'How I Met Your Mother' Can't Get Enough of Britney Spears

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

The third season of CBS’ How I Met Your Mother was spiced up by none other than pop princes Britney Spears, who is slowly but surely getting her groove back by recently landing three awards including Video of the Year in the recently concluded MTV Video Music Awards. The 26-year-old performer previously guest starred on How I Met Your Mother as receptionist Abby, in one of the show’s highest rated episodes of the season. Late last month, E! Online reported that the pop singer will be back for another round of guest stints on the show, which kicks off with season four on September 22, Monday at 8:30pm.

"We're all so thrilled to have Britney joining us once again," HIMYM creator Craig Thomas told E! Online. "And just to head it off at the pass this time around: Yes, Mom, Britney's very nice and no, I can't get her autograph for you."

Meanwhile, we also previously reported quite a number of juicy tidbits for the show’s fourth season. TV Squad recently spoke to co-creator Carter Bays, who also shared his insights on the new season.

Bays reveals, “the first scene takes place immediately after where we left off and then we move ahead a few months and Barney is out of the hospital because Neil (Patrick Harris) is too good a physical comedian to keep in a body cast.”

Bays adds that for this season, "We sort of knew the story we wanted to tell. We kind of had to adjust the timeline of it dependent on Sarah Chalke's schedule. That was a big factor in how we tell the stories this season but we got it all worked out so it's pretty much going according to plan...we love having Sarah around so we're always trying to make it work."

Also, he promises that this season of How I Met Your Mother will be filled with intriguing surprises.

"We've got some secrets coming up. They're some big events, and it's hard to know how much of it to reveal because we want it to be a surprise," he says. "We said we want to do more stand alone episodes and not make it so serialized this year and I think we've kept that promise although as we started writing, story lines unfold and it's kind of hard not to pick up; if something big happens one week it's hard to not pick up from that the next week and go on with the story."

Catch season 4 of How I Met Your Mother as it debuts on Monday, September 22 at 8:30pm.

Source: Buddy TV

Britney 'Didn't Save' CBS Sitcom

The following italicized article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk:

CBS has denied claims that Britney Spears' appearance on How I Met Your Mother "saved" the show.

Ratings for the sitcom were given a boost when Spears starred as ditzy receptionist Abby in two episodes. It was only after Britney's episodes had aired that CBS announced the programme's renewal for a fourth season.

However, the network's entertainment president Nina Tassler has now insisted: "It was never in danger; we just took a while to make the announcement [of its renewal]."

The show's co-creator Craig Thomas has confirmed that "the door is open" for further appearances from Spears. Her role has also been praised by the sitcom's stars Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris.

Source: Digital Spy

Britney Making a Pussycat Dolls Cameo

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

Her next album may not be dropping any time soon, but Britney Spears is dipping her toes back into the music scene, filming a cameo for the new Pussycat Dolls video.

"It's a small part," says a source about the popstar's visit to the L.A. set of the group's video shoot for their new single, When I Grow Up, on Wednesday. Possibly saving her trademark moves for her own album, Spears was not expected to dance or perform with the girls in the video.

While her recent TV meetings (she was spotted exiting the Merv Griffin offices last week) were strictly exploratory, How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris told PEOPLE at an Academy screening of the show at McGee's Bar & Grill in Manhattan, they would be happy to have her back for a third time saying, "The door is open for her."

Source: People

Neil Patrick Harris: ‘Door Is Open’ for Britney’s Return to HIMYM

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

Britney Spears has made two guest appearances on CBS’s How I Met Your Mother, and as far as Neil Patrick Harris is concerned, she’s welcome back any time.

“The door is open for her,” Harris told PEOPLE at an Academy screening of the show at McGee’s Bar & Grill in Manhattan. “We would love (guest stars) who get in the show’s world to stick around if they want to … but I don’t know what the writers have planned.”

Spears played Abby, a ditsy receptionist dating Barney (Harris’s character), but interested in Ted (Josh Radner’s character). Based on some foreshadowing in the script, the pop princess may very well return in season four, says Harris.

