Whatever did happen to Michael Penn?
Having caught bits and pieces of the MTV Video Music Awards, I'm actually stunned that I've heard of about half of the artists nominated. Granted, I could care less about most of them, but I was happy to see Eminem take Video of the Year and Michelle Branch win Viewer's Choice (which was slightly surprising to me, but then again she probably fits the demographic of those voting for the award best, not to mention whatever N'Sync video that was in the mix sucking). Can't give too much of a review of the rest since I was floating among tons of things on the tube as well.
However, one very interesting related programming note: MTV2 was back to its old purpose -- showing videos of all stripes -- while the mother network is repeating the VMAs about 20 times this weekend. Flipping by the network during the days leading up to the VMAs, MTV2 was turning into an MTV clone instead of keeping its own identity. But then again, maybe I felt good seeing a Beth Orton video for something a bit different.