Here are a couple pics of Britney Spears with her father Jamie Spears and various members of her security detail as they made their way into the Big Tent at the Big Apple Circus in Lincoln Center here in NYC late yesterday afternoon:

I understand that Britney was on site last night for quite a few hours putting the finishing touches on her big Good Morning America performance that took place earlier today. After seeing all of the elements that went into this performance, it makes sense that she would want to spend as much time rehearsing as possible.

Later on last night, Britney’s estranged parents — Jamie & Lynne Spears — stepped out together to grab a bite to eat together … alone:

While I’m pretty certain that no hanky-panky exists between this happily divorced couple, I’m glad to see that they are able to remain friendly with one another even after all that has happened between them. I’m sure they are both very happy, very relieved that their daughter is out of harm’s way and is making a true return to form. Who knows, mebbe there will — one day — be a reconciliation between these two … I’m not holding my breath but seeing them enjoy alone time together is a very nice sight indeed.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Lynne Spears is talkin’ to the press again this week and in a new interview with the UK program Good Morning Television on ITV talks at length about her daughter Britney Spears and some of the trials and tribulations the girl has suffered, only to break thru and emerge happy and healthy once again. Case in point, Britney is set to perform at the Bambi Awards in Germany tonight before she takes her performance promo tour to France (where she will perform on Star Academy), England (where she will perform on X-Factor and reportedly at G-A-Y nightclub) and then New York City (where she will perform on Good Morning America) … then she’s got a documentary, an album, a new music video AND tour to come. Here is a promo pic that was snapped on the set of Brit’s new music video Circus and some excerpts of Lynne’s interview with GMTV:

Lynne Spears certainly has plenty to be thankful for. In the past year, she has watched her famous daughter Britney crawl back from the brink. Just how did the 27-year-old singer rebound from her pair of forced hospitalizations and a long string of erratic behavior, including her quickly annulled Vegas wedding in 2004 and her infamous head-shaving in 2007? “With a lot of love and care and help,” Lynne said Thursday, speaking to the U.K.’s GMTV via satellite from New Orleans. “Sometimes you have to just settle down. You have to stop, think. And there’s a lot of people that care about Britney and love Britney – and Britney’s doing great now.” And while the singer still hasn’t regained custody of her two sons, Lynne had nothing but praise for her daughter’s parenting skills. “Oh she’s a wonderful mother – she’s funny, she’s extremely affectionate,” said the Spears matriarch, who was promoting her memoir, Through the Storm. “[At] home, where there’s nobody around, she’s very normal.” Britney – fresh off the success of her first single, “Womanizer” – is currently in Europe promoting her new album, Circus. And she’s scheduled to go on a worldwide concert tour next year. “I think Britney’s just ready to get started again,” said her mom. “I think this is when she’s most in her element.”

Ready or not (and I sincerely hope she’s ready), here she comes. It all gets underway tonight … Britney will take to the stage at the Bambi Awards for her first live performance since the 2007 MTV VMAs and will set in motion a musical comeback that will (hopefully) set the world on fire and allow her to soar to the heights of success and fame that she once enjoyed back in the day. This week will be a crazy whirlwind for our dear Britney … her schedule is jam-packed with appearances and performances — and we’re about to see if she can pull it off. My heart and my gut tell me that she can, I just hope they’re right. It’s on now, bitches. Can she really do it this time?

[Source, Source]

Woot! Britney Spears, along with her father and conservator Jamie Spears, packed up her sons Sean Preston and Jayden James and made their way back home to Kentwood, Louisiana to spend a little time with her mother and family there. As y’all may recall, Britney “surprised” the crowd at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night when she showed up on stage to do a little performance/cameo with Madonna … but it was early Friday when she and the crew boarded a plane bound for Kentwood. This trip marks the first time she’s been able to take the children out of the State of California since losing physical custody to ex-hubby Kevin Federline … it is also the first trip to the Spears family manse named Serenity in Kentwood, LA for Jayden James ever:

It’s time for a very special Spears family get-together as OK! has learned exclusively that pop star Britney Spears, along with her father — and her two young sons! — left L.A. on Friday morning to make an early holiday pilgramage to her Louisiana home. Around 10:30am PT on Friday, the pop star and her young boys, Sean Preston, 3, and 2-year-old Jayden James, boarded a private plane at an airport in Van Nuys, Calif., where they flew with the pop star’s papa, Jamie Spears, to Kentwood, La. This trip marks not only the first time that young Jayden will get to see Serenity, the family home in Kentwood, but also the first time since ex-husband Kevin Federline was awarded physical custody of the boys that Britney has been able to take them out of the state. Insiders tell OK! that the reason for the trip is twofold. First, so that Britney can have some quiet family time away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood before the release of her new album, Circus, on her 27th birthday (Dec. 2). And the second reason for the family getaway is so Sean and Jayden get the chance to spend more time their cousin Maddie, the baby daughter of Jamie Lynn Spears and Casey Aldridge.

