Britney Live
Sasha Frere-Jones reports from a Britney concert and finds Brit in post-crazy mode. (New Yorker)
The show began with an odd acknowledgment that the Circus tour is partially a response to the “crazy Britney” thread that dominated the tabloids for over a year. (Lily Allen has had paparazzi trouble, but nobody can really challenge Spears for the miserable title of Most Stalked.) The first bit of spectacle was a video projected on the circular screen that sheathed the circular main stage. Perez Hilton, the internet gossip figure, appeared dressed as an English queen (the royal kind) and over-read a small monologue in which he admitted to writing unflattering things about Spears in the past. He then informed us we were going to witness a “freak show,” which is slightly different than a circus, and one of many obvious attempts to brand this show for tweens as somehow more “adult.”