“I gave her the address to Ted’s apartment at the end of the last episode, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she showed up again,” he told PEOPLE.

During a Q&A post-screening, the cast reminisced about Spears’s time on set.

“Carter [Bays, the creator] had a great line at the table read. He introduces all the guest cast. He said, ‘And I hope I pronounce this correctly, ‘Britney Spears,’” Josh Radner told fans at McGee’s, the bar that helped inspire the series.

“There were wristbands that we wore on set, so that people didn’t come on to the set. In her world, people go up in the rafters and take pictures,” Harris said.

“We wanted to give her the freedom in a closed environment to be as free to act, and fail, and succeed as she wanted to because that’s the process of doing this,” he continued. “She was lovely, and those two weeks were actually quite swell for us.”

Source: People

The Return Of Britney

Britney Spears made her second guest appearance of the year on CBS's How I Met Your Mother last night, reprising her role as Abby -- the love-struck (and borderline obsessive) receptionist who philanders with Barney (played by Neil Patrick Harris) while pining away for Ted (Josh Radnor). Personally, I think that Brit Brit did an amazing job on last night's ep ... as did the People magazine TV critic, tho he finds fault with the episode's writing and not with Britney's acting.

Britney Spears returned to CBS's How I Met Your Mother Monday as Abby, the silly-vulnerable receptionist with an unrequited crush on Ted (Josh Radnor). The ratings spiked with her first appearance, so she was quickly shoehorned into this new episode. The fact that Britney's second guest spot really didn't work was no fault of hers. She's not at all bad at playing clunkily-sweetly dumb. I liked the way she tried to vent her conflicted feelings of anger and love for Ted while lying in bed and staring dreamily at the ceiling: "You know what I hate most about Ted? His stupid hair ... His stupid, lame, awesome hair. It's so stupid and awesome," she said with a cute, singsong lilt. But the script was an awful piece of specialty construction. Abby's reverie occurred in a bed shared with Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), who was also feeling rejected by Ted -- as a friend. His and Abby's mutual annoyance turned them both on, so they slept together. Then they decided to pose as a couple to annoy Ted. Then Barney carried the joke too far by proposing to Abby. Then Abby suddenly thought Barney really loved her. Then, to get out of the engagement, Barney told Abby that their romance had done the trick and now a jealous Ted did love Abby. And then Abby got this crazy love-hungry Shelley Winters-like gleam in her eye, setting up the possibility for a third guest spot. Well, that’s a lot to cram into the subplot of a 20-odd-minute show. It would have taken me less time to type out the synopsis of Dangerous Liaisons. The twists felt arbitrary and perverse, even for a so-so sitcom, which is what HIMYM is.

I believe the entire ep of HIMYM can be streamed online at CBS.com but you can watch all the Britney Spears clips from last night's ep online HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. It's not that I don't necessarily agree with the People critic but I think that pontificating about a primetime sitcom like this, especially when a guest appearance by a non-actress is involved, kinda misses the point. I think fans just want to see their favorite guest stars on their favorite TV shows. I watched the ep and I really think that it turned out very well ... I think I even preferred it to the first ep that Brit guested on (hello, we got to see NPH topless in bed). In the end, the situation is win-win for both the show and for Britney. HIMYM got renewed for next season and Britney is showing the naysayers that she can get her life back in order and be successful again. Love it, love her!!

Source: Pink Is The New Blog

Britney's Second How I Met Your Mother Appearance

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

A clip of Britney Spears's highly-anticipated second appearance on CBS's How I Met Your Mother has been released.

In this snippet, via Entertainment Tonight, the pop star's ditzy character, Abby, is dating Barney (Neil Patrick Harris’s character) – yet she still longs for Ted, played by Josh Radnor.

The episode is scheduled to air May 12. Spears first appeared on the show in March, debuting her role as a receptionist at a dermatologist's office.

