Fatboy Slim in Fat City: MTV Awards

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/24/2001 at 03:49 PM EDT

Fatboy Slim's music video for "Weapon of Choice" drew nine nominations for the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, announced Monday, making the Brighton, England-born Fatboy -- who isn't fat at all, and whose real name is Norman Cook -- the most-nominated artist of the year. His video, directed by Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich"), features Christopher Walken dancing solo -- and no Fatboy at all. It is in the running for video of the year, dance video, direction in a video, choreography in a video, special effects in a video, art direction in a video, editing in a video, cinematography in a video and breakthrough video. Several other artists also earned multiple nominations. Earning six were videos for "Lady Marmalade," performed by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and Pink, as well as Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" and 'N Sync's "Pop." Eminem's "Stan" (featuring Dido) got five nods, as did Destiny's Child for "Survivor" and U2 for "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation Remix." Other video of the year candidates are "Lady Marmalade," "Stan," "All for You," "Get Ur Freak On" and "Beautiful Day." Trophies will be presented during a live broadcast of the awards show Sept. 6 at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. U2 and Alicia Keyes are among the scheduled performers.