Britney’s Career Keeps On Tanking
Even by the slack performance standards of TV awards shows, Britney Spears‘s opening number at Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards was pretty execrable. She performed “Gimme More,” her new single, and as she paraded around her tubby-for-a-pop-star body in a spangly black bikini I thought: if this is career resuscitation, what’s career suicide? In past VMA performances (2001, with a python; 2003, with Madonna), Brit (pictured here) at least made an effort to dance with a little energy, and match her lyp-synching with the track of the record. For almost half the number this time, the ex-Mrs. Kev Fed didn’t even move her mouth. Sarah Silverman‘s opening monologue was almost as bad: on life support. The rest of the awards broadcast trudged uphill: how could it not? Justin Timberlake and Rihanna were the night’s big winners.