Britney to Perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Britney Spears comes to ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" for an exclusive late night performance TUESDAY, MARCH 29 at MIDNIGHT, to coincide with the release of her album Femme Fatale, out the same day.

Only ABC offers Britney fans an exclusive chance to start their day with a performance on "Good Morning America" Tuesday morning and keeps the momentum going wiith an energetic late-night finale on the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" outdoor stage the same night.

She'll perform hits from her seventh studio album, Femme Fatale including "Till The World Ends" and "Hold It Against Me."

Tuesday night's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" also welcomes appearances by "Jackass 3D" star Johnny Knoxville and the first eliminated contestant from "Dancing with the Stars."

Jimmy Kimmel and Jill Leiderman serve as executive producers and Jason Schrift and Douglas DeLuca serve as co-executive producers. Emmy Award-winning "Jimmy Kimmel Live" is shot live in front of a studio audience and produced by Jackhole Industries in association with ABC Studios.

Source: ABC

BRB...lost my jaw on the ground somewhere.

Top Ten Celebrity Comebacks of the Decade

The decade started so well for Britney Spears. She was at the top of her game at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards when she strutted across the stage crooning "I'm a Slave 4 U," a larger-than-life snake slithering above her taut abs.

Even Madonna wanted a piece of her. Their kiss at the 2003 VMAs made headlines around the world and is still one of MTV's most-talked-about moments.

By 2006, it appeared the pop princess was ready to abdicate her throne, her marriage to Kevin Federline and custody of their two boys, Sean Preston and Jayden James. A months-long saga of bad behavior that included multiple flashes of her private parts, countless nights on the town and allegations of drug and alcohol abuse culminated in February 2007 with Spears buzzing off her famous locks at a Tarzana, Calif., hair salon while photographers snapped away outside. Later that year, she gave what has become a widely ridiculed performance at the VMAs.

It took nearly two years and her father taking charge of her life before Spears regained her footing. Musically, she ends the decade on an up note. Her 2008 song "Womanizer" put her back at the top of the singles charts for the first time since the 1990s. And her album "Circus" is approaching double-platinum status, while her 2009 concert tour was the year's highest-grossing in the United States .

Source: ABC News

Spears Returns in First Concert Tour in 5 Years

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

Dressed as a sexy ringmaster and directing a colorful cast that included jugglers, acrobats and martial arts dancers, Britney Spears delivered a tightly choreographed, if perfunctory performance Tuesday night as she kicked off her first concert tour in five years.

The 27-year-old pop superstar's "Circus" tour kicked off in her home state of Louisiana at the New Orleans Arena before a nearly sold-out crowd that cheered on their idol as she gyrated and slithered across the stage while singing some of her biggest hits, from the recent "Womanizer" to her first and now classic song, "Baby One More Time."

The wild applause has been largely absent from Spears' life since the last time she went on tour in 2004, as the singer endured a devastating downward spiral: Due largely to personal troubles, she went from one of pop music's most profitable, in-demand entertainers to an out-of-control tabloid persona who seemed to be on a path to destruction.

But over the last year, that path has been reversed, as she's embarked on a successful comeback that has seen her image, as well as her career, rehabilitated.

The "Circus" tour was another strong step in the right direction. Spears didn't interact much with the crowd — the only thing she uttered to the audience was "Thank you, New Orleans" at the end of the nearly two-hour show — and appeared at times to be lip-synching. But fans didn't seem to care, screaming wildly at the first sight of Spears, who descended from the ceiling on hoops suspended by wires, wearing a short red and black ringmaster ensemble.

Spears started the show with the title track to her new CD, "Circus," then went right into "Piece of Me," which she performed largely from a cage, part of the elaborate, grandiose stage backdrops.

Acrobats twirled from suspended fabric as Spears sang and danced, showing off her toned body with flirty, seductive moves. She got frisky with two male dancers as she performed "Touch of My Hand" while sporting a blindfold.

When Spears slowed down the show for "Everytime," the audience could be heard singing the lyrics — "everytime I try to fly I fall, without my wings I feel so small" — along with her.

