 15.

In May, Spears attended a hearing on the custody matter after which Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan announced that the couple's custody arrangement had been adjusted to give Spears more time with the boys. Spears lost custody of the children in October, and Federline has had sole legal and physical custody of the couple's sons since January 3, the night Spears was hospitalized after refusing to give the children over to his representative.

Since then, she has had restricted, monitored visits with the children.

• Britney Spears

Britney Spears (file)
Photo: WENN/ Newscom

Britney Spears may have looked "hot and blond" in the cameo she filmed for the Pussycat Dolls' new video, "When I Grow Up" — which will premiere on FNMTV Friday night — but we may never know just how hot and blond. Spears, who filmed a bit part in the video for the first single from the Dolls' upcoming album last week in Los Angeles, was edited out of the final cut of the clip.

A spokesperson for the Dolls could not be reached for comment on why Spears was not included in the video. The group's members did not elaborate on the edit during the taping of "FNMTV" Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

Spears was filmed last week driving in a car for her cameo, though an unnamed set source told US Magazine she did not interact with the group or dance while on set. "They all wave at each other as they are passing in traffic — that is it. Of course, Britney looks hot and blond. It is a very short sequence, but [Britney] had a lot of fun with it. Britney really likes the Dolls' music and when she saw them on the MTV [Movie Awards], she was totally down to do the video," the source told the magazine.

Neither Spears' nor the Dolls' spokespeople would comment on the shoot at the time and attempts to reach Spears' representatives on Thursday (June 12) about the now-shelved cameo were unsuccessful. The video was filmed just a few days after the Dolls performed the song in public for the first time at the MTV Movie Awards.

The hook-up with the Dolls was part of what has been a measured return to the spotlight for Spears after more than a year of personal and professional missteps and drama. It came on the heels of a two-episode arc on "How I Met Your Mother" that has sparked talk this week of a possible Emmy nomination.

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