Britney Spears and Lynne headed to the mall yesterday, where they picked up some goodies at the Gap among other stores. As usual, Brit was double-fisting her beverages, but this time only one was of the caffeinated variety. Last weekend Britney went back to blond before spending time with her sons and thanking fans for her latest nomination. She also had some new success to celebrate, which is something we're always happy to do in honor of Miss Brit.

To see more of Britney and Lynne, just read more.

Hollywood was busy with pre-Oscars buzz all week long, but some of its biggest stars were focused on projects of their own. Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin premiered Remember Me to a crowd of screaming fans that got even more wild when Kristen Stewart unexpectedly popped up on the red carpet. Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie was back in Venice working on The Tourist with Johnny Depp and spending time sightseeing with Brad Pitt and their kids, and Britney Spears surprised us all when she stepped out with fresh blond locks over the weekend! Take a look at this week's best photos!

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Britney Spears stopped by an LA salon yesterday to touch up her newly blond locks, which she's been showing off during a movie night with Sean and Jayden and a weekend shopping outing. The day wasn't just about beauty for Brit, as she also marked a special milestone: it was one year since she kicked off her Circus tour, and she sent a special tweet to thank fans for all the great memories. She also received the good news that her latest album was just nominated for International Record of the Year at Canada's upcoming Juno Awards.

There’s a new, very long interview with singer Ke$ha in UK publication The Daily Record. Ke$ha has exactly one hit song, Tik Tok, and while it’s dominated the charts for a few weeks it’s not like she has more than one single out or much of a career to speak of. I barely knew who she was until a few weeks ago and now know her as the girl who shows up at events and awards shows looking like a hot, over accessorized mess.

In Ke$ha’s interview with The Record, she sounds like she’s just so full of herself and impressed with the hard knock life she was living before Tik Tok propelled her to the top. I had to google some interviews to see if this girl is as obnoxious as she comes off as in print and she kind of is. (She looked pretty drunk and maybe high in this interview on Lopez Tonight and in this interview she talks about how she’s hoping to have fans tattoo her face on their body.)

Anyway Ke$ha calls it “bullsh*t” that Britney lip syncs her performances and calls it unfair to the fans. She also goes on at length about how broke she was before she made it big and how she had to steal clothing and food to survive. How hardcore she was! I don’t suppose she could have stuck with one of those menial jobs she complained about in order to pay the bills. This whole interview sounds like stream of consciousness crap, and here are the highlights:

On stealing to make ends meet
But her success was far from overnight. As a child, she wrote songs with her mother and Ke$ha helped out Britney Spears, Flo Rida and Miley Cyrus with songwriting and vocal duties before making it in her own right.
She said: “I was homeless but I would sing on demos and get waitressing jobs and check IDs at a club until they discovered I was 17.

“I had odd jobs. I was a telemarketer for two days, which meant calling people, being hung up on a lot and being yelled at. I was trying to get them to refinance loans. I hated it. I had no idea what I was doing and lasted two days.

“I was trying to make some dollars to pay the rent. There were points when I was really broke.
“The low points would be stealing food and selling clothes to make money for food. But even then, I would get the subway in LA, which is disgusting and there were homeless people exposing themselves. I’d have to turn a blind eye.

“I always found humour in everything, which I think is an important quality.
“It’s better for your soul. It helped to make it easier. If you listen to my record, you can hear that I am saying, ‘We’re broke but who cares?’ It’s not like a starving artist wallowing in self pity. I’m broke but I’m still f***ing fantastic.”

At one stage, she broke into Prince’s home in the hope that he would listen to a demo of her songs. She also threw up in Paris Hilton’s toilet after partying too hard following her backing vocal duties on the socialite’s debut album Paris.

It was at her lowest ebb that Ke$ha turned to shoplifting food and selling her clothes to get by. She said: “I’m not saying everybody should go steal stuff but I did it out of necessity because I needed to eat.
“I’d go to the dollar store. It would have been a bit of a nightmare if I had been caught and arrested. There are so many times I’ve come close to being arrested.

On Britney lipsyncing
Ke$ha insists the new wave of hot, female singers are showing the traditionally male rock scene how it should be done.

She said: “The chicks are killing it right now. I think it is cool to be part of this strong women movement, with us taking over in what has been a male-dominated society for so long.

“I think it’s cool that people are accepting my music, which is really sassy, as well as the Beyonces and Lily Allens and Gagas of the world.”

There is one exception, however. She is unimpressed by Britney Spears’s miming on her world tour.
Ke$ha, who featured on Britney’s track Lace And Leather, whispered: “I think that’s bulls***.

“I don’t think that’s fair at all for people who are going to see the show. I think if you are going to be a singer, you should sing. If you are going to be a dancer, you should dance.

“If you are going to do a combination of the two, you should make it very clear when you are singing and very clear when you are dancing. I would never do that to my fans.

“No offence to her specifically but people have asked me before to mime. I have been up at three in the morning for a television show with jet lag but I refuse to mime.

“It’s treating people as if they are too stupid to realise you are not actually singing. Sometimes it is hard to sing and dance at the same time but I would rather be off and be real and genuine about it to my fans. I don’t want to treat my fans like they are stupid.

“That is my take on my fans and life in general. My whole record is super-honest. I am really honest. When I am singing I may sound s*** sometimes but at least you’ll know I’m singing.”

[From Daily Record]

There’s more, including Ke$ha bragging about how she got pulled over by a cop who wanted her phone number, talking about how she dropped out of high school to pursue music, and how she once lived with a man she assumed was her real dad, but turned out not to be. She’s an interesting person, but her personality just rubs me the wrong way. I’m kind of hoping she’s a flash in the pan and that she won’t be all over the place soon like Lady Gaga. Tik Tok is probably a one hit wonder.

Also, I’ve heard Tik Tok and it sounds like Ke$ha relies heavily on auto-tune and computers to make that little throwaway dance track. (Hat tip to a commentor on the Record for mentioning this.) Why then is she ragging on Britney for lip syncing?

Photo credit: WENN.com

Britney Spears and her mother Lynne brought Sean Preston and Jayden James, who wore their Spider-man costumes, out for a movie night in LA yesterday. The boys got a lift in and out of the theater, with Lynne and Britney alternating the duty with their security guards. Britney's still showing off her freshly lightened hair, which she dyed blond over the weekend. Britney had something else to celebrate besides a new hairstyle: she was recently ranked fifth on Billboard magazine's list of 2009's top musical moneymakers after earning $38 million.

To see more Britney and her boys, just read more.