And nor does Catherine Owens. The video she directed for 'Original of the Species' has bagged a double nomination in the '2006 MTV Video Music Awards'. Catch a clip here.

The futuristic animation, one of the most unusual videos the band have ever commissioned , is nominated for 'Best Special Effects in a Video' and 'Best Editiing in a Video' in the MTV awards which take place at the end of the month.

Catherine, New York based Irish artist and longtime friend of U2, is responsible for many striking visuals in the band's live show.

"We are thrilled about these two nominations" Catherine tells us at U2.Com. "The band took a huge leap of faith when they asked me to direct this video.'

She explained to us a few months back that that the idea for the 'Original' video grew out of a piece she had been working on to go with the song on the Vertigo Tour. She showed the band her ideas for a rotating, digitally rendered female head with flowers growing out of her mouth - and that sparked Bono to develop more possibilities. "He said to me he wanted to be in a video with her, he wanted to be in her world and have her reflect his world ... and could I make that happen?"

Catherine did make it happen but it took the work of a team of creatives under her direction to pull it off in the time available - and she's keen to namecheck them all!

"My editor Olivier Wicki is a gem, he has the patience of a saint as this was technically a very complicated video to run around in six weeks. Our special effects team at Spontaneous in New York also worked ridiculous hours in CGI world while John Leamy our effects supervisor created a beautiful opening for our wire animation introduction.
"It was a huge group effort on all fronts with director Mark Pellington lending his support and some great grainy bits of film, Tom Krueger our DP was responsible for making the band look very good on film and Steve Mathews kicked in big time when it came to keeping faith levels high."

And Catherine also pays tribute to fans on U2.Com: "I would also like to say a special thank you to the U2 fans on this website for their poignant comments about the narrative behind the video, it sparked a very interesting dialogue which was refreshing. '

As for the song itself, it's a pretty special one to work on.

"U2 are a delight to work with", she adds. "They have fantastic imaginations, and they are experts at going left when everyone else is going right! We do some very mad fun things while also trying our best to highlight important moments that often get overlooked. In the case of this song, the powerful moment is in the lyrics 'You are the first one of your kind'. No fact could be more meaningful at this time."

Catch a clip here.

If you're a subscriber to U2.Com, log in to read our interview with Catherine about the making of the video - and to watch the whole video - here

The "2006 MTV Video Music Awards" will broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall in New York, NY on Thursday, August 31, 2006 at 8:00 PM