Awww … this is so great. You can see that Britney’s mother Lynne Spears and her older brother Bryan Spears came out to the airport to meet her, her father and her boys. The only ones missing from this cute family reunion were Jamie Lynn Spears and her unmarried babydaddy Casey Aldridge. I wonder how long Brit plans to stay in Louisiana … for just the weekend, thru Thanksgiving? However long she stays, I hope she has an amazing time at home with her entire family. She’s been working real hard this year and has made such remarkable strides in her recovery … I think she really deserves to enjoy as much downtime as she can muster. Good for her!!

[Photo credit: INFdaily; Source]

Britney Spears, who is surely happy that her new single Womanizer is the #1 song this week on Billboard magazine’s Hot 100 chart, tried to pull one over on the paps yesterday when she tried to sneak off to meet up with her mother Lynne Spears. A decoy vehicle was sent on its way in order to try and lure the paparazzi away from following the car delivering her to a nail salon where she was meeting her mother for an afternoon of pampering. The paps got wise to Britney’s scheme when they noticed that her bodyguards were following her secret vehicle rather than the decoy vehicle. In any event, Britney showed up to meet with her mother and the ladies shared a laugh or two as they had their nails scrubbed, buffed and polished:

It is really a great sight to see Britney look this happy again. I have really missed her loud, boisterous laugh that has been long absent from daily sightings of our dear Britney. Things were far from a laughing matter last year when the world watched our girl spiral downward into a pit of despair and tragedy. Seeing her look this happy once again … I’m telling you, I’ll never tire of championing her recovery. Never. I am very much looking forward to more happy times with our dear Britney. More music is surely on the way, a new World Tour is promised for next year … the sky is the limit again. Britney absolutely has cause to laugh and celebrate these days. Enjoy it, Brit … the best is yet to come :)

[Photo credit: X17]

Mama Lynne Spears is opening up to Newsweek magazine about the unfair treatment that her family received, and her daughter Jamie Lynn Spears in particular, after news came out that JL got pregs at 16 as opposed to the treatment that the Palin family received when news broke about Bristol Palin’s teenage pregnancy. Lynne calls foul that the Palins were “celebrated” by being forthcoming with their news (well, mebbe not totally forthcoming at the start … they were forced to admit the pregnancy after political blogs started putting the pieces of the story together) while Spears was “crucified” for her admission. Here is a portion of Mama Lynne’s interview with Newsweek magazine:

Lynne Spears says the public had a “totally different reaction” to the teen pregnancies of her daughter Jamie Lynn and Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol. “It’s as if [Sarah Palin] became celebrated,” Lynne told Newsweek. “I mean, the mother, Palin, was celebrated for this. Every woman in the world has applauded her strength and her convictions and poor little old Jamie Lynn, you saw how she was crucified – everybody did, firsthand,” Lynne said. “I just feel like it’s been a very hypocritical situation.” In December, Jamie Lynn, the star of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 was 16 when she announced her pregnancy. She gave birth to daughter Maddie in June at the age of 17. In August, Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, revealed that her 17-year-old daughter is expecting and engaged. “Do I promote teen sex? Of course not,” Lynne told Newsweek. “Do I promote teen pregnancy? Needless to say, of course not. But when it happens, you deal with it and you do the best you can do. Jamie Lynn has done beautifully with what she’s done,” Lynne said. “Could every other teenager do what Jamie Lynn has done?” asked Lynne. “No indeed.” Lynne also rebutted criticism that Jamie Lynn glamorized teen pregnancy. “We don’t want this said, ’cause this would be glamorizing, but I will tell you a secret: her baby does sleep all night,” Lynne explained. “What do you think about those apples? Maddie is the best baby I have ever seen,” Lynne added. “She is like a little angel. She’s so contented. She laughs and she coos and ahead of herself with her stages. But of course we can’t tell that because then we would just glamorize it more.” Lynne, the author of a tell-all memoir titled Through the Storm, told Newsweek that she “really can’t give advice” to the Palin family. “Everybody’s situation is different,” she said. “I would never tell anybody else what to do with their child. I would never attempt to make them think I knew more about their child. Even if they were to ask, I would tell them dig deep, what do you think?”

You know, I noticed this same sort of thing myself … while I don’t consider both situations absolutely identical, I can absolutely sympathize with Lynne’s contention that her family was treated more unfairly. I, personally, was very surprised at how applauded the Palin family was by their own conservative political party. It has been my estimation that social conservatives are the ones to start throwing stones first whenever a public figure suffers a very public human fault like this … and yet the Palins were celebrated for their “strength”. The Spears family, tho, were vilified and horribly criticized in comparison. I see her point and I think she has a valid one. Do y’all think that there was a disparity in fair treatment between the similar family situations? If so, is it justified?

