Britney Spears debuted her new "Till the World Ends" music video Wednesday, and it's clear she could use some disaster preparedness classes. But leave it to the pop princess to find a way to dance through the apocalypse.
As the screen flashes "December 21st 2012," Spears and her friends drop down a manhole as the buildings start to crumble. The bunker (or is it a sewer system?) quickly turns into a mass of pulsating bodies with the singer gyrating front and center.
Spears will take those dance moves on the road starting in June with her national tour to promote her new album "Femme Fatal," which is currently No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Brit is still looking for a co-headliner after Enrique Iglesias backed out on her last week.
Britney Spears took a break from promoting her seventh album, "Femme Fatale," to take in a performance of Disney's "The Lion King" with her two sons in Las Vegas.
Spears, a former Mouseketeer, and Sean Preston, 5, and Jayden James, 4, watched the musical at Mandalay Bay on Sunday and then tucked backstage to snap photos with the cast, including stars Kissy Simmons (Nala), Niles Rivers (Simba), Derrick Williams (Mufasa) and Ntsepa Pitjeng (Rafiki), pictured here.
Spears was in Sin City the same night the Academy of Country Music Awards honored its winners at the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay arenas, where live performances from Taylor Swift, Sugarland and Carrie Underwood were taking place.
This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.
When you're Britney Spears, drama always seems to find you. The singer dropped her seventh album, "Femme Fatale," Tuesday and announced her joint tour with Enrique Iglesias on "Good Morning America" the same day. But hours later, Iglesias dropped out of the tour.
Woe is Britney.
The "Hold It Against Me" singer teased fans via Twitter, writing: "Can't wait for you guys to see my GMA concert from San Francisco tomorrow morning plus a special tour announcement afterwards."
The announcement came and went, and Spears and Iglesias were set to kick off their North American tour June 17 in Sacramento, playing 26 arenas in the first round of dates, according to Billboard. But the Spanish singer backed out soon after the announcement.
"Enrique didn't need to do a tour with Britney, as he's already on a sold-out tour," a source close to Iglesias told Us Magazine. "At the end of the day it was better for him to just continue his own tour."
Despite the "GMA" announcement, "the deal was not done," the source added. "It was strictly a business matter.... It had nothing to do with Enrique's ego or having a problem with opening. It was always a co-headlining tour.... In fact, Enrique prefers to perform first, as he doesn't like to perform late in the night."
So maybe Spears just jumped the gun?
In an unrelated matter, we do know that she upset radio and television personality Carson Daly by refusing to do a live interview with the Amp'd Radio DJ.
"I was jst TOLD my @britneyspears interview tomm on @ampradio MUST b pre-recorded & submitted 4 approval by HER mgmt b4 it can air!" he tweeted, adding an expletive.
"never that restricted. Even when I interviewed Michael Jackson, it wasn't anything like this...it's really insane," he wrote later in response to some angry followers. "I'M UNPROFESSIONAL? FAKING AN ENTIRE INTERVIEW?"
And some of us thought Kevin Federline getting girlfriend Victoria Princepregnant was the big Britney-related news of the day.
What's up with Brit-Brit? Let us know in comments.
For the record, 5:05 p.m. April 8: The photo caption below originally said the picture of Britney Spears was from a March 27, 2010, "Good Morning America" appearance. Spears was photographed at a March 27, 2011, concert. The footage aired March 29. The caption has been revised.
Photos: Britney Spears, left, in San Francisco on March 27, 2011; footage from the performance aired two days later in a segment on "Good Morning America." Enrique Iglesias, right, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on March 28, 2011. Credits: Tony Avelar / Associated Press, left; Robert Vos / EPA, right.
Kevin Federline is expecting another baby -- his fifth to be exact.
His current girlfriend, volleyball player Victoria Prince, 28, is pregnant with her first child with baby-daddy KFed, according to People magazine.
Britney Spears' onetime husband and father of her two boys -- Jayden, 4, and Preston, 5, -- also has two other kids -- Kaleb, 6, and Kori, 8 -- with ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson, an actress-singer who starred in "Moesha." Federline left his baby-momma to be with Spears, who divorced the failed rapper in 2007.
"Honestly, I wish them the best, without question," Jackson, 34, told People of Federline and Prince. "I've got my own family to worry about; I can't really be worried about what's going on with anybody else. Good for them, and of course I wish them well."
But what does Britney think? Well, we're not sure because she's likely dealing with tour-cancellation drama. More on that to come ...
This just in from the Department of Celebrity Schadenfreude: Lady Gaga is losing her hair.
We're not talking about her amazing Harajuku-via-Miss Piggy collection of hairpieces; those are pretty hard to miss. No, we speak of Ms. Gaga's real live strands, which, apparently, have been taking their leave, en masse, from the artist's head.
