By Lina Lecaro

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She had a lot of people rooting for her.

But Britney Spears' opening performance at the MTV VMAs tonight -though not the trainwreck some said it might be- was just… blah. Talk about going through the motions. Her moves were robotic, her outfit unflattering, her lip-syncing half-ass…

And where was the much-touted Criss Angel collaboration? Maybe if she disappeared into thin air during the performance or did some other mind-freaky feat, all would be forgiven… maybe.

Anyway, I'll leave it to every other blog out there to bash Brit more. In fact, I'm gonna say something nice: her makeup and blue contacts looked, uh, kinda pretty.

As for the show itself, MTV really made an effort to try something different, featuring performances from different suites throughout the Palms Hotel. Nice to see the rockers and the rappers joining forces ( Gym Class Heroes and Fallout Boy, Timbaland and Linkin Park, Ceelo and Foo Fighters) and props to Justin Timberlake for pointing out the pitiful fact that despite its much-hyped music awards show- the channel doesn't even show videos anymore.

Fashion-wise, I expected a lot more glitz with the show being in Vegas. As usual, the rap dudes pulled out the bling, the rock dudes donned their ratty tees and only a few femmes conjured anything close to Lady Luck: Rhianna (all her getups were great, except the flesh-colored hose), Paris Hilton (channeling Christina Aguilera in leopard D&G), Jennifer Garner, Mary J. Blige, and Sarah Silverman (not her outfit, her comedic balls). Gawd I love her.

I was invited to a few VMA-related Sin City bashes myself, but after watching the show from the comfort of my couch, I'm glad I stayed put. MTV.com has so much crazy coverage on its site, you almost feel like you were there… minus tomorrow's hangover.

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