Britney Spears to raise curtain on MTV awards

Britney Spears is to star at this year?s MTV Video Music Awards, a year after a calamitous comeback performance at the same award ceremony. But this time the pop singer won?t be performing. Spears will be opening the 25th annual edition of the MTV VMAs at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, according to MTV?s website.That means she will be on hand if she wins an award. Spears has garnered three nominations for the clip to her single ?Piece of Me? -- Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and Video of the Year. "MTV has long played an important role in my career," Spears said in a statement. ?How can I not be there to kick off their 25th VMAs? I?m excited to open the entire show, to say hi to my fans and to be nominated.? In previous appearances she has kissed Madonna and performed with a writhing snake. Spears has yet to win an MTV Video Music Award, and her nominations this year are particularly tantalizing after her much-derided appearance in 2007, when she lip-synched her way through a dance number in an ill-fitting black bikini (photo).

Jolie posters not "Wanted" in UK, watchdog rules

Angelina Jolie might ooze Hollywood glamour, but if she?s armed and looking dangerous, the actress is not welcome in Britain. Britain?s media watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has banned two posters of Jolie promoting the film "Wanted" after upholding complaints that the images of the gun-toting actress glamorized the use of guns and violence One poster showed the actress crouching and holding a gun pointing upward while the other showed her lying on her back across a car?s hood, brandishing guns.The ASA said it had received 17 complaints from people who thought the ads were irresponsible because they glorify and glamorize gun crime at a time when there is increasing public concern in Britain about it. Some also complained that the posters for the high-tech action thriller co-starring James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman were unsuitable to be seen by children. The film?s maker, Universal Pictures, defended the posters, saying the style of the advertisements reflected the film?s comic-book roots and providing examples of other ads they believed were more graphic and less stylized than their posters.