Unfortunately, Britney's appeal is in exemplifying a sort of ideal. It's not just that she gained weight that made her performance so bad; she just lacked any significant movement or sharpness or stage appeal that could make her look good. If she's sick enough that she can't dance in public and still shows up on the freakin' MTV music awards as the opening act, that's just setting herself up for a public car crash. I don't see anything admirable about that from any viewpoint. When she was stepping out and doing club shows earlier this year, that took courage. Stepping out for a performance that you're not remotely ready to give to be a faded memory of your former sexpot self is just ridiculous.

Considering that the upside for Britney Spears is to come back and be, say, Janet Jackson for the next decade, why bother? Why not go back to the real world and live out the rest of her life? I think the saddest part of this isn't Britney's status specifically as an oversexualized icon, but that this lifestyle of being overexposed in every respect might be all that she has in life. It's not like she's ever shown interest in starting a charity, taking up a political cause, or creating a significant business outside of her fame like, say, Bono or Angelina Jolie.

But Justin Timberlake is a total whore, though there still seem to be a fair number of people who swoon over his looks. (Personally, I don't get it. He and Dave Matthews have looks made for radio as far as I'm concerned...)

Disagreeingly,
Hyoun