She's Baaaaaack...

The following italicized article is from www.lvrj.com:

Britney Spears has had a rough road in Vegas, but there are still reasons to love her

Like Pabst and quiche, vomit and velour, Britney Spears and Las Vegas haven't always mixed so well.

To say that Britney has traveled a bumpy road in Sin City is to ignore potholes big enough for wild game to bathe in.

She's passed out in nightclubs, gotten universally skewered for a roly-poly performance at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Palms, seen her posse tussle with the paparazzi and yawned her way through a House of Blues concert where she pretty much used her fans' ticket stubs as toilet paper.

But you know what, Las Vegas?

Britney Spears is still good for you.

And in honor of her stop at the MGM Grand this weekend, we're going to prove it.

Read on, as we count the ways that Britney is continuing to make the world a better place.

She's no Beyonce, but...

What other females on the pop charts have Britney beat? Certainly not the horribly overwrought Christina Aguilera, who has a better voice to be sure, but not a clue how to use it, and so she over-sings everything, shrieking through her tunes like a cat being fed through a paper shredder, until you're digging at your cochleas with a melon baller.

Kelly Clarkson? She's so boring, we nearly fell asleep simply typing her name. Kelli Pickler? We won't poke fun of her for the same reason we stopped shoving old people down flights of stairs recently: Sure it's a blast, but way too easy. Lily Allen? Apples and oranges. You don't judge "Dumb and Dumber" by how it compares to "Crash," even though the former is more successful at being a lowbrow comedy than the latter is at being a serious drama.

Besides, when it comes to Britney, she's been on a roll for years now. Her breathless, beat-heavy "Blackout" was the best mainstream pop record of 2007, her current disc "Circus" is still more dance floor cotton-candy and even her stab at aping "Ray of Light"-era Madonna, 2003's "In The Zone," reaped its share of killer singles. It's not high art, nor is meant to be: Spears catalog is directed at the pelvis, not the cerebellum.

She makes you feel better About yourself

Britney's foibles get so much run for the same reason that reality TV is big: People love watching others makes asses of themselves in a public forum because it makes them feel slightly less guilty for being such losers themselves. So, Britney gets photographed without her panties on, and you, in turn, don't feel quite as bad for being a career Denny's waitress who sweats nicotine and sadness and whose best friend is a sock puppet. Good for you. Now where are those cheese fries, already?

She's a role model for THE YOUNG PEOPLE

So, she drank and smoked while pregnant, drives around with her kid in her lap like it was a Slurpee with hair and has been known to betroth single-celled organisms upon occasion. Big deal. Does this mean she can't be a surrogate parent to your children, a guiding light in hot pants? Answer: no. To wit, for her first movie appearance in coming-of-age classic "Crossroads" -- think "The Graduate," but with plastic boobs -- Spears refused to utter a particular line of dialogue because it had a swear word in it, and she didn't want to set a bad example for the youths of today. How's that for attempting to better one's fellow man? Scoreboard: Britney 1, Gandi 0.

She's given us her soul!

You are a nothing, a nobody, an empty sack of flesh and castrated dreams, until, of course, you get your own fragrance. Then you enter the realm of people who matter, such as Debbie Gibson, David Hasselhoff and Dora the Explorer. Britney first joined such hallowed company when she blessed us with her "Believe" perfume. The fragrance was pitched as a "confident expression of optimism and individuality" and as a "reflection of her soul." So what if it bore the delicate aroma of a yeti on fire, trapped in an Ozzfest port-a-john? What does your soul smell like, my man? Gym socks and air bagels? Relax, buddy, it was a trick question. If you're not down with Brit-Brit, you don't have a soul to being with.

She makes fun of herself better than anyone else does

Ever caught Britney Spears on "Saturday Night Live"? It's like finding a Heineken buried in a bucket of dead puppies. For about a decade now, that show has been a safe haven for anyone allergic to funny, but Spears has been among the rare highlights in recent years, at her best when lampooning her fake breasts, her penchant for lip syncing in concert and everything else people goof on her for.

Basically, Spears has earned the last laugh.

Even if it is on us.

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal