We want it to be a place where ANYONE who knows enough and cares enough about Britney to write about her in detail can submit their work. We intend BRITNEYOLOGY to become an extensive resource where those who are interested in Britney can quickly find reviews and special features or stay a while, browse, exchange opinions on the forum, and read more about her life, career, personality, talent and work.

This is an important week for the site because it sees the launch of our Guest Contributions Section. As you will see, it brings a whole new flavor to the site, extends our content and style, and allows some fine Britney writers to have their say. To access their articles, you just have to click on the Menu Bar above.

Once the new section is well and truly launched and advertised, the Guest Contributions will appear on the homepage in the "most recent articles" area. Which is THIS area!

Look out! There are going to be quite a few appearing here this coming week!

Actually, she reckons there's a hundred ways to avoid publicity. Well yes, we know there are stars who live amazingly secretive lives, with secret entrances to their homes, dark-windowed limousines, heavy disguises, decoy doubles......and they only go out at 4.00 a.m.

The problem for someone like Britney is that she doesn't want to be like that, and doesn't see herself as that. She wants to be a normal person who just goes out of her house in broad daylight when she feels like it, drives her own car, walks into stores and buys stuff and so on.

The kind of life Liz recommends wouldn't help Britney adjust properly to the world around her, get maturity, become balanced and learn how to look after herself without going crazy. It would perpetuate the overprotected bubble she used to live in, cut her off from exposure to the full range of human experience, and inhibit the development of her lifeskills. She needs to meet normal people and hang out with them. Even if there are paparazzi circling in helicopters overhead or hiding in trees.

OK, she could go on trying to live the life of a recluse for the rest of her days - and perhaps that would keep her safe to some extent. But Liz's experience is of the movie star life, where you only ever have to be on set, at home, or on the red carpet. That's a strange, unreal, dreamlike existence. It produces people like Norma Desmond, the delusional lady in the movie "Sunset Boulevard".

Performers like Britney have to go out into the wider world and face their public. It's better that she learns how to do it than to hide away in darkened rooms.

"A close friend of mine here on myspace wants you to know just how much pain some *******s cause.

After watching a video someone on my list posted today about Britney, I feel I have to speak. If this is long, I'm sorry, I've just been holding my feelings in for so long and it needs to stop now! People do not realize what pain they are causing when they do stuff like this. When you say or do something hurtful to or about someone else, sure it may be funny to you at the time, but you know what? it causes that person pain!

I have held Britney so many nights in her house and in my apartment while she cried and cried because of the things people have been saying about her. now they've taken it a step farther and made cartoon videos about it, that are supposed to be funny, but they are really just plain ****ing rude!

No one gives Brit a chance. She is the most down-to-earth, normal, person I have ever met. She has a great head on her shoulders - no matter what anyone says about her she is normal! She is a human being just like you, me, and the next Joe Blow down the street. what makes her any different?

What makes it ok for people to follow her around all day just to catch her doing something bad? What makes it ok for people to follow her around everywhere she goes, everyday, with cameras to see where she goes, who she goes with, and what she says to those people? What makes it ok for people to treat her like an animal simply because she makes mistakes, probably the same mistakes all of you have made [but] just aren't publicized?

What makes all of that ok???/ NOTHING DOES! do not treat her like an animal simply because she made the decision to be in the public eye for her career. She made a lot of sacrifices over the years to bring the world awesome music, great stage shows, and be a great role model for people.

For my last word, all I have to say is LEAVE HER ALONE!"

I won't even attempt to add anything to that.

And only a few days ago we encountered Avril Lavigne admitting how incredibly difficult it was to sing and dance at the same time. And she wasn't even talking about full-scale choreography, or keeping up with the dancers.

I'm not about to recommend that we all send messages to Britney encouraging her to lip-synch throughout the rest of her career. The media may be inclined to forgive Christina Aguilera, but then she seems to be one of those artists (like Beyonce) the media fall in love with. Britney Spears, on the other hand......

In fact, I had pretty much reached the point of believing that the days of attempting to sing and do choreography at the same time were at an end. Most of the hot stars of recent times just haven't bothered to do it, and nobody complained. Standing at a mic singing live seemed to have become highly fashionable. The ad-lib strutting and posing that passed for dancing seemed OK to most observers.