"We're so happy she's back," said 16-year-old Justin Scarbrough of New Orleans, wearing a T-shirt he designed himself that bears Spears' image and the words "I Support Britney Spears."

In the past five years, Spears has gone through more tumult than many endure in a lifetime: She's been married and divorced, had two kids, gone to rehab, gone through a custody battle, found herself briefly committed, and been so out of control that her father, Jamie Spears, was appointed by a court to oversee his daughters' personal and professional affairs indefinitely.

But over the past year, Spears' life and career has rebounded. Her "Circus" CD, released in December, has already sold more than 1.3 million copies, and she's had two hits off the CD, the No. 1 "Womanizer" and the top five "Circus."

Tuesday's "Circus" tour, which takes Spears to 27 cities in the United States before heading to Europe in June, is the pop star's biggest opportunity to connect with her still formidable fan base.

"That was awesome," said 21-year-old Lauren Baudoin of Lafayette, La., after the show. Baudoin's sister, 18-year-old Lindsey Baudoin, said she liked that there were entertainers between the songs.

"It kept going," Lindsey Baudoin said. "It was nonstop."

Source: ABC News

Britney Spears' New Single Hits Top of Pop Charts

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

Britney Spears' new single "Womanizer" made a record-breaking leap to top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart on Wednesday, underscoring her musical comeback after making headlines with her personal woes.

Billboard said the song, the first from a new Spears album due for release in December, jumped from No.96 to No.1 in the past week and returned Spears to the top of the list for the first time since her 1999 debut single "Baby One More Time."

"Womanizer" is also No. 1 on iTunes charts in Canada, France, Spain and Sweden, Spears' record company Jive said.

Billboard said the unprecedented leap of "Womanizer" was spurred by first-week download sales of 286,000, the biggest opening week tally by a female artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital downloads in 2003.

The charts were released as expectations rose that Spears would start a tour in early 2009 -- her first since 2004 -- to support the new album "Circus" to be released on December 2.

Spears, 26, looking recently more like her old pop princess self, told a New York radio station last month that she planned to tour around the world next year but gave no details.

Last year, Spears performed a handful of club shows in southern California but did not go on the road to promote her last album "Blackout," which had a good chart debut in November 2007 but faded quickly.

Spears has been on the mend this year after making headlines for shaving her head, attacking paparazzi with an umbrella, losing custody of her two sons and two admissions to psychiatric hospital units.

Her father took control of her business affairs in February and, in September, Spears won three awards for her 2007 song "Piece of Me" at the MTV video music awards.

She plans to set the record straight about her highly public meltdown in a 90-minute documentary to be aired on MTV on November 30.

Source: ABC News

Britney Will Be Back in Court on License Case

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

With a comeback album in the works, her custody case resolved and her personal life no longer making headlines, Britney Spears appears to be finally leaving her troubled past behind.

The most googled person of 2008, Britney Spears is making her comeback.
Only one remnant remains -– a troubled past without a valid California license. Rather than accept a plea deal that her lawyer says was too harsh, Britney Spears will go to trial.

The singer will most likely not appear in court when the jury trial is scheduled to start Wednesday. Because it's a misdemeanor charge, she is not required to. That the case has gone this far, however, demonstrates that Spears is being unfairly targeted because of her celebrity, her attorney, J. Michael Flanagan, said.

"It's absolutely extraordinary," Flanagan told ABCNews.com.

Flanagan said cases like these are usually reduced to an infraction after the person charged produces a valid license and pays a $10 fee. From the beginning, Flanagan said, the judge and Los Angeles City Attorney's Office were unwilling to do that.

Instead, Flanagan said, the city prosecutor offered a plea deal that would have required Spears to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and accept a year's probation and $150 fine.

Flanagan said he rejected the offer because Spears does not deserve a criminal conviction on her record. "The easiest thing would have been to take the plea," he said. "But it doesn't seem right to me."

Frank Mateljan, spokesman for the city attorney's office, denied that Spears had been singled out. "We've consistently dealt with this case the way we do any other," Mateljan said. "She's decided to continue this process to this point."

