After a whirlwind promo tour of Europe last week/weekend, Britney Spears brought her Circus show to NYC for a couple of live performances on ABC’s Good Morning America this morning. David and I got our asses up bright and early to make our way to Lincoln Center to watch our dear Britney perform live (and I’ll have some of my pics to share later on today) and were on hand to watch the spectacle unfold right before our eyes. Britney’s GMA appearance wasn’t only a birthday celebration … it was also the official launch party for her new album Circus which is in stores TODAY as well as the venue to officially announce the tourdates for her upcoming The Circus starring Britney Spears Tour which will kick off in New Orleans, LA next March. Yeah, there was a lot going on this morning … here are a few pics of Britney’s two performances this morning and some deets about the event overall:

Britney Spears celebrated her 27th birthday Tuesday under the Big Top and before the TV cameras of Good Morning America. Dressed as a ringmaster, Spears made her entrance atop a circus wagon – accompanied by clowns, jugglers and performers dressed as circus animals. For her second number, “Womanizer,” Spears smashed through a fiery hoop. Afterwards, she announced that her concert tour would begin in New Orleans March 3. Then came the cake. The appearance, inside the Big Apple Circus tent within New York’s Lincoln Center, also marked the launch of Spears’s sixth studio album, Circus – her first CD since her 2007 comeback step, Blackout. As Spears announces on the title track (and delivered on GMA), “There are only two types of people in the world, the ones that entertain and the ones that observe.” GMA’s Robin Roberts called Spears’s appearance “our concert event of the year.” Claimed cohost Diane Sawyer about those gathered inside the circus tent, “There are about a gazillion people [here].” Among them: the pop star’s mother, Lynne Spears, and Britney’s two young sons, Preston and Jayden. Interspersed with the promos for Spears’s performance during Tuesday’s GMA were birthday greetings from the likes of Reese Witherspoon, John Travolta, Nicollette Sheridan, Teri Hatcher and PEOPLE’s newly named Sexiest Man Alive, Hugh Jackman – who sang “Happy Birthday” and blew her a kiss. “You look great,” Witherspoon relayed to Spears, “and I hope you have a great day.” Added Taylor Swift: “You have been officially awesome for 27 years.” On Sunday, Spears’s MTV special, Britney: For the Record, which documented some of her personal problems of the past year, was watched by more than 3.7 million viewers, according to the cable music network. Those are high numbers for MTV.

Seriously, this morning’s performances were truly a sight to see. The spectacle was totally worth getting up and out so early for. The production value, which I don’t think translated quite as well on live TV, was phenomenal. I am very much looking forward to seeing what sorts of tricks Britney’s got up her sleeves for her upcoming tour. Wade Robson, who is reportedly directing Britney’s new concert tour, was in the hiz this morning going over last minute touches right before she performed. It was all just very exciting to see her back in action. The crowd was just raucous the entire time … it was a blast. After the jump, check out video of Britney’s performances of Circus and Womanizer …

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ABC has announced that Britney Spears will be performing LIVE on Good Morning America on December 2 — which is not only her birthday but also the release date for her new album Circus. Britney even filmed a short promo video for the announcement:

Britney’s GMA performance will take place in Bryant Park in NYC … it has yet to be determined if she will also be doing an interview. My guess is that she will sit down for a little chat to promote the release of her new disc but a performance or two would be just as amazing. And the Britney Spears Comeback Tour begins to start adding live dates … Love it!

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Jessica Simpson has been making the rounds on all the early morning TV shows this week and yesterday she paid a visit to Good Morning America to perform a track off her new album. Altho Jess had to stop her performance on live TV because she couldn’t hear anything in her earpiece, she managed to get thru the rest of the song with her usual … gusto. Here are pics of Jess showing off her trademark fug faces as she performed on GMA yesterday morning:

Jessica Simpson tripped up a rocky performance on live television Tuesday, the day of her latest album release. “Hold on, I know this is live TV but I can’t hear anything,” she said as she starting singing her quadruple platinum hit “With You” on Good Morning America. The music stopped, the crowd in Times Square went silent and then she counted down for her musicians to start again. “You got it?” she asked. “There you go!”

You know, I cannot hate on the girl for giving her all in every live performance that she does … but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the ridiculous faces that she makes when she’s belting out her songs on stage. I’m sorry, it’s not a pretty picture. I did catch this particular performance, tho, and I think she sounded great. Country Music is a good fit for her … hopefully it’ll allow her to enjoy more success than Pop Music did.

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New mom Jennifer Lopez made an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America (which taped her segment in NYC’s Central Park) this AM in order to engage in a little physical fitness on national TV. J. Lo revealed that she is currently in training to participate in a triathalon to raise money for charity. Here are a few pics of La Diva Latina doing her thang on GMA this morning:

New mom and Self’s Most Inspiring Woman of 2008 Jennifer Lopez was on Good Morning America today talking twins and triathlon training. About her triathlon plans, she had this to say: “It actually came up when I was about 8 months pregnant and I was beached like a whale. I was watching TV and I saw a triathlon and I said, ‘You know what? I think I could do that, that would be great for me to do. Maybe I’ll do it this year.’” And seven months later, she’s ready to swim, bike and run in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon this Sept. 14—for charity, of course. Now on to the stuff we really care about—babies! She says her 6-month-old twins, Emme and Max, are already sleeping through the night and that so far, she and Marc have been doing the baby raising all on their own without any nannies. Sounds suspicious to us—we can’t imagine J.Lo changing any diapers, but that’s probably what Marc is for.

