Man In Black's Night At MTV?

Typically, the annual celebration of music videos takes a back seat to wacky antics, barely there outfits and eye-popping performances at the MTV Video Music Awards.

But this year may be different.

"Hurt," a haunting video by 71-year-old Johnny Cash, was nominated for six VMA awards and threatened to upstage the usual craziness at Thursday night's extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall.

Although Cash had hoped to attend, he was hospitalized with a stomach ailment.

Cash's video, nominated for video of the year, best male video and best direction, among others, was hardly a staple on MTV over the past year. His cover of the Nine Inch Nails song wasn't played very much, and most die-hard MTV watchers may not recall even seeing it. But it resonated with those who vote on the nominations, including music executives, video directors and journalists.

More people were familiar with Missy Elliott's "Work It," the most nominated video with eight. The music clip was loaded with special effects, dancing and surreal images.

Nominated for seven awards was Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" video, which takes a not-so-subtle dig at ex-girlfriend Britney Spears; the video features Timberlake exacting revenge on a cheating Spears look-alike.

Both Spears and Timberlake were expected to attend, along with 50 Cent, Beyonce Knowles, Elliott, Christina Aguilera, Sean Paul, Coldplay and Metallica, among many others.

Chris Rock was the show's host.

Knowles was among the performers, and her extravagant stage show was top-secret.

"I've been working for a long time on the routine, and I have 30-something dancers, some crazy amount," she said Wednesday after her rehearsal.

Knowles says the show is special because "you're able to do some things that are not so serious that you couldn't do at another awards show. It's kind of silly and fun, so you can do more creative, silly things."

Among the silly things that happened last year: Michael Jackson mistaking a birthday gift given to him onstage for an "artist of the millennium" award, and Eminem getting into a verbal tussle with a puppet, then threatening Moby on stage and later getting booed by the crowd.