The case stems from an August 2007 incident in which Spears hit a parked car in a shopping center and left without notifying the owner. She was originally charged with a misdemeanor hit-and-run. That charge was dismissed in November through a civil compromise, in which Spears agreed to cover the damages and the car's owner agreed to not pursue the case further.

Britney Driving Without Valid License

On Sept 26, 2007, however, the city attorney filed an additional misdemeanor charge. "During a subsequent investigation, we found that she was driving without a valid California license," Mateljan said. "You can't un-ring that bell. We filed that charge along with the original hit-and-run."

Spears, who is originally from Kentwood, La., had a valid Louisiana license. But prosecutors say she violated California Code 12500, which requires drivers to get a California license within 10 days of establishing residency.

Flanagan said the city attorney is using her 2007 divorce papers as evidence. Under oath, she told the court she had been a resident of California for six months.

After being charged with a violation, Spears got her California license on Oct. 2, 2007. Showing the new license is typically enough to reduce the charges, said Flanagan, who has handled mostly driving offenses in his 38 years of practicing law.

"The judge will line up eight or nine at a time and say, 'Do you have a license? OK, see the clerk and pay a $10 fee,'" he said. "Most are not even represented by counsel."

Flanagan estimates that 95 percent of these cases are adjudicated that way.

City attorney spokesman Mateljan said, "I don't know what the exact statistics are. But this incident didn't take place in vacuum. There are other underlying circumstances.

"Typically, these types of cases do settle well before they get to trial," he added. "We feel we've been fair with the offer we put forward. They seem bent on proceeding."

Flanagan has also questioned why the case has been "specially assigned" to Deputy City Attorney Michael Amerian, who, he has pointed out, is running for the position of city attorney.

"This is driving without a valid license, about the least of any matter that could be prosecuted and he's specially assigned to it," Flanagan said. "Why do you think that? They specially assign murder cases. Very seldom do you even see a drunk-driving case specially assigned."

Mateljan denied that Amerian had been "specially assigned" to the case. "We've given this case no special consideration," he said. "It's been assigned as any other case would be assigned. Mr. Amerian is handling this like any other case."

Flanagan has also accused the judge assigned to the case, James A. Steele, of treating the pop star more harshly after he rejected Flanagan's motion to reduce or dismiss the charge.

Source: ABC News

"Womanizer" Music Video Premiereing October 10th On 20/20

Britney's music video for "Womanizer" is set to premiere on Friday, October 10th on ABC's 20/20 according to ABCnews.com.

Stick around... got some very exciting details about the video you won't find anywhere else.

Source: Breathe Heavy

Britney Spears Due to Release Album in December

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

Britney Spears' second comeback is in full swing: She's due to release a new album in December, on her 27th birthday.

"Circus" is set for release Dec. 2, a little over a year after she released last November's "Blackout," which was perhaps her most critically acclaimed CD, but came during her infamous year of erratic behavior, rehab, custody battles and at least one hospitalization. She barely promoted it, and the album — though it was certified platinum — was one of her least successful.

But these days, Spears has been in the spotlight for all the right reasons. She won three MTV Video Music Awards for her clip "Piece of Me" and appeared on the Sept. 7 awards show looking fit and stunning, a reversal of her disheveled, widely panned appearance in 2007. She also drew praise for her guest appearances on CBS' "How I Met Your Mother."

Spears' life seems to have rebounded after her father, James Spears, went to court and took control of her personal and professional life as her conservator. She also resolved her custody battle with former husband Kevin Federline, with Federline retaining custody of their two young sons and Spears receiving visitation rights.

Among the producers on Spears' new CD are Nate "Danja" Hills and Max Martin, who produced some of her biggest hits, including her first, "Baby One More Time." The first single, "Womanizer," will be released to radio Sept. 22, her record label, Jive/Zomba, announced Monday

Source: ABC News

Lawyer: Britney Wants No Contact With Sam Lutfi

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

An attorney for Britney Spears said Wednesday that he will not seek an extension for a restraining order against Osama "Sam" Lutfi, but that doesn't mean the pop star wants her former sidekick back in her life.

"Britney has made clear to everyone that she does not want to be further harassed or contacted in any way by Osama 'Sam' Lutfi, now or at anytime in the future," Spears' attorney Samuel D. Ingham III said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Lutfi, for the time being, seems willing to go along with those wishes.