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Mama Lynne Spears released her new memoir Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World yesterday (I already have my copy, I’m already a few chapters in) and this morning gave her first morning television interview to Meredith Vieira on The Today Show on NBC to promote the book. Here are a few screencaps from Mama Lynne’s appearance and some portions of her interview with Meredith:

Lynne Spears, whose daughters Britney and Jamie Lynn found both fame and infamy in a dizzyingly short amount of time, said her new book is an attempt to set the record straight. “I think there was the tabloid version of our lives,” she told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira in an exclusive interview Wednesday. “I wanted people to see our family as we really are.” Spears had begun the book, “Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World,” five years ago as a collection of poems and memories. But when controversy and scandal erupted first around Britney and then around Jamie Lynn, she decided she needed to tell the story the way it really happened to real people. “I have sat for hours thinking and thinking about everything that’s happened,” Spears, 53, explained. “It’s been a whirlwind. It’s been a wild ride for everybody.” Spears came to the conclusion that it was the mixture of Britney’s superstar celebrity status and the 24/7 coverage of the paparazzi, 17 of whom were assigned full-time to chronicle her every move, that spawned the “storm” in her title … The first hint of that ugly side came in 1999 when Britney, then just 17, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine as a precocious woman-child dressed in little more than her underwear, hugging a stuffed toy and holding a telephone to her ear. The photos raised eyebrows. Spears said the family was simply overwhelmed. “The Rolling Stone interview, we were so in awe. She’s just beginning. She’s just coming on the scene. We didn’t really know what we were doing. “We were in shock at what was going on, and we were in awe. We didn’t have any choice in the pictures. We had no one that could tell us what we were supposed to be doing.” Lynne was having her own problems. She and Jamie Spears filed for bankruptcy in 1998. Jamie was an alcoholic, and the couple eventually divorced. Finally, Britney’s life started to fall apart. “It was so crazy at that time. I don’t think anybody was trying to sit and think what was going on,” Spears said of the darkest time, when Britney was committed to a hospital for psychiatric problems and Jamie Lynn was 16 and pregnant. “We were praying very hard, because it seemed like we were having no control over anything that was happening. We were trying.”

As I said, I’ve already read the first 6 chapters of the book (it’s a thin book, btw) and Lynne has already talked about her late sister Sandra, her marital problems with her then-husband Jamie Spears (ie. his drinking problem), that fatal accident where she killed a 12-year old boy and how her eldest child Bryan almost died — twice. I gotta say … the book is fascinating. I don’t expect to read any “dirt” on the Spears family in this book … in her prologue, Lynne warns off potential readers that her book will not dish on her famous daughters … but I am interested to hear Lynne’s side of the story that we think we know so well. Already she has painted a portrait of a family caught up in a whirlwind of fame — granted, it’s a whirlwind they happily and diligently pursued. I’m very interested to read her whole story.

After the jump, check out Mama Lynne’s entire interview with Meredith Vieria on The Today Show this morning and hear from the lady herself …

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Here are a few more pictures from this weekend’s birthday celebration that was thrown for Britney Spears’s sons Sean Preston and Jayden James. On Sunday, we got to see a few pics of the party from a far-off vantage point. Yesterday, we got to see a few close-up pics of Mama Lynne Spears posing with her newest grandbaby Maddie Brianne. Today we get a whole slew of photos of almost the entire Spears clan (only big brother Bryan Spears is missing) happily enjoying quality time with one another … I must admit, these pics damn near bring a tear to my eye:

POP star BRITNEY SPEARS looks to have put her troubles behind her as she relaxes with the whole family at a bash to celebrate her two sons’ birthdays. The Toxic singer’s eldest boy SEAN PRESTON turned three on Sunday, while JAYDEN JAMES celebrated his second birthday two days earlier. Britney, mum LYNNE, dad JAMIE, sister JAMIE LYNN and the teen’s newborn daughter MADDIE watched Sean and his brother driving their presents of electric cars at the star’s Los Angeles home … After reclaiming her gorgeous figure in the gym, she’s now gearing up to release her comeback album Circus in December. The collection, which is issued on her 27th birthday, features songs penned by some of the planet’s mightiest hit-makers. DR. LUKE, DANJA, MAX MARTIN, BLOODSHY & AVANT and GUY SIGSWORTH, who between them have composed chart-toppers for the likes of KATY PERRY, PINK, KYLIE MINOGUE and MADONNA, have all contributed tracks … Looks like it could be a very merry Christmas in the Spears household this year.

I know I say this all the time but I’m gonna keep on saying it … I am SO THRILLED at how much healing has taken place in the Spears family. They’ve all struggled thru a long, tough road over the past few years. They weren’t always unified but I have always contended that they have always loved and supported one another. After the jump, check out a bunch of really sweet photos of the Spears family enjoying one another’s company …

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