Will Britney's bomb kill her comeback?
So much for Britney Spears's breathlessly hyped comeback. A day after the pop star performed as if in a trance at the MTV Video Music Awards, critics and fans alike were questioning whether the singer can salvage her career.
Spears, who got tongues wagging at previous VMAs by writhing with a python and swapping spit with Madonna, put on an embarrassing show Sunday, clad in a black-and-silver glitter bikini and clumsily lip-synching the words to the unremarkable "Gimme More," the first single from her forthcoming album.
"She looks like she doesn't care," Whoopi Goldberg said yesterday on "The View." "This is like a bad stripper."
Dr. Phil, a guest on the show, agreed and went one step further. As he watched Spears stagger through her performance at the Palms Resort Casino in Las Vegas, Dr. Phil said he wondered if he'd "bought tickets to a train wreck."
Spears, whose performance was universally panned, trudged through her paces as if she were at dress rehearsal, teetering around on high-heeled boots and exhibiting all the spark of a wet paper bag as she wearily mixed it up with a troupe of dancers. And the ballyhooed Criss Angel "illusion" that was supposed to accompany her song? It vanished. Perhaps comic Sarah Silverman was right in her hit-and-miss monologue following Brit's opener: "She's 25 years old and she's already accomplished everything she's going to accomplish in her life." Ouch.
Quoting unnamed sources, People magazine reported yesterday that Spears was "just plain nervous because of all the hype" surrounding her appearance on the show, and is embarrassed by the performance.
"It's been awhile since she's done this, and she was performing in front of all her peers, on live TV," a source told People. "She just got out there and froze. People who were at rehearsal saw something else. It was good. It really was."
After ratings declines met recent shows in Miami and New York, MTV went west this year to seek its fortune in Vegas. But like casinos, the two-hour-and-15-minute telecast was filled with dizzying lights, heightened anticipation, and infrequent payouts.
Not long after Spears dropped her bomb, Kid Rock got the drop on Tommy Lee. The pair of Pamela Anderson exes engaged in a tussle that resulted in Lee being escorted from the show, and Rock being cited for misdemeanor battery. Although the brouhaha happened off camera it resulted in presenter Jamie Foxx quipping that we've got to "stop all of this white-on-white crime."
As for the handing out of moon men, former Spears paramour Justin Timberlake copped two trophies, including Quadruple Threat of the Year - and challenged MTV to play more videos in one of his acceptance speeches. Rihanna also went to her afterparty with a pair including Video of the Year for her insidiously catchy "Umbrella."
From a performance standpoint, the night's true star was teen R&B sensation Chris Brown whose rubber-legged dancing and acrobatics on "Wall to Wall" were a spectacle worthy of the glitzy setting.
Material from wire services was used in this report.
