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Originally posted by silvisy

A new book called Tears, tantrums and tequila: Britney's toxic 'comeback'

Her shambolic MTV Awards performance two years ago is the stuff of pop legend. A new book reveals the extent of the backstage chaos that fateful night, writes Declan Cashin

It was meant to be the night of Britney Spears' big comeback following her spate of public breakdowns and humiliations. Instead, her shambolic appearance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards almost buried the troubled pop princess' career once and for all.

Now a new book on the 28-year-old singer's extraordinary life has unearthed the gritty details and pieced together the backstage story about that fateful night when Britney, addled by too many tequila shots and a distracting visit from the one-time love of her life, truly fell apart.

Coming just months after her release from the Promises rehab facility in Malibu, and amidst an increasingly nasty custody battle with her soon-to-be ex-husband Kevin Federline, Britney's emotional state was already fraught enough without the added pressure of having to perform at one of showbiz's premiere events in an attempt to resurrect a flagging career.

But Britney's label, Jive Records, and her newly appointed talent managers, The Firm, were determined that the singer blitz the show to support her new album, Blackout, which was attracting strong reviews on the back of its signature track 'Gimme More'.

Her team were confident that the performer of old would turn up to pull off the comeback, but MTV executives weren't convinced. They insisted that Britney start rehearsing a full five weeks before the VMA show was due to air on September 9 from the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas.

Reluctantly, Britney went along with the station's demands. In order to make sure that she was focussed and working hard during rehearsals, MTV refused to pay her fee upfront as had happened in the past, but rather released the cash in staggered payments.

With two weeks to go, Britney had, by all accounts, mastered the routine to 'Gimme More'. She was synced with her dancers, laughing and joking with them during their work-outs and run-throughs.

A star stylist, Trish Somerville, was drafted in to design a tasteful, classy one-piece outfit for the night, while Ken Paves, dubbed "the hottest hairdresser in Hollywood", was brought on board to craft extensions to disguise her short hair, which was still only growing back since she had famously shaved it all off in an LA barber's shop earlier in the year.

Three days before the VMAs, Britney and her entourage arrived in Vegas, and checked into her suite in the Palms.

She rehearsed that morning on stage and, while her performance wasn't as strong as it had been during the earlier rehearsal period, everyone still believed Britney was on track.

The night before the show, Britney was expected to attend a pre-award party at the Hard Rock Hotel and then get an early night. Instead, she hit the club scene with her assistant Alli Sims, partying with P Diddy and producer Dallas Austin.

By 4am, Britney was still up and partying, with one source revealing that it was obvious she "had been drinking like a fish that night". Diddy had advised her to call it a night at 2am, but she refused.

The next morning, a hungover Britney slept in until noon. MTV producers were frantically calling Britney's management with their concerns about her state, but the show's head honchos were told: "She's practised the routine so many times she could do it with her eyes closed."

Ensconced in her dressing room, with just hours to go, Britney was growing anxious. She banned everyone but her assistant Sims from coming near her. She then started drinking shots of tequila -- lots of them by all accounts -- to calm her nerves.

Then, her ex-boyfriend, and childhood sweetheart, Justin Timberlake popped by to wish her good luck. "That definitely wigged her out more," a backstage source says.

Some 90 minutes before going live, hairstylist Paves arrived with the star's blonde extensions, but found he was now on Britney's blacklist. "I don't like him, I want his assistant," Britney is said to have cried, and then had her bodyguard remove Paves from the dressing room.

At this stage, MTV suits, and her own management, forced their way into Britney's dressing room and tried to reason with her. She subsequently agreed to let Paves do her hair, but the stylist was highly insulted and refused to come back down to help.

MTV stagehands had to rush to the hotel salon to find replacement extensions, and recruit Nelly Furtado's hairstylist. With that crisis averted, it was time to get Britney dressed in her Trish Somerville ensemble.

Again, the temperamental star locked herself away with just her assistant Sims. With 10 minutes to go, stagehands and management were banging on the door trying to gain entry. Finally, some seven minutes before she was due on stage as the opening act, Britney opened the door to horrified cries of "What the ******?"

She wasn't wearing the Somerville outfit, but instead was decked out in a black bra, black hot pants and fishnets, displaying an unsightly paunch, with the hotel's cheap hair extensions hanging uncomfortably from her head. Her reps begged her to hurry back in and change into the pre-arranged costume.

However, right at that moment, an MTV assistant appeared, screaming, "It's too late, it's too ******ing late! We've got to get her on stage!", and Britney was promptly frogmarched upstairs and put into position with her dancers.

"It all hinged on her hitting the first line we'd rehearsed to a tee: look down the camera on a close-up and lip-sync, 'It's Britney, bitch!'" an inside source says in the book. "If she could hold that line, and get through, we'd won. But the music started, she stood there and stared at the camera without moving her lips. She missed it completely. At that moment, before she'd moved a muscle, we knew it was over."

The catatonic, listless performance that ensued is a YouTube legend now, but straight after leaving the stage, Britney was in tears, demanding to be shown a video of the act. She then dashed into a closed hotel restaurant, all the while furiously texting on her phone. She slumped against a stone wall, and stayed there crying for 45 minutes. Britney fled Vegas that night.

As we now know, Britney was to have a further meltdown, leading to her hospitalisation and being put into the conservatorship of her controlling father Jamie. Since then Britney has undid a lot of the damage with her Circus world tour (which hit the O2 Arena here in Dublin last month).

Be that as it may, as fans and critics alike acknowledge, Britney may have regained her moves since that disastrous VMA show two years ago, but it still remains to be seen whether she'll ever truly get her groove back.
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