Her first guest spot earned the singer positive reviews and brought in the show’s highest ratings yet.

Source: People

Watch Britney Spears on How I Met Your Mother

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

Britney Spears continues to go for laughs on her second appearance on CBS' How I Met Your Mother (airing Monday, May 12).

In the above clip (courtesy of Entertainment Tonight), Spears' character, the ditzy Abby, is now dating serial womanizer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) — they even wear matching blue sweaters! But she still seems to be longing for her No. 1 crush, Ted (Josh Radnor).

"I had such a great experience the last time I was on the show that I couldn't wait to come back," Spears said earlier this week of filming. "Abby is going to have a lot of fun!"

Source: US Weekly

Neil Patrick Harris: Britney, Hold My Hand!

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

Here is the first picture of Britney Spears reprising her role as Abby, a receptionist at a dermatologist’s office, on the hit CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother.

When Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Abby (Britney Spears) realize that they have one thing in common — their mutual hatred of Ted (Josh Radnor) — the “couple” decides to go to the bar to flaunt their new relationship in Ted’s face. Ouch!

“I had such a great experience the last time I was on the show that I couldn’t wait to come back,” Brit said in a statement Monday. “I was really looking forward to working with this cast and crew again. Everyone was so nice. Abby is going to have a lot of fun!”

How I Met Your Mother episode “Everything Must Go” airs on Monday, May 12 @ 8:30PM ET/PT on CBS.

Source: Just Jared

Britney on "HIMYM" -- Take Two

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

Britney Spears -- seen here with Neil Patrick Harris -- is back to work on the set of "How I Met Your Mother."

Without a doubt, there are Emmy nominations in the future ... for the hair and makeup departments.

Source: TMZ

Britney Hits The Motherlode ... Again

Britney Spears won't be making her grand return to CBS's How I Met Your Mother until the episode airs next Monday night but here is our first look at one of the scenes she has already filmed for the show.

It wasn't tough for Britney Spears to decide to reprise her role as ditzy receptionist Abby on CBS' How I Met Your Mother. "I had such a great experience the last time I was on the show that I couldn't wait to come back," the singer said in a statement Monday. "I was really looking forward to working with this cast and crew again. "Everyone was so nice," she added. "Abby is going to have a lot of fun!" This time around, Spears' lovable but ditzy Abby no longer pines for Ted (Josh Radnor). She falls for Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). According to a CBS release, the "couple" — who don matching V-neck baby blue sweaters — go to the show's local hangout bar to "flaunt their new relationship in Ted's face."

To be honest, Britney could show up in the ep reading from the phone book and it would make headlines. CBS is really very smart to bring Britney back for one more guest spot ... mere weeks after she won the show its highest ratings ever. It's still stunning that Britney Spears is in such high demand again that she is being courted to save TV shows. What can't Britney Spears do?

Source: Pink Is The New Blog

FIRST LOOK: Britney Returns to How I Met Your Mother

The following italicized article is from www.ok-magazine.com:

Despite the fact that How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris has been somewhat outspoken on the subject of guest star Britney Spears — first saying that her mere being on the set wreaked havoc with the production, and then later telling reporters that he didn't think the show needed to resort to "stunt casting" to get ratings — the pair appear to be working in perfect harmony in this first shot from Britney's upcoming second appearance on the CBS hit.

SPOILER ALERT: For fans of How I Met Your Mother who don't want to know what happens when Brit-Brit makes her return appearance on May 12, stop reading now.

Last time Britney appeared on HIMYM, her character Abby the receptionist was more than a little smitten with Barney (played by Harris), who didn't exactly return the sentiment.

But this time, Abby and Barney unite when they realize they have one thing in common — their mutual hatred of Ted. So to make him miserable, the lookalike pair decides to hit the bar so they can flaunt their new relationship in Ted's face.

Check out Brit's return to How I Met Your Mother, Monday, May 12, 8:30PM, ET on CBS.

