Britney Spears to perform in UK

LONDON (AP) — Pop singer Britney Spears is heading to London this week to perform live on "The X Factor" TV show.

She also is giving two concerts in London in June. A Spears' representative announced those concerts Wednesday and said they will be her only European stops on a world tour.

Spears is expected to sing "Womanizer" on television this Saturday. The popular single was recorded for a soon-to-be-releasd album.

Famous singers often coach "X Factor" contestants during the show, but the representative says Spears will only be performing — not coaching.

The British singing contest is similar to "American Idol" in the U.S.

Spears is now on a comeback from a two-year downward spiral that included a divorce, a custody battle and public meltdowns.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews

Britney Spears Doc Shows 'Where She Is And Where She Is Going,' Manager Larry Rudolph Says

Britney Spears' longtime manager Larry Rudolph has been by his client's side as she stages her comeback with the release of Circus and her documentary, "For the Record" (premiering on MTV November 30).

"I was very involved in putting [the film] together, so I saw the process," Rudolph told MTV News on Thursday night at a media preview of the film in Los Angeles. "It was a very interesting process. We made a deal from the very beginning — everybody sort of shook hands with the understanding that there were going to be no boundaries on this thing. We were going to make an open and honest film and that we weren't going to leave the good stuff on the cutting room floor.

"We went there with it," he added. "You see Britney in a light you're not used to seeing her in. She's intelligent, she's introspective, she's honest. By the end of the film you really understand who she is in a way that you just never imagined. ... It is so not a puff piece."

Rudolph, who is credited with shaping Britney's early career, wouldn't speak about how he and Spears reunited after a falling-out in 2007. At the time, many speculated that she fired him for encouraging her to enter rehab.

Focusing the conversation on the doc, Rudolph insisted that it shows everyone what he already knows about the singer: "She's got a unique set of talents. She's got a blend of certain talents. She's a great singer. She's a great dancer. She's got an amazing image. She's incredibly likable," he listed. "She's got this intangible thing that makes her a star."

"For the Record" is part of the game plan for reintroducing Britney, the pop star rather than the tabloid magnet, back to her fans, Rudolph said. The movie makes a case for Spears' future, by giving the audience "a good taste of the music and where she is and where she is going."

The next step in Brit's comeback is a video for the album's second single, "Circus," shot by "I'm a Slave 4 U" director Francis Lawrence, set to debut around the release of the album on December 2. "It is amazing," Rudolph said. "The video is extraordinary. It is really, really good."

Although Blackout came out only a year ago, Rudolph said that this was an organically right time for her to put out new music again. "It wasn't that there was a rush," he explained. "The album got completed on its natural timetable. And it just was the right time to put it out. So we decided to put it out on her birthday and make it a birthday present to her and to the world."

Source:http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1599938/20081121

Britney Spears Pokes Fun at Her Father

It's Britney Spears like you have never seen her before, as the pop star turns comedienne to deliver what appears to be a dead-on impression of her cell phone-addicted pop, Jamie, in between takes of her recent video for "Womanizer" (hence her being costumed as a sexy secretary).

This candid moment comes from Britney: For the Record, a documentary airing Sunday, Nov. 30, at 10 pm/ET, exclusively on MTV.

"I wanted to make this film because I started to feel like I wasn't being seen in the light that I wanted to be seen in," Spears has said of her involvement in the exposé. "This is an opportunity to set the record straight and talk about what I've been through and where I'm headed."

The 90- minute, all-access look at Spears' world includes behind-the-scenes looks at Britney recording her new album, Circus, preparing for her appearance at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, and much more.

source:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tvguide/388057_tvgif16.html

Madonna + Britney + Justin = Sadness

I am decidedly depressed by the news that Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears are both slated to appear during tonight's Los Angeles stop on Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet" tour.

I know, I know…back in March, I blogged about how, for the first time in Madge's career, I was unexcited about one of her album releases. After all, Madonna's always been at her best when she's latched on to a slightly underground trend, co-opted it as her own, and foisted it onto an unsuspecting mainstream audience (think: vogueing, electronica, Mirwais). Madonna's sudden reliance on Timberlake, Timbaland, and Kanye West to make 2008's Hard Candy a sales success was tantamount to her nervously carrying her lunch tray into the pop-culture cafeteria and trying to score a seat with the cool kids when, really, she should've been sitting down at an empty table and confidently forming her own damn posse. And sure enough, seven months after its release, Hard Candy is barely on my radar, except for those occasions when the admittedly excellent "Beat Goes On" pops up on my cardio playlist.

Which makes tonight's recruitment of Spears even more distressing. Madonna and Britney's previous collaborations -- the faux-lesbian smooch on MTV, the abhorrent "Me Against the Music" -- did little to boost either singer's fortunes. And (hello!) why would you think that fans shelling out hundreds of bucks for a ticket would be excited to have a notorious lip-syncher added to the bill?

What think you, PopWatchers? Am I crazy for expecting Madge to still be setting trends at this stage of her career? And if she really has reached the "follow the leader" stage of her career, could it be time for her to (blasphemy alert) follow Celine Dion and Cher's leads, and get herself a residency in Vegas? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Source:http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008

Life's a Witch for Britney Spears at Barrymore Bash

Britney Spears spent Halloween with Drew Barrymore.

Dressed as a witch (black dress, black hat and long black wig!), the comeback pop-star princess was one of an estimated 200 or so guests at a costume party at Barrymore's L.A.-area home on Friday night.

While Spears spent mucho time dancing at the bash, she got unexpectedly bashful and pulled her witch's hat down when the DJ played her hit "Toxic."

Also at the party, Drew's BFF Cameron Diaz...

I'm told Spears and Diaz both recognized one guy's costume right away—he was dressed as their ex Justin Timberlake's very tattooed character from the movie Alpha Dog.

As for Diaz, one partygoer reported, "I think she was a flight attendant. It was hard to tell."

Natalie Portman was Little Red Riding Hood. "T.R. Knight was a little devil thing," my source says. Amanda Bynes went as an ancient Egyptian, Liv Tyler as Charlie Chaplin, Ricki Lake also as a devil, Justine Bateman dressed as an Indian princess, and one of the Olsen twins was a geisha girl, while Chris Kattan was Luke Skywalker.

As for Barrymore, she was Melanie Daniels, Tippi Hedren's character from the Alfred Hitchcock horror classic, The Birds.

Anne Hathaway appeared to put the final nail in her relationship with jailbird ex-fiancé Raffaello Follieri by going to the party as a corpse bride.

Source: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin