These are the new photos from Britney Spears’ shoot with Mario Testino. It looks like… old-school Britney! Which is both adorable and sad, right? It’s adorable because these shots are super-cute and she looks really healthy and sweet. It’s sad because in candid shots, she looks nothing like this, and it’s also kind of sad that Britney isn’t allowed to look happy and healthy and different than she used to. She’s a mother of two, she’s been to hell and back, and why do we insist on seeing Britney photographed as a perfect little pop princess? She’s not 18 anymore. Can we see Britney as cute in a maturing way? Or will we demand that she be frozen in time?
Anyway, Britney is obviously promoting her new album, Femme Fatale. She posted one of these shots on her Twitter page with the message: “I HEART Mario Testino and V Magazine. Mag comes out tomorrow.” She also tweeted a new snippet from her song “Seal It With a Kiss”:
Britney Spears – Seal It With A Kiss (Snippet) by Britney Spears
Cute. Cuter than Kim Kardashian, in any case.
V Magazine/Testino shots courtesy of The Sun & The Mail.
I actually really like it!
She looks pretty good in those pics
It is adorable. No reason to hate here.
Her new album is going to be great. I like all the snippets and she is doing some unexpected collabs, such as Travis Barker and will.I.am. 🙂
She could look just as great in candid pictures, but she doesn’t get dressed very well and won’t even bother to comb her busted weaves, but eh… I don’t it either on the daily basis 😛
Awww Brit looks super adorable. Even if she does look sad in the candid shots, she is probably just hella tried being a mom and all and getting up early to do this shoot.
Also Seal with a kiss sounds super hawt. I am dying to hear the rest of the song. 😀
Maybe this is more about how she and her people want us to see her, to remind us of original Britney… not the bad weave, starbucks drinkin Britney.
I think these are great and it has been a long time since she looked this great in any way, any place, at any time.
that’s a lot of pastel
I like it 🙂
I like the pics…but anyone could look good with that lighting.
We’ve all seen the irl pics of britney…the make-believe-frozen-in-time britney is just less painful.
Hey, isn’t she missing a finger?
http://www.celebitchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/vmag2.jpg
She looks great & sounds great.
She looks good, not as bloated as in the recent pap shots.
she looks great!
Mario Testino is my favourite fashion photographer out there, but even he can’t really make Britney look less trashy and vapid. I like the colouring of these shots, but ugh, she just looks as ditzy as usual, and I’m being nice. The only shot I actually like in the whole bunch is the dark red one. That one’s ok.
Love it! The floaty, feminine style suits her and the lighting is fun. Not really feeling the cat pic though, it’s sort of out of place.
I think she looks great!
It’s fine except the tramp stamp shot..done to death.
love love love to her
Looks pretty! wish she would care on the daily basis but on the other hand… I’m lucky nobody’s out there to take pictures of me when I’m running to my classes having woken up ten minutes earlier ;)!
Looking good, Britney. Love the yellow cover shot best.
@Gabriela
Nah, her index is towards the camera.
She looks great. It bums me out that everyone expects her to look like she did 7 years ago. And I don’t mean in candids – Lord knows that’s a lost cause – but even in photoshoots. She’s grown, she’s gone through so much, she’s *aged*. And that without (obvious) surgery.
Her hair is well improved… can’t be that hard to do that in real life, right?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
That nasal, autotuned baby voice. Yeck. I think it’s got WORSE since she started.
Nice pics though.
Poor the Britney. She looks alright in these shots, not that they’re really easy to see her real self. She needs to bite the bullet and release a warts and all biography, EVERYTHING included, and have it written by a serious writer. There’s a real modern morality (etc.) tale there.
EDIT: that Givenchy pants/skirt thing is hideous – hello 2002.
There is no spark of life in this young woman. That’s not a criticism of Britney Spears. It’s a criticism of her handlers, who keep an obviously unwell woman working like mad.
@gabriela,
You have a busted weave like Britney? Intervention time, stat!
🙂
On a side note, can I say I missed this site so much in the last @48 hours. I had to make a quick hospital stay (BabyTarheel had a rebellious moment and tried to put in an appearance too early-all is well now), and the HOSPITAL BLOCKED CELEBITCHY!!!! Once they got the labor stuff fixed, I was just hanging there waiting on a shot for like an entire day, and couldn’t catch up on my gossip. The indignity! The horror!
aww she looks beautiful!
PrettyTarheel Take care of yourself and the babytarheel!
My first born came 5 weeks early and he is now a 5’10 16 year old young man and the only problem I have ever had with him, is his normal teenage mouth 😉
I co-sign Kaiser, seeing these pics and hearing the clip of her new song all I can think is I wish they would let her pull from the interesting well of emotion and experience that she has and GROW as an artist. Instead they want her to be a perpetual 23 yrs old…the time will come that they will have screwed themselves when
her fans who were 23 with her are truly too old for dance music and the people who young enough to be that dance music audience see her as a middle aged has-been. Get smart executors and management- give this woman a songwriter a guitar and an isolated space and let her blow! It worked for Christina Aguilera/Linda Perry…
I love Britney. I definitely stan for BritBrit. I think she looks great and I can’t wait for her album! To be honest, I really just want the girl to be happy.
It’s absolute proof that photographs lie, isn’t it. These photos are incredible and BS looks flawless. She doesn’t look flawless in person….and yes, it’s all quite sad to me too.
And can I just say one more thing? (I am a BIG Britney fan). I have her first post breakdown album- Blackout- and it rocks! Modern, good beats, her voice sounded great (for her). “Why should I be Sad” is a great song about the aftermath of a break up…and “Gimme More” was all over the place. What happened? Did somebody else start picking her producers?
its all in her sad doped up eyes.
a mere shell, a mere shell.
At least she’s not famous because someone peed on her.
The photographs are beautiful. The sad part is the fact that we all know the real Britney looks nothing like this – they’ve airbrushed her skin, photoshopper her to look skinny, and who knows how many hours they spent retouching her fake hair to make it look semi-attractive. Britney is just plain sad. The hype (“best album ever” “the bitch is back and better than ever”) is such a sad joke.
She acts like a zombie. Fake smile and empty eyes. Sad.
Gwenevere – totally agree. Its just very sad all round
I’ve got to defend Britney and her family. EVERYONE in mags gets photoshopped and photoshoots never look like real life.
With respect to her present day demeanor and look, I’m reminded of myself. I’m bipolar with treatment resistant depression. It took years to find the right meds. During that time I twice had to get a major hair cut because my hair was so tangled it had turned into dreds. A couple of times I was sent home from work to put on clean clothes. What I’m trying to say is that the healing process just takes time.
With respect to the work issue, I think that people need goals and purpose in their life. My guess is that working provides that for her as well as being an artistic outlet. I’m an attorney but while I was struggling I couldn’t manage the practice of law. I did work however and that gave me a reason to get out of bed and focus on something other than my misery.
Eventually my life did improve and I’m hoping the same happens for Britney.
I saw her in concert a couple years back on the Circus tour with a girlfriend. She actually looked miserable performing, there was no spark in her dancing. I actually reckon it was like a show-dog being put through the paces, and it was actually kind of hard to watch.
Nice in the yellow one she reminds me of Nancy Sinatra
Her eyes are always sad.
@Hannah – Much love and respect to you for sharing what must have been such a tumultuous time in your life. No adjective I select will ever represent what you went through. I’m so happy to hear that you found the right balance of meds (perhaps Britney is still seeking that balance).
Thank you for sharing your story and reminding us that as rich as she is, Brit is trying to find her way. I find it sad to hear other readers who described seeing her in concert where she performed as though she was miserable. That makes me so sad for Brit but in your personal story, we see that it is possible to come out of it better at the end.
Best of luck to you, Hannah!
they should have just made a painting it would have been more realistic.
she looks nothing like this. any un-airbrushed paparazzi shot you can see she has horrible skin, wrinkles, just looks terrible. it’s sad, she has aged terribly.
Who knows the truth, but just from reading Britney’s tweet it sounds like she / PR team like and want her image to be frozen in time, and maybe that’s because she can’t make music that isn’t dance / club? I don’t know how else they can sell her music if she’s not “Forever 18.” I wish Britney well but she cannot sing. 🙂 And for me to say this is pretty drastic since I grew up listening to KYLIE MINOGUE and thinking that she was a good singer and had good songs! 😀
She should do some consulting with Cher, when i was 18 (1997) she came up with Believe and Strong Enough and we spring-chicks LOVED these songs at the club, even though Cher was obviously up in age, but the woman pulled that one perfectly wihtout trying to look teen-ish, baby faced or baby voiced. Well, then again we are talking about Cher…
It’s no surprise she looks miserable in candids. Have you seen wide shots of the paparazzi hounding her? I know she’s lived her whole life to be famous, but I don’t think she deserves what they’ve done to her. I wonder if she knew it’d be this bad she’d have thought twice about her choices.