Click HERE to watch J. Lo’s GMA vid online now. And speaking of J. Lo being named the Most Inspiring Woman of 2008, Self magazine decided to put Ms. Inspirational on the cover and in the pages of their new issue. And, get this, she’s even blogging about her triathlon training for the magazine. After the jump, check out J. Lo’s Self magazine cover and find out more about her new blog …

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Thomas Beatie, known the world over as the formerly “pregnant man”, and his wife Nancy show off the first pics of their newborn baby girl Susan Juliette in this week’s issue of People magazine. Good Morning America ran a short piece on the photos this morning detailing portions of the baby’s birth and providing deets on the home life of the new family:

It’s been three weeks since his blue-eyed baby debuted in this world, but Thomas Beatie – better known around the world as the Pregnant Man – can already say this about his daughter’s personality: “She’s easygoing and mellow and intelligent.” On June 29 at 8:55 p.m., Beatie, 34, a former female beauty pageant contestant, made cultural history as perhaps the first legally transgender male to give birth, bringing into the world a 9 lbs., 5 oz. baby girl named Susan Juliette. “She’s so precious, I just can’t stop staring at her,” Thomas tells PEOPLE in his first interview since he and wife Nancy returned with their bundle from Bend, Oregon’s St. Charles Medical Center. “Just holding her is the best feeling in the world.” Susan – named after Thomas’s mother and conceived through artificial insemination with donor sperm – arrived after 40 hours of labor, with Nancy at Thomas’s side acting as his coach. “When Susan finally came out, it was like in slow motion,” says Thomas. “I was full of wonder.” Echoes Nancy: “There were tears of joy.” Both father and daughter came through the birth in perfect health. “I weigh two pounds less than I did before I got pregnant,” adds Thomas. “And I don’t have a single stretch mark!” At home, the couple is adjusting to their new nightly schedule: Nancy breastfeeding (by induced lactation, a process using hormones and physical stimulation with a breast pump) and Thomas keeping company while watching TV. Crows Thomas, “Susan is a miracle! And we’re finally the family we’ve been dreaming of.”

Here is video of GMA showing off the People magazine photos on the air earlier this morning:

Already the family is referring to baby Susan as “Daddy’s Little Princess” (for obvs reasons). While Susan was named after Thomas’s mother, her middle name Juliette was given after her mother Nancy’s middle name. Susan was born via natural vaginal childbirth and father and daughter were able to leave the hospital 4 days after the baby was born. By all accounts, everyone is happy and healthy and I couldn’t wish more for the family. It is my sincere hope that the family is able to live out their lives in peace and quiet. I’m pretty astounded by the uproar that the Beaties have generated because of all of this. Thomas Beatie told Oprah Winfrey that it isn’t a woman or man’s desire to have children, it’s a human desire … and I couldn’t agree more. Best of luck and much happiness Beaties! Congrats on your beautiful baby girl.

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In an interview that was broadcast on Good Morning America this morning, while promoting the release of her new album Breakout and her latest Hannah Montana movie, Miley Cyrus addressed (again) the controversy that ensued after she appeared in the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine exposing her bare back. Miley admitted that the photo was a “mistake” and came about as a result of “trying to get things done, and maybe look for an older audience”:

Teen pop sensation Miley Cyrus is stepping back into the spotlight, promoting her new album “Breakout” and calling the provocative photos of her published in June’s Vanity Fair magazine a “mistake.” The revealing photos caused an uproar and threatened to tarnish the 15-year-old’s squeaky-clean image when they were released back in April. “I think I was just in a stage where I was just trying to get things done, and maybe look for an older audience. I was working with a big magazine just trying to go with what they were saying,” Cyrus told “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts, speaking in an exclusive interview for the first time since the Vanity Fair photo shoot. Cyrus described the ensuing criticism that she faced as a “hard time,” and said she now “knows what it’s like to have people talk about you like you’re kind of iron. People need to remember that I am young and that I do have feelings, and I’ll do the same thing for them. Anyone who was 15 years old can’t say they haven’t made a mistake. So I think it’s just normal,” she said.

It’s interesting that she would bring up this issue again after it caused her so much pain and embarrassment a couple of months ago … but, when you’re promoting an album, well, I guess you do what you can to get the job done. My criticism of the whole thing wasn’t that Miley was a bad person or even that the photo was too risqué … I have a hard time with the fact that both of her parents were at the photoshoot with her (her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, even appeared in a photo with her), that they had no problem with the pose or the photo when it was shot and then immediately tried to place the blame solely on the magazine and photographer Annie Leibovitz once Miley’s conservative fanbase became outraged. And now, the Miley Cyrus promo machine has no problem trudging up the controversy for their own promotion. See, the girl may be 15 and she may make mistakes as we all do but she’s also pretty savvy for the Entertainment biz — no publicity is bad publicity. At least she finally took on the blame for the VF photo fallout … it’s convenient that she is doing so now while she’s trying to sell albums, tho.

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