A year after her calamitous comeback performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears has garnered a third nomination for this year's show, but it remained unclear whether she would dare a repeat appearance.
MTV, which has been rolling out nominations for various categories in recent weeks, named Spears on Friday as one of five candidates in the running for its coveted Video of the Year award, for the clip to her single "Piece of Me."
The same title already has earned her nominations for best female video and best pop video.
In the category for Video of the Year, she is competing against the Jonas Brothers' "Burnin Up," Chris Brown's "Forever," Pussycat Dolls "When I Grow Up" and the Ting Tings' "Shut Up and Let Me Go."
The nominees for best rock video, also named on Friday, are Paramore for "CrushCrushCrush," Slipknot's "Psychosocial," Linkin Park's "Shadow of the Day," Foo Fighters' "The Pretender" and Fall Out Boy's cover of the Michael Jackson hit "Beat It."
But Spears' nominations remain particularly tantalizing because of mounting speculation about whether she will take a chance at returning to the MTV Video Music Awards with memories still fresh from her much-derided appearance last year.
Spears herself added to the hype by recently filming a series of promotional spots for the upcoming awards show with a real-life, 9,000-pound elephant literally in the room with her.
Coming off two marriages, two children and two stints in rehab, Spears sought to launch a career comeback on last year's show with a performance of the song "Gimme More" that proved a publicity bomb for Spears but a ratings boon for MTV. via
