Britney Spears Sitcom Star?

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

13 Mar 2008 11:49 AM

Will the real Britney Spears please step forward?

It's no secret that the 26-year-old pop star is guest starring on an upcoming episode of the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother," but who would have imagined the response from her co-stars would be so, well, uh, positive?

Apparently, the reforming pop wreck is actually acting... normal.

But is it all an act?

According to news reports, the singer arrived on the series' set promptly at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning and is expected back later today to finish shooting her scene.

Show producers say Spears is portraying a receptionist in a dermatologist's office named Abby who has a crush on Josh Radnor's character.

And speaking of Radnor, the actor went public yesterday after he ran through lines with the singer turned reality TV star turned meltdown queen. Radnor joked that Spears "knew her lines better than I knew mine."

If that weren't enough another member of the show's cast told reporters that the former Mouseketeer was "very sweet and cute and she chewed gum obsessively on set."

But, perhaps the highest praise of "Madame Spears" came from "How I Met Your Mother" star Neil Patrick Harris who earlier this week made a few obscure comments about the troubled pop star's guest spot.

Today Harris revealed that Spears' table reading pleasantly surprised him, adding that the he was shocked that she was "really funny."

"She seems to be doing very well ... No strange accents. She seemed comfortable," Harris told PEOPLE Magazine.

On a more serious note Harris noted that the show's entire cast and crew of was "proud" of Spears' desire to "change her image."

So is this the same Britney Spears that couldn't pull herself together to attend (and stay for) a single court hearing in her custody case, drive in a straight line, or put down her cigarette long enough to strap her son into a car seat properly?

Apparently so.

What's more, according to reports, apart from her assistant, Brett, the only other people accompanying Spears to the set singer was her father, Jamie, and mother, Lynne who reportedly kept thanking everyone for being so kind to their daughter and making her "smile again."

I guess laughter is the best medicine... even for meltdown-prone superstars.

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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Lisa P (24013) 14 Mar 2008 05:44 AM

I have to confess to a guilty pleasure. I read a particular gossip rag that I'd prefer not to mention by name. Anyway, I can't help but wonder about Brit's ex-manager who began not as a manager of anyone at all, but as a stalker. He had her on a massive cocktail of drugs. Can it be now that there is a restraining order against him and he is no longer mixing drugs into her food that she may very well be a normal-ish human being?

Granted, she's done some pretty stupid things but, call me naive, I'd like to think that someone so young could possibly manage to turn her life around. :-)