The Reluctant Whore

Britney Spears performed last night at House of Blues in LA and the entire thing, according to what people are reporting it was, reeks of tired old material that has run its course. Performing her old work, the work that pertained to the constructed persona that was alive pre-meltdown is meaningless now because everyone knows she’s a confused, complicated completely flipped out little southern girl with a strange dark side.

This is sort of like the cinematic progression of Greg Araki where you could see him reconciling his disconnected, gay LA childhood by making a series of films that, as they received more funding, became better and then better and then more average and then repetitious and soulless. It took him several years to get it back together, grow up and create Mysterious Skin after he churned out the chronically tiresome personally formulaic, Splendor and thank goodness he did abandon his old style and develop because Mysterious Skin was triumphant.

Britney was apparently on stage, lip-syncing for 20 minutes and didn’t say anything to the crowd. All for the bargain basement price of $125 a ticket. In many ways you could save the money, put on a CD, thrown on a wig because let’s face it, that would also be authentic, and do the show in front of a mirror at home. Much likeTom Cruise, if the goal is some level of sincerity or honesty in work that retains meaning, the next step for Britney would really be a one woman show at the Carlyle explaining, with song interludes that bear thematic pertinence to her story, exactly what really happened from beginning to end.

Tom Cruise needs to have a meltdown like Britney. One that includes shaving his head and screaming in public but not stopping the madness at all. Really physically grinding to a deafeningly horrifying soul baring halt. Sort of like Ann Heche post break up with Ellen but on a galactic scale. THEN he sits down, no make up, no beard and writes the absolutely no holes barred story of his life and tells it beneath a stark spotlight at a gritty downtown theatre – why not BAM actually, Brooklyn is more edgy. Nothing is left out.

That. Would be interesting. And it would invigorate his integrity.

After gauging what Britney did on stage last night, it seems that she needs to do more or less the same type of thing. There are rumours of a tell all book or interview with Allure magazine which is good. The corporately constructed persona built entirely to facilitate Pepsi endorsement and latent pedophile fantasies in middle aged office workers has really run its course.[source]