He called the AP late Wednesday and released the following statement: "Mr. Lutfi and Mr. Spears have mutually agreed in private that no hearing or order is necessary at this time."

He declined further comment.

Source: ABC News

Brave New Girl, or Same Old Spears?

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

She wants a good time

No need to rewind

She needs to really really find what she wants

She lands on both feet

Won't take a back seat

There's a brave new girl

And she's comin' out tonight

It's no Fiona Apple or Emily Bronte. But the lyrics to Britney Spears' "Brave New Girl," a song she put out in 2003, years before her life spiraled out of control, may finally be coming true now.

Sure, the headlines have been splashed across the Internet and tabloid magazines before ("Britney's New Act!" "Spears Insider: Brit Back on Track!"), only to be replaced the following week by photos of her crying into a cup of Starbucks and flipping off the paparazzi.

And Spears most recently made the papers by getting snapped last Sunday while smoking cigarettes in front of her two-year-old son, who was trying to play with her pack of Marlboros. But that lapse in parental judgement aside, Spears' behavior in the past few months suggests that, finally, she may really be poised to return to her pop star status of yore.

In March, she made her first high-profile, sans-paparazzi appearance in months, guest starring as a dermatologist's receptionist on CBS' "How I Met Your Mother." While her acting abilities, like her lyrics, aren't going to make it into the annals of cultural history, she proved she could show up to a set and get a job done without incident: A far cry from her disastrous 2007 MTV Video Music Awards performance. She followed it up with a second guest stint on the sitcom in May.

Also in May, Spears was granted more time with Sean Preston and Jayden James, her sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline, and praised by the judge hearing her child custody case for trying to get her personal life back under control. On Friday, she gave up her custody fight, but gained more visiting time with the boys, quite possibly the best play she could've made, according to lawyers.

"This is probably the best solution for the kids," Paul Talbert, family law attorney at Chemtob Moss Forman & Talbert, a Manhattan matrimonial law firm, told ABCNews.com last week. "For Britney, it allows her to shrink from the spotlight a little bit -- she doesn't have to go to court every month and endure that circus. That circus can't make it easier for her to stay on the straight and narrow."

Instead of the courthouse, Spears is spending her summer in the recording studio.

"She's working with a team of top-notch producers and songwriters and we're very excited about what she's accomplished so far," her manager, Larry Rudolph, and Jive records said in a statement. "No album release date has been confirmed yet."

And instead of club-hopping, she's hitting the charity circuit. Saturday, Spears attended Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey's fundraiser for Generation Rescue, an organization dedicated to researching autism.

So, is this really a brave new girl in the making? Maybe, if she can manage to leave behind the mess of the past year and a half.

"For her to have a true comeback, it means stripping herself of everything that has come before," said E! online gossip columnist Ted Casablanca. "Take a break from the Britney that we know her as, and try something different. If she did a different kind of a tour, put out a different kind of music, that would be great. But if she comes back from the recording studio with the soft porn 'Gimme More' stuff, I don't see it helping her ultimately in the end. It's diving into the quasi whore-saint stuff that she's done for years."

"Look at someone like Madonna, someone who Britney is chasing after," he added. "Look how chameleonic that woman is. I mean, we hated half of her stuff -- the sex book, the bullet proof bras -- but at least she's gutsy and ties things differently."

Indeed, music industry insiders say the measure of Spears' success hinges on what comes out of all those steamy summer days in the recording studio. Her last album, "Blackout," wasn't a bomb: It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and, as of last week, sold 879,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But it came out in October 2007, shortly after a judge suspended Spears' child visitation rights and just before two stints in the hospital for psychological evaluations.

"It'll be helpful if she can avoid some of the headlines that we associated with her when the last album came out, the non-album headlines," said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts and senior analyst for Billboard magazine. "The last album didn't sell all that poorly. It was smaller than her biggest albums, but she'd already had a downward cycle from her biggest streak, and that tends to happen when you have a million-selling week on your second album."

