MTV's Beck burner

5 vid wins for rocker; Jamiroquai gets top nod

NEW YORK --- British dance band Jamiroquai earned the video of the year award, but rocker Beck earned the most statuettes, taking home five at Thursday night's MTV Video Music Awards competition here at Radio City Music Hall.

Beck converted five of his seven nominations to wins, earning best male video and best video editing for his "The Devil's Haircut" vid, and art direction, choreography and direction honors for his video of the tune "The New Pollution."

The five wins were four more than Beck earned last year, when he picked up a solo nod for top male video with his song "Where It's At."

While Jamiroquai had racked up 10 nominations to lead the pack, it converted just four of those to wins at Thursday night's 14th annual ceremony. Those were for vid of the year, special effects, cinematography and breakthrough video for their sensation "Virtual Insanity."

The rest of the awards were distributed among nine other acts, none of whom snared more than one. Notably, Smashing Pumpkins, which dominated last year's MTV Video Music Awards with seven wins, failed to win an award despite four noms.

The death of Princess Diana loomed large over the three-hour musicvid fest. The Spice Girls dedicated both their best dance vid award and a performance to her. Rapper LL Cool J added Diana to a list of music industry figures whose deaths he noted, and Madonna took aim at the paparazzi.

"I'm not going to rant and rave about the irresponsible behavior of tabloids, but it's time to look at our own insatiable need for gossip and rumors and scandals and lies," she said.

Will Smith pulled in best video from a film title for "Men in Black," while Jewel was voted the female vid award for her "You Were Meant for Me" and No Doubt took the group video gold for "Don't Speak."

The Notorious B.I.G. was honored posthumously for his rap video "Hypnotize," with the Spice Girls snaring the dance video statuette for "Wannabe" and oldtime rockers Aerosmith taking home the rock video award for "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)."

Top alternative musicvideo honor went to Sublime for "What I Got," Fiona Apple copped the new artist in a video award for "Sleep to Dream" and Puff Daddy & the Family grabbed the prize for R&B vid for "I'll Be Missing You."

Besides Smashing Pumpkins, the shutouts included Nine Inch Nails (whose "The Perfect Drug" received five nominations) and the Wallflowers (four nominations for its "One Headlight" vid).

The technical awards presentations weren't part of the TV program.