Brit has a month to kill before she heads off on tour to Australia.  What else to do except buy bedding at Target and a bird cage at the pet store?  See?  She’s just like us, y’all.  Just dressed sluttier more exuberantly and surrounded by a bodyguard, LAPD, security guards and a Target Soft Lines Team Lead.

Britney’s custody order for ther two children with Kevin Federline, Sean Preston and Jayden James, has been extended for the rest of her tour. The two arranged for a 50/50 split (which, by the way, looks like a permanent arrangement, which is great for a mother who was destined to lose custody of her kids all together just a couple years ago) and what does that mean for Britney? Shelling out lots of dough to her doughy ex.

I don’t know why the figures surprise me, but I have to say that I was floored when I saw that not only does Britney have to put her ex up at hotels when he tours with her in order to get in his share of QT with the kids, but that she pays him twenty grand a month in child support and then another twenty-twenty five grand a month when she takes them out of the state of California. Yup! She’s paying him to spend time with her own kids out of state.

I generally think it’s tacky to comment on other people’s alimony, child support, custody and divorce settlements because they are so personal and often individualized for the needs of the couple and children and therefor not fair to toss the blanket of judgment on top of but MAN! Despite K-Fed’s about-face during Britney’s break down and their seemingly amicable relationship, I don’t know that anyone deserves forty five thousand dollars a month to raise their own babies, especially if such a sizable bonus comes from them being out of state with their own mother.

There was a time when people regularly speculated that the Spears-Federline boys wouldn’t make it past their first birthday in the hands of Britney and Kevin, but not only have they survived, the two are turning three and four. Both Jayden James (who celebrates his third year today) and Sean Preston (whose big day is on Monday) are adorable, healthy looking and seemingly well-adjusted considering the fact that their parents divorced quite early in their lives and their mama had a mental breakdown a little over a year ago.

While I’m not in the habit of congratulating mothers for keeping their kids alive, I have to hand it to Ms. Spears and her former husband for cleaning up their act and giving these two munchkins what they need.

Britney Spears performed in Greensboro, North Carolina on Saturday night.  This is significant for a couple of reasons:  1)  She did a cover of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” 2)  She sang it live — no lip-synching and 3)  She sounded really good!  

The video and audio quality isn’t tops here, but you’ll get the basic idea.  Maybe it’s time for Britney to abandon her pop tart tunes and go for some more gritty material that she can — oh, I don’t know — actually sing.  The human voice matures, and maybe it’s time for our gal Spears to step it up regarding her material selection.

I admire Brit for rising from the ashes when everyone thought she was down for the count, but I’d be pissed to go to a concert just to see her mouth some over-produced music.  This clip seems more like real performing!

Remember when Brit was all crazy and pink-haired and wasn’t talking to her mom, dad, sister or brother?  Those were sad days!  This weekend, three generations of the Spears clan vacationed together in Miami.  Mom Lynne was joined by her ex Jamie, Brit, Jamie Lynn and all the grandkids — Sean, Jayden and Maddie.

The mid-tier Spears’, Britney and Jamie Lynn, were looking good in their skimpy bikinis.  They are the poster children for having children while youth is on your side.

I’m always a mixture of nervous and excited when I see that two of my favorites have come together on a track. The excitement is for obvious reasons. The nervousness is in case the two somehow don’t deliver as a duo as well as they do when they’re on their own. And unfortunately, in this case, I’m afraid that neither Lil Wayne or Britney are up to my standards.

Let me give you some background: I have had a love/hate relationship with Miss Spears since her …Baby, One More Time days and Lil Wayne took me a moment longer to catch on to than I’m used to. I found his voice to be rather unpleasant the first dozen times I heard him. However, I have been extremely impressed by both of them the last couple of years, and have almost done a complete turn-around on Britney. Blackout and Circus are both great “getting ready in the mirror” records. But for some reason, when together on “Bad Girl”, neither of them really pull it off. The beat sounds generic, Britney’s voice sounds weaker than usual and during Lil Wayne’s parts I just kept thinking “We get it, Wayne. You’ve got a lot of money and you like bad girls.”

What do you think of this collaboration? Am I dogging on what you think could be one of the best tracks of the fall or do you agree that both artists fell a little short?

Well, this makes sense now. Remember a couple weeks ago we saw shots of Britney shooting a commercial poolside in LA and I thought she looked great and some of you thought she looked great too and then a couple of you thought she looked fat and I secretly wondered why you were terribly cruel people? OK, well. Haha, I was right, she looked hot.

What she was filming that day is the video above,  a promo for the upcoming VMAs that’ll be hosted by Russell Brand for the second year in a row. It makes sense because the promos they did together last year for the same show got all sorts of attention. This year’s effort not particularly funny, but I smiled in a “aw, good for them” kind of way and I felt genuinely happy for Britney, with whom I have had a love/hate relationship since the very first time she appeared on my TV screen.

Now let’s just see if this year’s show is watchable…