Source: OK Magazine

Britney’s Returning to HIMYM for May Sweeps

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

It’s official! Britney Spears will be returning to the CBS comedy, How I Met Your Mother, for an episode scheduled to air May 12.

“We’re all so thrilled to have Britney joining us once again,” executive producer and co-creator Craig Thomas says. “And just to head it off at the pass this time around: Yes, Mom, Britney’s very nice and no, I can’t get her autograph for you.”

Brit Brit will be reprising her role as Abby, a receptionist at a dermatologist’s office. Production on the episode begins today!!!

Neil Patrick Harris must be overjoyed!

Here’s the synopsis of the episode, “Everything Must Go”: “Barney and Abby realize that they have one thing in common, their mutual hatred of Ted. The new ‘couple’ decides to go to the bar to flaunt their new relationship in Ted’s face. Desperate to get a rise out of his former pal, Barney pops a surprising question to Abby. “

Source: Just Jared

Britney Returns to ‘How I Met Your Mother’

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

Britney Spears is returning to How I Met Your Mother, reports People.

“The show is ecstatic and so is Britney,” a source said. “She had so much fun the first time around she really wanted to come back. It was a mutual decision to work together more.”

Brit, 24, will reprise her role as a Abby, a secretary at a dermatologist’s office. In the March 24 episode, she fell for the show’s main character, Ted (Josh Radnor, pictured).

HIMYM costar Neil Patrick Harris has said, “Britney did a great job on the show. She really did. In fact, we are all hoping that she returns rather soon to reprise her role as Abby.”

Source: Just Jared

Update: Neil Patrick Harris clarifies his Britney Spears remarks, AP then clarifies its story

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

In an exclusive statement, Neil Patrick Harris responds to the Associated Press article that suggested he would like Britney Spears banned from the set of his CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. "It seems that yesterday a writer took some quotes of mine and speculated an opinion about their intent. I write to you to set the record straight," the actor says. "Britney did a great job on the show. She really did. In fact, we are all hoping that she returns rather soon to reprise her role as Abby."

Spears guest starred as a lovestruck receptionist on the March 24 episode, which earned the series' highest ratings in the 18-49 demographic in its three seasons on the air. The appearance also garnered remarkably strong reviews for the troubled pop star. In the AP story, however, Harris was quoted as saying, "I'm in the minority that our show does not need stunt casting in order to succeed.... I worry that if they start Will & Grace-ing us too much, that the show will suffer." Now he tells EW.com that he would welcome Spears back — because he has "great faith" in the show's producers and writers. He also says, "My job description is to act, and I should really do just that."

At first, the AP stood by its story. "I respect his right to change his stance," said AP entertainment editor Jesse Washington, "but...Neil Patrick Harris told us unequivocally that he did not believe that Britney should be on the show." But by late Friday, April 11, the AP seemed to have changed its tune. "We're issuing a clarification to our story," Washington said in a statement. "Harris did not say that he opposed a return engagement for Spears, and our lede said that he did."

Harris' full statement here:

"It seems that yesterday a writer took some quotes of mine and speculated an opinion about their intent. I write to you to set the record straight.

"As I have said all along, Britney did a great job on the show. She really did. In fact, we are all hoping that she returns rather soon to reprise her role as Abby. Look, that episode garnered our highest ratings of the season — I would never ignore or disrespect that fact. I am just very protective of our show, and its content. I have a high standard of quality, and hope to maintain it on every level. Television is big business, I understand that. I have great faith in our casting department, as well as [Twentieth Century Fox Television] and CBS, to find the appropriate person for every role on our show. I was remiss in speculating otherwise. My job description is to act, and I should really do just that.

"Britney Spears fits into our make-believe world very well — if she chose to return I can only imagine that Carter [Bays], Craig [Thomas], and the rest of the writers would create a humdinger of a storyline for her. We should be so lucky."

