I just can't seem to shake this cough/cold. It's been over a week now. I went to the doctor to renew my cough syrup prescription, and he gave me something else which was supposed to relieve my runny nose on top of that.
While I was waiting in the reception area, I picked up an old issue of Allure with Britney Spears on the cover and started skimming through the magazine, curious about the article and its promise to "tell us nothing--and everything" about the pop star. The feature, written by Judith Newman, turned out to be a major disappointment because it was basically about nothing. Zip. Zilch.
You see, Miss Britney never showed up for her interview. Newman wrote an entire feature piece on how she tried to pin down the elusive tabloid favourite. The first time they were supposed to sit down together, Newman got a call from her publicist saying Britney was in the recording studio and had to cancel; later she found out that Britney was spotted getting her nails done. The second time, the excuse was an emergency meeting with her divorce lawyer. Afterward, Newman found out that Britney went on a $30,000 shopping spree at an LA boutique instead. The third and final time Newman received word of the interview being cancelled, the call came from the Allure editor instead of the embarassed and much harangued publicist.
After reading this article, my post-MTV-debaucle sympathy for Britney has cooled off. I still think she's had a rough time of it, but at the same time, if she's serious about making a comeback, she can't blow off appointments like this. For starlets who are promoting their latest movie, TV show, or album, magazine covers and feature articles are one of the most surefire ways of garnering publicity. It's a form of free advertising really, which is why interviews and features in fashion magazines seem to always coincide with whatever a celebrity is starring in or promoting. Maybe Sarah Silverman was right in saying she'd already accomplished everything great that she set out to do by the age of 25. If she keeps throwing away opportunities at redemption that the media is so willing to give her, she'll certainly end up that way.
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