@ KS Girl 23: Ha! I love the Givenchy pants/skirt in the maroon picture. I want it, and I want it now 🙂
@ Hannah: Thankyou for sharing your story. I think that you posted on a thread last year about how workouts, goals and routines are vital for the progress of a depressed person. But I’m not yet at a point wherein running out of milk and needing to leave my house to buy more doesn’t upset me. Still, knowing you were able to get to your law office eveyday, I’m looking up to you with great respect!
I find the shoot sad. Britney may as well be a CGI here. That personality shown in this shoot doesn’t seem to exist anymore. I wonder how she was able to smile like old times?
I’m with Kaiser on this one. It’s sad really how she’s trapped in a static time/image warp.
Jeez they photoshopped her to an inch of her life. She looks about 16. Second we don’t demand she look like anything… she wants to pretend she is still 16. That’s all on her …
It seems sad to me. Everyone knows how she looks every day, and she has her reasons. All I can think of is how much work they had to do on her to make her look like she lives in the past at 18-years-old. The pictures are well-done, she looks good for a couple of hours, and it’s business-as-usual the next day. Wish it were otherwise.
They gave her the Myspace photo treatment- flattering lighting, contrast turned all the way up to hide any blemishes, specific poses to make her appear thinner than she is, then cover the whole damn thing in color. The photos look great, but they look nothing like her.
@jemshoes: Co-sign 100%- even the Kylie stuff! 😆 Thank god we grew up and realised the error of our ways 😆 😉
I love that bottom picture. Striking.
Sad.
She looks happy. Good for her!
Im a huge fan of mario testino, but I dont know if he doesn’t get enough artistic freedom or what, he is loosing his edge. A lot of his last major campaigns are pretty bland. This one included. A lot of the poses are done (by him) a million times.
pd: by the way, I love the new britney song
They’re making her look generic, knowing that bland sells.
Great Mario! He made this cheap hasbeen cheerleader look fresh, younger and classy. A lot of seventies flavour.
What I love about the work of Mario Testino is his portraits of the inner self of celebrities. Like it or not, Britney’s inner world might really be about pastels, feathers and laces. It’s not that just because one is a mother that she needs to behave differently from who she is. Kudos to her for keeping her inner world unscathed.
Hannah and Katscorp: My hats are off to you ladies and thank you for sharing your struggles. Hannah, I hate to armchair diagnose Britney, but the description of your struggle with recalcitrant depression along with the neglect to your hair and clothes that resulted, seems to fit with what we see of Britney. I am glad you are better now.
Katscorp – I’ve been where you are. Have you heard of Claire Weeks? Her books (along with treatment) were immensely helpful to me. ‘Hope and Help for Your Nerves’ was a God send.
Brit looks perfect!!!!!!!!!!!
she looks perfect but not like herself.
Not sure I understand the headline — why would this be considered “sad”? She is a world famous music artist doing a promotional photo shoot. Nothing sad about it and what a dumb choice of words.
pics are ok but the new song it’s
blah
Gabriela, I see what you mean but I think she’s pointing in that picture and so her index finger is sort of…blending… with the rest of her hand…if that makes sense. Good eye though!
@Crash2Go2: Thankyou for the suggestion. I’ve just searched for Dr Weekes’ books on in the public library stock. There’s a couple that look interesting. I’ll request them 🙂
Her music was so much better from Blackout than that weird pedophile “I’m your 19 year old white Slave 4 U” junk. Or that pedophile “I’m not that innocent” junk.
I’d like to see her grow up. Like Janet Jackson. Mature, great dance music from a woman who performs. WTF is wrong with that image? Nothing. Grow up Brit, like the music someone writes for you. And let your PR peeps and the photogs catch up already. It’s been a decade, people.
She’s one of the only people who needs to copy what Madonna did (change it up) who doesn’t. I saw she revisited the wedding dress in her new vid. Mind-numbingly vapid and recycled.