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Who's Talking About Britney This Week

"I sort of feel Britney has become the poster child (for mental illness). The kid is very young. She never had a childhood. She never rode a big-wheel. Rather than put her face on mental illness, or Brooke Shields - who had postpartum depression - use me."-

Rosie O'Donnell to Good Morning America

================================

"She's not an actress. She played a role for a week, and did a really nice job, but the workload involved with doing memorization and the purging of comedy over and over is really, really hard. I mean, it takes a strong skill set to do that every week. You do it one week, it's fine, but to do it a lot of weeks is hard. She's not going to be a regular on our show... We kept the set closed to make her comfortable. So I would probably keep [conversations we had] to myself. We wanted to make sure that she didn't feel exploited from us personally. She's exploited from everyone, all the time. We had some nice times, but they were our times. If she ends up getting her own show, she has to be prepared for the work load."

- Neil Patrcik Harris in an interview to MTVnews.com

================================

"Look at what they've done to Britney. The paparazzi and magazines have blood on their hands. They literally made her go insane. She's got classic Stockholm Syndrome - she fell in love with a paparazzo and went insane. The photographers and editors of these magazines have such bad karma. It's pretty dark."

Gwenyth Paltrow to showbizspy.co.uk

================================

"I think she's doing great, like her appearance on that sitcom was mind-blowing - she did great, she did it again."

- Sarah Silverman to DallasNews.com

Source: Breathe Heavy

Producer: Britney Spears Welcome Back on Sitcom

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

Britney Spears is always welcome back to How I Met Your Mother.

“We always said, ‘You know, if her character pops, we’ll bring her back,’” the CBS sitcom’s executive producer Carter Bays tells the Associated Press. “I thought she was great. I was very proud of that episode.”

On the March 24 show Spears, 26, played at receptionist at a dermatologist’s office, opposite Josh Radnor. Costar Neil Patrick Harris said Spears was “really funny”.

“It was totally weird,” Bays said of having Spears on the set. “I think we have a very, like, kind of Midwestern homey vibe here on the show, and it was strange to suddenly have helicopters circling.” he said.

The episode wrapped up with Spears’s character flirting with womanizer Barney (Harris). The following week, in an episode in which Spears did not appear, a “mystery woman” sabotaging Barney’s usually successful attempts to pick up ladies was introduced into the plot.

Asked if Spears might end up to be the saboteur, Bays replied “Could be. There’s no reason why not” — though he also suggested it could be Spears’s guest costar Sarah Chalke.

So, will Britney come back or won’t she? “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know the answer to that.”

Source: People

Britney Spears Propels 'How I Met Your Mother' To Series High

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

Britney Spears' return to scripted television had viewers tuning in at record numbers Monday night.

Call it curiosity or possibly fans rooting for a celebrity-underdog, for whatever reason, Britney's appearance on CBS's "How I Met Your Mother" boosted the series to its highest ratings ever in its three-season history with adults 18-49 and adults 25-54, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings.

But what are the critics saying about Britney's performance?

Tom Gliatto of People said Britney managed to jump the acting hurdles she faced, writing, "Her challenge was clear: Demonstrate that, even though she seems in recent months to have been traveling through life on the roaring, ragged edge of a tornado, she could still stop and stand still long enough to perform on camera, be as naturally charming as the role permitted, and let the audience conclude: 'Well, she SEEMS all right. She seems like Britney.'"

He doesn't think the script did enough with the potential triangle between the characters played by Britney, Josh Radnor, and Sarah Chalke.

"[Britney's] best scene came at the very end: Abby, letting herself be seduced by the ridiculously rakish Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), unexpectedly and enthusiastically upped the ante. It was a sort of fantasy validation: This loser secretary, who tried to find herself reading self-help books, was transformed into a fun girl with thoughts only of uncomplicatedly naughty good times," Gliatto writes.

"As she bolted from the office with Harris, it was as if Britney were rushing out to meet her former self," he added.

As for the acting professional's take on Britney's sitcom stint? The pop princess is getting more high marks.

"She did pretty good, there was a sweetness to her, a vulnerability," Charna Halpern, artistic director of Chicago’s Improv Olympic Comedy Club, told Us Magazine. "She looked beautiful and had screen presence, even when she was behind the desk and they made her look kind of homely, she was adorable."