Before she was a tabloid fixture and a late-night punch line, Spears was a pop superstar, and she needs to reinvigorate her audience to bounce back. Mayfield agreed that the frothy, bubblegum hits that made her huge in the 90s won't play well now, but she shouldn't reinvent herself into a figure her fans won't recognize, i.e., a bullet-proof bra-wearing diva, or a guitar-strumming ballad-belter.

"Everything depends on whether or not the consumer connects with what she's doing now," he said. "She has to be careful about doing music about her personal life: first off, it's not a personal life most people can relate to, and you run the risk of getting labeled as the 'poor little rich girl.' She should try to continue to evolve, but she can't reinvent herself to be a singer-songwriter type -- that's not her strength."

So, If she keeps her act clean and her music fresh (but not too fresh), maybe Spears can turn this streak of good behavior into a bona fide comeback. Or, she could just take Casablanca's advice:

"I think she should get together with Justin Timberlake and have a kid with him," he said. "That would be the greatest comeback of all."

Source: ABC News

Britney Spears Plays Nice To Get Sex Tape

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

BRITNEY Spears has reportedly reconciled with ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib because she fears him releasing a secret sex tape.

Adnan is said to have been recently spotted driving into the gated community in the Hollywood Hills where the singer is living with her father, The Daily Mail says.

But sources claim the two haven't got back together for purely romantic reasons - Britney is apparently terrified Adnan has an explicit video of her during the couple's brief trip to Mexico in January.

"Britney's really scared that Adnan has a sex tape," an insider tells The Daily Mail's website. "She wants to get it out of his hands."

Spears, 26, and the Birmingham-raised paparazzo, 36, have barely been seen together since the troubled singer was hospitalised for psychiatric treatment on January 31.

Source: News

Could Britney Be Committed Against Her Will?

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

It is hard for a family to watch someone like Britney Spears implode in public. It is also very difficult emotionally to force a family member to seek treatment involuntarily.

But in Britney's home state of California, once that hard decision is made, it can be as easy as calling a cop to have a loved one committed to a mental hospital.

Under a state statute known as 5150, an individual who is considered by a medical professional to be a danger to herself, others or is known to be gravely disabled can be involuntarily committed to a mental institution by her family or even friends.

"If a family member believes the patient needs psychiatric care and the patient refuses to get it, there are options available," said Keith Valone, a clinical psychologist in Pasadena, Calif., who is not associated with Spears' treatment and declined to comment specifically on her case. "And if that person meets the narrowly determined criteria, they can be put on involuntary hold.

"No Spears' family members have stated publicly that they are contemplating such a move.

Involuntary hold, which translates into 72 hours in a locked mental institution, must be approved by trained professionals like a psychiatrist or a nurse. But a police officer can also qualify, according to California law, to evaluate a patient and decide if that person meets the 5150 requirements, said Valone.

After the 72-hour stay is completed, patients can either voluntarily admit themselves to treatment or the family can request another evaluation for a 14-day stay, according to the California Department of Mental Health.

"Getting a 5150 isn't a very hard [process] to do," explained Valone. "Families can either call a hospital, ask if they write holds and then just present at the hospital. Or if the patient is uncooperative, they can call the police."

A spokesperson from the Los Angeles Police Department told ABCNEWS.com that 5150s are so common that they are an almost daily occurrence, and cops are often called upon to help transport unruly patients to hospitals, where they will they be kept on hold.

The reason most families seek involuntary committal is for self destructive behavior, and Spears' behavior over the past year has cost her a great deal.

In just the past few months, Spears was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital after refusing to hand over her children to authorities and then later lost custody of her two kids. She then failed to even make it into the courtroom and subsequent hearings meant to regain custody of her children.

She has shaved her head in public, attacked a car with an umbrella, shoplifted a lighter from a gas station, and most recently sat down in front of paparazzi earlier this week and cried while holding her little Yorkie named London. That latest crying jag was apparently set off by her sometime manager Sam Lutfi telling ABC's "The View" that Spears has mental issues that are treatable.

Her behavior has become so alarming that last week it was revealed that The Associated Press is working on the 26-year-old Spears' obituary, just in case.

Source: ABC News