Madonna has been a constant presence in Britney Spears’ life at least since Madge gave Britney her very first kiss from a girl back in 2003, the year Madonna appeared on the Brit-hit “Me Against the Music.” Now it looks like she’s giving her tips on ticking off the Catholic League. In two photographs illustrating the liner notes of Britney’s critically acclaimed new album, “Blackout,” the Southern Baptist-raised singer is shown slinking into a confessional with a handsome young man dressed like a priest. Britney herself is hardly dressed.
In response, the League’s Bill Donahue released a bit of boilerplate sensitively noting Britney’s alleged inability to raise her own child–that’s how to make converts, Bill–and suggesting the photos are a shameless bid for publicity.
Publicity is one thing Britney doesn’t lack, however. After nearly four years of living out the pop tart ideal without releasing an original album, credibility as an artist is what she’s after, and it looks like Madonna has given her lessons in gravitas. Madonna’s fascination with the Catholic Church–from her name to provocative choreography with cassocked and surpliced backup dancers–has given Madonna a certain nubbly texture in a disco world of lamé and chiffon.
Madonna’s manipulation of Catholic imagery, however, has never really criticized the Catholic Church. Her frolicking priests and glittering crosses, rather, fit into a psychic landscape of idealized fathers and lovers, and the sacrifices women make for love. Britney, raised in a evangelical church in Kentwood, Louisiana, can hardly claim to bear the weight of a confessional in her subconscious. The problem with Britney blasphemy is not that it’s offensive, it’s that it’s meaningless.
posted October 31, 2007 at 5:00 pm
‘Meaningless’ pretends there is no slap in the face intended to serious Catholics. I think you meant ‘gratuitous.’
posted October 31, 2007 at 8:41 pm
That little girl needs to Shape up or SHIP OUT !!
posted October 31, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Ok, I’m from the 80′s, and I can relate to Madonna. I can relate to her losing her mom and being “lost”. I’m saddended by her losing her catholic roots, BUT……….she made alot of sense of making music about what she felt. I have related to many of her songs about losing her mother, a troubled relationships wit her father. She’s also gone on to have a mature reationship with her children because she had them later in life. I CANNOT say the same from Brittany Spears! I HATE that she’s even compared to her! First of all, the spoiled brat “B” hasn’t had the same upbringing as Madonna…she had children WAY to early and hasn’t a CLUE as how to raise them since she’s a selfish child herself yet. WHY compare these 2? At least Madonna sang her own songs, didn’t have all the hype of a child star and made her mark when she was considered a legal adult. She’s a mature women now. Brittany certainly isn’t, so stop comparing them. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
posted November 1, 2007 at 9:59 am
She is a second rate slut.No she is worse than that.Just for earning papers of ****(money) she is down to downgrade a community. She must have had a beggarly childhood without proper education.
posted November 1, 2007 at 11:46 am
Madonna is an intelligent, deliberate, artist in control of what she shows the public, and a very good mother from everything I’ve read about her life now. So she did some wild things in her life. Most of us did. BS is an out-of-control spoiled talentless child-abusing brat who I agree has no business being in the same article as Ms. Ciccone-Ritchie. These pictures are insulting BECAUSE BS has no connection to the church – those evangelicals think Catholics are the anti-Christ & Catholicism is a cult. My sister-in-law is an evangelical, and I’m a Catholic, so I know what I’m talking about. AT least the priest looks totally uninterested – the pictures are truly an imitative, gratuitous insult, lacking any context whatsoever. And BTW, Paul – it’s “an evangelical,” not “a evangelical.”
posted November 1, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Britney Spears displays poor taste in my opinion in this latest news event, but she has the right to do her thing.
posted November 1, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I wonder if Ms. Spears will continue to dig deeper until she buries herself, or if she will get some tips and pointers from those who have already traveled down that road and have since classed up their image. If there’s anything she needs, it’s a little class and some purpose (and not to be the raunchiest girl on the block). It’s too bad that someone so beautiful cannot see beyond her own sexuality. Hopefully she will get smart and acquire the desire to be an example for that child of hers, some day. Then again, beauty is temporary, and dumb is forever….
posted November 2, 2007 at 7:02 am
I’m beginning to think less and less about Ms. Spears (if she can be called that). The more she “digs” herself, the further in a hole she gets. I agree that the scene of her squirming her way into the “confessional” is “gratuitous,” rather than “meaningless.” I hope her handlers (managers, publicists, hangers-on, etc.), will get ahold of her and get her the psychiatric help she so desperately needs. However, they probably are NOT going to do that, since she is their “meal ticket,” and any allusion to her having a mental illness would certainly ruin her so-called “career.”
She is pushing the boundaries of civility; I admit I read about her in the “rag-mags,” and on posted blogs, but only to see what “mischief” she has herself into now. She needs to grow up, or, barring that, get advice from older people who could become her “mentors” instead of the silly people she surrounds herself with.
She COULD be the “big star” she so badly craves if only she would get help, NOW.
God bless the child…
posted November 2, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I think both Madonna and Britney Spears are pigs and a disgrace to women.
posted November 3, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I feel sorry for Britneys Mother. She is helpless and wants to help her but her daughter refuses to get help. She needs to clean up her act and be a good Mother to those boys. She will pay a heavy price for it later if she doesn’t. I only wonder why someone can’t commit her to get the help she needs. SHE NEEDS HELP!