But now, while Britney's away, choreography's coming back. The stars are realising that a static vocal extravaganza can actually be pretty boring, and if lipping is required to make space for those visual dynamics, then so be it. If she's contemplating her comeback at all right now, Britney in rehab is probably allowing herself one sweet little indulgence - and it's a little cynical chuckle.

Funny, isn't it?  After a couple of years of near-universal swipes in Britney's direction, it seems all we're hearing lately are calls to action to support Britney and wish her the best; people legitimately rooting for her!  Surely y'all have noticed that the new vogue stance of the month is to stroll down the red carpet or the wall-of-paparazzi outside of any hotspot and toss out a few words of support for Britney.  It's pleasant to see every celebrity, their baby's mommas, and their pool boys toss out support, but I wonder: will all of the support right now eventually backlash and give critics a free pass to be even more snide and nasty than they were before ("Oh, we supported her when she needed us most, and now that the PRESSURE to be polite is gone, let's make up for lost time!") Perhaps I'm being too cynical.  Perhaps the good natured stance people have near-universally taken towards Britney will change their views of her as a human being (and eventually as an artist) on a longterm level. It's interesting to consider how public/celebrity reaction right now could affect her repututation once she's no longer the flavor-of-the-month as continues to become healthier and continues to progress towards her eventual return to professional form.

Anyway, moving on from that question, because I think it's not best to focus on support for Britney from that angle.  Why focus on the potential flavor-of-the-month status when we could just as easily focus on Britney's hardcore supportive fans who have been just as adamant as ever lately about the fact that Britney's hardships as of late do nothing to drag their opinion of her through the mud.  There's no questionable sincerity to be found here, this is bonafide love and support that Britney has earned because of the role she's played in her fans' happiness. Take a look at the recent efforts to grace the digital sales charts with Britney's name (this week there is an effort to get Britney's self-titled album back on any charts possible, and there was a recent effort with My Only Wish during the 2006 holiday season).  Even though not every member of the hardcore fanbase can actively participate in these efforts, how cool is it to just know that these efforts are taking place?  Britney's fans support her not because it's the charitable thing to do, nor because they're pressured against taking a nasty stance, but rather because they realize that she's earned it and she needs it.  It's awesome.  All of us who are proud to call ourselves members of the Britney fanbase should realize that we're a part of a pretty cool group of people who are lucky enough to share a common respect for a young woman who deserves it.  There's no insincerity there.  If we, the fans, can continue being positive even through the toughest and most questionable of times in Britney's life, I cannot wait to see how exuberant we'll all be once Britney is truly back on track!

Despite the obvious tough times Britney has experienced in 2007, it's a telling sign when we see that the creative whiz-kids behind the recording consoles have not waned in their excitement about the potential of having Britney Spears record their material.  Love her or hate her, the public is eager to see what is next for Britney, some of it being for curiosity's sake, while much of it being because they remembered how highly-esteemed and appreciated her role in the entertainment world was, and they want a glimpse of that again.

Simon Cowell recently told the entertainment TV show Extra that "I know for a fact there are about 20 record producers...who are waiting to get Britney Spears into a recording studio...some of the best in the world, actually." Record producers look at the bottom line: they look at the potential success a collaboration with an artist can generate, and they look from the creative angle at which recording artist can best bring to life the essence of their material.  Not surprisingly, producers are not as fickle and callous as those in the tabloid industry, from whom most of America relies on for their daily dose of Britney discussion; those directly involved in working with the artists through all of the tabloid sludge recognize that even despite of bit of mud she's traveled through in 2007, Britney Spears is STILL Britney Spears the bonafide icon.  There's no guarantee that the confidence of producers will equal commercial success, but there's also no guarantee that Britney's tough times as of late will equal a flop...and for an artist as storied as Britney Spears, it's usually proven most appropriate to err on the side of positivity and give her the benefit of the doubt!

Take the support and faith coming from the back-end of the recording world, toss in (as Karen noted in her blog post yesterday) what we know about Britney's nature and the likelihood of her desiring a return to ultimate relevance, and finally sprinkle in the early great signs we've heard coming out of Promises rehab center about Britney's progress in ultimately becoming healthy.  That's a recipe for excitement about Britney's future and her professional life. An attitude of doom-and-gloom should not sit heavy over Britney's fans right now, to say the least.