And for the record: No, Gaga was not born this way.
The singer recently told People magazine that she occasionally must “get a chemical haircut because my blond hair is falling out." In other words: Bleach plus hair equals a bad coif romance for the Lady.
But get this: When it comes to female celebrity hair loss, she's not alone. Plenty of other famous women have been flashing bald spots, and these gals can't blame bleach for their woes. Kate Beckinsale has been photographed with a bare patch on the back of her pate. Naomi Campbell flashed some serious cranial deforestation during a shoot last year. A similar plight has, on at least one sad occasion, befallenBritney Spears. And poor Fergie; her center part is beginning to resemble Malibu Canyon.
With the thousands that studios and record labels spend on their talent (and it is the suits, not the stars, who usually pay for this stuff), you'd think that some hair guru would be on 24-7 standby in case of follicular homicide. But apparently not.
You might also be tempted to assume that this baldness was caused by some naughty star behavior. (We sure wanted to assume as much.) Sure, Hollywood is filled with anorexia, drug use and nasty weaves, all of which can cause hair to fall out.
On the day Christina Aguilera was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication, singer Pink decided to give herself some credit for good behavior.
The pregnant singer did some Twitter reflecting Tuesday -- just hours after Aguilera was tossed in the drunk tank and boyfriend Matthew Rutler was nailed on suspicion of DUI -- and has decided it is miraculous she's not a bigger mess than Aguilera and fellow singer Britney Spears.
"Out of Myself, Britney, and Christina- didn't everyone think I was gonna be the troublemaker?" she asked her followers, adding, "LOOK MA!!! No CUFFS!!!"
The three women hit the marketplace around the same time, but Pink's shtick has always been a bit older and darker (read: complaint pop).
Pink is now carrying her and husband Carey Hart's first child.
The Britney Spears music video "Hold It Against Me" debuted Thursday night on MTV, finally providing visual accompaniment to the tune that dropped in January.
At that time, "Hold It Against Me," the first single from Spears' upcoming "Femme Fatale," seemed to do just fine without much critical love, debuting at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Singles chart. The video is (of course?) directed by Jonas Akerlund, the guy behind Lady Gaga's "Telephone."
Yes, there's product placement galore. Yes, there's Auto-Tune. But there's also Britney and some boys dancing in outfits that look like a fashionista's take on men's tighty whiteys, or maybe on their childhood Spider-Man underpants, and what's not to love there? Not to mention the crouching-tiger-hidden-Britney kickboxing sequence pitting the pop tart against herself -- in platform stilettos.
The song is catchy enough that we're going to have to immediately counter-program RuPaul's "Jealous of My Boogie," below, to reboot the iPod part of our brain -- so maybe the video has done its job effectively.
Wait, first we liked the Justin Bieber movie, and now we're finding Britney's comeback video catchy? Are we losing our edge? Given that we're already imagining an Adam Lambert remake of "Hold It Against Me," all signs point to "yes."
This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.
Britney Spears tweeted a picture of her "Femme Fatale" cover on Tuesday, revealing the album's name and continuing the buildup to its release March 15.
So, hot or not? Take the polls below.
"Femme Fatale" will be Spears' first studio effort since "Circus" in December 2008 -- the year that started with a 5150 psych hold for the singer and saw her placed under a conservatorship that still exists today, albeit with modifications.
"Hold It Against Me," the first single from the album, was released in January and spent only a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart.
The "Circus" tour was a bit of a rough one for Brit, 29, with slams coming in about her weight and her lip-synching.
"Spears can safely call this performance a success," The Times' Ann Powers wrote in a largely positive review on March 3, 2009. "She apparently has no interest in proving herself as a vocalist; Pink is a better acrobat and her friend Justin Timberlake is a far better dancer."
"But anyone who thinks her lackluster would do well to remember what she really is: a burlesque performer, a carny's dream born a century or so too late to be fated to ply her art upon the midway, but able to fulfill the spectacle of blond ambition now."
How do you think Britney has evolved, leading up to "Femme Fatale"? High expectations, low, or none at all?
For the record, 3:20 p.m.: This post originally referred to Spears as an actress; she is, of course, a singer. Don't, um, "hold it against me"? Thanks to commenters @toxic and @BRITTERlight for the heads-up.//cdz
For Britney Spears, it looks as if the Grammys are currently a no, and plenty of "Hold It Against Me" puns are a go.
Sadly, Internet rumors that the pop star, on a steady ascent from a few years of image hell, was going to perform her just-released single on the Feb. 13 music award show are not true. Her record label pooh-poohed the notion to People magazine.
"I really doubt it," another Brit source said.
Sadsies. But what will Britney have in store to hype the March release of her forthcoming, still-untitled album?
Take our poll of suggested Spears publicity stunts below, then leave your thoughts on the new single in comments below.
