Spears, K-Fed near birth of second child

As Britney Spears is about to give birth to her second child with husband Kevin Federline, K-Fed continued to make the promotional rounds yesterday with a performance and interview on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. To promote his upcoming album, Playing With Fire, which hits stores October 31 on his own Federation Records, K-Fed performed "Lose Control," the album's first single. In an interview with DeGeneres afterward, Federline said his wife has constant craving for ice chips, of all things. "Ice chips all the time," he said of Spears's craving, noting that it wasn't as bad as last September, before Spears gave birth to their first child, Sean Preston. K-Fed said he does not yet know the gender of their baby, and that he hopes to quit smoking prior to the baby's arrival.

Federline also said that his wife's professional success has been tough to live up to, saying, "I think the expectation is real high for me, you know. It's like you see my wife, here she is this huge superstar, everybody loves her, all of her music is just hit, hit, hit after hit, and it's hard to compete." K-Fed is set to make his acting debut on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation next month, playing an arrogant teen who impedes an investigation by the show's main characters.

Tim Burton to direct Killers video

To direct the video for "Bones," the second single off their upcoming album Sam's Town, the Killers picked the inimitable filmmaker Tim Burton. Given the title of the song and the choice of director, the video will likely look quite different than the dusty video for the first single, "When You Were Young," which was filmed in Mexico. "We were just kicking around ideas for the 'Bones' video, and we thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if Tim Burton could shoot this?' We reached out to his people and he came back and said he wanted to work with us, which was amazing," bassist Mark Stoermer told MTV News. "We've shot all our parts and now the video is being worked on. It's going to have computer graphics and models... We're not really sure how it's going to turn out. Usually we go over the treatment with a fine-toothed comb and have a lot of influence, but this time we just let Tim do his thing."

Burton filmed the Killers' August 17 and 18 concerts in Los Angeles and is currently working with animators in London on models, minisets, and skeletons to be used in the rest of the video. "A lot of the models and sets are based on historic Las Vegas--on things that aren't there anymore, like the Glass Pool Inn, this really cool place that was torn down a few years ago that was down at the south end of the Strip," drummer Ronnie Vannucci said. "But, like Mark said, we don't really know 100 percent what it's going to be like. We put our faith in Tim." Frontman Brandon Flowers added, "It's Tim Burton. It's going to be great. There are some skeletons, some darkness, and some romance. What more could you want?"

Whitney Houston on the comeback trail

Once one of the biggest music stars in the world, Whitney Houston is making yet another comeback, according to J Records founder Clive Davis. Davis, who signed a teenaged Houston to his former label Arista Records in 1983, told MTV that he and the troubled singer are currently working on songs for a new comeback album. Davis said the pair has chosen six songs that she will record, but warned that it won't likely be a very personal album that touches on her recent trials and tribulations.

"Whitney doesn't write," Davis told MTV. "It's a gift--you either got it or you don't. I've seen more artists lose a career over trying to do that. Ella Fitzgerald didn't write. Lena Horne didn't write. Whitney is Whitney, and there ain't nobody like her. It'll be Whitney. It won't be somebody reaching for a current trend, that's for sure."

Clay Aiken up for White House appointment

Singer Clay Aiken is in line to be named to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, according to the White House. Aiken, the runner-up to Ruben Studdard in the 2003 version of American Idol, previously worked as a YMCA counselor in Raleigh, North Carolina, before launching his singing career. The committee's Web site says it advises the president on issues pertaining to people with intellectual disabilities. The committee was established in 1961 by President John Kennedy as the President's Panel on Mental Retardation. Aiken's latest album, A Thousand Different Ways, is set to hits stores later this month.