Britney Concert Goes Up in Smoke

The latest stop on Britney Spears' Circus tour featured a little too much smoke and not enough mirrors.

The pop star has issued an apology to ticket holders of last night's Vancouver show after smoky conditions on stage led to a 30-minute delay of the concert—a delay that came just three songs in after Spears walked off stage without explanation, leaving the crowd to sit (and boo) in the dark arena.

"The building is awfully smoky," an announcer finally explained to the sold-out crowd, per the Vancouver Sun. "It's become uncomfortable and unsafe for the performers, including Ms. Spears.

"Please extinguish all cigarettes…The show will resume as soon as the air around the stage is clear."

A spokesman for Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment, which owns GM Place, the Vancouver venue where the concert was held, said that despite initial reports claiming the smoky air was a byproduct of toking-up concertgoers, the smoke was believed to be from cigarettes, not marijuana.

(The rep did not comment on why anything was being lit up in the first place, given as smoking indoors is illegal there.)

"We want to apologize to all the fans who attended our Vancouver show tonight for the brief pause in Britney's set," reads a statement on Spears' blog. "Crew members above the stage became ill due to a ventilation issue."

Britney In Tears

After her breakdown and hospitalization last January, Britney Spears has - with the help of her father Jamie - turned herself around in all aspects of her life. She's revived her career, her body is back in shape and although she's not regained custody of her children, she has had more visitation with them. But pals close to the superstar are worried that Britney is pushing herself too hard and could be on the brink of another collapse mentally.

According to In Touch, Britney was recently in tears and upset about struggling to regain her superstar status. The climb back to the top is not easy especially after a very public breakdown.

An insider said, "Britney is not fully recovered from her breakdown - she's definitely nervous that she isn't strong enough yet to handle the pressure of a tour and comeback. Britney is very emotional, very vulnerable and is still battling the mixed emotions and confusion that come with intense therapy."

Last week lawyers in Spears' conservatopship case asked that the court commissioner make it permanent. And the request was granted. The conservatorship was scheduled to end on December 31 but keeping it in place will make it easier for Britney to eventually regain custody of her sons. And with the conservatorship remaining in place, it also allows Spears to get more visitation with her boys - the courts see it as a "safety net." It also provides the singer with others handling her business and career affairs, which quite frankly, I don't think Britney would be capable of doing. It's probably the best for her.

Britney has made lots of progress but she's got to take it slow or she'll end up having another meltdown. Hopefully she's not being pushed to far to "get back to the top."

She's set to tour in 2009.

Britney Spears Trial Dies Of Boredom

Britney Spears hit-n-run trial has ended in a mistrial. Should come as no surprise to her fans who stood by her side the whole time. I'm sure this will be talked about for quite some time. Now we'll just have to see if Ms. Spears can keep herself out of trouble this time around.

Yesterday, after the jurors took twice as long as the length of the trial itself to decide that they didn’t know if Britney Spears was guilty of hit and run or not, the judge officially called a mistrial. What’s more, nobody can be bothered to go through a retrial, so Britney Spears is in the clear. Don’t get us wrong - everyone wanted a retrial, but they had more urgent things to do, like repeatedly bashing their head on a desk and weeping.

If the OJ Simpson murder trial was the trial of the century, then that must make the Britney Spears hit and run trial the trial of possibly some of yesterday. Dealing with the heinous crime of slowly dinging another car and walking away, the Britney Spears hit and run trial literally monopolised the attention of a handful of people with nothing better to do.

There were thrills - like when Britney Spears’ father told the court that Britney didn’t need a California driver’s license because she didn’t live in California. There were spills - like when the prosecution told Britney’s dad that she did too live in California and that Britney’s dad was a big fat poostick .

And, most importantly, there were ills - like when the jury couldn’t work out if Britney Spears was guilty or not even though they’d spent three entire days arguing over something of such little importance that, at worst, Britney Spears would have had to pay a fine equivalent to what she earns in about 10 minutes.

As pointless as this entire exercise has been, at least everyone can get on with their lives now - Britney Spears can continue her resurgent pop career, the court can return to doing things that are actually important and the jurors can now all go and write their obligatory trial memoirs, titles of which will include I’m An Idiot, Indecisive Twit and The First Time I Wrote This Book I Was Just Hammering My Fingers On An Upside-Down Biscuit Tin Because I Thought It Was A Typewriter.

The main point, though, is that Britney Spears gets away without a criminal record. Her character is completely unblemished - you know, apart from all those rehab stints and public meltdowns and battles with mental illness and repeated examples of her bad motherhood and bald head and everything. Apart from those, Britney’s a saint.