Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 10

A10 Shakira, Peppers spice up VMA nods been announced. However, MTV president Christina Norman did unveil some of the VMA twists for the year. For the first time, viewers, instead of industry experts, will decide all the winners by voting on mtv.com. Behind-the-scenes footage will be available live on the channels Overdrive Web site, www-mtv. Timberlake is ready to bring the awards show heat back, along with the sexy.

Beyonci wants to do her part as well planning to perform a new song from her upcoming album BDay, though she recognizes the challenge in trying to compete with her 2003 VMA appearance where she was lowered upside down from the ceiling to sing Baby Boy." I dont know how Im going to top it, but Im sure Bloomberg was on hand at yesterdays news conference at the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center to welcome the awards back and offer reasons why the VMAs belong here. Bloomberg said the event would bring in $25 million in revenue to the city, but joked that he did turn down MTVs request to open water mains on Sixth Avenue so that stars could arrive by speedboat as they did in Miami However, Justin Umber-lake, on hand to announce that he would be performing his single Sexy Back" for the first time at the awards show, offered another reason why the awards show returned to its New York home. In my opinion, I think its lost a little bit of its luster, he said. Apparently, BY GLENN GAMBOA STAFF WRITER Shaldra's truth-telling hips and the Red Hot Chili Peppers romp through rock history are this years leading nominees for MTVs Video Music Awards, with seven nominations apiece. Hips Dont Lie' and Dani California will compete in the video of the year category, against five-time nominees Madonna, for Hung Up, and Panic! At the Disco, for I Write Sins Not Tragedies, and four-time nominee Christina Aguilera for Aint No Other Man.

Winners will be announced live Aug. 31 at Radio City Music Hall, as the awards return to New York after a two-year stint in Miami Mayor Michael Ill figure it out, she said. Panic! At the Disco, Ludac-rls and The Killers are also set to perform, hut no host has 45-year-old singer has struggled with drug problems for years. He was ordered to do community service after pleading guilty in March to false reporting of an incident He called police with a bogus report of a burglary at his lower Manhattan apartment in October, and the responding officers found cocaine inside. Tursos statement was the first indication of what sort of work the singer would be The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Shakira each earned video award nominations Oh boy, now hes picker Girl band's new act is no sleeper Boy George will perform his court-ordered community service by picking up trash on city streets in the August heat, a sanitation spokesman said.

The onetime Culture Club singer will be issued a shovel broom, plastic bags and gloves when he reports Aug. 14 for five days of work, said department spokesman Vito Turso, The Associated Press reports Bom George ODowd, fV Paris re-docks with shipping heir AFP GETTY IMAGES PHOTO of the litter given. He could be assigned to pick up streets in Chinatown, little Italy, NoLita or parts of the Lower East Side. ODowd became an 808 icon with his androgynous appearance and vocals on hits such as Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? A Manhattan judge threatened the singer with jail time if he failed to complete his five days of community service before Aug. 28.

volved with Mary-Kate Olsen. After his split from Hilton, he was spotted partying with Lindsay Lohan. Hilton was previously engaged to Paris Latsis, also a Greek shipping heir. Theyll also act in between-segment skits. Its kind of like a minishow, Scerbo explained in a phone interview yesterday.

At the end it kind of has a motto, like to make sure you eat five-to-seven mini-meals a day, or to eat fruit instead of cake. Contestants will dance to the groups songs, which eventually will be released on an album through GefFen, scheduled for October. Scerbo has a rsum that includes movies, television and a smattering of stand-up comedy. Under Skills," she lists cheerleading, soccer, gymnastics, karate, hip-hop dancing and fast talking. Im Italian from New York, so Im a really quick talker, she explains.

And in some of the songs, I do rap here and there. BY ISABU SNYDtR BY RAFER GUZMAN STAFF WRITER Record mogul David Gef-fen is helping launch an allgirl teen brand. The Slumber Pasty Girls, a five-girl multi-ethnic group featuring one Long Islander, 16-year-old Cassie Scerbo of Dix Hills, aims to be not just a musical group but an entertainment brand that will target tweens and teens the way Hilary Duff and the Olsen twins have so successfully done. Starting Sept. 16, the Slumber Party Girls will appear regularly on a new block of Saturday-morning programming called KOLs Secret Slumber Party on CBS, a tie-in with the America Online kids site.

The block will include a game show, Dance starring the girls as the house band. PHOTO Cassie Scerbo Paris Hilton is back together with her ex-boyfnend, Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos at least for now. People magazine reports. Were together now here. We love each other, Hilton, who, like Niarchos, is in St.

Tro-pez, told People yesterday at Seam Diddy" Combs Unforgettable 50 party aboard a rented yacht. While talking to People, Hilton paused for a moment to call Niarchos on her PDA. Stav, where are you, baby? she said. Come on over. I love you.

Seconded Hiltons friend, Carolina DAmore, They love each other very much. On Saturday night, Hilton was seen partying with Niarchos at the VIP Room nightclub, where she treated him to Paris Hilton with once and current boyfriend Stavros Niarchos. 3 a a pole dance. The following night they kissed at the nearby club Les Caves du Roy. Hilton, 25, and Stavros, 21 split in May after seven months of dating.

Niarchos was previously in.