Well, as MTV Networks Music Group president Van Toffler put it: “Everyone deserves a second or third chance, right?”

Yes, despite the debacle of Britney Spears writhing half-heartedly in a black bikini at last September’s Video Music Awards, MTV has said that she’s welcome back to perform at this year’s show in Los Angeles. Although, erm, Van Toffler was apparently “sorta” kidding.

“Who knows?” he said. Cryptically. Men, eh?

According to OK! magazine, producers and crew members are already planning the awards night - but Van knows they have their work cut out for them.”I’m not sure how we top Britney opening the show,” he says. ”We are working on it every minute of every day.”

Well, if you can’t top Britney - sounds like it has to be Britney. Doesn’t it? Or do I not quite get showbiz?

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline’s custody dispute looks set to head to trial in August after the couple failed to reach agreement in mediation, it was reported on Friday.

Federline’s lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan told the E! Online website that although day-long talks between lawyers for the two sides were positive, no settlement was reached and a trial was likely on August 25.

“The mediation didn’t result in an agreement that would avoid the trial … The mood was comfortable, positive and it was a mood that was consistent with opening at least a great dialogue, which is necessary,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan said Federline, 30, wants to retain sole legal and physical custody of the couple’s two young children, Sean Preston and Jayden James, while allowing Spears, 26, visitation rights.

“Kevin is seeking to maintain the sole legal and physical custody that he presently has,” Kaplan said. “Kevin has had sole legal custody since January. 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.”

A court this week granted Spears overnight visitation with the children in addition to two day visits per week.

Spears’ visitation rights were severely restricted earlier this year amid spiraling personal problems and fears for the singer’s mental health.

However, the pop star has appeared to have been getting her life back on track in recent months, after she was twice rushed to hospital earlier this year for treatment in a psychiatric unit.

Spears, one of the most successful pop stars of her generation, has been locked in the custody saga with Federline since the couple split in 2006.

Her access to her children was restricted last October after she failed to submit to random drug testing as demanded at an earlier hearing where the court ruled she was a “habitual and continuous drug user.”

Spears shot to superstardom in late 1998 with her smash-hit debut album “Baby One More Time,” which she followed with another chart-topping success the following year, “Oops! … I Did It Again.”

She may not have the world’s best parenting skills, but that hasn’t stopped Britney Spears from flying home to help her little sister, Jamie Lynn, give birth.

The troubled pop star, whose erratic behaviour led a court to bar her last year from seeing her own two children, flew from Los Angeles to New Orleans today and then headed home to the family mansion in Kentwood, Louisiana.

Jamie Lynn Spears, a children’s TV star whose pregnancy at age 17 unleashed questions about its impact on her young viewers, is scheduled to give birth any day.

Britney Spears, 26, was accompanied by her father, Jamie; her brother, Bryan; and her assistant Brett, People magazine reported.

The trip came a day after a Los Angeles court granted her father, who is acting as her conservator, permission to sell her luxurious house in Hollywood.

Spears is reported to be keen to move to be nearer the Malibu home of her ex-husband and two kids.

Hopefully this guy really does have good intentions, and isn’t just in it for the fame. Because Britney’s had too many bad influences in her life. She seems happier than she has been in a while, so hopefully Jason is a good

Britney Spears’ new love Jason Trawick has been credited with helping the troubled star get her life back on track. A source say although Trawick and Spears only recently went public with their romance, the talent agent has been helping her for a while. “Jason was deeply saddened when she lost it and he made it his personal mission to see she comes back. It was Jason who was one of the key figures who helped Britney to reunite with her parents and, in turn, get herself back on track,” says the source.