Aliza Shane, senior director of NYC’s Looking Glass Theater agreed, telling Us Britney's role was, “over the top, and she certainly went for it. Clearly, she likes being on camera, no one can argue that!"

Source: Access Hollywood

Review of Britney Spears’s Comeback Role

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

The audience understood from the get-go that Britney Spears’s cameo role on Monday night’s How I Met Your Mother was more about damage control than acting.

Her challenge was clear: Demonstrate that, even though she seems in recent months to have been traveling through life on the roaring, ragged edge of a tornado, she could still stop and stand still long enough to perform on camera, be as naturally charming as the role permitted, and let the audience conclude: “Well, she SEEMS all right. She seems like Britney.”

And she did all that in the space of a few mild comic moments. At least she balanced out that weird MTV awards appearance last fall where she looked like a Bond girl who’d come out of a coma.

Her part on the CBS sitcom wasn’t as cartoonishly flamboyant as her 2006 appearance on Will & Grace, as Amber-Louise, the Southern conservative co-host of a gay talk show. This time she played Abby, a humdrum receptionist in the office of a dermatologist.

In fact, the very first shot of the half-hour was of Britney at her receptionist’s desk, staring off like some girl in a Vermeer painting, or perhaps more precisely like Scarlett Johansson in a movie about Vermeer.

Frankly, I would have made the entire half-hour an ingenious stunt: Everything was happening IN THE HEAD of this sad, dreamy girl. But that was not the plot: Ted (Josh Radnor), undergoing a series of laser treatments to remove a tattoo, had a crush on the dermatologist doing the zapping (Scrubs’s Sarah Chalke), but the doctor kept resisting his efforts at flirtation.

The receptionist, meanwhile, developed a crush on Ted.

The script didn’t make much of this potential triangle. Britney mostly smiled with a sort of likable, hopeful pathos (except for one brief moment, when she handed the doctor a file with a bluntness that seemed inexplicably hostile).

Well, what’s wrong with likable, hopeful pathos? Plenty of celebrities would kill for even that.

But her best scene came at the very end: Abby, letting herself be seduced by the ridiculously rakish Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), unexpectedly and enthusiastically upped the ante. It was a sort of fantasy validation: This loser secretary, who tried to find herself reading self-help books, was transformed into a fun girl with thoughts only of uncomplicatedly naughty good times.

As she bolted from the office with Harris, it was as if Britney were rushing out to meet her former self.

Source: People

Neil Patrick Harris: "Britney's Living a Nightmare"

The following italicized article is from www.ok-magazine.com:

While A-list guest star Britney Spears didn’t make it to the How I Met Your Mother bash at the Palihouse in L.A. this weekend, our spywitness at the event heard plenty of chatter about the troubled pop star’s time on set.

The show’s star Neil Patrick Harris said he was surprised that Brit was rather quiet. "When she was with us, she
 was rather shy and intimidated," he explained. "Probably 
because she doesn't have a lot of acting experience,
 especially sitcom experience."

And as for reports that the 26-year-old mother of two was a nightmare on the set, Neil said, "I wouldn't call her a nightmare. She's living
 one."

While Brit might have been surprisingly quiet around the set, Neil admitted that the hysteria surrounding her even made its way past studio security."When she's on set, it's kind of chaotic, hectic," he explained. "Even though she was quiet and behaved... She brings that energy with her."

Source: OK Magazine

Britney's All Smiles on 'How I Met Your Mother'

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

We've all been talking about it and now here's your first look at Britney Spears as a receptionist on How I Met Your Mother. Looking slim and sexy (from the shoulders up at least) Britney was reportedly on her best behavior last week while she filmed her cameo, although co-star Neil Patrick Harris said she seemed "fragile but professional." Ah, just how every actress dreams of being labeled.

Set your Tivos! Brit's episode will air on March 24.

Source: Page Six